Series 1.9 - Turbulence of Shadows
He always knew he was destined for greatness.
What is life but a challenge to be won?
That was the mindset that prevailed in him from a young age and a personal motto he chose to live by. His talents made him a standout from the very beginning and his rise to the position he found himself now, Demolitions Expert on the Commandant’s own Strike Team, was never in doubt. His family, his peers, and the adoring public had been telling him his entire life that he was remarkable in every way imaginable. He was building the Androxa legacy one story at a time: one adventure at a time. Any goal, any dream, he ever had he had accomplished or earned with little resistance. He was a natural as ever was one and he felt like he had it in him to one day replace Melora at the very top. He often imagined that very moment in his mind, an older yet still dashing version of himself accepting the reigns of leadership from her on the steps of the Order Sanctuary. An audience the likes never seen amassed on Lustaroh gazing on in admiration and anticipation for his new role as Commandant of the Controllers. That was his future, his destiny, and nothing could change his mind of that. He was a burning star of immense ambition and undeniable determination in a bleak galaxy of drab ideals and aspirations.
They’ll going to be talking about this for decades, I bet. How Kelvin Androxa almost single handily destroyed the entirety of the invader’s bioscience weapons projects on Kerworn XI. How Kel Androxa helped capture one of their most nefarious experiments; a UDE-1-less light infested abomination in Basic form. How, in the face of a new danger, Kel stepped up and took charge to steamroll through an entire enemy force. Imagine the glory I’ll bring to my name once we get back to the Core!
It wasn’t so much arrogance as it was a lifetime of being placed atop a galactic pedestal; like every other being who showed an affinity to control raw UDE-1. He believed he was one of the most excellent because they believed it. Every civilized planet of every system in the known galaxy looked up to the few who stood in the echelon of the OoA. They were almost mythical entities due in part to their true to life heroics and the tales created from such encounters for eons. Truth often ran side by side with fable; a bit of both etching together a cloak of importance. Kel, like the others, wore the arrogance like a suit of armor.
If we ever make it out of this blasted tunnel and this doomed temple, I’m going to go directly to the nearest NebulaBridge station for interviews. That is, if they don’t find me first. I can’t imagine the first successful operation against the Sunder will go unnoticed for too long. There is a very good chance that word already got out before we ever even came here. I can think of a few different Controllers with the habit of speaking before they think.
They had to be close now. To what, Kel did not fully know, but it was near. It was perhaps an ending to this operation and a chance to escape in one piece or one of many unexpected outcomes. There was never a doubt in his mind that they wouldn’t successfully complete their goal; or at least something close to it. The OoA at long last made the decision to include him as a member of Melora’s personal strike team; they were the elite of an already impressive group of individuals and his presence only made them better. The fact that just a few of his detonation charges were bringing the entire temple down around them was proof of just how talented he was.
This is my defining moment. Life was already placing me along the path that led to this mission, and this darkened tunnel. Whenever we reach the end and escape from the shadows, I’ll hold my head high in victory. The Assemblage will know of me. The galaxy will know of me. My name will spread into even the most backwards, poisoned planets in the Biodrone!
But despite a confidence as bright as a thousand suns, all one’s born days would not lead to a greater glory for Kel or the Strike Team. Fate had brought him along the journey to a place in time that he had often imagined. What he never thought of was an alternative outcome, of tragedy. Chance did not care about lineage. Ability would only get someone so far in the face of a greater challenge. The troubling feeling that had been eating away at the dark corners of Melora’s mind was soon to step into the blinding light of reality.
What is life but a challenge to be won?
That was the mindset that prevailed in him from a young age and a personal motto he chose to live by. His talents made him a standout from the very beginning and his rise to the position he found himself now, Demolitions Expert on the Commandant’s own Strike Team, was never in doubt. His family, his peers, and the adoring public had been telling him his entire life that he was remarkable in every way imaginable. He was building the Androxa legacy one story at a time: one adventure at a time. Any goal, any dream, he ever had he had accomplished or earned with little resistance. He was a natural as ever was one and he felt like he had it in him to one day replace Melora at the very top. He often imagined that very moment in his mind, an older yet still dashing version of himself accepting the reigns of leadership from her on the steps of the Order Sanctuary. An audience the likes never seen amassed on Lustaroh gazing on in admiration and anticipation for his new role as Commandant of the Controllers. That was his future, his destiny, and nothing could change his mind of that. He was a burning star of immense ambition and undeniable determination in a bleak galaxy of drab ideals and aspirations.
They’ll going to be talking about this for decades, I bet. How Kelvin Androxa almost single handily destroyed the entirety of the invader’s bioscience weapons projects on Kerworn XI. How Kel Androxa helped capture one of their most nefarious experiments; a UDE-1-less light infested abomination in Basic form. How, in the face of a new danger, Kel stepped up and took charge to steamroll through an entire enemy force. Imagine the glory I’ll bring to my name once we get back to the Core!
It wasn’t so much arrogance as it was a lifetime of being placed atop a galactic pedestal; like every other being who showed an affinity to control raw UDE-1. He believed he was one of the most excellent because they believed it. Every civilized planet of every system in the known galaxy looked up to the few who stood in the echelon of the OoA. They were almost mythical entities due in part to their true to life heroics and the tales created from such encounters for eons. Truth often ran side by side with fable; a bit of both etching together a cloak of importance. Kel, like the others, wore the arrogance like a suit of armor.
If we ever make it out of this blasted tunnel and this doomed temple, I’m going to go directly to the nearest NebulaBridge station for interviews. That is, if they don’t find me first. I can’t imagine the first successful operation against the Sunder will go unnoticed for too long. There is a very good chance that word already got out before we ever even came here. I can think of a few different Controllers with the habit of speaking before they think.
They had to be close now. To what, Kel did not fully know, but it was near. It was perhaps an ending to this operation and a chance to escape in one piece or one of many unexpected outcomes. There was never a doubt in his mind that they wouldn’t successfully complete their goal; or at least something close to it. The OoA at long last made the decision to include him as a member of Melora’s personal strike team; they were the elite of an already impressive group of individuals and his presence only made them better. The fact that just a few of his detonation charges were bringing the entire temple down around them was proof of just how talented he was.
This is my defining moment. Life was already placing me along the path that led to this mission, and this darkened tunnel. Whenever we reach the end and escape from the shadows, I’ll hold my head high in victory. The Assemblage will know of me. The galaxy will know of me. My name will spread into even the most backwards, poisoned planets in the Biodrone!
But despite a confidence as bright as a thousand suns, all one’s born days would not lead to a greater glory for Kel or the Strike Team. Fate had brought him along the journey to a place in time that he had often imagined. What he never thought of was an alternative outcome, of tragedy. Chance did not care about lineage. Ability would only get someone so far in the face of a greater challenge. The troubling feeling that had been eating away at the dark corners of Melora’s mind was soon to step into the blinding light of reality.
*****
Glory will once again be placed at my feet! I have choked the life and the light out of the throat of countless before and I shall do it again! Bring me the heretics and allow me to show you the triumph of the will! The triumph of the Bright!
Field Officer Jag-in Derga’s voice boomed over the sound of his trooper’s weapons and their cries of anticipation for battle.
Go now! Follow the cowards who dare not face you in combat! Follow them until they can run no further! And in that moment of final contemplation and exhaustion, save them for my own blade!
With those words of encouragement and commandment, the horde of hulking bodies began to spill into the opening in the wall created by the intruders. Derga could hear, and feel, other explosions rocking the very foundation of the ancient temple that his own had commandeered. As a veteran of an unknowable number of conflicts, he knew that they foretold trouble. He was all but banished to this meaningless jungle rock to babysit a collection of trophies and he would be damned if the final scripture of his story told of his failure at even that. Whatever was causing the building to crumble around him was of no concern to him now. He would hunt down those responsible and see to it that they were torn apart at his own hand. He could find some excuse to make to the Domination as to why the keepsakes were lost and delivering the bodies of dead enemy personally would go a long way to paying that back. He may have been old, but his mind was still as sharp as the blade that was his right arm.
Nearly all his men had breached through the gap when another, larger blast erupted near the opening. This one caused by something thrown from behind him in the opposite direction than where he had stood on the pillar. In his hesitation, his contemplation about an excuse to use to explain one failure, another had occurred. Another group of infiltrators had entered the clearing in silence as his soldiers chased the first. What must have been a simple distraction plan had been enough to fool him into sending most of his men to death as the walls and roof of the tunnel ahead collapsed completely under the shock of the detonation grenade.
Anger now grew within him; an ancient anger that he had long fought to contain with a varying degree of success. He used to get results because of it, but even his own leadership knew that it caused him to become too unstable and too much of a liability. Age had softened it some over time, but it was swelling into a fury inside of him as he spun on his heels to face the new threat. It wasn’t anger for the certain loss of his troops, but rather anger at allowing himself to be so easily fooled. He conceded to the hatred of the enemy down below him and allowed the Bright to engulf him in pure chaotic brilliance. A tornado of blinding light and cackling lightening quickly surrounded his body with every passing moment. He could no longer tell if he himself was making the horrible shrieking sound or if it was the fury engulfing his body around him.
You will not make a fool of me! You have no idea the sorrow I have caused!
All at once, the mighty discharge of wild electric power overwhelmed his weapon appendage like a beacon of frantic turmoil and before his enemies could react, he flung his sword down towards them off his command obelisk. The energy behind it was so great that it broke away completely from his body and pierced the darkened chest of the one that had thrown the explosive that doomed his men just moments before. The spear of pure light had completely torn through the man before he had even a fraction of time to ponder his own demise. He had all but a moment to look down at the damage caused by Derga’s blade before his body erupted into a blinding flash of carnage. What caught Derga off guard, however, was the shadowy smoke-like substance that seemed to be fighting with the Bright as it tore the man to pieces; a light and dark whirlwind of turbulence that consumed almost the entirety of the target. He knew the heretics used a bastardized form of power, but he was surprised still at the sight of it before him. It only sickened and angered him more.
And now who is next!
Field Officer Jag-in Derga’s voice boomed over the sound of his trooper’s weapons and their cries of anticipation for battle.
Go now! Follow the cowards who dare not face you in combat! Follow them until they can run no further! And in that moment of final contemplation and exhaustion, save them for my own blade!
With those words of encouragement and commandment, the horde of hulking bodies began to spill into the opening in the wall created by the intruders. Derga could hear, and feel, other explosions rocking the very foundation of the ancient temple that his own had commandeered. As a veteran of an unknowable number of conflicts, he knew that they foretold trouble. He was all but banished to this meaningless jungle rock to babysit a collection of trophies and he would be damned if the final scripture of his story told of his failure at even that. Whatever was causing the building to crumble around him was of no concern to him now. He would hunt down those responsible and see to it that they were torn apart at his own hand. He could find some excuse to make to the Domination as to why the keepsakes were lost and delivering the bodies of dead enemy personally would go a long way to paying that back. He may have been old, but his mind was still as sharp as the blade that was his right arm.
Nearly all his men had breached through the gap when another, larger blast erupted near the opening. This one caused by something thrown from behind him in the opposite direction than where he had stood on the pillar. In his hesitation, his contemplation about an excuse to use to explain one failure, another had occurred. Another group of infiltrators had entered the clearing in silence as his soldiers chased the first. What must have been a simple distraction plan had been enough to fool him into sending most of his men to death as the walls and roof of the tunnel ahead collapsed completely under the shock of the detonation grenade.
Anger now grew within him; an ancient anger that he had long fought to contain with a varying degree of success. He used to get results because of it, but even his own leadership knew that it caused him to become too unstable and too much of a liability. Age had softened it some over time, but it was swelling into a fury inside of him as he spun on his heels to face the new threat. It wasn’t anger for the certain loss of his troops, but rather anger at allowing himself to be so easily fooled. He conceded to the hatred of the enemy down below him and allowed the Bright to engulf him in pure chaotic brilliance. A tornado of blinding light and cackling lightening quickly surrounded his body with every passing moment. He could no longer tell if he himself was making the horrible shrieking sound or if it was the fury engulfing his body around him.
You will not make a fool of me! You have no idea the sorrow I have caused!
All at once, the mighty discharge of wild electric power overwhelmed his weapon appendage like a beacon of frantic turmoil and before his enemies could react, he flung his sword down towards them off his command obelisk. The energy behind it was so great that it broke away completely from his body and pierced the darkened chest of the one that had thrown the explosive that doomed his men just moments before. The spear of pure light had completely torn through the man before he had even a fraction of time to ponder his own demise. He had all but a moment to look down at the damage caused by Derga’s blade before his body erupted into a blinding flash of carnage. What caught Derga off guard, however, was the shadowy smoke-like substance that seemed to be fighting with the Bright as it tore the man to pieces; a light and dark whirlwind of turbulence that consumed almost the entirety of the target. He knew the heretics used a bastardized form of power, but he was surprised still at the sight of it before him. It only sickened and angered him more.
And now who is next!
