TGOD - Ra Goes On A Killing Spree

[Destructionator XV]

"That will be all, dismissed," Adam says and leaves the conference room with the Lady.

[Narsil]

"He didn't even take a jellybaby," the Fourth Doctor said, his tone a mock-insulted one.

"I'll have one," the Eleventh Doctor said, quickly nabbing one from the paper bag.

"You're welcome," the Fourth Doctor said dryly before stepping back into his own TARDIS. He leaned back out of the door, "Bye." The doors of his TARDIS slammed shut and it vanished soon with the wheezing and whining of the engines.

"Well, that's my signal to be off," the Eleventh Doctor made his way down the corridor to where his own TARDIS was kept and then sent it spinning off into the endless depths of the Time Vortex.

[Destructionator XV]

The A'millian rulers walk off in the direction of the Magic Academy Library, and meet up with Professor Mathias.

"What have you learned from that book," Adam asks.

"Well, it is mostly just superstitious gibberish; what we would expect from a mainstream holy book, but there were a few commandments and passages in there that I did find interesting."

"Go on."

"Take a look at this," he passes the book over, and a passage has been highlighted:

"So..." Adam says as he reads the passage, then passes it to the Lady for her to read too, "there is a commandment to spread the word. Commonplace for any religion that is to grow on a global scale."

"And now this," Mathias turns the book to another bookmark.

"Common, again," Adam comments, "religions that make people feel empowered thrive."

Mathias turns to another bookmark.

"We don't have all day, Mathias, how about you give me the abridged version?"

"This god uses his worshippers to enhance his power."

"Why didn't you just say so? Now, how does he do it?"

"Well, unlike you and I who draw our power directly from the plane through our own abilities and bodies, he draws it indirectly. It is similar to BitTorrent; many little users give small amounts of bandwidth, so one downloader, in this case, the entity, can get a faster connection. When there are hundreds or thousands of little users pooling their magical 'bandwidth' towards one cause, the combined effect causes one powerful controller, unbound by the normal limits of the power."

"Maybe the others were right about blocking it; just find the ports and firewall them."

"Easier said than done. I know no way to firewall off magical packets. Even counterspells just scramble it..."

"That's an idea," the Lady adds, "how about we just fill it with spam? The signal to noise ratio can drop so low casting spells with it will become impossible."

"The problem with that is to effectivly fuck over the S/N ratio we would require comprable power to what he has going in. We don't have that kind of magical power," Mathias counters.

"Point," she concedes.

"Hrmm," Adam ponders, "can we follow the magical packets to the leech?"

"Well... yeah.... when he goes to cast a spell, he would have to gather the bandwidth... then it would be no different than sensing any other powerful mage."

"Then I think we have a working plan. Get him to cast a decently sized spell, home in on him when he gathers power, and send a mark XI in, game over."

"The only problem is if he still has his power, he can simply nullify any bombs we fly at him."

"We'll take care of that," Adam says, "inform the others of these findings."

"Right, I'll get on subspace to the Aurora right away."

[Ra]

OOC: Adam, I love how you put that down into computer terminology. Brilliant.
================

Recieving the new data, Lady Galadriel nodded silently.

"Then our first conclusion was correct," she finally sighed. "This has been of great help to us."

"All we need to do is wait for him to use his powers," Verishah pondered to herself.

"I already know what you're suggesting," Ra murmured. "We set a trap for him. How do you set a trap for a being of his power?"

"That, we will have to figure out," Galadriel said. "Perhaps... our companions on Earth have found something, such as an ancient relic that can lure the entity to use his powers."

"Maybe," Ra said, crossing his arms. "Though it wouldn't hurt to look, I guess."

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Death Star Three, orbiting Mars....

Admiral Ronald McKenzie was furious. He had seen the non-holo broadcast from Earth about the incident in Sudan; apparently the Brotherhood of NOD had taped the grotesque mutilation of the two Dark Troopers that tried to rescue the downed LAAT pilot, and now they broadcasted it everywhere. The self-styled NOD leader Kane also mentioned about 'Imperial infidels trying to exploit Earth's third-world nations for resources'. It was bad enough that this 'new Earth' did not aware about the Empire's existence, and it only got worse that now everyone on Earth hated the Empire.

However, there was not much he could do. Technically, Irene was still acting within her privileged authority as Military Counselor, but that was not the same Earth anymore; it was a new Earth whose people were not the same anymore. It was a different Earth that -due to some cosmic disturbance that even the Imperial Government still tried to comprehend- did not acknowledge the Imperial Authority anymore.

There was indeed a direct order to stay away from Earth, but the order was for him as the Death Star's commander, not Irene. However, she started acting like the late Darth Kreshna himself; using Imperial military for her own errands. McKenzie never liked that.

And as the Admiral read the most recent message from Coruscant, he understood that the government was in rather difficult position; Irene had put the Empire in unpleasant situation, but she -being the wife of Darth Kreshna- was a popular figure, especially since she was also a war hero of the recent Guardian War. Other Military Counsleor would have been court-martialled for such shenanigans, but Irene merely demoted from her diplomatic position. She was nothing more than a military civilian now.

Strangely enough, when Ronald relayed the message to her, she did not appear to be disappointed or such. She just accepted the demotion without further ado; just like that, as if it was nothing mattered to her anymore.

However, Ronald had no time to ponder the thing over, as he had received the invitation to Darth Kreshna's funeral at Coruscant. A symbolic funeral -since there was no corpse at all. He knew that Irene already departed to Coruscant, as well as some people that were really close to the late Sith Lord.

The Admiral frowned; according to the procedure, it should took at least three months for a missing person to be declared dead, but Coruscant seemed to eager to make Darth Kreshna's death official. Was there another political conspiracy he was not aware about?

Nevetheless, he had relayed the funeral's invitation to Goa'uld System Lord Ra and Lady Galadriel, Lord and Lady Adam of A'millan, and Lord Detritus of the Trolls.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Meanwhile, aboard a civilian shuttle to Coruscant....

Irene was boarding a shuttle to Coruscant. It was just few weeks, but the memory of Darth Kreshna always put her in grief. But at the moment, she also felt odd. She was Darth Kreshna's wife; she was not supposed to be invited to her husband's funeral. If anything, it was her who should invite anyone. She remembered two days before the assault on Sudan, some legal officer from Coruscant insisted her to sign the death warrant of her husband. Not that she was not sure Kreshna was dead; she beleived Galadriel for all that account, but standard Imperial procedure dictated that it should took at least three months before a missing person should be declared death.

It seemed that Coruscant was very eager to make Darth Kreshna's death official.

Was it politics?

Nevertheless, she still missed Kreshna's so much. She wished Galadriel was with her now....

The Crystals, nonetheless, were safe in her posession.

[Destructionator XV]

In the field outside the A'millian capitol, the Lord and Lady watch as an automation system, a Mark XI bomb and a full compliment of photon torpedoes is loaded onto a newly constructed Falcon-class destroyer.

"The Aerith Gainsborough," the Lady remarks on the new ship's name.

"An honour to a fallen friend," Adam said, "I hope this ship lives up to her strength in the coming battle."

They pause for a beat to pay respect, then Adam adds "time is running short. If we don't win in the next few days..."

"We will," she reassures him, "the ship will be ready by tomorrow, then we wait on Galadriel."

"We've heard nothing from them... I fear the only ones we can trust to do this is ourselves."

"She'll get that shield down, we just have to give her more time." the Lady references with a smile.

"I hope so.... well, no point thinking about it; there is nothing we can do until tomorrow anyways. Let's go home."

[Destructionator XV]

When they return Lord Adam's room, they sit together, the orange light coming in the window from the setting sun quickly dimming. She picks up a report off his desk and said "... we received an invitation to Kreshna's funereal."

"I'm afraid we'll have to send a representive; we have far too much to do to go ourselves," Adam sadly responds.

"Yeah, I'll forward the message to the ambassador with our regrets."

"Not ideal, but will have to do. The world is set to end in mere days..."

Looking through the rest of the report, she says "looks like no word from anyone else."

There was no response. Adam has fallen asleep on her shoulder. She shakes her head, then puts her arm around him and closes her eyes as well.

***

The bright morning sun shines through the large window in his office, shining right in the A'millian's eyes. Moments later, the Lady's soft voice sounds in his ear.

"We should probably get to work."

"Just a little longer...." he whispers, still cuddled close to her.

She smiles and continues to hold him for a few minutes, when the comm panel starts beeping.

"We should answer that..." she says.

"Forget it," he pleads.

Another minute later, the beeping stops, to be replaced by frantic knocking on the door.

"Ugh" he complains and finally gets up to open the door.

"Sir, is anything wrong? It's 1045 hours, we've been trying to contact you for the last half hour."

"What is it?"

"An hour? It is a unit of measuring time, but that's not important right now."

"I know that! I mean what do you bloody want!"

"The Ninth Fleet have returned as ordered from KCX-236, sir. They report they last saw more activity on the planet, it seems to be approaching a holy day there and people are preparing for worship."

"Any word from Galadriel?"

"No sir."

"Thank you, lieutenant. That will be all."

The young officer leaves the room, closing the door behind him.


"You recalled the Admiral Carter's ships?" the Lady asks, perplexed.

"They can't do much else there, so I felt it better to get them out of harm's way."

"I see."

"You hungry?" he changes the subject.

"Yeah, let's eat." she agrees.

They eat some tasty oatmeal in the room, and when finished Adam finally suggests doing some work for a change.

"We had better go inspect the Aerith Gainsborough. I want to make sure that little ship is ready for hell before we send her there."

"Good plan," the Lady answers, and they start walking out of the building, towards to the ship, still landed in the field only about a mile away from the capitol.

When they get there, Adam immedatily heads to her weapon's room. He runs his hand down a photon torpedo and remarks "isn't it astonishing the power of such a small package? Just one of these can obliterate even a large city with ease."

"Unless, of course, it has theatre shielding," the Lady adds, "but, yeah, that is one hell of a blast."

Adam then goes to the remote controlled Mark XI bomb loaded into a special launch chamber.

"And this beast," he comments, "three words: extinction event, guaranteed... or your money back!" he jokes.

"Almost frightening we even have that kind of power," she says.

"Better we have it than some madman," Adam says, "just look at it the way I do: peace, through superior firepower."

"So true. It is only the threat of total annihalation that keeps all of us alive. Still, how sad."

"Aye, well, all this checks out. Let's check the engine room. She'll need that just as importantly."

In engineering, he quickly glances over the warp core and hyperspace motivator, but focuses most his attention on the automation system.

"Quite a bit of automation here." the Lady notes.

"Yeah, wanted it just in case the shit hits the fan. Don't want a crew going crazy on their mission upon seeing a elder god and being unsuccessful."

"Yup."

"Well, this all checks out too. She looks ready to go. Let's head back then."

They leave the ship, and on the way out, Adam discreetly passes a paper to the Marine officer commanding the guards, who silently accepts it with a slight nod.

[Narsil]

The vast desert stretched out in every direction. Two people stood a slight distance from one-another, both in front of their respective vehicles. Two old rivals glaring at each other.

One of them spoke. "Well, Doctor, are we going to stand here glaring at each other all day?"

"Not really," the other of them replied, "... so why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Join Nyarlathotep."

"Oh, that."

"Yes, that."

"None of your business, my dear Doctor."

"And to think I had you pegged down as someone much different from this - I'd have never taken you, the Master, to be a lackey to some foolish power-hungry monster."

The Master growled inwardly. "Well, Doctor," he glared, "you killed me, Nyarlathotep offered me life!"

"At the expense of freedom?"

"So what if it is? I was desperate for another chance."

"So you played nice good little lemming and walked off a cliff."

The Master glared. The Doctor glared back. This battle of wits would take a while, a while that they didn't have.

[Destructionator XV]

Later that evening, they were sitting back in Adam's office, reading over reports.

"Is there anything wrong, old friend? You've seemed distant today." the Lady asks him.

"No, nothing is wrong, just a little tired, that's all," he lied.

"You sure?"

"Yes... in fact, I think I had better turn in. Tomorrow is surely going to be a long day."

".....good night, then."

"Night."

The Lady goes to her own room, which is adjacent to his, connected with a side door. She can hear a beautiful song playing softly through the door.

Troubled, she decides she had better get some sleep too and goes to bed.

But only about 6 hours into her slumber, she awakens and sits up. She cocks her head, raises an eyebrow, then lies back down. Just seconds later, she sits up again, shakes her head, and starts to lie down, but then gets up on her feet.

She walks halfway to the main door, then turns around, goes to the door leading to Adam's room, places her hand on the handle, then suddenly goes back to the main door, puts on her jacket and sword, and exits.

She leaves the castle, and walks toward the serene beach Adam likes to frequent when he has something on his mind. She stands there, looking into the starry sky above the water.

"This god uses his worshippers to enhance his power."

She looks behind her at the ASV Aerith Gainsborough, a starship on the ground in the middle of an empty field.

"Just one of these can obliterate even a large city with ease"

She looks at the castle, towards the residence tower.

"They can't do much else there, so I felt it better to get them out of harm's way."

Then she looks back up at the sky, particually at one far away star high, to her left: the binary system of Tasis.

"6.5 billion people ... lost in exchange for 1.2 trillion A'millians"

She pulls a small gold seal off her collar.... the insignia of an A'millian Knight, First Class, a rank acheived by very few, and holds the small seal in her palm.

"To protect innocents regardless of personal cost."

She closes her eyes, and sees her old friend.

"Just a little longer...."

She opens her eyes again, looking back down at the golden insignia. She closes her hand, holding the seal tightly, and then turns and walks towards the landed destroyer, her path only illuminated in the pale moonlight.

[Narsil]

"So you would wish to fight me, Doctor?"

"If I must."

"Would you kill me again?"

"At this point, Master," the Doctor said the last word spitefully, "I would think it a form of mercy-killing." He looked at the sand and dust on the ground beneath him angrily. "Or perhaps punishment."

"What will you think to accomplish by facing Nyarlathotep in the first place, there is so much more to gain by joining him."

"Sutekh offered that. I refused. You offered it. I refused again. Even Darth Vader offered it. I again refused. What makes you think the record will change?"

"So, shall we?" The Master began crackling with arcs of electricity, empowered by the immensity that was Nyarlathotep.

The Doctor answered by dropping into a combat stance. "You know I'll lose, I know I'll lose... but that isn't the point."

"What is?"

"That I fight for the rights of every single living being in existance."

"And those rights are?"

"The right to exist."

With that, the Doctor swung the first punch.

[Destructionator XV]

The Lady walks towards the ASV Aerith Gainsborough, noting the active standard security scramblers in the area: transporters and phasers would both be inoperable.

Within an hour she arrives at the ship, noting strangly that there were no guards. The area was abandoned, and the ship's access port locked down.

Now sure of her suspicions, she sits down to wait.

***

In Lord Adam's room, an alarm clock blinks brightly but silently, ensuring that the already stirring A'millian was fully awake.

He presses the button to stop the alarm, and the clock returns to displaying the current time, 5:01 AM.

Ever so silently, he puts on his weapons belt and leaves the room, walking through the security checkpoints and out of the castle without saying a word.

Once outside, he walks through the small, quiet city and starts towards the field.

The rising sun shines, but it's light was blocked from the approaching warrior by the destroyer on the ground.

But as he gets closer, he can make out the Lady standing before him.

"Hey," he pleasently greets her, though his suprise was evident on his face.

"Why are you doing this, old friend?" she cuts right to the point.

"Because it is the only way. We both realized this might be necessary."

"There is still time! Galadriel might still come up with something."

"No, there is not any more time. We have but three days, and need to act now, or all will be lost."

"I appreciate the urgency of the situation, but I also understand just what you are proposing: this is mass murder."

"That's right," he concedes, "but a couple billion humans in exchange for the 1.2 trillion people in our empire, and the countless others this entity would destroy. Sometimes it is simply a numbers game. You know this to be true."

"But there is still time, we cannot, I will not just write those people off!"

"Dammit! Every second we waste bickering is another second closer to armageddon!" he cries, starting to walk swiftly towards her.

"Give Galadriel just another day!" she begs.

"We have heard nothing from her at all! She could already be dead for all we know. We need to act, now, or give up any other chance. The universe isn't worth that risk!"

"If you were so sure of your position, why did you conceal your plan from me?"

"...this is something I must do alone." he states, still moving towards the ship's hatch.

"I cannot allow you to continue down this path." she says firmly, placing her hand on her sword.

"I'm sorry, my friend, but I must insist you step aside! Don't allow personal feelings to stand in the way of the greater good!"

"Please, stop!" She unstraps her sword and prepares to draw.

"You surely aren't going to fight me?!"

"I shall do what I must..."

"My gods, if we wait, the universe is destroyed!"

"We'll find another way!"

"There is no other way, dammit! You think I took this decision lightly!?"

"You are wrong! You lied to conceal this plan because you know it to be wrong!"

"If you are going to stop me, you are going to have to use that sword. I cannot allow even you to stop this."

She draws her sword and launches a fury of perfectly placed attacks designed solely to force him to give ground. Adam instinctivly drew his own sword and parried the blows while taking steps back to avoid counterattacking.

She remains on the offensive, using textbook moves, which he easily blocked with the textbook counters, but was forced to back more and more off.

Adam dives forward for the ship, exposing a potential deathblow. The Lady, as expected, ignored the opportunity to attack, opting instead to back off, letting him once again move closer to the hatch, she staying between him and his deadly destiny.

She stops her attack for a moment to once again try pleading to her beloved friend.

"You realize you cannot win here," she pleads, "I have always been better in battle than you!"

"I won't let you damn die!" he yells, then taking advantage of her momentary confusion, once again bolts for the hatch of the Aerith Gainsborough.

But her superior swordsmanship once again thwarts his attempt, and she continues her careful attack, forcing him farther and farther away from the ship.

He again yells "I won't let you damn die!"

"What the hell do you mean by that!" she cries, still maintaining her concentration on the fight.

"Nyarlathotep is not going to mess up our plans together!"

"No, he's not; we'll stop him together, just let go of this path!"

"This is the only way!" he asserts, and begins an offensive run, carefully placing blows in an attempt to simply turn her to the side.

Their careful struggle continues as the sun continues to climb the sky, its dawn light now shimmering beautifully off the starship's hull.

Adam swings wide, hoping to force her to jump back, but instead her killer instinct kicks in, and she lunges her sword forward.

The elder A'millian's sword falls to the ground as he looks down to see a blade being pulled out of his chest.

The Lady, in the blink of an eye, discards her weapon and grabs the hand of her old friend, using her other arm to hold his failing body aloft, while starting to cast the cure spell on him.

His teary eyes soon met hers and a smile formed his paling face She feels a strong squeeze from his hand which she clentched tightly but it soon went limp.

She fell powerlessly to the ground weeping whilst she held close the slain body of Lord Adam, Knight of the A'millian Star Empire.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

An Interdictor Picket Ship patrolling A'millan border....

"This is boring."

"Yep, I agree with you. Our A'millan counterpart already have all the fun of catching all those smugglers, so we're here doing nothing."

"Anyway, have you watched the Holo-TV last night?"

"Darth Kreshna's funeral? Yup. Anyway, don't you think Lady Irene is pretty?"

"Dream on, Joe."

Suddenly the triangular, 600 meters-long ship was shaken. "What was that?"

While the two duty officers still wondered what's going on, the Captain's voice was heard through their communicators, "This is Captain Darklighter. Red Alert. We're encountering a strange phenomenon. Red Alert."

"I guess this is not your everyday smuggler, huh?" Joe said.

"Joe...."

"What?"

"Uh, Joe....."

Joe eventually turned around to see what happened. Through the windows, he saw what his friend already pointed out. Slowly he was transfixed, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.


Moments later, the Interdictor Picket Ship continued to float through space. Its crew were all dead.

[Ra]

Sheram'khal

Two finely-dressed Sanet flew up a massive set of stairs, obviously late for a meeting of utmost importance. Walking across a vast throneroom, its walls and floors white, the interior of the structure warm and well-lit, the duo soon came to a large circular area, occupied by a large group of other Sanet, the Aldar'al Council. The two figures then bowed their heads in respect, waiting a moment.

Finally, a regal, timeless voice said, "Finally, you have come. I wish to know where our new allies, and most importantly, Science Institute worker Verishah, have disappeared to. No word has been heard from them, and furthermore, other powers are concerned, from what I have heard."

One of the figures answered, not daring to glance up at the tall woman, "Ghervay, I fear... we have heard nothing of them as well. All efforts to track Verishah's whereabouts have failed."

The Empress then answered, "You are correct, I see. If what this harbinger Verishah met is true, then we are in most dire circumstances without her aid. I ask the Council here to give all resources necessary to find Verishah, and discover what she knows. If... her desin has not departed for the afterlife."

"As you ask, the Council approves, Ghervay Volisar" one of the gathered men said, after seeing nods from most of the Councillors.

"Very well," the Empress stated. "Track down what data you can, and send inquiries to this Galadriel's allies. Time is not on our side."

[Destructionator XV]

Later that day, the slain Lord Adam now rests in a restricted section of the capitol castle. The Lady has ordered his death to be classified under Top Secret on a need to know basis; she feels it would be best not to concern the populace with this fact, especially considering word has gotten out about the possible ending of the world within the end of the week; the loss of a leader is one thing they need not worry about at a time like this.

She dresses Adam in his dress uniform, the elaborate regalia of an Elite Knight, with his fatal wound completely covered up. Even those who know of his demise shall not know how he died, at least not now.

But as she lifts his hand to put on the white glove of the uniform, she pauses for a moment, holding his pale hand, and starts talking to the corpse.

"Your hands never very warm... always something I found funny about A'millians, your low body temperatures making your hands always feel cool to the touch and how you would so often seek out warmph.... I wonder if that is why would so often hold mine?"

She slides the pristine glove over his hand, and crosses his arms over his body, while still talking.

"I never told you how disconcerting I sometimes found your physical coldness to be, strange the contrast between that and how you acted. I guess saying those things would just be kinda weird. Hell, we never said a lot of things to each other. There really was no need though, I always knew what you were thinking, and you always knew what I was thinking. I'm being so irrational here, talking to you like this. But it just.... it just isn't right. All this time.... I never seriously thought ... especially not like this... my gods what have I done..... I know, I know.... we must part now, my life goes on... but my heart won't give you up... god fucking damnit what the hell.... the world is to be destroyed and here I am.... why.... you were sometimes so stubborn. I need to be rational. I'm not making any sense here, this is not logical, no not logical, must get back to work.... back to work,"

She finally seals the pod and starts scurring away, repeating to herself "work to do must get back to work" between sniffles.

[Narsil]

The Master unleashed his lightning towards the Doctor. The deadly arcs of power contacted with the time lord, but didn't last more than a brief split-second before they dissipated. "You're going to have to do better than that, Master."

A slight ethereal glow surrounded the Master's form, and he hovered upwards. The Doctor merely remained stoic and glared at the Master.

"This is how it ends, Doctor."

"Are you sure?" The Doctor's grim expression turned to one of a wry grin.

"What are you smiling at?"

"Oh, just something you've yet to figure out... I'm carrying a killswitch."

"What?!"

"If I die, the TARDIS behind me enters a self-destruct sequence, and takes me, you, and your TARDIS with it."

The Master hovered down to the ground with the apparent stalemate. "You bastard!"

"Why thank you, Master."