Neria, A post-apocalyptic metropolis.

[Zuldo]

It had been a week since he landed his personal spacecraft into an abandoned, overgrown parking lot amidst the looming shells of eroded towers. While the ill-fated Eretaian's mission briefing suggested the city of Neria to be abandoned, his only means of escape from this broken world was hijacked by a Zerian reconnaissance squad who now had to be avoided, though Zuldo was otherwise left to wander the destroyed cityscape.
Zuldo was quite used to being alone, and as always, his multi-functional phone with a busted transmitter looped Krynian music of electronic beats and synthesized lyrics as he slowly trekked over one of many broken and grown-over bridges that transcended high over a wide river that divided the city in two districts. It wasn't until now that the lack of contact with intelligent life took a heavy price on the Eretaian's sanity. He had spent days looting the scarcely cluttered shops and homes along the dusty streets of District Western, rarely finding anything of substance beyond the occasional canned goods and stale water. To top off the situation, his very being screamed for a magical substance Eretaians know as "hyrah." The multicolored, viscous, and luminous fluid, native to the home planet Ereta, was vital to the alien's body and spirit, and without it the Eretaian's brain is incapable of sustaining anything but the most depressive state of being only days after the last administration. It was not uncommon to see death follow the weaker in spirit, and Zuldo's spirit was far from where it had been a week from this day. Only one canteen of the precious substance had to be rationed, and it was absolutely torturous to literally see the end of good days fast approaching. He had approximately three days left, and then the following five days of anguish, before an untimely and depressing death in a completely foreign environment.
Any sight of intelligent life would be a godsend, he thought to himself, slowly making the decline from the bridge into the shadowed and littered streets below. It was the only hope of ever seeing home again. He allowed himself to fall entranced by the electronic tones of the Krynian music to ignore his sore feet and legs, watching rusted and abandoned vehicles and broken window panes pass by one by one as the orange sun began to descend toward the horizon.

[VincentW]

Time was irrelevant, especially in Neria. The burnt out shell of what was once civilization was now the city-wide shelter for this shadowed tainted-darrian. His dark, bullet riddled power armor whirring on its last nodes of power from it's power cells. In front of him in his decrepit hovel was a small fire burning from papers and what decayed lumber he could find in the abandoned city sprawl. Several gps, and omnibearing tracking devices were laid out around the fire, their small LCD crystal displays lit up with numbers and landmarks. It didn't matter though, because there was no one to locate. No military bases to venture to, and no other Klamathians here in exile like him.

It had been dozens of years since the destruction of Klamath Bulk, and the annex of Klamath planet back into the Zerian empire. Cybernetic implants, engineered to hone even the sharpest skills of a soldier, were decreed outlawed and extensively set in illegal customs laws within the Zerian Empire. Because of this all Klamathian Specialized Infantry, as well as the infamous Wardric brothers had been banished from the lands, and all their implanted soldiers with them.. This man's dull green, low-grade enhanced eyes whined with their turbines ominously, leaving a green hue of neon lights to emit from the cowl of his cloak . A large caliber assault rifle slung over the soldiers shoulder as he continued to stay huddled near his open fire. Outside of his compound, an intersection gutted out of its concrete laid as a makeshift bunker complex with its myriad of cars piled up on each other like a castle wall almost. From here, he could see all quarters of the intersection, and anything that crept up on the area. This certain intersection just happened to be a bottleneck that the exiled soldier personally sought out himself after his shuttle fall a few kilometers away... About a few 61 kilometers away to be exact. This aged super soldier, not a man, but a bio engineered human honed to perfection with cybernetic implants, and stimulants that perfected their immune system tenfold over time.

This exiled soldier was aged a millennia now.. Young for something that is suppose to last twenty to thirty five milliennia, depending on their annual replacement of updated implants. Something Mattias was in dire need of.


He continued his watched on the intersection with his spotter implants installed within the "pupils" of his cybernetic eyeballs. His A-4AR rifle shouldered, and at the ready before he trekked towards the very edge of the building where he would deploy the bi-pod of his rifle, and watch in depth at the intersection, and Emperor willing, a life form that didn't want to kill him.




Name : Nathaniel Mattias
Race: Tainted Darrin
Age: 26
Organization:Exiled Klamathian Infantryman
Weapons: Outdated Zerian Assault Rifle.

[Zuldo]

Zuldo continued his walk through the second half of the city. All that could be heard was the wind blowing some papers and Zuldo's slow and steady footsteps.



The Eretian turned a corner and trekked another block to another intersection, the vehicles of which were removed from the street and reassembled into a fortress. Now Zuldo had come within the exiled soldier's sights, a perfect target for conversation or assassination.

[VincentW]

The A-4AR's bi-pod was em placed on the ruined window place, and fired an ugly roar of high powered bullets into the ground of the traveler. Dirt and rocks, and glass alike were thrown a muck in the pelting towards the intruder's feet and shins. The first and second volley's to the feet were warning shots to the Klamathian's decree, though this man didn't know that.

"Disarm, and identify yourself!"

His voice was loud, thunderous and firm throughout the entire intersection. The usual dull whine behind his ocular implants pitched into a high pitch buzz as the dull green neon low light eyes zoomed in, and out until his enhanced vision was focused in his target, this... Eretian it seemed.. Ah, see Mattias had dealt with his kind before on Klamath before in the breech wall of Klamath Bulk nearly a millennium ago.

He still kept the old, dependable rifle held firm, and a eye in the cross hairs as he watched, and waited for an answer..

[Zuldo]

Zuldo dropped the plasma pistol he had on his person and raised both hands in the air, the universal gesture of 'I'm unarmed, don't kill!'
"I mean no harm," the synthesized common words translated from his alien tongue amplified to reach the attacker's ears. He hoped another barrage of bullets wouldn't come at him. He began looking frantically for the attacker, though stopped dead in his tracks.

[VincentW]

The rifle was still fixed on the alien's chest when he spoke out in innocence. No one was innocent, especially xenos.. His small pointy ears, and cold blue eyes quirked and never blinked in alertness mode. Pale skin that covered his stocky body, with its raddled power armor on top of it revealed itself out in the open by sticking a shoulder, and a head out, "Get inside, I'll meet you on the first floor, hussle up!" His dark colored power armor ordained with various ribbons which had the trooper a Klamath Bulk defender during the siege from Krynians. That was ages ago though.

The exiled infantryman wiggled his bulky shoulder out of the window frame, and darted to the open flame stomping it out beneath the tread of his power boot. He picked up his locating devices, and pocketed them within the cargo holds of his power armor, and made way for the first floor. The flights of stairs were no problem for him, which he stepped out with ease. Finally, he was at the first floor with his rifle at the low ready, ready to meet the trespasser.

[Zuldo]

Once the man disappeared back into the compound, Zuldo retrieved his Eretian pistol. He then dashed quickly toward the compound's nearest visible entrance. The Eretian's two hearts pounded, as he felt enormously relieved at the glinting hope of non-hostile and intelligent life.
In person, Zuldo was quite tall, about seven feet or so, his imposing figure clothed in thin and tattered robes, in many places revealing the silver glint of zortink armor that had been sculpted to encase his alien musculature. While the pistol clung to his right hip, Zuldo's elongated and wizened yellow hands were empty and he meant no harm. From this proximity the exiled soldier could hear the faint electronic tunes from the Eretian's busted phone, but when then alien spoke it was a deep, guttural voice that was almost humanoid.
"You..." Emerald green eyes faded to black, as the alien seemed to have voluntarily dilated it's pupils as he looked the man in his own eyes.
"You..are the first one I've seen, in ages.."

[VincentW]

Trooper Mattias looked down at himself in mock respect to the Eretian's comment, and replied in a harsh, crisp tone. "Yeah, It's been ages since I'm seen one of me, too."
He would turn on the heel of his boot, and gesture with a tug of his rifle barrel to bring the xeno following him up the stairs to the second floor.
"I have a living quarters upstairs with some locating devices. Maybe you can pinpoint our location in this city, and get us out of this death world."
This had been the first visitor since.. Well, this had been the first visitor period! So, of course the exiled soldier wasn't going to shoot his only company, god forbid it be a Zerian strikeforce..
The trooper recollected himself, and slung his rifle across his chest as he went on collecting firewood from the floor to build his newly arrived trespasser-turned guest a fire for which to rest around. The turbines in his power armor, and implanted eyes whined ominously as he turned over from picking up a bundle of wooden stakes.

"How did you get here, xeno?"

[Zuldo]

"I was on a mission to recover a unique device that is believed to be lost somewhere in the Mianis wasteland," Zuldo began to explain with purpose. His pupils slowly shrank to pinpoints, the alien eyes slowly shifting to emerald green.
"...There was a malfunction in the ECS system that caused some crucial components to overheat when I was descending the atmosphere. I had to land here temporarily, before continuing my journey to Mianis. According to my sources this entire city is abandoned. I did not anticipate the Zerian reconnaissance squad that arrived to the scene. I was outnumbered and outgunned... I had to flee and hide before they discovered me.. But it seems my ship was what they were really after in the end."
Zuldo dropped his head a bit, hating to relive the memory, then changed the subject.
"But you said you had some tracking devices? I know the credentials to the Alliance GPS and SWAS systems. perhaps if I tune the equipment to the correct frequency I can find something."
Finally, things were starting to look up.

[VincentW]

"Yes, the tracking devices are here." A cargo space would emit from one of the legs of his power armor, revealing the location devices, and finally setting them by the newly erected indoor camp fire.

"Mianis? Why would anyone put something in the middle of a crater?"

Several years before Mianis was the epicenter of a major battle, one that Trooper Mattias himself was present for. He still remembers pulling out of the city on foot, and watching the whole civilization burn to the ground in one ginormous explosion.
The atomics used to level Mianis would be used several times later in the Klamathian campaign for independence against the Zerian and Krynian Empires. One of the myriad of reasons Klamath was no longer a major power anymore.

Trooper Mattias didn't venture too far from the fire when dusk set for the skeletal city of Neria. At night the wildlife could take liberty to your personal belongings if you didn't keep a watchful eye, and an acute sense of hearing. Though they were on the second floor, Trooper Mattias spared no chances, and barricaded the stairwell up to the makeshift living quarters. Wooden planks, and work desk alike were piled on top of each other, keeping any would-be scavengers out for the night..

[Zuldo]

"It is believed by my superior that a soldier of the Alliance witnessed the Zerian lord Zaiven drop something while taking cover from an ambush. It was a key to an underground bunker beneath Mianis, where a prototype fighter containing some top-secret Alteran war technology hopefully remains preserved. Alliance scientists wish to reverse-engineer some of these systems."
Zuldo moved over to the tracking devices. Both seemed functional, but out of tune. Having memorized the credentials to the Alliance SWAS system, Zuldo was able to see where they were in relation to other identified units throughout the sector, primarily Altera. Once he got the GPS receiver tuned in to the satellites, the information was complete, and Zuldo had a map of the cities, terrain and all combat units.

"So... it looks like the nearest functional unit is a Darian excavation unit about a day's walk from here."

[VincentW]

The building the two were inhabiting was a improvised safe house. When Trooper Mattias first occupied the building, he had suspected life had sustained itself in this area, why else would those cars out there be stacked in defensive fortifications? During his intial occupation he had sectioned off the building with explosives to confine the entrances and exits to a bottleneck at the front door. Even with improvised adaptation in play, he still suspected something else was living here, even stalking him in the night, and watching him during his naps. Though, he could never prove it with hard evidence.

All these defensive modifications the exiled soldier took upon himself to put up, would be for nothing if he agreed to adventure along with The Eretian.

This xeno wasn't to be fully trusted, but against his better judgement, and aged Klamathian conditioning, he finally accepted the invitation.

"We'll sleep here for the night xeno, then we'll move at first light tomorrow."

[VincentW]

In the MILLENNIA that passed, Klamathian specialized infantry, the bastion of Military supremacy in the galaxy! Perfected super soldiers generically breed, and biochemically engineered to withstand the harshest of environments. Clad in the best of armors, and armed to the teeth in state of the art, galactic weaponry, these star warriors enforced, and policed the will of their field marshal's on the battlefield.

Time had eroded the glory of the Klamathian infantrymen though, and the hallowed shell of the Klamathian War Machine was broken down, and discarded into the slums of civilization after the decimation, and utter destruction of the Klamathian state. The bloody intergalactic war had driven both Zerian, and Alliance forces to starve the Klamathian empire dry, leaving the remnants to survive in exile on neutral planets. These living tombs of history, these infamous soldiers of fortune now sacrificed themselves in the mission to bring more to their cause, to praise the God Machine, and embrace the set instincts of cyberpsychosis.

Trooper MAttias was one of those Specialized infantryman. He had lived in solitude for dozens of years on this planet, and now this...Xeno had emerged from the lifeless carcass of the city. It wasn't his usual appraised recruitment quota, but it was company none the less.

The morning suns pressed against the landscape like an intruding flood of warmth and infinite illumination. The temperature on planet was at the mid-seventies, just cool enough to keep the two at bay while hiking for the suggested craft on the holo-laps the night before.

Mattias armored boots crushed into the damp soil underneath him, leaving and resonating thud with each descent. His angular, and gaunt face moving only fractions to the left and right as his low-light ocular implants hummed in registry. The two figures hadn't said a word since they both woke at sun up, Mattias simply chose to remain silent because he thought it unwise to consult with the Xeno unless necessary. His devotion to the machine god, and it's many rites, and decrees forbids him to seek counsel with the xeno. Those that wern't of natural organic form were thought to be mutations, and uncompilable for becoming vassals of the Machine God.

His fingers tightened around the cold grip of his automatic rifle as he hefted the large cannon upwards towards to unforgiving morning sky.
Rites, and the indomitable Machine God had left this planet long ago it seemed...