Hovering over the Skies of the Heat

The carrier dropped out of hyperspace window and now hovered over the planet that held nothing but civilization and lava. It wasn't a very beautiful or even a decent looking planet to Katesen. Oh no. He preferred something like a vast backwater planet. But he wanted to know what his guests were thinking. "That didn't take long," he said as he looked out of a window with Caleb right behind him. "What do you think about this planet? Just by looking at it?" he asked.

"Or is the only thing that you are thinking about escaping from my ship?" he asked. He already saw through Caleb. He was trying to get off his ship the moment he got on. He saw fear and the instinct of escaping written all over his face already. They were there since he got on and saw some things. Starting with the Vendi-Ulis... This was a horror house for Dostria and for Caleb, it was somewhere he found everything confusing. But perhaps his analysis about the two were wrong. "Now, where is your friend?" he asked.

"I'm right here," Dostaria said brusquely. Her outfit had changed. Instead of a frilly, ungainly dress she was now wearing a much sleeker set of clothes. She was clad in a black tank top and a pair of shorts. The only things that were frivolous about her outfit were the yellow ribbons she wore in her twin-tails and the short yellow skirt to help cover her even shorter shorts. Even her shoes had been upgraded. She wore cruel looking boots, with a sharp tread. She looked like she was ready to fight, and that's how she felt. She had come to the realization that no matter what she would have to fight now. Fight or die. The latter was much less appealing. She had come to help Caleb, not to weigh him down like she had been.

She came from her quarters alone, she didn't need Fi to help her. She had easily remembered the way from her quarters to this room. She wasn't completely helpless, and she would prove it. The trip to Weavon was remarkably short, just a day ago they had been in Sigma. It kind of amazed her how fast this ship was, Katesan controlled a lot. With a ship like this, and his fleet of Vendi-Ulis he was a powerful man. In a way, Dostaria kind of admired him, but she still feared him above all.

Caleb felt strangely... edgy. Especially around Katesen. He hadn't used his power in days, and he felt itching for some superspeed action. But it wasn't just that. This whole thing with Katesen was strange. The boy had something going on that Caleb didn't want to get involved in. Even if he was a hero, it wasn't his job to leap into chaos willy-nilly, most definitely not Katesen's type of chaos. He was almost certain the boy was insane. One point was the fact that he was made to room with Dostaria, an awkward fact, but he digressed. He had slept with a girl in his room before, but still it felt strange to be so close to Dostaria. He glanced at Katesen with a deep frown as he looked through the view port and stared at the molten planet before. He seemed intrigued by it, Caleb was disgusted. Kenji was on that thing? It looked chaotic, worse than what was going on, on Sigma.

"What I think of the planet? It looks... Bad." He dodged the question about escaping the ship. Knowing that if he had answered it, it would be the honest truth. He absolutely, positvely, hated this place ever so much. that was the simplest way he could put it. He didn't even want to put what he was feeling into words. He felt like everything around him was a puzzle to be solved, as if Katesen were just manipulating him for his own gain. God, he wanted to just hit the man, but he stopped himself before he could. That strange... power of his, would most certainly come into play, he wasn't sure he could take Katesen in a fight, especially if everyone around him was on his side. Everyone except Dostaria. As Katesen questioned him about her, his frown lifted to an uneven smirk, about to reply in a most sarcastic and witty manner.

But he was disturbed by Dostaria's sudden arrival. Caleb turned to look at her, she wasn't wearing her 'dress' anymore. She looked frightening. Like an evil empress ready to smite her enemies. Sexy? Yes. Disturbing? Equally so. His outfit, was less complicated. It seemed to be standard issue on the crew of the Vendi-Ullis, he had picked up on some of the information about this race, and he realized that they weren't as human as he had believed. But, back to his fashion choice. It revolved around a simple dark green one piece suit. With a long zipper down the front. His elbows, shoulders and knees were padded with a black material. Only his hand and his face showed his clearly pale skin. An insignia was on his right shoulder, though he couldn't really tell what it was. He folded his arms across his chest, smiling warmly at Dostaria, though the awkwardness was clear on his face.

"She's... Right there. Wait, you mean Kenji?" he indicated with a nod, but frowned when he thought about Kenji. Exactly where he didn't know. He had never given it much thought, he just imagined somewhere... On a place on the planet. He shrugged his shoulders. "The message didn't say exactly where... Just that he was on Weavon, he probably doesn't even know himself. He looked up at Katesen, agitated by the fact that he was shorter than the man. It was cruel natures trick to make him so small, but he usually didn't mind, unless it was so obvious. "But, I always say keep moving forward. Since all three of us are here, lets get down to business. Kenji is on that planet, and I- we need a way down..." he had already cycled through exciting ideas. His face lit up with the possibilities. Interspace dive onto the planet? Or, piloting a personal pod onto the surface and go in shooting up anything in sight? So many ideas. Though he bet Katesen had a different idea, one that was most likely much safer.

Katesen saw Dostria come and found that he was staring at her. He silently shook his head before he took control of the drifting thoughts inside his head – mostly about how to set up his own empire from this uncivilized part of the universe, though that wasn’t the idea he had when he first came to this sector – and turned to Caleb. Caleb was staring at her as well. He seemed to have something for her. Katesen made a devilish smile for a second before it dissipated when he began to think about business.

This was the true reason behind his actions that concerns the actions of attempted rescue. One, by ‘helping’ these humans, he hopes to question the safety of this sector and set up a government in which he will take control and turn this ruthless part of the universe into a civilized society it could and would be, and where in the top, he will benefit. And second, he loved adventure. Wealth, adventure and power was waiting for him here. With his power and the support of his crew, which numbered over several hundred thousand if not he counted the ones he will be creating - human or Vendi-Ulis- by cross clonization and such, he could make an empire if he wanted. Ships and weaponries here was equal to obsolete weapons and ship his home civilization used several hundred years ago!

Katesen turned to Caleb fully. Caleb asked him about not knowing where his friend was. “Hmm…” he muttered. “Do you have anything that your friend has touched? Like a letter or a gun that you didn’t decontaminate yet,” he said as he pulled out two pistol like weapons. They were like pistol but their barrels were much larger and they had energy cells instead of bullets. “Take one each. These are one of my favorite weapons, the hyper guns. They use the same technology as the ship’s hyperdrive. Since explanation of hyper space theory will be too long and may not be easy for you two to understand, I will give you an example.”

“If you aim this at a target, let’s say an animal’s head, and pull the trigger, a barely visible sphere that distorts space will be launched from the gun. Once launched, the sphere will suck up anything in its path and just drag it away with it into space several tens of light years from here. Which also means that… the cow’s head and anything that was between the head and the barrel is be out in space and the poor animal will die, headless. Very effective weapon against shields and armors. No need for a mess, just clean precision cut,” he said.

Caedas came out of hyper space window just few minutes after Katesen had and was ready to help. First he contacted his brother. “Hello?” he said.

“Hello?” a voice said in the speaker near where Katesen was. Katesen turned around from his position.
“Ah! You must be the one who was spying on me!” he said.

Dostaria looked down at her outfit when she noticed that both Kat and Caleb had stared at her a little oddly. She blushed. She wondered if she had enough time before going onto Weavon and changing back into her original clothes... Kat didn't bother her, she was used to him being odd. He was probably just greeting her, or was baffled by her change of clothes. She didn't know. But Caleb looked kind of scared of her. She sighed inwardly. He must really be something to put up with me. Even after all this Dostaria still doubted that Caleb enjoyed her company. But that didn't matter, she'd help him rescue this Kenji fellow no matter what! She returned his smile, but her slight unhappiness was obvious.

She took Kat's pistol after a moment of hesitation. She doubted that she'd use it, but it was a nice thought. "Thank you, sir." Dostaria mentally slapped herself in the face. She had to stop calling people 'sir', or bowing, or all that other stuff she did.

"Something he's touched, why would I have that? I'm not some stalker freak." he said, rolling his eyes. Caleb frowned as he saw the guns. He looked at them blankly for a second, not even listening Katesen explaining how they worked. A gun was a gun. He had seen tons of them on his last month on Earth. It wasn't a very fond memory. He wondered if he would ever even have to use one of these things, and if he had the heart to do so. Probably not. He was used to just knocking people unconscious, not killing them in cold blood. But what if they deserved it? What they were doing was bad so maybe he could justify it by saying he was just handing out retribution. Yeah, that's a good excuse. With his conscience satisfied he grabbed the weapon, testing it in his hand uneasily. He probably wouldn't even need it, but it was sort of a security just in case his power started to short circuit.

He looked for a suitable place for the gun, somewhere he could put it where it wouldn't burn into nothingness from his friction. He tucked it under his leather belt that most likely was a sash, but his anorexic frame had caused it to slide down to his bony waist. Caleb flinched as he heard a strange voice appear from nowhere. He whipped around to see Katesen replying to the mysterious noise, by talking into a microphone. "Huh?" he murmured, with a raised eyebrow. Spying on him? Who would be spying on Katesen, and for what reason. He had seemed a little antsy when he had been speaking to him about their mission. And he had never gotten a reply when he had asked him what was wrong. Maybe it was some secret issue. A really secret Vendi-Ullis thing. Caleb took a step away, frowning with a perplexed look on his face.

Katesen heard nothing for a second before a hologram appeared right next to him. There was a man about his height with few scars on his face and white hair. His eyes made him look ancient as well as wise but something about him pissed him off greatly. Something was rising from the bottom of his heart and threatening to lash out at this hologram, even when he knew that this was a hologram. But he never saw this man before. He was a humanoid, he could tell, but the wing behind his back told him something else. They were … like the wings that he had when he was young before he learned how to just let them go.

“Hello Katesen,” Caedas said.

Katesen smiled. “Hello to you too, stalker,” he said. “Mind telling me who you are?” he said as he kept his cool as he pet Kyuu again.

Caedas looked at him. “I am Caedas, a Xti. And my computers tells me that your QNA is the same as that of a man that I am looking for,” he said.

For a moment, there was silence. “You really are a persistent stalker, eh? My ‘parents’ told me that the body which I was taken from died several decades ago. And here you are, in front of its clone,” he said.

“That it was my brother,” he said as his wings began to shine brightly.

Katesen turned to Caleb. “I think I hit a nerve,” he whispered.

Dostaria jumped a little when she heard a voice emanate from the speaker. It didn't sound unfriendly or hostile, just curious. Spying? Katesan didn't sound at all angry, in fact he sounded almost cordial. Then the hologram appeared and Kat's demeanor changed, but not really visibly. Somehow Dostaria could just tell, she had a knack for that sort of thing. As the two began to talk, she understood less and less of what was going on. QNA? Clones? What the... "Uh..." She turned to Caleb, "We could land on Revfre, it's a port not too far from here." Luckily Dostaria knew a lot about Sigma and the important planets near it. She could name any major port, city, or event on each one.

ooc: derpfail.

"Can someone explain to me what's happening!?" questioned Caleb, looking from Dostaria to Katesen. Suddenly, someone proclaiming to be Katesen's brother and he was just to go with it? No, this was too strange and distraction, even for Caleb. Man, things were getting all sci-fi again, stuff that made his brain hurt. QNA? Xti? Man, he needed a guidebook. "You think you hit a nerve? From what I can understand about what ever is going, which is very little... You're the clone, this dudes brother, which makes you his brother kinda, and you're dead. It's a serious mind melter, man." groaned Caleb. "But we really need to get moving, Kenji could be dead by now, we don't have much time. It'll be time for a freaky family reunion, later." He murmured, stepping backwards to stand beside Dostaria, she seemed to be the only one that was focused on this mission.

Katesen turned to Caedas. “You heard the guy, see yah,” he said as he activated the shield of his ship, which caused the hologram transmission to halt. “It didn’t think it’d work.” Then he turned to Dostria. “Revfre, was it?” he said. He had acute hearing which he often hated because of mass his crew makes with party every now and then. He shrugged as he pulled out a cable from the control console. Something he does often. Then he stuck the cable into the implant on the base of his neck. “Dostria, is this planet highly hostile to foreigners? I’m asking cuz you seemed to know something,” he said as he took a seat and relaxed.

Then came the serious part of him. “Fi, if you spot any and all incoming ships with active arms, you have permission to shoot them down. No mercy for weapon near my ship,” he said.

Dostaria, just as confused as Caleb, tried to ignore everything that had just happened. It didn't appear to matter too much, Kat had just cut the mysterious visitor off. "Yes, very much so," Dostaria explained. This would be so much easier if the Weavon government wasn't so tied to it's 'illegal' slave trading business. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, there was a kind of electricity in the air. A fight hovered over them like a venomous snake, waiting to strike. She wasn't scared, not yet. This was her chance to shine, shooting down large objects was kind of her specialty. Or so she thought, she had never shot down a ship mid-flight before. Let alone a ship in space. She brushed aside a clump or hair that was obscuring her vision.

Caleb stared at Katesen as he hooked some kinda of device into his neck. He opened his mouth to ask what it was then stopped, shaking his head and reasoning that if Katesen said nothing of it, then it was of no importance. "You sound pretty serious about this, Katesen. Any reason that you're willing to fling yourself into harms way because of my wish?" he questioned, not really looking for an answer, in fact he was almost certain he wouldn't, it was just a way to change the conversation and move it away from being about the mans brother. "So... We're headed to what could be an extremely populated place, a space port, with all the other spaceships guns, trained on us... Sounds reasonable, how are we going in?" he asked, folding his wiry arms across his chest. He wasn't much for planning, in fact he found it trivial and dull. It was much better to just go in first and think about it later. It was useless brain power to do it any other way.

Katesen hummed a little before he answered Caleb. “You see, when there is a load of guns trained on my… Well, first of all, I like having fun. And my idea of fun is ruining others’ while I have my adventure. Anyway, I use something called cloak,” he said as he activated his ship’s cloaking module.
Somewhere deep inside the carrier, a small library sized module lit up into life and began to emit a field. The field encompassed the ship and the module lit up one more time before it deactivated. If one was to look at the carrier from the point of Caleb and others, there was a brilliant light that started and ended in a second. Then there was no change. But if someone else was on the planet and looking at the ship when the light appeared, they would see the light and then when the light was gone, the ship would be missing. A simple inter-dimensional cloak. Not really a cloak. It was more like a mechanism that changed the dimension where the object was in into a higher dimension, one that is not affected by the 3-D world.
“There. This is how we will get in,” he said as he tilted the ship, directly perpendicular to the planet and fired the sublight thrusters.

"Cloak..." Dostaria repeated. Just as she was starting to get a handle on Kat's technology, he threw something else at her to throw her off again. Dostaria finally decided that Katesan was crazy. He embraced danger far too freely. Any normal captain would have turned his ship around and kicked she and Caleb to the curb, so Kat's insanity was a plus. But if Caleb's request for transportation had been denied, they also wouldn't be about to leap headfirst on a heavily guarded, lava covered planet. At least my powers will be easy to use. It was true, Dostaria would be almost infinitely powerful here. There was so much heat and light around. The only bad thing about this was with more energy there was less control. She crossed her arms over her chest with a slight tilt of the head. Precision or strength? She was already thinking of strategies. She didn't want to leap in headfirst, that would be suicide. But she could also just plow through any soldiers that might come their way. Caleb could just run through them, but where would that leave her?

Dostaria found herself stepping closer to Caleb as the ship began it's descent into hell. Now she was scared. But also empowered. It was a curious feeling. Suddenly remembering the gun in her hand, she attached it to a loop on her skirt, easily within reach. Dostaria hated guns, but she'd rather shoot something than die...

"That's amazing... So, no one at all can see us?" Of course it was a rhetorical question and Caleb was certain that he wouldn't understand the answer. It would probably be more of Katesen's insane murmurings. He stuck his hands in his pockets, with a hint of a frown. That brightened to astonishment as he noticed Dostaria standing close to him. He had never been good with 'girls'. They were a species unknown to him, and he didn't feel like analyzing whatever gesture meant. Maybe he could ask Katesen, he always seemed to know everything about well... Everything. He looked at Dostaria with a sheepish smirk. "You don't seem rather excited about this..." he said, the uneasy smile shaking slightly.

OOC: The protocol muse has yet to return. D:

The carrier descended at 400 kilometer per hour but it felt nothing like that inside the ship. The inertia dampener was at work, thankfully or Katesen and others would be bouncing around like rag dolls inside the ship’s corridor. The dampener softened the impact of the atmosphere breaking, but it did it so much that no one felt it, except Katesen of course. While it may sound like a whisper of winds to others, to Katesen, who’s body was the ship as well as his organic body while he was connected to it via implant and cord, it was a roar of the waterfall amplified several thousand times. Yeah, it hurts like hell. Joking. No it doesn’t hurt.

Katesen looked at his friends. “Not only will you be not seen,” he said as his ship continued on its collision course with some of the planet’s lava. “You will not be able to touch them and they will not be able to touch you,” he said as he pulled his carrier up. The carrier went through a volcano like mountain and it didn’t collide in the usual sense. It just went straight through without a trouble. Then on the other side, the carrier stopped and surveyed its environment.

[OOC: I’ll leave it to you Game or kiwi to describe how the city that we just happen to hover over or the bounty hunter’s place]

Dostaria loosened her shoulders. So they couldn't be seen or touched? That was helpful, that was very helpful. They would be invincible, undetectable... For a moment she thought it would be easy. There was no way they could be invincible, it was just... impossible. It was too easy. Then she took a look at the planet of Weavon. It was really quite different in books, her books about Weavon (published by the planet's own government or course) made it out to be some sort of... she wouldn't say paradise, nothing could make Weavon look like a paradise, but it certainly looked more appealing. She narrowed her eyes against the brightness. Nerves were beginning to rise inside her like a cold tidal wave. But it'd blow over soon, she was sure of it. She looked over at Caleb, who had seemed to notice their close proximity. "I'm just..." she wanted to sound like she wasn't afraid of anything, but she was starting to realize that lying wouldn't get her anywhere. "Nervous," she sighed. Why couldn't she be brave? But she supposed that brave people were the ones who were scared, but did what they had to do anyway. People who were never scared were... kind of silly.

[OOC: You're still in my arms]

OOC: Let's skip to a ground thread... Coo?

ooc: YES! Who wants to start it? *looks at Iron*

OOC: looks at Iron ㄱㄱ
[<.<]

ooc: Well I guess I'm making it. SOOOOOOO... MOVE OUT!