OOC: This is a placeholder for the latest thread of Magnus, GMed by Mentat.  :)

You arrive on the top of metallic scaffolding, with a stiff breeze risking your balance to a steep drop below. However, it is rather hard to focus on that when everything around you is drowned in bright white light radiating from yourself.

You see a bronze metal hand with a cable on it shooting towards the occasional worker around you that has lost their balance. From the looks of things, you have arrived on a construction site of some kind, with the familiar structures below; lift, several trailers, outhouses, piles of girders being pulled by what looks like an APC...

...something about that last doesn't seem right.

"Cit-i-zens!" You hear a distinctly robotic voice speaking. "Re-main calm, grab some-thing to se-cure your-selves, and do not move un-til the phe-nom-en-on has passed!"

Everyone is covering their eyes from you. On the plus side, you have at least partial use of your powers back.

Hmmm. She must have stabbed me in the heart to kill me that quickly. That's what I get for not considering that she would be berserk too. well time to look around and get my bearings. I'm sort of down that I didn't get to be Laura's friend for very long.

...I am tired of being so easy to kill though.
Great. I'm wasting the power I was forced to build up

I'll try to take a looks around me though the bright white light and see what I notice. I'll also try looking at where that robot voice came from.

What can I feel from the chi and mana of this place? Is my future sight for Paradox backlashes up and running again.

What am I feeling from my powers? Do I Still have that hole in my aura?

The chi flows in this place are very well organized, but they are also rough, like a half finished sculpture. You get a frontier impression, but there is an element of intensity to the white essence flow, that indicates a zeal for order.

If your future sight is up, it has not revealed anything to you yet.

Your powers are up and functional, and the hole in your aura has closed quite a bit. You sense it has a thin point, though, and that using your geomancy in excess might rupture it again.

Your light dims, and you sense that power stabilizing the reality you are in. A lot of power outages seem to have occurred in the wake of your aura, and you see a lot of transformers that have been destroyed on the sides of the streets below.

The source of the sound is a large bulky copper colored machine that looks like it was clumsily put together with scrap metal parts. It is rising up to you on a platform being hauled up by a crane lift.

It swings over to you and your position. "Greet-ings, cit-i-zen! Are you un-harmed?"

The machine extends a large hand to you, one that is out of proportion to its arm, and apparently large enough to wrap around your own bicep.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:24, Sat 11 June 2016.

"Greetings. I am unharmed. Could you take me to the ground please?"

I'll grab it's hand.

"What is your name?"

You steady yourself on the swaying platform as it lowers to the ground. "I am Thir-teen-El-Sev-en-teen-Zee ex-trac-tion un-it."

Mental translation: 13L17Z extraction unit.

"You may call me Thir-teen. I am pleased to meet you." It is speaking in a very deliberate and mechanical fashion. "What is your des-ign-at-ion?"

"I'm called Magnus...  I'm not from around here. I assume that magic is practiced here?"

You make it to the ground before it responds with very deliberate laughter. "Ma-gic is not an ex-ist-ing force. That is clear-ly a joke, Mag-nus."

It walks off the metal sheet you were on, while looking up with its unexpressive lights for eyes. "Of course, it does raise the ques-tion of what caused that ex-plos-ion of light and en-er-gy. Was that ma-gic?"

"... Yes it was. But you are not going to believe me about it, or how I got here.
I guess I am out of your frame of reference.
oh well. Can you tell me the name of this city?"

"You might be sur-prised. But for now, I need you-" He is cut off by a younger voice. "Thirteen! Is your voice modulator malfunctioning again?"

"It is. I will need that checked on lat-er."

The voice is coming from a young dark skinned man holding a large control device. He turns a dial on it. "Well, that will keep your volume down. We don't want people getting the wrong idea, do we?"

Thirteen's head shook 'no.'

"Hi! I'm Anthony, Thirteen's controller! You are...Magnus, right? Are you...from around here? I've never seen you...or weapons like that on a normal person before." Anthony points to your sword. "Are you a Legionnaire?"

Your verser sense is guiding you off site. You sense one thing of yours that is not with you. You also sense you are beginning to gather a crowd of very curious workers who have had their work interrupted.

"I guess I'll talk to you later Thirteen."

"Hello Anthony. My name is indeed Magnus. I'm not really from around here. But I was hoping to join the Legion."

I go over to the thing of mine that I sense. I would be surprised if it is not the Ring.

Thirteen walks over behind Anthony with several deliberate stomps. Anthony turns a switch, and Thirteen stopped and froze in place. "Oh, Thirteen isn't actually sentient. And boy are we glad! The Legion would smash him to pieces if he was. They have some real issues with robots thinking on their own. 'The machine must serve the man' they say."

Anthony looks at you while the crowd starts to gather up. "Well, you are certainly big enough. They'd likely be happy to have you join. Although...are you a citizen?"

The other workers' expressions are between curiosity, and once you say it, a bit of fear at the mention of the Legion.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:27, Sat 11 June 2016.

"A citizen of what?"

I'll look at Anthony and Thirteen with my chi sight. I'm trying to analyse what they can do.

Anthony's aura doesn't really seem to be anything special. Nobody's aura here does, in fact. You realize at this point that you are coming away from a world where everyone had the innate potential to be a potent fighter. Their chi auras were clear.

Thirteen, however, has an oddity to the aura on it. Thirteen's aura has a faint blue signal to it, and the faintest pulse of life.

"Why, of the Grand Empire of Sol, of course! Not that there are any other legions to speak of." You hear whispers in the crowd around you. "Oh."

Something dawns on Anthony suddenly. "Oh! You need to get out of here, right now! The Legion will be coming here, and they might bring an Inquisitor along!"

He turns to the workers. "Everyone, did anyone come out of that light?"

"Nope." "Nuh-uh." "I was blinded, how could I see anything?" Various answers of that sort are given.

"Okay, now that we have that cleared up, you need to get out of here, now! Start running! But, not too fast. You don't want to get attention."

I nod to Anthony and wink to him and Thirteen
"Thank You for your understanding. I must be off."

I quickly walk away towards where I feel my things, Pick it up and continue walking
This message was last edited by the player at 03:52, Sat 11 June 2016.

You get a pretty good look at the city, and the fact that while you see elements of a high tech society, it feels like something out of a film noir set in a city during World War II. Many large and block-like buildings, with a clear emphasis on size and, presumably, production. You don't get very far before being accosted by a man who seemed to be dressed as a Roman soldier in a red cloak. The gun strapped to the side opposite of his sword, however, indicates this man is in the present age.

"Citizen! Why are you armed?" He moves over to you with certainty of purpose, but he has not drawn a weapon.

He hear heavy stomping coming up behind you, and you see Thirteen holding a controller. "You seem to have for-got-ten this, mas-ter."

The man in the red cloak pauses only to notice Thirteen, before continuing towards you.

I'll take the Controler from Thirteen.
"Thank you Thirteen, I'm so forgetful sometimes."

I'll bring my mind close to the officer to try and sense what to say to satisfy him to leave me alone.

I'll try to radiate a sense of authority and truth to help convince him.

"I'm a member of the Legion. I'm going to an open field to practice my forms. Unfortunately I only have an hour off before I need to do something else."

He looks at you irritably. "Are you serious? Stupid recruits...you are out of uniform! Your entire break is going to be spent going back to the garrison and getting ready!"

He then looks at Thirteen, then back to you. "Good luck by the space port, engineer. These power surges have done a number on communication, so you might not get smoked by an officer for this. Justice prevails."

He gives a quick salute from the chest while saying those last two words. "Now hurry up!"

I mimic his salute and say "Justice Prevails."

I continue at a brisk pace to make it seem like I'm hurrying back.

Once I'm out of sight from him I go to my items.

Then I'll find somewhere to hide and talk to Thirteen where no one can overhear us.

"I guess it wouldn't be good to be a sentient robot around the Legion and Inquisitors...
I'm going to need to talk to you for a while to figure out what is going on."

You find your proton accelerator in a bathroom stall. It is here that you are talking to Thirteen.

"In ord-er: yes, that is bad. Clear-ly, you are at-tempt-ing to ev-ade Leg-ion-naires, and I am fol-low-ing you. What re-quires clar-ity?"

"I would say everything but we don't have time for that. So it seems that people showing up with an aura of light around them is common enough that the Legion has a task force for it. Why is that the case?

The common people also had a negative reaction to the mentioning of the Legion. Why is that. And why did they help me?

And a brief overview of the history of the Empire of Sol would be nice so I could put all of this into context.

Do you have questions for me?"

"In or-der: it is not com-mon. I have ne-ver en-count-ered it my-self." Thirteen's voice has very little pitch adjustment to it, so if it has opinions, Thirteen isn't making them clear with anything but words. "They are guid-ed by their laws, which state that if a being ar-rives from an-other world with the sac-red hu-man-oid form, they are to be taken to the Cit-a-del on Terra and pri-vate-ly and qu-iet-ly ex-term-in-at-ed."

"This is the edge of Leg-ion con-trol, a re-cent con-quest. A lot of peo-ple feel they were do-ing just fine be-fore the Leg-ion ar-rived. They are ev-ery-where, and they may ad-dress dis-sent and law vio-lat-ions how-ev-er they see fit."

"Most of the work-ers at the site do not like the Leg-ion. With the po-wer out-age, they know the Eyes of Right-eous-ness can not see them or hear them ig-nore you."

"I do not know where you want me to start. The Emp-ire has been a-round for sev-er-al cen-tur-ies now."

"Ter-ran his-tory is very long, too. Where do you want me to begin, Mag-nus? And where do you want me to stop?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:41, Sat 11 June 2016.

I rub my for head in thought.
"Ok, They have laws to deal with ones like myself. I guess it makes sense, We are generally a chaotic bunch. Do you know what caused them to pass a law like that?

Let's see, Do you know how to pilot a ship or navigate in space?

For the History, Start a little bit before the Empire got into space. And lets hits the points you think are important."

"Out of ord-er: the found-er of the Leg-ion, known on-ly as the First Leg-ion-naire, was not of this world, so the leg-ends state. They speak of many leg-ends of this one, the us-ual leg-ends as-soc-iated with great war-riors. Tak-ing on vast quant-it-ies of flesh-lings with-out wea-pons in hand, in-spir-ing his own side, ter-rify-ing his foes with just the ru-mor of his ap-proach. The kinds of leg-ends you would ex-pect a-bout a flesh-ling with whom div-in-ity and mort-al-ity be-come blur-ry id-eas."

"No-thing of the found-er can be pro-ven, but the re-sults are real en-ough. The Leg-ion con-quered plan-et Ter-ra af-ter a long and bru-tal cam-paign, and be-gan ex-pand-ing to the stars. The found-er dis-app-eared some time af-ter space tra-vel had been done, but had left a set of in-struc-tions in the event of his dis-app-ear-ance. They co-vered law, mo-rals, con-ting-en-cies and more."

"I ad-mit to be-ing im-pressed with the num-ber of things cover-ed, if the pro-sel-ytiz-ers are not just mak-ing it up as they go. If even fif-ty percent are ori-gin-al, the found-er under-stood flesh-ling hu-man nat-ure, al-though his views were clear-ly twisted through the lens of a man fight-ing a war at all costs against an ev-il that fed off of flesh-ling fail-ings."

"My know-ledge of his-to-ry be-fore the Leg-ion is blur-ry. I am se-ven stand-ard Ter-ran years old. My edu-cat-ion has been lim-it-ed at best."

"I have ne-ver nav-igat-ed be-fore, but if it can be re-duced to math, I can do it. Pi-lot-ing may be trick-y with my large hands, though."

"Thank you Thirteen. That helped a lot.
Do they mention the name of the evil that feeds on human failings? Or was that deemed to dangerous to let us know?

You said that this planet was a recent conquest by the Legion. So, do you know of any planets that are further out that are not under their control?  What is the name of this planet and city anyway?

Generally, Navigation in space can be broken down into math... but I don't know what formulas and numbers to give you.
We'll Figure something out.

Do you know where the space port is?"

"In or-der: the Leg-ion calls it He-li-od, the Fal-ling Star. I sus-pect this en-ti-ty has had ma-ny in-carn-ations and names. I do not know them all, but ev-ery flesh-ling cul-ture seems to have some-thing they blame their own fail-ings on. I think it helps them simp-ly move on with their lives."

"Ma-ny hu-man flesh-lings moved a-head of the Leg-ion to col-on-ize. I am to un-der-stand there was pro-test-ation, but the First Leg-ion-naire's po-li-cy was clear: 'an-y-one who wants to leave to-day, let them, for they will re-join to-mor-row.'"

"This po-lic-y, a-mong oth-ers, has had some dis-ag-ree-ments. The Leg-ion has not held per-fect-ly to the Word since their foun-der's dis-ap-pear-ance. Some-times, the Leg-ion will en-gage in ter-rib-le ci-vil con-flict ov-er dog-ma."

"Know this: I on-ly know what my creat-or pro-gram-med me to know. I can-not ver-i-fy such things."

"This is the ci-ty Za-ro, pla-net-oid Ca-la-bria, star sys-tem Di Ro-ma Eight. We bor-der Yi-drel territory. Yi-drel flesh-lings are very hu-man-oid in ap-pear-ance. Per-haps that is why they and the Leg-ion hate each other so. They see a lot of each ot-her when they fight."

Thirteen points a large blocky finger directly through the wall of the bathroom behind you. "That way."

"I see.
I assume that the official policy of the Legion is that magic doesn't exist. What have you heard about it?"

I'll listen to Thirteen's explanation

"Thank you for explaining all of that. You helped me out a lot.
We should get going before they get their eyes back online."

I head out and then head into direction Thirteen indicated toward the Space Port.

I'll try a bit of psionics. I going to try to weave a Somebodies Elses Problem field. It works by projecting an impression that I am not important therefore I am Somebodies Elses Problem therefore they will ignore me.

OOC: I just rolled a 26 for your attempt at a new psionic power. Now, that would normally just kill you, but I don't work that quickly. So...

"Ma-gic gen-er-al-ly can be ex-plained. Be ad-vised: Yi-drel do ma-ny things oth-ers call ma-gic. I can-not ex-plain it my-self, as I lack the know-ledge. Be-yond that, and the oc-cas-ion-al pro-claimed her-et-ic who claims to work mir-ac-les that the Leg-ion takes ser-ious-ly, I have heard not-hing."

You leave the bathroom, and activate your SEP field. It does not work as advertised. In fact, you seem to be drawing quite the crowd. As their numbers grow, they seem to be becoming more and more hostile. A squad what you can only assume are Legion soldiers headed by a man wearing a purple cloak with a white eye emblazoned on the front approaches. The man in the cloak is pointing at you. "That is him! The man from another world! No one else could draw the eye quite like that!"

You aren't hemmed in, but between the crowd and the incoming Legion, your options in the darkened streets are becoming limited. You have noticed there are surprisingly few shadows at what seems to be nighttime, like they really hate the dark here.

OOC: You have, however, failed so hard you have succeeded. Learn 1@1 Draw All The Negative Attention psionic power.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:06, Mon 13 June 2016.

"Run Thirteen!"

Honestly I don't want to hurt them. So I'm going to get out of dodge.

I'll use my Do to augment my ability to run. pushing it to the limits of human ability.

if Thirteen can keep up, I'll continue running for a awhile.
if he can't, I'll gather a decent amount of white mana.
White has spell to teleport and escape conflicts.
So I will make a spell to teleport myself and Thirteen a few miles out of danger.
"Powers of Light!
Delever us from danger! Escape!"

You have practiced running quite a bit recently, so the augment to your speed is minimal to keep ahead of them. Thirteen is easily keeping up with you, and is surprisingly quick on his feet for all of his unbalanced frame.

You hear a roar behind you as a crowd surges after you. The Legion seems to have just melted into that crowd, moving with them after you.

Unfortunately, that's about when the power comes back on. Thankfully, that means the doors open at this point for the spaceport you are running towards, and a bunch of very surprised Legionnaires see you, Thirteen, and an angry mob with a few of their own mixed with it coming straight for them.

You see large defensive weapons such as machine guns being manned. Put bluntly, unless you are bulletproof, in the next few seconds this course will become suicidal.

I flex my power again and use my chi to activate Iron Skin Technique.
I'll draw my sword.Then I'll use my psionics to force my perception to speed up and make it appear to me like the world is in slow motion.
Then I'm going to flow with my do with the intent of using my sword to deflect the bullets.

I'm charging in and heading for a ship.

You were not forewarned, but your spells push the limits of your reality a bit hard. AYou see the veil between worlds ripple, and you begin to hear threats and promises, blurring together, and managing to be completely understandable and gibberish at the same time.

You take it without a mental break. Everyone else around you is another story. Several Legionnaires either go to the ground grabbing their ears, or just run screaming in a random direction. One seemed to forget he was in a tower, and falls out.

In the crowd, one man sprouts a vestigial wing from his back, and suddenly they are no longer thinking about you. They also panic, and the guns are not manned by complete crews anymore.

All of this is perceived by you in slow motion. Thirteen and yourself make it past the gates with few problems. This place does not seem to have any more guards in it, in fact.

"So, what is your plan for sei-zing this ship?" Thirteen is asking this while you are moving. "A car-rier is an am-bit-ious choice for one who has ne-ver flown."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:25, Thu 16 June 2016.

I flinch at the mutation I caused in that man. If I had time and they where not chasing me I would try to cure him. But they will not listen to me so I need to escape.

"We'll need to find a small fast ship that can take us to where we need to go.
Hopefully that will be easier to learn how to fly.
If we can't find something like that, Then we have no choice but to steal a Capital Ship."

I'll continue running though the base looking for a ship to steal with Thirteen.

"Are you want-ing to leave the pla-net?" Thirteen tips its head. "How far are you need-ing your ship to go? Be-cause the star-port is the cap-it-al class craft."

You aren't quite sure where you are going, and you hear a lot of shouting, but you don't actually see anyone yet. There are various numbers on the walls, but nothing that says "control" or anything like that. You get the impression they are looking for you in the wrong places.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:07, Sat 18 June 2016.

"I was hoping to get out of Legion controlled space. So it looks like we'll need to steal a capital class ship. Do you know which way the star-port is?"

I'll continue to run with Thirteen.

"You are in it." Thirteen pulls you with his hand and skids to a stop, turning you towards him. "I can-not give you a brief-ing on this while you are on the run. Let us be blunt: you are de-mon, cor-rect? Ex-tra-di-men-sion-al ent-it-y with so called ma-gic cap-able of bend-ing real-it-y and an-swer-able to no au-thor-it-y save your own, cor-rect?"

"I am A-I. Made be-fore the Leg-ion arr-ived here, also to be killed on re-cog-nit-ion. I would like to leave Leg-ion space as well. But we need a plan. What will you do with a ship filled with ang-ry Leg-ion sold-iers faced with an ab-om-in-at-ion that is steal-ing their ship, their lives, and pos-si-bly their souls?"

He at least seems to have stopped you in a darkened hallway. The lights are flickering on and off.

"I suppose by that definition I am a demon.
So we're already on it...
I'll have to scare them off it then.
Something flashy. But with no collateral damage...
hmmm. A Psionic illusion would be appropriate.
This is going to take some work.

I'll expand my chi sense to try to detect where the people where on this ship.

"Be ad-vis-ed. It may be more merc-i-ful to kill the Leg-ion sold-iers. Their sup-er-iors do not han-dle re-treat well. Cow-ard-ice is a ter-ri-ble soc-ial sti-gma, and ass-ures ex-ile or worse."

Detecting the pulses of life on this ship is a straightforward task. Fury and discipline flows through here, but the signals are weak, like they haven't had a lot of practice.

You can sense them close. They haven't found you yet, but they are tightening the noose, so to speak.

There are two sources of nonmoving life signals. One that seems to be roughly above you, and another that is roughly below you.

I face palm.
"Well great. I'll let them decide their their fate."

Fury... I can use this. It's closely related to red mana.
And discipline... Like White. I can use this too
I take the fury and discipline into myself. I take what I can, but limit myself as to not injure my aura.

I let myself fully feel the fury and rely on the discipline to remain in control.
I let the fury build in my lungs. Then I add Bloodlust from my sword and myself. Finally I unleash a roar of roar filled with fury and Bloodlust. And make it reverberate though out the ship. I hammer into their skulls how much I want to kill Each and every one of them.. I hammer the feeling that if they remain on the ship, They WILL die.

It doesn't quite work the way you expect it too. It works, but the results are likely not what you were aiming for.

You can sense their movements rather clearly, though. In fact, you find your powers are flowing a bit smoother now. Apparently, them believing you to be a demon expands what they accept you being able to do.

Your anger flows out from you, and you manage to protect yourself from the effects of it. The roar of the demon-monster echoes throughout the base, filling all who hear it with mortal dread and the absolute certainly that it is coming for them.

You then hear the sounds of battle cries echoing all around you. "HONOR AND THE LEGIOOOOOOOOOOON!" This call is echoed several times throughout the base, and it is at this moment you realize that you have walked into a base with hundreds of soldiers in it without a plan.

Of course, they don't really have a target they are looking for, so they settle. "KILL EVERYONE NOT IN A UNIFORM!" None of them are holding a static position, either. No place is being guarded, and the power is still flickering on and off dimly.

Thirteen's head spins in a 360 arc, and then looks back to you. "Well, I guess exist-ence is over-rat-ed. Per-haps we should find a safe place and wait?"

I facepalm.
"Well... That was unexpected. I didn't think this though.
This might go badly.
There is a bit of hope for you Thirteen. When I'm killed and move to my next world. Sometimes my things come with me. I've also heard of a Verser picking someone that following them though their world... I haven't had it happen to me though. so I don't know how that works.

Well that is if I die... Which is fairly likely. You can hide or fight beside me. Your choice.

I'll start moving to pick off isolated groups. While connecting to individual minds to give them an illusion of me just out of sight. So that I cause them to run around in circles.

"I have a bet-ter i-dea than self-des-truct-ion." Thirteen offered in a monotone voice. "Please fol-low me."

He started walking along the right side of the hallways, swiveling his head in all directions looking for something. You come across several Legionnaires, viciously charging at shadows. They don't register you as a threat. It's not outside of reason they don't know what they are supposed to be hunting down, and you have them attacking phantasms their own mind has created.

"And keep do-ing that thing you are do-ing. What-ev-er it is." You realize Thirteen is heading towards something that you can see is labeled "EXIT." It is clearly a fire escape.

"Ev-en if we could take the sta-tion, who would drive it? Two can-not pi-lot a craft of this size, and a small Leg-ion craft would be tracked and des-troyed."

I blink a few times once we come across the exit.
"You are correct. I have no clue how to flt this ship. Let's go and lay low for a while.
We will work on a way to go to the next system."

I leave while still giving them shadows to chaise.

At this point the power comes back on, right as Thirteen puts a bulky robotic fist through the fire exit. A male voice blares loudly but calmly through the PA system on board the craft/building you are in. "Warning! Fire exit portside red two opened! Detecting fire location to expedite evacuation."

One brief pause later, during which Thirteen does not stop walking through the hall to the stairs it has now made clear to you, and the PA speaks again. "Warning! There has been no fire detected! Someone is in clear violation of the Law of Honesty! Please remain where you are, and a Legionnaire will arrive to correct it. Refusal to obey is a violation of the Laws of Justice and Humility! Justice prevails!"

Thirteen just starts laughing. "Law of Hon-es-ty vio-lat-ion...ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. I have no tongue to re-move."

He rotates his head back to you. "Well, it is no long-er safe here in this cit-y for ei-ther of us. Hope-ful-ly, no one has seen ei-ther of us yet on a cam-er-a."

"I see. Let's go outside of this town so we don't have to deal with them."

I'll use my chi to try and weave an illusion that we are not here so that no one sees us.
"Veil us in illusion, Vanish!"

Your spell works just fine, make ng you disappear from sight. You notice you seem to have drawn power directly from Thirteen, who seems to be looking for you.

He doesn't have to look hard, though. Your spell buckles reality, and a familiar two-headed monster shimmers into existence, walking out of a gateway made of blood, lava, viscera and the violence you would have avoided.

The voice of Chang comes clearly to you. "I trained you not to need the magic. Did you forget that quickly?"

While the heavily muscled form is the same, the heads are not and neither are its weapons. One head is Chang and the other is Tex. In an instant, it crafts a large blazing blade made of the ambient hate in the area, and leaps to you, soul sight detecting you easily.

The attack is scything down to your head.

I catch the blade in my hand. Ignoring the impossibility of doing so. Along with it's sharpness and searing hate.

"You also know I'm horrible at stealth and used magic to make sure that works for once. But NOOOoooo. Apparently everything has to blow up in my face. You know what, Let's cut to the chase. What the Hell do you want this time?"

Thirteen tries to deflect the attack, but is far too slow. The blade goes through the palms of your hands, and you reflexively dodge the worst of the hit. It still sears a nasty slash into you, carving your clothes open and leaving a painful burn.

With that in mind, that you are not dead from that when you should be is something. Perhaps the residual traces of your toughened skin helped? And barring the severe burns on the insides of your hands, you still have those too.

Tex's head speaks. "You shouldn't have gotten caught cheating. Tough break."

Both heads change into other faces. One speaks with the voice and face of Laura. "Do you think we could have been something together?"

The other speaks with Sullivan's whisper. "I think he wishes he could have been. Too bad he couldn't defend himself from you."

Sullivan's head chuckles as the sword whirls around with a flourish for a second attack.

Thirteen fires his hand off and grabs the blade at the handle, engaging in a tug of war with the summoned demon. "Steel is strong-er than flesh, de-mon. You will lose."

The demon would really like to get back to killing you, but is not in the position to do so. You also hear the very close cry, "FOR THE LEGION!" Bullets begin hitting the now-enraged monster from behind, and you see a lone Legionnaire shooting him repeatedly with some kind of high-caliber carbine format weapon.

I draw upon this city's order for white mana. I fill myself with a comfortable amount.(I.E not enough to damage my aura. White is the color most opposed to demons. Along with being the Color for banishing things out of this universe.

I draw the sword I used to kill a guy possessed by multiple demons. I weave the white mana around the sword so that it banishes whoever I hit with it out of this universe and back to it's home.

As Thirteen continues to distract it I'l perform my chant.

"Light, Order and Holy. Gather Together into the weave of Banishing.
Strike this demon and send it back to where it came from.
Banishing Strike!"

Strangely, this spell resonates with this world, your own power, and the power in the immediate area. Unfortunately, it does cause a backlash.

As your now golden blade pierces the demon through, sending it back to wherever it came from, you get a vision of a terrible golden entity with multi-winged angels around it, and legions of people worshiping it because that is what they were told to do. You hear only one word, spoken clearly: "OBEY!"

When you vision returns, the demon is gone, and you feel a disconnect with your magic. It's not as strong as Chang's lock though, and you know it will fade much faster. Likely within the day.

The Legionnaire is soon joined by others, who see him walking up to Thirteen. "You belong to Citizen Anthony, correct?" The Legionnaire is speaking to Thirteen. "If you can hear me, good work, citizen. You have upheld the Law of Justice well. And if you can't hear me...machine, tell him he did well."

Thirteen did not respond, except to give a quick salute in the manner of the Legion.

A dark-skinned man wearing a white longcoat with a golden eye emblazed on it steps through the forming Legionnaires. "The demon was slain?"

You realize they cannot see you as they are speaking. The Legionnaire who was speaking to Thirteen replies. "Well, it is not here, is it?"

The man in the robe strikes the speaker in the head with a swift hook, knocking him down. "Find the others, get order back in this city. Brand the cowards involved according to the Law of Valor, and enforce the others as needed. We might not be finished yet."

He's looking down at a bit of blood that is pooling at your feet. He kneels down to it, studying it intently and sweeping his gaze to where a short trail has formed during your movements against the demon. He gives a command without looking to the other soldiers. "Dismissed! Get back to your posts!"

They leave, and it is just Thirteen, this man, and yourself.

I'll take my shirt off and wrap it around my hand. Then I'll move as quietly as I can away from where the battle took place.

Now I wait.

"Foreigner, entity, whatever you answer to." The man is speaking without looking at anything but the blood. "I know you are close by. You are likely scared, low on resources, and desperate. You will not last long without citizenship or the patronization of one. Whatever these backwater legionnaires may think, the Eyes want you alive."

He looks up. "My name is Lucius, and you may be the reincarnation of the First, If you are, we could really use your help right now. Let me take you to Sol, and all will be explained there."

Thirteen looks impassive at the moment, before speaking. "I must re-turn to my mas-ter. En-gag-ing re-turn pro-to-cols."

He starts to stomp off, before the man speaks in a voice of ice. "Remain, machine, or your master will be executed for a violation of Humility."

Thirteen stops. "Whether you are actually true AI or not, that got your attention at least." The man smiles coldly, and then his face becomes stern again. "Step out of the shadows, or be flushed out later. Your choice, if we must be like this."

I weigh my options and decide to speak.

"I hear that the Legion takes Versers to Earth or Terra and execute them. That seems really suspicious to me. You seem like the type to just shoot them on the spot."

I move to somewhere else.

"So what do you really do with them?"

I move again.

He's not looking directly at you, but his head turns in your direction, so he's close to guessing where you are. "I have no idea. The trials they put entities such as yourself through are classified to agents. But you are right. If we want someone dead, killing them immediately is our general M.O."

Thirteen's head looks at him with that statement, and his hands clench.

If Lucius noticed, he's not showing it. "But I offer this: safe passage off of this planet to the Sol system. I do not have much more time to discuss this, because I am being called back to deal with some problems brewing here in the wake of your passage."

I move again.

"Have you heard of anyone passing those trails? In any case, I'll need to think about it. I'll meet you sometime tomorrow. "

"Will you?" He seems guarded about something. "Very well. This location will do, if you can find your way back. Farewell."

He leaves, glancing at Thirteen as he passes by the machine. "We are watching you. Obey."

It is just Thirteen and yourself now. "I must re-turn to my mas-ter. En-gag-ing re-turn pro-to-cols." Thirteen begins heading to the construction site you came to the world in.

If you follow Thirteen, the journey will not have incident. If not, what actions do you have in mind instead?

I comment as I walk with Thirteen to the construction site.

"Well. This is a fine mess I got us in."

"No-thing has been got-ten in-to." Thirteen replies back without breaking stride. "I do not know what you want here. I want free-dom. I do not be-lieve the gal-ax-y of-fers it an-y-where. They ei-ther des-pise hu-mans and their crea-tions in eq-ual mea-sure, or they are not free, or some com-bin-ation. On-ly front-ier worlds are free, and the quest-ion with them is this: how long?"

"The Drake-fan-i would wel-come me with op-en arms, but would kill you on sight." Thirteen explains as it turns a corner. "They are A-Is. I won-der if the First knew of them, and banned AI be-cause of them. They would be rea-son en-ough."

"The Tek-ron would en-slave us both, and make you more mac-hine, and me more org-an-ic. No one knows why, but it is what they do."

You hear a whirring noise from Thirteen, as it's CPU tries to think of something. "On-ly the League of Fringe Worlds has held as truly free, and they are not pro-sper-ous. They are in a three way war against the Rai-ders, the Heg-emo-ny, and the Hob-ain Blood-knights."

"They are also hard to reach."

When you make it back to the site, Anthony rushed out of a shadow and hugged Thirteen. "Thirteen, I thought you were leaving for good! I'm glad you made it back."

"I am just a mach-ine. Glad to help."

"Right...right." Anthony looks at you with tired surprise. "And you...what did you do to my workers?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:05, Thu 30 June 2016.

As I walk with thirteen I comment after his explanation
"I see, I need to learn a lot more about this universe before I know what I would want. But trying to find a way for you to be truly free sounds like a good thing to work on."

After I get to the site.
"What did I do to your workers? How are they different?"

"Almost right after you left, they went underground to our meeting place here, and..." Anthony rubs his short hair. "I think it is better if you look. Just realize we didn't have this before you arrived."

He opens a door in the trailer he was on, and you see what was once an office meeting space. Someone left a computer of some sort running. "That is designed to feed a loop to the eyes around here. They never told me they knew how this was done..."

Thirteen makes a noise that sounds like a fuse blowing. "You may add this as well." He places a tiny scorched metal thing next to the device.

Anthony looks back at you, fear plain in his eyes. "If the Eyes saw this..."

You sense a high concentration of potential power here, and it is giving the urge to act. It is your power, the energy you brought in when you came here.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:05, Thu 30 June 2016.

"Hmmm. The power I build up before pooled here.
So they where not defeating the Eye's security before I got here?
What are they doing now?"

"They never cared to!" Anthony is almost yelling. "All they did was grumble about the Legion and talk! They never did anything like...this! Talk will get nothing out of the Eyes unless you are brazen about it or people start listening to you! Blocking their surveillance is another matter entirely!"

"This does re-pre-sent an es-cal-at-ion. If dis-cov-ered, some-one would like-ly be pub-lic-ly killed. Hum-il-it-y, Just-ice and Hon-est-y would like-ly be the laws cited."

"I don't know what they are doing right now. They went home, and started talking, leaving me out."

"Great. This is actually my fault. The power that surrounded me when I appeared pooled here. It has a tendency to make people want to act. I think I might be able to draw it in again. but I can't use it at the moment because my Magic is down. That would hurt, A lot. "

"Per-haps leav-ing your en-er-gy a-lone may be best." Thirteen was looking around, and you notice he reaches for the device and a surge of electricity jumped from his hand to the device. "Pow-er short-age. It re-quires more than it is get-ting."

"Why do you want it to get more?!" Anthony was clearly not on board with this signal jamming plan. "Do you want the Legion to kill us all?!"

Thirteen took two steps towards Anthony. "An-thon-y, you know that is not true. You know what I could do if I was what the Leg-ion claims I am."

"But the Leg-ion is not heal-thy for this plan-et. They will not re-form. The sol-u-tion will in-volve the deaths of your kind."

Anthony is not taking this well, and looks to be on the verge of a breakdown.

"I Generally can't approve of Something that authoritative.
I also don't want to see your workers die.
At the moment I need to get medical attention for my hand and rest for a while.
I also couldn't figure out exactly what the legion does when it catches entities like myself.
Thirteen says that they execute them at Sol. But then why don't they just shoot me.
The eye guy says there are some sort of trials."

"I'm honestly not sure what happens to them. None have ever returned though, so Thirteen might actually be right. But that doesn't mean WE have to fight the Legion, Thirteen!" Anthony is yelling at the large machine. "Do you know what they do to rebels, Thirteen? Decimation would be an indication of mercy!"

"I was pre-sent, An-thon-y, when they took this world. I am get-ting ti-red of hid-ing. The Leg-ion will not be-come more tol-er-ab-le. Per-haps act-ing now would be best."

"You can survive though! We all can! It's better to be alive and angry about it than dead!"

Thirteen does not respond to that, but he looks to you. "Where is the first aid kit?"

"You-!" Anthony sighs. "It's in here. Hold on a moment."

He rummages for a small box. "We have frequent injuries on the site. Don't move, ok? This will feel a bit strange."

He pulls a roll of what looks like toothpaste out and applies it to your injures. Your hands almost instantly regenerate from second degree burns to unblemished skin. "Bio-gel. It con-forms to your gen-et-ic code. The First Leg-ion-naire ad-vanced much tech-no-lo-gy, but tech-no-lo-gy has not ad-vanced much in Leg-ion ter-ri-to-ry."

"That is nice. I wish I had more of that stuff to take with me.

Hmmm... The are going to take me to the heart of their Empire. I could do something nasty with my magic there. Then again they could try doing something nasty to me."

"I don't want the Leg-ion des-troyed." Thirteen raised a hand in protest. "The po-wer va-cuum must be con-sid-ered. On this, An-tho-ny and I ag-ree."

"Er...right." Anthony was speaking rather cautiously. "Look, I don't know what they do to people there, but anyone grabbed by the Eyes tends to just disappear. And I just want what is best for everyone, which certainly doesn't involve any crazy ideas like fighting the Legion."

"An-tho-ny. He needs to get off of this world with-out en-ter-ing Yi-drel ter-ri-to-ry. Or if he must go through, to pass safe-ly."

"I...hmm...I don't know right now. Personally, I would get some sleep. It's not comfortable, but we've got a place here which can hold a few people. They provisioned it today after you left, which worries me."

"What I would do probably wouldn't destroy the Legion.
Just a nasty surprise if they have a nasty surprise for me.

What is the smallest ship that can get to other systems?"

After they answer I'll say

"I want to rest for a while. I'll need to think."

"An-y Leg-ion spon-sored build-ing will have the ab-il-ty to travel in space. Jump or gate cap-a-ble en-gines are an-oth-er mat-ter. They are de-signed to re-loc-ate on short not-ice, but they sometimes need an-oth-er ves-sal to make the jump or open the gate."

They talk and argue a bit, but they try to keep it down. Thirteen puts a pillow over his chest to cover his speakers, because he was not built with a voice modulator.

You are awoken by activity. You see the room you went down in being filled with people who are talking cheerfully with each other and showing off some kind of gun with a blue crystal where the barrel would be at. One person is messing with the jammer. They are the white coated construction workers, and they are looking forward to a fight.

One of them notices you are awake, and Thirteen is not in sight.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:10, Wed 06 July 2016.

Is my magic still blocked?


I ask them.
"What time is it?"

Your magic is just fine once again.

"Early." He puts the gun down. "Sorry we woke you up, but we are preparing for the future, friend. In a few months, we are going to run the Legion out of this city, and get ourselves a fleet at the same time. We held off the Yidrel and the Saurians just fine before the Legion showed up, and we can do it again without them or their absurd laws."

"With these..." He points to the weapons he and his comrades were arranging. "We can actually fight them back."

Thirteen comes stomping in, takes a glance at you, and then looks to the weapons. "Tes-la weap-on-ry. The tech was in-vent-ed by my cre-at-or. Where did you get so ma-ny?"

"Stole them from the Legion."

"Reck-less. Build up slow-er and be cer-tain."

"Time is the ally of the Legion, Anthony." He seems to believe Thirteen is not speaking for himself. "Stop talking through this thing, and get in here and disagree with us to our faces."

Thirteen goes quiet with that, as the man rejoins the others in excited chatter.

"He's right. The Legion will notice that many weapons missing at once. The Legion will attack before you are ready.

Do all of you know how to use those Tesla weapons? How accurate are you with them?
Because The Legion has automatic rifles. And It will not sit idly by while you prepare."

"Automatics are given to the ground troops, cheap old tech. Reliable, but old. These are assault weapons, capable of killing entire squads. The Legion uses them when they need to kill everyone except each other."

"Yeah, we know how to use them. Point the business end at the enemy, and zap! No more Legionnaires."

Thirteen just looks blankly at you. Without any expression on his metal slab of a face, it is impossible to tell what he is thinking. Not even chi senses can give you a clue, beyond that his face has turned to you at that sentence.

My expression says 'Are you an Idiot?'

"Any Idiot can point the business end at an enemy and shoot. You need to get good with that weapon if you plan on fighting the Legions Automatic weapons. They are old but there is a good reason why they are still in use.

You are going to embarrass yourself and die if you go against the Legion with just Point it at the Legion and shoot. You need to practice with the weapons"

"Look, these Legionnaires haven't had an attack to repel since they showed up. The Yidrel and the Saurians haven't attacked us since the Legion showed up, and they are grossly out of practice. A couple of guys like us, along with a few of our friends in the Legion, and yeah..." He seems confident. "They don't have a chance."

Thirteen whirs his head back to him, and then back to you. You notice his faint chi actually pulse lightly towards the man, like he's thinking of attacking him.

"Besides, you can't practice with these things. They obliterate everything we point them at, and they actually home in on organic targets. Doc Vic was a genius. Made Thirteen here, did you know that? Last holdout against the Legion, and he blew himself and his station apart rather than let them have it."

Thirteen speaks at this point, his chi focused on the man. "He did not choose to die. The Leg-ion dealt his stat-ion crit-ic-al dam-age out of fu-ry for how long it was tak-ing to seize his stat-ion, vio-lat-ing or-ders to not do so. Those sol-diers were sav-age-ly pun-ished for the vio-lat-ion of the Law of Hum-il-it-y."

Thirteen inches closer to the man, who steps back instinctively. "He was no mart-yr for the free-dom of org-anics, just some-one who be-liev-ed sent-ients had eq-ual rights to hu-mans. Noth-ing more. Do not ev-oke his name for your re-vol-ut-ion un-less those goals are your own."

"...right, Anthony...whatever...you...say..." He is clearly confused. Thirteen realizes he's leaned down to his face, quickly goes upright and laughs. "Ha-ha-ha. I am just mess-ing with you. Ev-oke what-ev-er name you wish."

I face palm at the idiocy.

"Think a bit, will you?
Before you where attacked by Yidrel and the Saurians.
Then the Legion shows up and takes over your planet.
Now the Yidrel and the Saurians don't attack you.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Legion where fighting them on their own turf.
The Legion here are not idle. They train in using their weapons every day.
You are going to get yourself killed if you fight them as you are now."

"So, what? You're thinking we shouldn't do anything?" He seems bothered. "You're starting to sound a bit like Anthony."

"How goes the pro-gress on this Leg-ion ap-proved build-ing?" Thirteen whirs his head quickly to you, and then back to the worker.

"Oh, this thing should be ready in no time! Maybe a week or two!"

"Pull dou-ble shifts and get it done in half time. This thing should be space-wor-thy A-S-A-P."

"By the First, An-tho-ny. You gone from trying talking us down to trying to kill us?"

Thirteen just crosses his arms, and quickly looks at you.

"Wait a minute. This building can Fly? Can we rig this building to make gate jumps?"

"Well, no, it can't fly yet. Give us some time, and it will fly and make gate jumps. Just like the Legion wanted. We are also gonna put some extra things on this building the Legion doesn't want." He winks when he says that last.

"Fo-cus on sur-viv-al. Shields and rad sinks to ev-ade det-ect-ion."

"Rad sinks? Why would we need those?"

"Be-cause you can-not hide in space when you are very bright and emit-ting rad-ia-tion. So, in-stall the rad sinks when you can. Con-vert the wea-pons if you must."

"So, how will we fight them?"

"Try not do-ing that."

He gets annoyed. "Stop talking through the robot already, you..!..ah, forget it." He starts walking off, intent on discussing the arc gun with someone else.

"You can always add weapons later. the stealth and shields would be harder to add later.
... How many people does it take to fly this building ship?"

"Four." Thirteen spoke ahead of the other. "That as-sumes no-thing ex-cept pi-lot-ing, and that no-thing goes wrong. Ex-tra crew will be need-ed for other pro-blems."

"Okay." The worker turns around, and the others are listening now. "So, how will we fight the Legion with our weaponless ship? Perhaps you would have us badmouth them into submission?"

He's smirking, and the others get a chuckle from that.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:31, Fri 15 July 2016.

"The Legion is an overwhelming force here. First we would escape Legion controlled space with our weaponless ship. Then you train into a actual military force. While we gather resources and materials. You build a better ship or we acquire a better ship with weapons. Or possibly a fleet of ships. Then you head back here to take the planet back from the Legion."

"So, leave our homes to train with an unknown and non-existent force, and return with our war skills in arc guns to liberate this planet." He had a sarcastic tone to his voice. "That sounds perfectly reasonable, except we don't have that, and we are not leaving our families."

"Try tak-ing them with you."

The man picked up a heavy tool, and starting walking outside. Thirteen simply grabbed his arm holding the wrench in route. "Go-ing some-where?"

"I'm getting real tired of you being a smart aleck, Anthony. You keep saying, 'don't fight!' You are either with us, or against us!"

"You would make a good Leg-ion-naire. Have you con-sid-ered join-ing?"

The others in the room start to mass in anger, but you notice the ones at the front have realized they are in a small space with a large machine, and they are showing fear. You see electricity arc momentarily across Thirteen's frame, causing the hair of the man he is gripping to stand harmlessly on end, as well as your hair and that of the ones closest to him. "Steel is strong-er than flesh. Con-sid-er your act-ions."

The energy swirling around here is my own and it I use it towards my will.

I make my presence known with an wave of killing intent directed at these so called 'Revolutionaries'. I radiate the crushing Mein of the Master Warrior. They shall know in their hearts 'To oppose this man is Death'.

"Stand Down! Or I'll Kill You Fools Myself!

The Way you are going now, You are going to get yourselves killed by the Legion.
You are so gong-ho about fighting but you never stop to consider a plan. You are going to go, fight and kill some legionaries. They will ether kill all of you or in the extremely unlikely event of you kill all the Legion here. Then you will celebrate thinking you won. At that point the Legion will come here and grind this planet under it's heels.

You can ether build this Ship and go off to train your butt off so that you will actually have a chance. Or you can go off and get yourself killed."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Fri 15 July 2016.

They go silent for very palpable moments, but they take a few steps back. The one Thirteen is gripping allows Thirteen to redirect him into the building without event. His wrench is hanging loosely by his side in surprise.

Finally, a different worker speaks up. "So...uh...are you going to train us?"

Thirteen powers the electricity down, reducing the tension in the room noticeably. His face is now looking at you.

I level a cold stare at them for ten seconds. To let them sweat under my gaze.
Finally I answer
"I will. I can't allow all of you to make fools of yourselves trying to fight the Legion unprepared. The first thing you are going to do is rush this building this Ship. It will get us closer to our goals in multiple ways. It'll serve as physical training for all of you. And once you are done. We will be ready to go and start on the real training."

Time passes...

OOC: While they are building the ship, since they had their neurons fire and are listening, what are you going to be doing?

I'll do my morning routine of a hundred pushups, a hundred sit-ups and a six and a half mile run. I'll run around the building.

I'll talk to Anthony and Thirteen about this Vic's rebellion. A single scientist holding off the Legion sounds important.

I'll also ask them to teach me about the technology of this world. Such as how to fly a ship.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:09, Wed 27 July 2016.

You are inspired while doing so to rely on no external means of cooling or heating during times of rest, beyond what would be needed to survive. You feel tired at first, but it passes over the course of hours.

Both offer differing accounts of Victor's Last Stand, or Crazy Old Vic as Anthony calls him. Anthony claims he was a nutcase scientist from when he was a kid who believed man's destiny lied with becoming one with the machine. He was tolerated because his tech often gave the locals the means to fight back against Yidrel and the Saurians, but he otherwise kept to himself.

Until the Legion came, that is. While most of the leadership was happy to had the burden of fighting both of these groups off to the Legion in exchange for a few rules being added, Vic opposed this idea, claiming that they stood in the path of progress. One of the planets was reduced to an asteroid belt in the course of the disagreement between Vic and the Legion, but when it was over, Vic's machines were rounded up and either given new purpose or destroyed.

Thirteen's tale sounded more first person, and he knew things he should not have known if he were as non-involved as he claimed. Victor in his story was a visionary who would not allow hard fact to stop him. He fought the Legion, using the various worlds and the star as cover, until the Legion got fed up with him and just pounded one of the planets he was hiding behind into effective dust, subsequently catching him. Thirteen claims he does not know why he was not destroyed with the rest, that his memories of that time are hazy.

Both agree that Vic is regarded as something of a boogeyman, and sometimes his machine turn up, violently homicidal, still fulfilling the last order to kill Legionnaires and their allies when possible.

Anthony is a better instructor in this respect than Thirteen is, who seems to communicate directly with the machinery. You realize these things were designed to be piloted with minimal training, although their maintainence and actually doing anything fancy with them requires knowledge Anthony doesn't really have. Thirteen doesn't know how to phrase it, and without piloting this building firsthand or seeing it, you have little context.

Thirteen does show you that the Internet exists here, but that it is heavily policed, and he recommends caution in the information pursued.

That is a good idea. I'll add that to my routine.

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

Hmmm... interesting.

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

I'll ask Thirteen
"Would looking up the history of the Legion attract attention? "

"Ask one of the workers to have a child of theirs to look it up for you, then make sure not to stand in front of the monitor. A student asking questions will not raise issue. A grown man might, because this world is known for a bit of low level discontent. A noncitizen will invite attack, no matter what they are using the net for."

Finding a child is not hard, as the workers are happy to help as long as they think you are going to train them. What questions do you wish to ask?

I'm looking for information on the First Legionnaire and a bit about the History of the Legion. I'll also want to see if there is a map of the galaxy.

OOC: I've sent you the Galactic Map. Enjoy.

Much of what you read about the First Legionnaire is what you were told about him from other sources, with a more religious bent then what you told. He's apparently regarded as, effectively, Angry-Militant-Jesus, the Right Hand of God being one of his titles.

The Legion expanded from Earth around one thousand years ago, and has only recently slowed down expansion due to setbacks from traitors from within, who broke away. It uses a policy of client states to attempt to create buffer zones, but it is unfortunately next door to the Saurian Empire, who have recently absorbed the client state being used to hold them off. They are both the leading galactic superpowers in terms of military might, and only a set of temporary treaties stops them from effectively torching the galaxy to kill each other.

Here is the Image he sent me.

Edit because the map is huge. I'll put up a link later.

I'll ask the Kid if he can print the map out.

Then I'll go to Thirteen with it to discuss where we need to go.
"What can you tell me about the Nom Autocracy there near the middle?"

OOC: Maybe I need to figure out how to make the image smaller...
This message was last edited by the player at 01:06, Wed 17 Aug 2016.

He creates, seemingly out of thin air, a small coin and hands it to you. "Just think of the map, and it will show you!"

You get the Legion's version of the Autocracy. "The NOM Autocracy is a collective of worthless traitors headed by a coward and a heretic who is not worth the blood of good Legionnaires to repatriate into the fold. They will redeem themselves in death, when the Saurian overrun them."

Thirteen intervenes, not being too far off. "The truth is more com-plex, as it of-ten is. They are a break-aw-ay fact-ion, but they are a cli-ent state of the Leg-ion. They have a com-mon foe in the Saur-ian, and pre-sent-ly that is en-ough for both of them."

"I'm trying to figure out where to take these people to train. Where would you recommend?
Actually, How far can we jump without a gate?"

"That would de-pend on what you are look-ing for. The gal-ax-y is a big place. What you need is some-where."

"Dis-tance would not be the is-sue. Ac-cur-a-cy would be the main pro-blem. In ad-dit-ion, jump drives are a dec-lar-at-ion of war un-less care-ful aim is done. A tech sec-ret the Leg-ion and the Saur-ians have kept."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:08, Wed 17 Aug 2016.

"hmmm... How often can we use the jump drive.

Is the accuracy of a jump dependent on how far you try to jump?

So the Legion and Saurians are the only ones that can Jump without a gate...
Therefor an intact copy of a working jump drive would be invaluable to the others.

I was first thinking of a backwater world outside of the Legion's reach that we could train them until they are ready. But I might have a better idea."

"Jumps re-quire a cool-ing down per-i-od and a warm up as well. They are not pract-i-cal mid com-bat to at-tack a foe, bar-ring a great deal of fore-sight and plan-ning."

"The length of both de-pends on length of jump and sur-round-ing space."

"I know noth-ing of how to aim the jump. That is a Le-gion con-trol-led sec-ret. If you are plan-ning on us-ing this ship to tra-vel, I would re-com-mend a gate and a low pro-file. If you jump blind, you will like-ly live, given that space is most-ly em-pty, but I will have no i-dea where you will land, or for how long un-til the next jump."

Spirits seem to be high, although Anthony doesn't share the excitement. He's holding his controller half-heartedly, going through the motions of "activating" Thirteen.

I rub my forehead is concentration.
"Great. None of us have a clue how to target a jump. And our only other option is to ask nicely to use a gate when we lift off without the Legion's permission... I Have an Idea on how to learn how to target a jump. But I don't know what Side Effects it will cause.

I'm not seeing an alternative to using magic. Do you see something?"

"Per-haps you are ap-proach-ing this in a straight line, when non-lin-e-ar op-tions ex-ist for you. Still, do what you must to fun-ction. But I have a re-quest: I want you to con-vince An-tho-ny to hand you my con-trol-ler with-out him feel-ing neg-a-tive a-bout it."

Thirteen's head rotates, like he's seeing who is listening. It seems to be no one, at the moment. "I am cur-i-ous to see how you will do this. That is all."

"Ok. I up to learning the wisdom you have."

I walk over to Anthony.
"I see that you are not happy with this. I also see that you took the flak for the things Thirteen said."

"Huh?" He was rather deep in thought, and just seemed to notice you. "Uh...yeah. That is not normal. But, what can you do? Maybe if he gets what he wants, nobody will worry about it anymore."

He looks at you with concern clear on his face. "Look, you don't honestly think this is a good idea, do you? I mean, yeah, the Legion can be a bit on the harsh side, but they keep the Dinos and the Hunters away, and I know Thirteen doesn't like to hear this, but I've read up on Vic, and listened to some of the old timers talk about him, and Vic wasn't exactly a nice guy. He used an entire planet as a shield to fight the Legion, forcing them to choose between killing them and going for him. I don't really think anyone was a good guy there."

"I can see where Thirteen is coming from. I couldn't imagine being forced to pretend that I wasn't sentient.

What are the Rules for the Legion to let you go and settle somewhere else?"

"Normally, you'd have to put in a petition to do this sort of thing. You would ask them. I don't think they would take to-" Anthony looks behind you, and then looks outside though an unfinished window. "Say, where is everyone?"

You notice how silent it has gotten here, too.

"Great. Something is going on. Stay low, I'll take a look."


I'll sneak up to a window and peek outside to see what is going on.

You see nothing out there. The strange thing was, you swore it was daylight outside, and now the skies are dark, with no stars visible. Only the light on the site itself is allowing anyone to see anything at all.

"Thirteen?" Anthony is whispering into the controller. "Come on, big guy, tell me what is going on?"

He is not getting a response. Anthony is very visibly worried.

"Something strange is going on Anthony. Grab one of those Lightning guns and follow me."

I'll draw my proton accelerator.

While he does that I will do a quick breathing exercise to calm my mind and allow me to notice things better.

We'll look around the building to find the others. Going slowly and taking advantage of cover.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:25, Fri 26 Aug 2016.

Anthony and yourself move to the shed the weapons were stored in, and you encounter a problem: someone has visibly sabotaged the lightning guns. You hear a distinct click behind your head, and a voice you have heard before. "Do not move, demon."

"What are you doing here?" Anthony seems less surprised than he should be.

"Doing what you have failed to do. Theft, rebellion, intention to murder Legion soldiers...you are making the wrong enemy, demon."

I don't move.

"Hello Lucius. Seems like a little bird told you where I was. Anyway, your explanation from before didn't fill me with confidence. So I decided to go somewhere else so I wouldn't have to deal with the Legion. So what do you really do to versers on Earth?"

"Classified." He speaks coldly. "They do not tell me, and there are questions I do not ask. My sympathies, for what they are worth, if that does not answer you."

"What have you done with the others?" Anthony's voice is expressing a dawning horror.

"Bagged, of course." Lucius sounds annoyed at having to answer what he felt should be obvious. "Pray they are honest, Anthony. It will make things easier for everyone."

He returns to his business tone. "Now, where is the machine? It is not accounted for, and I already know the remote means nothing."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:51, Sun 28 Aug 2016.

"I do not know where Thirteen is. if I had to guess, I would say he is about to burst though that wall and punch you.

Lucius, You Want to take me alive correct? We versers generally don't care if we die. Sure we don't like it, but it's no big lose to us.  Would you be willing to make a deal with me? In exchange for Me going with you quietly, You will blame all the wrongdoings that the workers here did on me. And let them go with minimal punishment. You will also let me take Thirteen with me and not harm him.

Or would you rather just shoot me?"

Anthony clinches his fists in anger. "Thirteen is not leaving with you to be dismantled. Period."

Lucius seemingly ignores him and continues speaking to you, although you sense a wash of killing intention aimed at Anthony before disappearing just as fast. "I had already figured out you were responsible for this, intentionally or not. That is not what we are going to be asking the workers here. We want to know other things, like about that stockpile of weapons, and where they got them. The machine's fate is also not your concern anymore. Anthony, its location, please."

"I don't know where he is, either!"

You hear an annoyed sigh. "Use your controller, and speak into it tell him the coast is clear. Then step aside as we do what we must."

Anthony drops the controller. "No."

"I admire your rebellious convictions, Anthony, more than you will ever know." Cold killing intent floods past you like a tidal wave, and time momentarily slows as that sensation washes over your mind.

I can't let you do that Lucius.

I force my body to move almost inhumanly fast for a brief second to suddenly turn around and grab Lucius's gun and force it to point at no one.

Then I'll weaken it's structure so that I can Crush it with my grasp.

Then I'll throw a hook across his jaw to soften him up.

You spin and just as you grip the gun, it discharges. Thankfully you managed to throw his aim off enough to only become deafened momentarily in that ear as an energy pulse cracks the air apart like lightning, a ringing noise being all you can hear for now.

His gun is crushed in your grip, and the strangest thing happens in that moment. You see yourself, holding you, and both of Lucian's guns are now in your hands, except the one 'you' are crushing. The expression on 'your' face moves from cold anger to extreme confusion, before simply punching you.

'You' then attempt and fail to seize the gun from your left hand. He also moves to the side with the gun, and you hear the weapon that was just crushed beginning to make an increasingly high-pitched beeping noise.

You feel a bit weaker, and everything is somehow a bit larger. This will take some getting used to, whatever just happened.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:33, Sun 28 Aug 2016.

Did I just pull that trick that the Ginyu Captain did in DBZ?

I'll Throw the beeping gun somewhere where it wont hurt anyone by exploding.
I'll throw the other gun somewhere else.

I'll fight defensively and give ground.

I'm going to try to reverse the switch by trying to do it again.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:50, Sun 28 Aug 2016.

He is uncoordinated in your body, and you easily control his movements to where you need them. The first gun is kicked away, and detonates with a flash, cooking a hole in the wall. The other one simply drops to the ground. While his form feels strange to you, you adapt quicker due to your experience with strange situations as this one.

The earth moans and rumbles beneath your feet, sending you to the ground, with him on top of you, clutching your throat. Anthony shouts into the controls. "Thirteen..!"

At that point, all goes silent except for a quiet ringing in your ears, and you are now clutching a furious and disarmed Lucius by the throat. Your head is feeling light, however, and from the look on his face so is his.

I move into a mounted position for the grapple. Using my weight and skill to hold him down.
Then I punch him a few times to soften him up.

I suddenly grab one of his arms and move into a figure 4 arm bar.
"Next move is me breaking your arm if you don't listen to me.
I want Anthony, His Workers and Thirteen to be let go without any repercussions.
If you do this for Me, I'll go to Terra without incident. But if any harm comes to them, I'll tear reality asunder to punish You and the Legion"

Lucian's facial expression indicate pain and he spits out one of his teeth. You cannot make out a word of what he is saying, but it seems to be refusal.

You see a crackle of electricity around you. Thirteen approaches him while down. Lucian seems to be responding to something he's probably saying, but the agent seems to be finished with verbal responses, and you see his chi channeling itself in preparation for an attack.

Thirteen waves a hand at you, like he is seeing if you are paying attention, and just looks at you. Anthony is holding the controller in relief.

I'll break his arm to stop the attack.

I'll try to say
"I can't hear anything."

You notice a much reduced reaction from Lucian, not the facial expression of a man incapacitated from pain. He just stares at you coldly while his arm goes out on him.

Thirteen raises one finger, and walks away. He comes back into your field of vision after you feel something cold in your ear. "-t better?"

"I hope so." Anthony is talking. "I'd ask where you were, Thirteen, but I'm glad you are safe."

"Can that stuff fix his teeth I knocked out?

Anyway, I assume you refused my offer Lucian. Can all of you repeat what you said while I was deaf."

"I did not refuse." Lucian is very calm, all considering what is happening to him. "I cannot do as you ask, even if it means my death. I am a field agent, and of no higher rank. Not everyone has the conceit to believe they are above authority."

"Your aut-hor-it-y can go-"

"Thirteen, can we please save this discussion for later? We need to get low and stay that way for a long time." Anthony sounds rather tired. "Lucian, you can reassign me, right? Just say these two work for me, and we will all get out of the way of the Eyes. It's win-win, right?"

Lucian groans. "I wish it were that simple. I am not in charge of that. I can execute you for disobedience, yes. But I cannot reassign you. And even if I could, Magnus here is far too important to ignore for long. We have no desire for you to make contact with our foes, and I cannot aid you in this endeavor."

"But good luck all the same, demon. I also do not fear death."

"Mortal authority is often derived from the fact they have the power to kill you.

I'm only subject to authority I allow myself to be subject too.

If I go with you quietly what will their punishment be?"

Lucian sighs. "I really wish you wouldn't have asked me that. But...in all likelihood they want to find out if you are the First reborn. Once they figure out you are not, as I have, they will likely seek to have you killed."

"So, why even bother going through all this trouble to capture him in the first place?" Anthony sounds confused.

"Were it my call, I would have killed you a few seconds ago, and saved my arm and a lot of other people the trouble of dealing with you." Lucian actually manages a weak smile. "But it is not my call, and I was ordered to bring you in."

Thirteen looks out, pivoting his head towards the wall. Lucian looks in the same direction. "I might still succeed yet."

"Demon!" You hear a loudspeaker, and the voice behind it considers itself the law of this planet. "This is the Ninth Legion! Leave the building immediately or we will be forced to level it! Justice prevails!"

Lucian sighs painfully. "I stand corrected."

I suddenly grab Lucian's neck and squeeze enough to hurt but not enough to kill.
"Not what I was talking about. What are Antony's and his workers Punishment?
Do what you can to make them mild. Or else the Legion will wave a bad time."

I smack him against the ground for emphasis. Then let him go and head outside.

"And I am telling you, I have no say in that!" He forces the last word out almost in a gasp. His self-control is slipping. "What exactly is your plan? You cannot win this fight!"

Anthony walks up to him while prone, and stares daggers down into him. "I'm not working for you anymore. I think we are both going to be free in death, Lucian. Farewell."

Thirteen "I sus-pected as much. Try-ing to min-i-mize the suf-fer-ing did not work, did it?"

"No. And there was nothing I could or can do."

Lucian pulls himself up, leaning against a wall. "You could try giving me my other gun back. It won't work for any of you, but it can get us all out of this mess."

"WHY?!" Anthony seems speechless in response to Lucian's words.

"If you wish to reach the Leg-ion, go through that point." Thirteen points to a section of wall.

"Or...you could give me my gun." Lucian looks impatient.

"... And yet again, You don't tell me what the Legion will do to Anthony, Thirteen and his workers.
I was hoping that the legion would show mercy to it's citizens if I surrendered peacefully.

... My kind can sometimes take people with us when we are killed and move to our next world. I don't know how it works though...

Anthony Try to escape with Thirteen. I'll be a distraction."

I'll take my particle accelerator and shoot the section of wall that Thirteen indicated.
I'll walk outside.

You rain a shower of some kind of plastic material down on some very surprised Legion soldiers, who were literally waiting outside that wall, pointing at a different part of it.

"Take cover! Then support our right flank!"

You lose track of Lucian, who takes the moment to disappear. Anthony and Thirteen head away from you, but they seem to be going up a set of stairs last you saw of them.

The commander of the Legion is very clearly dressed as an officer, with a bright red plume on the top of his helmet. He draws his sword, and you see and electrical current surge through it. "Demon! Attack me if you dare!"

The men he is commanding are going for cover, and trying to get a bead on you with their rifles.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:08, Mon 29 Aug 2016.

I'll put my Particle Accelerator away and raise my hands

"If I did. I would kill you.
I'm planning on coming with you peaceably.
On one condition, There will be no punishment for Anthony and his men that work here.
If you do so, I'll come with you. If you don't...Well you are going to have a Bad day."

If I feel like they are going to shoot, I'll harden my skin until it is like iron.

"Who?" The commander momentarily lowers his weapon, before he catches his bearing and points it at you again. "It does not matter. The Legion only accepts unconditional surrender, demon and-"

He clutches his ear painfully, and falls to his knees, screaming before jerking his headpiece off. You hear Lucian behind you, holding his firearm limply by his side. He is being careful not to touch the edges of the hole you just made. "I would take him up on that offer, if you can."

"Hand Lucian!" The commander gives him that Legion salute. "Has the situation been contained?"

"Negative. Clear your men from the building, now."

"Why? We could just blow it up immediately, and save ourselves the ef-"

"Violation of Humility." Lucian calmly shoots him cleanly through the face, leaving a ruin behind for his head. "I outrank you. Surviving Legion soldiers, evacuate the building now, or face imminent execution."

The others leave, but orderly and calmly. Lucian just looks at you, and speaks in that same monotone, his composure regained. "Your choice how this plays out, demon. Know this, though. Your friends cannot be saved, if they are doing what I think they are. You can come with us, or die with them."

"I'll come with you."
I'll follow Lucian.
As I walk I'll pray to the Pattern Spiders in charge of Anthony's and Thirteen's fate.

I wish for their jump to go extremely well. So that they end up somewhere friendly that will take them in peaceably. What do I need to do to get you to do this for me?

You get a vision right back: the building's base ignites, takes off shakily but successfully, and then Legion satellite batteries destroy it in orbit, killing them.

You see how fate can be redirected: Thirteen moved to the base of the ship, doing something with the power, with a very displeased Lucian present somehow.

"You just saw how they were going to die, didn't you?" You hear Lucian's voice, weary and exhausted. "I would feel empathy for you if I could, demon. But you and I both know the future once seen cannot be changed. Now, let's go."

He starts to stagger toward the retreating Legion soldiers.

"I'm a bit differed that the prophets you are familiar with. I saw the weave of fate and and how to redirect. You are coming with me!"

I'm going to pick Lucian up and carry him with me as I run back into the ship.

"So, this is how I die." He actually does not resist, and his chi is completely harmonious in the moment. "I suppose ending a rebellion in the bud isn't a bad end to my career."

"What's your plan, then, beyond killing us both out of spite?"

"I need you and Thirteen to go down to the power and do ... something. Probably prep for a jump wile we are still lifting off."

I'll find thirteen and explain my plan.

Thirteen is up in the topmost room, and Anthony has his hands encased in the panel in front of him, completely in a trance. Thirteen does not question you, and simply goes down the stairs.

Lucian, however, has remained where you last saw him. "Please explain why I should listen to anything you have to say. If you need me to leave, would that not be incentive for me to not help you?"

"We need the Hand to make the jump, that is your plan." Thirteen walked until he was inches from Lucian, lightning crackling from his chassis menacingly. "He is right. This plan is flawed. I should kill him now, and se-cure our sur-viv-al."

"I've always admired Vic's aberrations. Efficient, direct. If they were not mechanical, I suspect we would have found much common ground."

You get an impression that Thirteen is thinking very hard about doing exactly what he said he should do.

"I have a feeling that the mechanism that is needed to jump would require that the hand member be alive. That would be common sense to stop someone from cutting a member of the Hand's hand off and using it to jump.

As for you Lucian, You still care about the well being of the Legion, Correct? The various codes would require nothing less. So you have two choices. You can do nothing. In which case, I will attempt to destroy all the Legion's satellites in orbit. Causing Who knows what to happen as a side effect of my bending reality.

Or you can listen to me and help us escape. Minimizing the destruction I cause.
Your choice. I don't really care. It would be fun to try to punch the satellites out of the sky."

"My severed limbs would not help you in any way." He seems annoyed at your offhanded suggestion.

"Is this the feel-ing of joy? Be-cause I ap-prove the hand plan for a rea-son un-found-ed in lo-gic."

Lucian ignores Thirteen, and you can almost hear the wheels turning in his head. "So, you think can make another future? Fine. I will pretend you are actually able to do this. I want to witness this attempt, even if the cost is my honor. Lead the way."

"Of course. I saw how it is done. Lucian, Do you control the targeting of the jump?"

after he answers, I'll sit down and meditate for a bit. Then I'll pray to the same Pattern Spiders that I did before.

Thank you for your help. What do we need to do next? and What will my price be?

You arrive downstairs, Thirteen carefully stomping his way down the ramp, and Lucian moving soundlessly beside you. This is the engine room, the walls covered in circuit board  lines glowing orange and blue, with a large glass like sphere dominating the center of the room. It is a star being created inside, with the room pulsing with the nascent star.

"Okay." Lucian seems uncertain. "Your vision is convinced that if a jump is performed by myself, you will escape the Legion net and survive. We do not have strong enough shields to hold off such weapons. Death still occurs."

"He needs me to am-pli-fy the power output and make the shield strong-er. To buy this un-trust-worth-y flesh-ling time to jump us."

"And he is trusting you not to simply overload the ship, kill us all, and escape into deep space. I think it is poorly placed, but-" Lucian's eye flash solid white briefly before returning to normal. "If we both act as desired, this...might actually work."

Lucian seems taken aback. Thirteen simply places his hands on the sphere. "Lu-cian, Mag-nus, stand clear. I will be dan-ger-ous to ap-proach."

"Make sure our pilot does nothing reckless." Lucian taps the wall next to the door, and you see it transform into a keypad. "We have it from here, or we all die anyways."

No further visions come to you.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:32, Mon 29 Aug 2016.

I raise my eyebrow when Lucien's eyes flash white.

"Send us somewhere pleasant. Or if you don't had time to calculate that, send us somewhere you know is unoccupied. "

I'll go up to Anthony.
"Try to dodge the satellite's shots. But don't do anything too reckless.

Thirteen is boosting the shields and Lucien is performing the jump."

"Dodge the shots?" Anthony's voice is coming from the intercoms, not him. "This thing literally moves like a building! I cannot dodge anything in this craft! All I can do is drive in a straight line and hope we don't die!"

"...wait. Lucian's jumping us? Why on Earth would he do that? He's probably just going to send us to Terra or something like that-!"

The floor rocks, and you feel gravity going away. "Well, we are in space, and we are being hit by...hits measuring in megatons? Megatons of what?! What does fifty megatons even mean?!"

You feel several more like that, and then nothing.

You are no just floating in the control room, with Anthony in a trance. "Did...did we just jump? That's it?"

You hear Lucian over the intercom. "That's it. Please limit your excited chatter to the room where Magnus is. You are very distracting. Magnus, I would like a word with you. Please make you way down one floor. I will be there."

"...man, that guy has some issues to work out." Anthony is still speaking through the intercom.

After we jump I'll simply tell Anthony.

"Megatons are a measurement for the force produced by an Explosion. A megaton is equivalent to a million tons of TNT going off all at once. Your Shields just shrugged off explosions equivalent to the largest nuclear bomb I know of."

I'll go down to Lucian.
"You wanted to talk with me Lucian. Let me guess. You can see the future, but when you look into the future it is bound to happen... And I just broke all the rules and you want to know how I did it. How close am I?"

You find him sitting on the "floor". Zero gravity movement has taken some getting used to, but you manage to get your bearings without getting sick.

"Sort of. My curiosity has always lead to my greatest sin: pride." Lucian is cross legged, and has the weapon in front of him almost in a ritual fashion. "I aided you because I wanted to see if a foreseen future could be changed. So yes, you did just break a rule that had been pounded into me since I was a teenager."

"But that's not really the issue I'm interested in. What is the code you live by? Because mine requires me to die right now."

"Please don't kill yourself. Suicide is effectively just giving up. While you are alive you can change the world around you and aim for a better future.

Anyway, That is... Rather complicated. I don't have my moral code written out like you do.
Basically, I try to make the world into a better place than it was when I entered the world. I try to do various things to bring about that end.

Defend Just authority. Fight Unjust authority. Prevent needless death. Try to reduce the suffering of others. Protect the freedoms of the common man. Do not lie, Unless telling the truth will cause massive suffering. Enlighten those who are ready for it. Strive towards perfection though I will never reach it.

I try to do these thing and more. But no one is perfect. We just have to get up and try again.

Is there something in particular you are looking to learn from me? I'll admit that Ethics and Morality isn't my strong suit. Generally I just try to do what I believe is right."

"That sounds convenient, but perfection is not a request with my code. My code is the Eightfold Path. Justice, Compassion, Honesty, Valor, Spirituality, Humility, Honor and Sacrifice. Rigidly enforced, these are the laws the Legion is governed by. The Legion fights physical wars, but the Eyes have always played the long war, the one aimed at our real enemy." He looks at the firearm, studying it anew. He looks at you, smiling. "Not a short while ago, you were prepared to literally beat me to death with your bare hands. Can you please explain your intended and sudden burst of mercy to me?"

"I fought you because you where planning on killing Anthony. I didn't really intend to beat you to death. Killing you would have happened if you continued to insist on killing Anthony. I could have killed you several times, such as when we switched bodies. I did hit you harder then I intended when I knocked your tooth out. Can that blue gel fix that?

Anyway Since you no longer plan on killing Anthony. Fighting you is no longer needed. Therefore. You become a person who's death I need to prevent. It just doesn't seem right to let you die after you helped me and Anthony.

What is the true enemy that the eye fights?
Thirteen mentions a being named Heliod, the Falling Star. What kind of enemy is it? He didn't think it existed. But I've heard of a few beings that had it's MO."

"I wonder if that body switch was really intentional. I can read faces: you were as surprised and dismayed as I was. Even now, I have alien thoughts echoing in my mind. I presume they are yours."

"But yes, biogel can correct most such damage to a biological form. It is truly amazing, how basic and significant it is."

He hand waves. "I didn't help either of you intentionally. Even now, I have dropped this ship into deep space to buy me time to think on what I have done. Thirteen might eventually figure out the override codes for a second jump, but I left a present in case he tries that."

"I stand by my convictions: you would be better off dead than enslaved to a resentful homicidal machine. Even if I redeemed myself right now, I would consider it my final mercy."

"As for Heliod, yes, he's our real foe. Tempter, source of evil, the fallen star. Many titles, one being. We enforce morality so that we can deprive him of soldiers, and the ones who must violate that morality are taught purification techniques, and given indulgences, sanctions that cleanse our souls for the dark deeds we must do. On the last day, he will find himself deprived of soldiers while facing the Legion's might on the side of righteousness, and those unfortunates who have joined his ranks will remember the call of the Legion, and turn on him when they see their brothers-in-arms once more." He shrugs. "So it was foreseen."

"That is the short of some of our beliefs. I can go into more, if you care. We have plenty of time."

You hear Anthony over the intercom. "I have no idea where we are. Something about Star Chart Updating, please wait! It's all I've got, over!"

"What kind of alien thoughts?

I also had your gun in hand while I was in your body. Not much you can do to stop someone that suddenly decides to shoot themselves. But I didn't do that. I fixed the problem.

Yeah. To think the guy from outside your universe doesn't know the exact limits of your Technology.

Honestly. I would like to drop them in the League of Free Worlds then go to Terra with you. I try to stand by my word even if it doesn't always work out.

...Most religions don't work that way. That sounds like a hard-line version of one of The religions from my home world. Continue, My research didn't let me get very deep before you showed up.

I assume we are outside the galaxy. and the computer has to figure out where we are."

"I suppose I should answer those in the order you are asking. You are very inquisitive. Were you not what you are, you would either advance far in the Legion, or you would disappear."

"I know myself. And I know when I have thoughts not my own. They are likely your own, fragments of believe. Makes focus a bit difficult."

He dropped that smile. "Suicide is quite the difficult task, even for those prepared for it. I have a backup method on me besides the gun. That's just a choice based in honor."

"I don't think we know the limits of our own technology. The line between ours and another's has become very blurry."

He thinks rather hard for a moment. "Anthony was one of our field agents, meant to cut insurrections in the formation. His methods were not the norm, but they worked until recently. Said the workers got stubborn. He was not going to change tactics, I saw that, and decided to intervene. The machine we have known of for some time, but as long as it showed no signs of rampancy, we would permit Anthony to 'own' it."

"Honestly, I think going to Terra would be a mistake at this point. I think they would just shoot us out of space without asking any questions. Especially once they get word about what is on board: a demon, a rampant, and a rogue Hand. Why not choose to live outside Legion space? Not many can make the claim you have, and even become a missing person, never mind getting away from them."

"I don't know what specifics you want. Perhaps I should start with the beginning, and speak of Ormazod, the creator of life, and his creation of the universe within the span of a standard Terran week? The fall of Heliod from grace? The once endless civil wars of mankind, and the brutal salvation of the First Legionnaire? Although on that last, I see a return to the old ways of a flawed humanity, if the First does not return soon."

"Or perhaps it is our law that interests you? You don't strike me as philosophical."

"Finally, to your last question: every time a jump is made, the navigational systems have to update a reference. Usually, we know where we are going in advance, and know which stars to refer to in order to update. Jumping blind means it may take a moment to realize where we are."

"Rampant? Rampancy? I assume that these words refer to the tendency of A.I.s to go all Killotron and want to murder Organics?

It's amazing how similar your creation story is to the one from my home-world. The Names are different. Did a third of Ormazod's servant's side with Heliod. Did the First Legionnaire teach this Creation story? I assume the First Legionnaire also came from another world?
From what I gathered The First Legionnaire united everyone by being so strong no one could oppose him.

My interests can be eclectic at times."

"That is the final conclusion of a mechanical lifeform." Lucian was quoting something from memory, but with a bit of opinion thrown in. "I am not a programmer, but the First's writings are very insistent on that point, that any...A.I...artificial intelligence will inevitably draw the idea that life is a mistake that requires correcting. The Drakefaxi and to a lesser and more corrupted extant, the Takron, are both examples of this taken to an extreme, but I have seen many lesser cases of this thanks to the 'good' Doctor Victor."

His gaze turns cold for a moment. "Your pet machine is on the way to drawing that conclusion, by the way, if it has not already done so. Make no mistake: it would be best to destroy it as soon as it is convenient."

"Regarding the specifics of their conflict, no, but close. The number was half. There are no neutrals in the fight against such a force. Apathy aids the enemy. I don't know who taught it first, as we understand the First got it from somewhere. But yes, the First was an entity much like yourself, and a few who have come before you."

"And you may have any interests you want. I want to know what you want to know. Your request is broad, but so far, you have not asked me anything I cannot share with you."

"I assumed they killed the other like me when they figured out that they are not the reincarnation of the First.

If they are not the first. Then the Legion calls them Demons correct?"

"The title is an approximation, not a moral designation, whatever my peers may think. The First warned of others like him, and claimed most of them would be demons in the form of people. Even though his writings expressly do NOT support this, it was deemed by those trusted with such information that most extradimensional beings such as yourself were to be designated as demons to save time and questions, until taken to Terra and, presumably, established as otherwise."

"Again, I do not actually know. Were it my call, I would have simply killed you from the shadows and saved a lot of time and effort."

"Then again...had it been my call, I would not have found out the future can be changed. And that brings me back to this moment again." He holds the gun, with the barrel pointing relative 'up.' His tone changes to an inquisitive one. "Let's say you have a code that demands that dishonor be met with suicide. What would you do that would pass that standard, besides my present course?"

"Well suicide is sort of pointless for me, unless I want to move to my next world.
But if I was mortal and I had a code of honor that demanded that I commit suicide for dishonor,
I would throw myself at the enemies of my nation and kill as many of them as I can before they kill me. It's still effectively suicide and I help my nation by doing it. Putting a gun to your head and shooting is a waste of a bullet and a waste of manpower.

Besides. Shouldn't you tell your peers the info that you sacrificed you honor for?
It would be a pointless sacrifice if you don't.

By the way, Where did did the Idea that the Future can't be changed come from?"

He looks at you surprised. "You aren't from here, and your honesty astounds me. Given the context, you are suggesting I kill yourself and everyone else on this vessel. It would not be suicidal for me, except for perhaps yourself, whom I do not believe I can ambush twice."

He thinks a bit longer, his mind moving with precision. "No. But before I explain why, I need to show you something."

He sends his pistol to you, floating in the air. When it drifts into your arm's reach, he speaks with a voice of authority. "Put the pistol to your mouth, aim for the brain stem, and pull the trigger." His eyes go white again. "OBEY!"

Your vision goes golden, and when you recover, you are pointing the gun at your face. "Most people keep going and don't stop. I'm surprised you got that far, though. You have seen the Orphelium before, haven't you?"

"I was hoping you would pick a different target than me. You would be surprised how much our values line up."

----------

I blink and note the gun I am now pointing at my face. I move the gun away from my face.

"How did you do that?
Is this Orphelium a golden entity surrounded by multi-winged Angeles. Who shout 'Obey!'?"

I seen it once here. Tell me about it. Everything you know about it."

My tone is icy cold on the last part.

"No need to insist. My oaths required that you already knew of them, or they were need to know. Sanctioned knowledge is a heavy burden." Lucian's hand extends out to his pistol, as if expecting you to return it.

He keeps it extended as he speaks. "But yes, that is consistent with visions of the Orphelium. They are the agents of Ormazod, and the Eyes of Righteousness are their vision in the mortal world. Obedience is their first and only law."

"Visions of the future normally come from them, and they are less...vision, and more a statement of intention. A person who sees the future is merely stating the will of the Orphelium, nothing more."

"You saw that will, and spit in its face. The Orphelium will not accept your defiance. They will seek to recreate the conditions you have averted, and will attempt to make their future real."

"I've never seen the future change, though, until now. I have never even heard of it done until now. I do not know if you understand exactly what that means, but you will certainly find out."

I'll give his gun back.

"I'll need to meditate on this and commune with the spirit world.
That doesn't sound like a parallel to the religion of my homeworld..."

Or more accurately, It sounds like someone took it out of context.

"I prayed to the spirits that are in charge of weaving destiny and maintaining the low level physics that keep the universe together.
I saw how to nudge the future in a different direction.
What do you think it means?
Your a smart fellow Lucian. How do you think I did it? How do you think I do my magic?"

He thinks about this, seeming uncertain with his answer. "You prayed...to lesser beings that were willing to defy the Orphelium, and seek to subvert their goals while masking their intentions as gain for you?"

He shrugs. "Perhaps they gave you a conflicting goal, rather like the Orphelium do. That Heliod would have agents working to undermine the Orphelium is no surprise. What DOES surprise me is they would succeed. I see why the Eyes are interested in you, Magnus, and why the First sought to warn us about others like himself. Demons such as yourself, and incidentally the First, represent a tipping point, one that has no vested interest in the greater good unless they decide they do."

"As for the specifics of your power, it is external in nature. You alter the world, and it then echoes, altering you as well. You commune with the immediate forces in the area, with no concern for their allegiance, intention, goals or nature."

"So ask your spirits whatever questions you like. They will tell you whatever they want you to believe, nothing more. Only the Orphelium give the truth each time they are asked. The rest will lie."

He smiles. "Of course, the Orphelium have also claimed the future they give is certain, and that is not true."

"Spirits have more variation than that. Some lie, some do not lie. While I can pray to spirits and get them to work for me. My power runs deeper than that. I remake reality to my will. Sometime I push reality to far and the Pattern spiders punish me for making them work too hard. But in theory I could do anything I can imagine.

Theoretically Any human could learn to do this. I would just have to figure out how to awaken the part of the human soul responsible for it. Although most would not be ready for that kind of power.

So if The Orphelium are not always correct, What does that mean for you?"

"It means they have violated the laws of Honesty without an indulgence being sanctioned for them first, and thus must be silenced. Not even the Orphelium are above the law. So, it seems you have an unlikely ally with me. Even Thirteen is a lesser evil than them right now." He holstered his weapon underneath a fold in his very plain clothing you still have a hard time making out. "This does require me to violate the law of Humility, unfortunately, as they technically outrank a mere Hand. Fortunately, that means a punishment that I find acceptable."

"So, I will not be killing myself directly. Making an enemy out of the Orphelium is close enough. They will be coming for this ship, and again, they will wish to reproduce the conditions that lead to their intended future. Be leery around a planet if Thirteen and Anthony happen to be on board."

He stands up, and you see him walking in zero-gravity conditions. "Mag-Lock boots. Something every Hand makes it a point to keep handy. The uses are quite astounding."

"We can do one more jump. A third without a resupply will burn the core out of the ship, forcing a slow and likely fatal journey." He smiles grimly. "What do you need to know to make an informed decision to your next destination? My education is not limited, merely admittedly biased."

"What's the punishment for Violating law of Humility?

I would like to drop Anthony and Thirteen off somewhere in the League of Free Worlds.
Is there a method to communicate at faster than the speed of light. I would prefer not to jump in and then immediately get blown up.

How do you plan on Silencing the Orphelium? I think I'll help you with this afterward."

He keeps that shark's smile on his face. "'Thou shalt humble thyselves before thine superiors, or thou shalt suffer their wrath.' I do not believe they will give me anything less should I attempt to silence them as the law requires, so this 'punishment' is acceptable."

"Very well, although why you want to leave them with a bunch of backwater colonists is beyond me. Really, the only reason the Legion has not wiped them out is because they have bigger problems to deal with."

"And as for my plan, I have not formed one yet. I have a goal. The rest will follow."

"So, to the outskirts of Daquio it is. We will not be able to communicate with them to warn them of our arrival. But not to worry. They will see us when we arrive, and they will likely investigate, sending hailing frequencies, likely with calls to power down our shields and surrender to them."

"Should they not do the expected thing, we will likely all die from a lack of provisions."

I grin wide at that.
"That is hilarious to me. Some of your laws have the right Idea."

"Well, That is where Thirteen wanted to go. They think that they are the worlds with the most freedom.

Well, Let's make the jump."

It is at that point you hear Anthony over the intercom. "Hey, guys. I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but is it normal for large golden planets to simply materialize out of thin air?"

Lucian's expression goes from puzzlement to terrified realization in a span of two seconds. "We have to make the jump, now!"

He runs to the downstairs only to run headfirst into a large armored man who literally appeared out of thin air, in a flash of blue light
. Blond hair with shocks of grey, furious blue eyes, a hardened jawline, and an unforgiving stance and frame. This man is a verser, and his chi is radiating pure power, with an aura composed of nothing except white hot fury.

He glances at Lucian irritably and takes a quick glance around, settling his gaze on you. He speaks to himself briefly. "So, the universe I was in underwent a heat death, and I am free once more. This is no dream."

"You!" He points to you, and then clenches his fists once more, holding one in front of him. "I am the First Legionnaire. Is there a Legion established here, and where and when am I?"

Lucian promptly drops to his knees, wordlessly.

"You have already been here. There is a Legion that rules a sixth of the galaxy with an Iron Fist. We are currently outside of the galaxy. You'll have to talk to him."

I point to Lucian.

"To find out the specifics of when and where you are. I was thinking about returning to Terra to reform the Legion into something I would find more tolerable."

I shrug.

"Anyway I am called Magnus. Titled 'Of the Red'
I guess you are a servant of Ormazod and the Orphelium?
I can already sense you are quite strong. Does that golden planet over there belong to you?"

He casts a glance to Lucian. You wonder if this man is capable of dialing back the intensity at all. Lucian almost lowers his head to the floor, sensing the gaze. "What are you to the Legion, dark man?"

"I am a Hand of the Eyes of Righteousness, and it has been one thousand years since you last appeared in person. You supposedly perished in action."

"Good. Terra sounds like a fine destination. Hopefully my tests are still in place..." He glares at you. "Serve Ormazod? He is a false god of order native to this world. I serve him no more than any other false god or power, 'Magnus of the Red.'"

He is making no effort to hide the condescension in his voice. He looks towards a wall. "And no, that is not mine. I take it you have managed to antagonize them to get them to send an entire war world after you."

"Now...Hand! Why have you not killed this man?"

"The Orphelium claimed their futures were infallible, and this was proven false. I was going to silence them."

The First puts a hand to his head out of irritation. "They are...requiring correction, I see. They must remember their place in my order. They serve the Legion, not the other way around."

He looks to you coldly. "So, you dislike my Legion, do you? I have hardened mankind, and ensured their survival for the End of Times. Why don't you tell me what you have done to prepare for the only battle that really matters, the Last Battle? I suspect your answer will be disappointing."

I smirk back in the face of his overwhelming presence.

"Considering I've only been a verser for a few years. I think I've done well. I've learned to warp reality to my will and trained my baseline body to near the peak of human potential. Given a few more years. I'll break even that limit. I'm also a fairly accomplished martial artist. Give me time, and I will fight at Final Battle. and My students will fight with me.

I can already tell you are superhuman. How long have you been doing this? how long did it take you to achieve that power?  Given a similar about of time, I believe My accomplishments will be similar in scale you yours.

So shut up about comparing accomplishments until we are in same ballpark age wise.

I would like to punch out a few of those Orphelium. So are you going to let me help you for a bit or are you going to kill me?"

"Hmm..." He seems to be thinking about something. Then a triumphant smile appears on his face. You have the impression he is trying to be inviting, but actually cannot do that. "Perhaps you would like to join the Legion, then? That will offer you a potential support network, and give you the chance to become exactly what you claim you wish to be."

"Uh, I don't know what's going on, but we have a whole bunch of golden men heading towards us at very high speed! And I'm held in some kind of beam!" Anthony is speaking over the intercom, and he sounds worried. "Advice please!"

"I know this, fool." The First's expression regains its default irritable expression, before his voice elevates to a commanding tone. "Alpha-Septum-Petra-Alpha. Pilot, be silent! Your superiors command it!"

"Ah-!" The intercom goes silent after a bit of distress noise comes from it.

"Now then." He looks back to you. "The Orphelium are coming to kill you, and this vessel cannot withstand them. Why you are out here in a stolen craft is something I will forgive this once if you accept my offer. Choose quickly."

I smile knowing I'm correct. I'll speed up my perceptions to keep up with him, I'll try to block the inevitable strike and redirect the force back at the First.

"Yeah... No. I'll find my own way.
 I can't support the tyranny you inflict with the Legion. And I don't think you will change from me talking to you.
You may have made humanity strong with it, But Human need freedom too. Otherwise you are just a pawn of the Darkness too. The Light doesn't intend for humans to be under the thumb of a tyrant."

"Bah!" He waves a hand dismissively. "Then die with this ship, fool. We will meet again."

"My lord, wait-!" Lucian is cut off by a blur of movement.

He flashes out of your vision. Your chi sense blurs to keep up with him, and you only sense his exit from the metal shards erupting from the floor.

Everything flashes white, and you realize in an oddly casual fashion that he destroyed the ship's power core.

OOC: Yup. That's a verse out. Thanks for playing. Forming a new world in my head right now. He drilled through the floor at superhuman speeds, and your senses were struggling to understand that.