i wondered where you'd disappeared too, and what is it with you and taking long breaks and coming back with a new name, i think you've gone through more user names on this site than anyone else!

There's a couple of people who've gone through more than me, but we'll leave them alone =D

anyhoo. more goodness. i think this is the point where things went weird. ah well.

29:
Arania had left. Citadel was falling apart, and there was no way of undoing the damage created by the Dom'Kavash. But they would pay. They would pay dearly for the attempt to destroy humanity. They would pay for the death of innocents.
"A.K.... Prepare Daedalus. This ends here. This ends now. Jennifer,"
She looked up.
"Take care of A.K. for me."
"Where are you going?" she asked with fear in her voice.
"To save humanity."
I walked into the Daedalus chamber and strapped myself in. This would hurt, but the pain would give me the strength to defeat the Dom'Kavash.
"A.K.,"
A.K. beeped a reply
"Start her up."
I strapped myself in and waited for my destiny. A long needle pierced my neck and a stream of nanites flowed throughout my bloodstream. The changes were almost instantaneous, and so was the pain. I let out a massive scream, and heard the desperate banging of Jennifer on the chamber door. I could feel my mind clearing as the neurons in my head were strengthened by the microscopic machines dedicated to augmenting my bodily systems. My muscles were becoming stronger, and metallic implants formed under my skin, producing limitless supplies of hormones and other drugs.
After a few minutes, the device had expended its nanite supply and had finished the augmentations. If humanity had developed anything that would change history, this was it.. But something was wrong; I could feel another consciousness in my head.
Who is in my mind I thought, attempting communication.
I am an artificial intelligence known as Prometheus. You have developed a way to telekinetically communicate with me?
Correction. You are in my mind. We somehow are one. And we shall strike at the hearts of our enemies with our combined power.
Prometheus processed this.
A third would be better. There is an acceptable mind nearby; it may be possible to integrate her into the equation.
Jennifer is not the best candidate.
I am detecting a nearby resonant psionic signal
Process the identity.
It is a recently deceased Rheinland fighter pilot, designated Military Red Five, or Helena Kristofen. She would make an acceptable candidate.
Very well, integrate her mind into the equation.
A sudden burst of energy entered my, well, our mind. Helena's consciousness was weak, but still intact.
Where am I?
Citadel Station. Your body has died, but your mind was salvaged and brought into the matricies in this body.
Welcome to our collective thought. Okay, enough chit-chat lets kick some Dom'Kavash butt.
I was unaware the Dom'kavash had such organs
Don't split hairs, Prometheus.
Sorry to interrupt, but why am I here?
Let me explain. If there were only two minds, we would struggle for dominance, but with three, the equation is balanced. We work in unity
I, well, we stepped out of the Daedalus chamber to a stunned Jennifer. Obviously, my features changed, my body was different, larger, and supposedly my eyes glowed a deep blue.
This was irrelevant though, and it was time to kick ass.


-:-
Drink Ninja.

30:
The mist swirled around him, light and dark simultaneously.
Arania trembled as a large figure appeared before him.
"Who are you?" he yelled, his voice echoing.
I am the ancients, I am the Dom'Kavash. I am the firstborn
The Ancient's message fluttered into his head much in the manners of Araminta's telepathy. The Dæmon herself sat on Arania’s shoulder, trying desperately to put out enough light to see this 'Ancient'
"What do you want with me?"
The Dom'Kavash have grown arrogant, proud, we were not like this, not before technology corrupted our minds. We were a peaceful race; we found our way through life using the Instinctive Psionics that resided in all of us
"ANSWER MY QUESTION!"
We are reaching the End of our spiritual lifetime; we cannot sit idly by and watch our spawn tear apart the very fabric of space-time. Only through you can we achieve this
"How?"
we are going to merge with you, granting you spiritual immortality, your relative, Viator, sacrificed himself to combat the Dom'Kavash, he to is now immortal
"Go on..."
we are going to give you the cosmic powers of the Dom'Kavash, allowing you to exert 'discipline' onto our, and soon, your offspring
"Will I still have my.."
Consciousness, yes, we will take a back place in your mind, much like Proteus does now, and emerging only with your permission. The Powers of the Human, Nomad and Dom'Kavash Powers combined, along with your relative Viator's work, will be more than enough to defeat the Dom'Kavash and finally ensue peace
"Why me?"
You are the only pure person left in Sirius, you and Viator are the only people left that would forsake their own desires, their own lives, to save others
Arania felt that the Ancient had hit their personalities dead on.
That is also why your dæmon is a Phoenix, because nobody before you was like you, you are the first.
"I suppose Viator's is too, if he could see it?"
No, viator's dæmon is not a phoenix, possibly a drake or a dragon. But his dæmon's form is irrelevant now, when this conflict is over, you can show him his if you wish. The immediate matter at hand is whether or not you will allow the merge
"Its not like I have much of a choice"
You do have a choice, we all are our own choices
"In that case, go ahead"
The ancient placed it's hand on Arania's head, and began to fade.
Arania screamed as the combined forces of the Firstborn flooded into him and his dæmon.
He felt himself grow stronger, not physically, mentally.
Arania awoke in a sweat.
A figure floated in his consciousness:
"Fight them" it whispered.
Arania got out of bed and collected Araminta from her perch.
He stripped all remnants of technology from him, weapons, neural interfacing, everything.
Walking don the corridor in a loose-fitting ceremonial robe, he heard a loud alarm sound:
"Dom'Kavash ships entering Tau-37, they are attempting to detonate the sun"
calm as anything, he walked into the Docking bay, and waved his hand in a swiping motion at the nearest Dom'Kavash ship.
It disintegrated, as though Arania's hand had slapped it out of the way.
Hopping into a nearby 'Basilisk' class Coalition fighter, he flew straight towards the Dom'Kavash capital ship, the one aiming the ugly-looking gun at the two suns of Tau-37.
"Power is not in the body or technology" Arania said
"It is in the mind and the Cosmos" Araminta finished.
Before anybody could react, he slammed the ship straight into the Dom'Kavash sun-cannon.
The ship exploded in a brilliant display of red and black.
The Dom'Kavash ship followed cue, exploding violently just before it had the chance to fire.
The rest of the Dom'Kavash group fell quickly, although this was a small victory, this was a relative pinprick next to the actual size of the Dom'Kavash fleet, everybody there knew that.

31:
Arania materialised outside the Daedalus chamber, a shimmering Araminta on his shoulder.
Needless to say that Viator and Jennifer were surprised to see him after he had just killed himself on the Dom'Kavash ship.
"Ok, before you say anything, I’m a spectral being now, so this is just a projection, second, I know where the Dom'Kavash home world is, along with the rest of the Dom'Kavash fleet?"
"How do you know this?" Jennifer asked
Araminta was the one to answer this time.
"The Firstborn of the Dom'Kavash chose to give us their powers in order to end their shame of their offspring"
"Just a question, Where is Viator?" were the words that emerged from Arania's mouth.

I had returned to my chambers to fully assimilate the extra power I had. To consolidate, to appreciate the extent of the powers in which I could exact my revenge. When I spoke, three voices emitted at once, and there was an infinite chorus within my mind, within our minds. Our purpose was clear. There was only one path. My soul prayed that its purity would not be overwhelmed by electronic sentience or another's mind.
I emerged from my chambers to see either a holographic Arania, or a spectral being. Its answer to Jennifer answered my dilemma. He turned toward me and his eyes widened. I knew I was a mass of flesh and machine, and that my mind was one of three in my head.
"What have you done to yourself, Viator?"
"We have improved ourselves. But this is not the time for small talk. We must leave for the Dom'Kavash home world. Time is of the essence."

The surviving Dom’kavash flocked around the wreckage of their fleet, howling in agony. Kossus roared in anger and pain. Although there was no sound emitted in space, for anyone telepathic it was deafening. He and the others flew freely through the vacuum and started tearing apart "Citadel" station. Kossus sent the others to attack the puny human fleet while he charged all his energy into tearing the base's structural reality away from the fabric of time and space, basically vaporising it. Meanwhile the Dom’kavash fleets were involved with a furious battle between themselves and the Coalition neo-communist like guys. As Kossus slowly evaporated the base he mind-looked into the battlefield, He saw one of the dom'kavash battleships explode after direct hits from the Coalition Battleship Politviousky and the Cruiser Yevgeny.
Kossus howled again as the nomad traitors tried to enter into his thought patterns. He sent them spiralling out with a powerful mind-blow, even though he could not hold them off forever. Then he had an idea. Leaving the critically damaged Citadel station for a second he summoned one of the nomad underlings who he had been keeping. "OSIRIS!" he screamed. Osiris, brother of Prometheus slowly appeared in the Tau-37 system, first by DNA structure, then the fibre-network skin of the nomads covered him and he was in his true physical form. Nomads were considered second-class in dom'kavash society and were often made to do unscrupulous things by their masters. Osiris tried to answer but Kossus silenced him with one finger. Then he pointed to a nearby Large Train, stuffed full of MOX. He shattered the windscreen, sending the crew to their deaths and then mind-commanded Osiris to board one of the dead crew bodies. Osiris did, under extreme mind control bidding from his master he floated the dead man back and started to fly the ship towards the sun.
Then Kossus, happy with the arrangements turned back to the destabilising Citadel station and gave it one last burst of energy, cracking the station into three bits. He checked on the Coalition battle. The dom'kavash were slowly winning this battle. Good, he thought. Then he turned to attack the group of human ships.

Waalbeck steadied himself as the Cruiser he was in made a successful jump to the Omicron Alpha. He checked the latest updates and the Coalition were fighting with the incredibly ancient race, the dom'kavash. The dom'kavash it seemed were an alien race whose large empire had the Sirius as its far western border. He remembered them from the original nomad incident with that freelancer. A doctor Quintaine had said then that the dom'kavash had been incredibly advanced, more advanced than we are now in 801A.S. when humanity had first started to crawl out of the oceans. But they had left the Sirius in a mass exodus 10 million years ago. After their nomad slaves got beaten by a flimsy race such as ours they had come back to take what they thought was theirs....with a vengeance. Waalbeck didn't mind. Nothing surprised him anymore...nothing

-:-

"Warning, station hull integrity critical, depressurisation imminent"
Arania glanced at the tipping station.
With one thought, he materialised next to Kossus.
The Dom'Kavash trembled with rage, and sent a massive psychic attack spiralling at him.
Kossus screamed, for as the attack hit Arania, he felt the pain of his own doing, tenfold over.
Screaming and writhing, Arania stepped over him.
"Burn in hell" Arania's voice teemed with rage, a pain burning for Millennia.
"My death will mean NOTHING, ANCIENT! I AM AN UNDERLING! THERE ARE MORE THAT ARE FAR MORE POWERFUL THAN ME!"
"I know" Arania and Araminta replied in unison, their voices resonating with base and treble tones.
With that, the Dom'Kavash disintegrated, its bodily parts flying everywhere.
Switching back to Viators position, he noticed the air slowly seeping out of the critically damaged station.
"Get a ship and get out of here" Arania said "Sirius is no longer safe. Take my ship, use the Jump Drive and head to Sol; I will meet you at Sydney station above Venus. Sol is closer to the Dom'Kavash home world than Sirius, and will make an excellent staging point"
With that, Arania disappeared.


-:-
Drink Ninja.