V STARFALL! I REPEAT STARFALL! PREPARE FOR IMPA-

Little Ghost

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Through the depths of the Beyond, a small object approaching the planet of Ioun. A dot of white on black shadows, swallowed by the greater darkness, it moved silently. No heat, no emissions, just still silence. All was clear on the CRVIII asteroid detection systems, a new contact had briefly caused some stir before its course, and inert nature, let things return to the norm of quiet, watchful relaxation.

No, this little object continued its travel, but had anyone deigned to investigate closer they would have seen a black spheroid, polished stone of some kind, etched like claws were grasping it and keeping it closed. A small mask of white was at the centre of said claws, the reason for the sealing. Passing by the far side of Ioun to Inverxe, the rock was accelerated by the outer remnants of a solar flare. Pure happenstance, for sure. Some might consider it good fortune, others a curse. For while the rock was not sent hurtling further into space, its new orbit pushed it into the outer bonds of Ioun's atmosphere. The loving cares of Ioun's breath upon the black rock lit the far side of Ioun with a tiny prick of light against its lavender hue. Its journey about to end.

Back on the CRVIII the the automated systems went back to working overtime as a new contact emerged on the far side of Ioun, VIs flagging the object for review even as the alert was raised to yellow. "Hey, Tony, come take a look at this!" one of the monitor monkeys called into the small monitoring station of Quadrant VX. Tony sighed as he noticed that the employee in question sat too far away for easy access, got up from his very comfortable swivelling chair (courtesy of being lower management in a substation place like this), and walked over.

"What is it, Lars?" he queried when in a more comfortable speaking distance. "Do we have debris from yet another failed gas miner?" It was rare that independents tried to muscle in on the territory of super corps, they inevitably ran afoul some piece of law or got too close to a heavily protected gas mining rig. Lars shook its head in the negative, face grimacing with increasing consternation, not something first timers could tell with how Lars was, well, not exactly human. It was all the more difficult because Lars had not been able to get the patch-program for his faulty facial emulator.

"That's what I thought at first," the Cybran began, furiously tapping away at the keys on a console he was not allowed to hard-interface-access with. Switching over to yet another terminal, he brought up the feed from a few minutes ago. "Look here, the far-side satellites caught this thing moving through the atmosphere. The VI trace tracked it as having passed by us and Inverxe on a 0-rating path before it swung around Ioun, which should have shot it off into space. Instead..." Tony saw exactly what the Cybran was on about. The black stone sphere had not followed the projected path and its brief skip through Ioun's atmosphere brought it on a more... concerning path. Collision course with 'The Hub'.

"Ok, I assume that the unknown object has not responded to hails?" Lars nodded in the affirmative, so all the reasonable checks and balances had been ticked. "Well then, alert level orange." The lighting in the room changed, people immediately rousing from their semi-relaxed states"I authorize munitions course-correction, light burst, 20 Mega Watts should do it." A small section of the Point Defense System woke fully from its state of half-sleep, a trio of lasers syncing up for target lock. A brief, low intensity barrage, under the attention of everyone in the room. At the call of a good hit from another corner in the room Lars's frown grew before it was replaced by a blank expression and a sigh of relief. Tony looked to the screen Lars was so intently monitoring. The object's course was altered, but these readings... where was the standard splash of radiation? "Keep the target locked, I authorize continued firing solutions until that thing is well away from our course." Internally Tony dreaded the amount of paperwork required, as well as the people he would have to contact about this. The Anomalous Research Division were always such strange folk and he pitied whomever was to be sent down for the inevitable follow-up.

The alert was only rescinded an hour later, once the objects course had been observed to pass well below the planetary escape threshold for Inverxe below them. And as when it had come into contact with Ioun's atmosphere, the strange stone began to grow increasingly incandescent during its descent.

Starfall.
 

Little Ghost

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Inverxe's surface has three settings centred mostly around twilight. The other two are the brief instances of true day that happens whenever your particular stretch of surface directly faces the star which Ioun orbits and the months long nights that occur when Inverxe wholly passes into Ioun's shadow.

It was currently the reign of Twilight and Research Station Charlie Niner Gamma 5 Rho 2 was all calm and quiet. There was no movement, for to have movement you need some form of impetus. The usual impetus of curiosity had gone the way of the cat, killed, dragged to the side of the road, and then shot repeatedly with high calibre handguns. Or rather, their excavation had stumbled upon a previously inactive Necromorph Nest. Now the only impetus remaining was that of sheer unbridled hate, but unlike living things, Necromorphs without a target go dormant. They are immortal in body, if not in mind, and as such they could bide their time until next they were disturbed. The eerie twilight was shattered, however, as a sphere of incandescence passed beyond a cliff-range that had blocked the view, every surface lit by the white-yellow-orange glow of titanic shear friction at work in the atmospheric medium.

If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound? The old adage would give a convincing argument that no, it does not, but what if we change our metaphor a bit. If a meteorite makes an impact, does that cause a sound? The thundering rumble as the black stone sphere collided with the glacier above the research station confirmed that to be a resounding yes. Burrowing through layer after layer of ice, the stone thing was soon resting in a puddle of hissing water, slowly boring deeper through the central courtyard of what had once been a lively place.

That thing about impetus? Even if it was strange, the Necromorphs now had a target. And all over the fortified underground cavern, limbs cold and stiff from lack of use slowly began twitching.
 

Neona Black

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The crunch under Kahnzee's feet echoed across the pristine winter wonderland, over the curvature of a frosted hill. In the mind-numbing silence of isolation, the sound of snow compacting under her tender weight was not the loudest nor the most interesting. Something ancient whispered to her forfeited sanity, a voice much older than anything this world or any of the other worlds open to her exploration echoed through her mind and kept her plenty company.

Its speech soothed her. Not in the least because the message it replayed was an inspiration to keep going through this tundra she found herself in, but because it constantly reminded her that she has not lost the favor of lost gods. More so a security blanket than a compass.

She stopped on the crisp crest of this hill to admire the scenery. The limited light that the sun of this moon's planet glimmered across the surface, giving it a diamond dust feel. Like some arts and crafts master had recently visited, attempted to properly glitterform it. After whatever creature's art did not adhere to the moon in his or her liking, they must have abandoned the idea. Typical of humans, they just left their mess and packed up.

Her ghostly white eyes scanned the horizon, noticing the sky reflected the sparkle that the surface had if only briefly. Distracted by a blazing white object shooting across the sky slowly. At least to her perspective. It arched across the mountains in the background as if drawn to the rose-colored tiefling. She knew it to be a simple meteor. Or so she assumed.

As Kahnzee observed from her serene position she also noticed several smaller lights dashing after the falling star. It looked like open fire from the space station hidden in the dazzling sky, chasing down the rock and attempting to... What? Shoot the thing out of the atmosphere? Was it not already caught by the gravity pull of the moon, planet, or both? What would those false gods have against a common occurrence such as falling debris?

She played with the idea that maybe it was larger than it appeared to be, perhaps they were simply doing the job their superiors bestowed on them. Wouldn't that be nice?

From her position, she watched as it began to speed up unexpectantly fast. The stark white flames of its burning surface suddenly flared as it hit the mesosphere, the whole twilight sky erupts with light making it temporarily comparable to the brightest days. Thunderous claps of sound that are very similar to cannon fire next to her ears explode behind the quickly approaching rock. This was, in fact, the loudest noise she's heard in her isolation paradise.

Kahnzee watched as the pure powder on the planet explodes in every direction! Part of it was the incoming meteorite coming so close to the moon's surface at such fierce speeds, but mostly it was the soundwaves. Each 'cannon' firing off shot tons of snow back into the air. There was no majesty to be seen here though, it was chaotic and abrupt. Then as quickly as the whole show began, it ended. Horrifically the fired up rock slammed violently into the surface!

The tremors alone shook the cosmic body under her foot, so strong was the impact that Kahnzee struggled with her balance before she tumbled over the peak of the hill. Snow and ice are sent airborne like frosted spores as the tiefling is thrown down the hill. She rolled, multiple times. The eldritch mage lost count how many times. It was best not to think about it honestly.

Each impact jolted her body and she feared that one of the plunges into the cold hard ground has broken one of her horns off. One rotation even ended up scooping up a few frozen flakes only to throw part of it into her otherwise warm outfit. She inhaled sharply at the wave of bitter cold as it dumped into her blouse. Any further reaction was provisionally void due to how rapidly this was getting out of hand.

Then as if a djinni heard her complaints, she heard a snap. It felt like a sudden spring appeared as she felt her body become somewhat weightless. The tiefling was sure that time had slowed because she was able to watch purple and dark blue hues melt into the frosted teals, blues, and white as she made one more flip.

She planned to catch herself, but as soon as she planted her feet on the ground, the momentum of her trajectory argued. Her legs come out from under her, forcing her to crash into the snow under her. It was powder soft, mostly undisturbed. It did sound a bit hollow as she landed and immediately began a smooth ride downhill with little to no control.

This was partly due to the lack of brakes and the ability to use said brakes if she had them. There was a bigger part to blame, and that would be the terror of an avalanche. As she moved, so did the oceans of crystallized water particles. Like a raging river, the snow carried her dangerously fast downhill and further. She noticed a little too late the vanishing supply of surface. Out of her view but not beyond her senses, she heard the cascading piles of frost.

The woman quickly rolled over to her belly and began to claw into the rapids of white, attempting to stop herself before her morality was as tested as her body and mind have been in the short few minutes this has been happening. But it was too late.

Her fingers sought for anything to grab on, slowing her down no, but allowed the waves of ice to wash over her just like water. She momentarily wondered if one could drown in snow before they froze to death. Just as fast as nature’s wrath appeared, it calmed. By this point, however, the only thing that slowed the inevitable was the small patch of scales on her outfit. Which was not enough to save her from what happened next.

Purple locks whipped past her elongated ears as she descended back towards the edge of the cliff, her ice-cap colored eyes staring back at her from the crystal clear ice over the bare stone. A naturally made mirror to reflect on her life that should be flashing before her of which she attempted and failed to dig her nails into as a last ditch effort to stop. She watched her own realization play out on her face. She was made fully aware of her predicament just before the god’s allowed her body to be flung eight feet straight out from the cliff’s edge.

Gravity reached up to reclaim her as violently as laws of nature could. Comically, absurdly so, Kahnzee's trip was not a mere fall to her death. She crashed hip first into the dazzling fresh blanket of flakes, the air filled with them like a snowglobe that was shaken. As the frozen droplets settled back down, she kept going.

Apparently having landed on a solidified patch not used nearly enough to wear a path, Kahnzee’s ride has just begun. In all that was happening, this tiefling has only been as silent as the night. Now she exploded from the pile of snow that had just fallen from the upper levels, and with no clear friction to assist in slowing herself down it would be a long night.

Her body surfed the icy surface, her boots attempting to assist in some kind of steering. How much it may or may not have made a difference was still up for debate, what mattered at the moment is there was some sense of control in her life where it felt like that did not exist for some time tonight. The wave of the land sent her left and right. Up and down.

One time she was even somersaulting through the air. As she landed this particular time it was on her feet, but the boots did as little against the speed and snow as before. Her balance came back to her and she attempted to take in her surroundings.

She could see the skeletal remains of an old mining town, possibly one that achieved township before suffering one of the many deadly faiths that the frozen badlands promised. The constant slanted land she was either cursed or graced with kept her speeding towards what resembled some sort of an abandoned town's courtyard.

A few things of note stood out to her in the eerie purple-blue light of the twilight sky. Something dark and ominous; Standing erect at about twenty feet tall and looking an awful lot like a tombstone, a double helix shaped monument called a Marker. This was at the ‘head’ of an enormous hole in the ground. Or a crater rather, as she closed in on the distance she could see the lifted land. The Marker even leaned back, apparently the force of this meteor’s impact threatening to tip the giant statue over.

Another thing that caught her sharp eyes, were the large figures creeping out of the clearly abandoned buildings to shuffle painfully close to the newly made hole. Some dragging their feet, other's dragged behind them growths that looked as big as they were. Anyone whose mind had not been complimentarily broken by her gods would have ran away screaming. Kahnzee found herself coming to a gentle stop at the base of the piste. With a flick of her rose-colored tail, she very calmly began her casual walk towards the slowly waking necromorphs. Her true goal wasn't the lumbering figures in the distance, though. She was much more interested in the space rock which had nearly everyone's attention. Clearly, even her gods demanded to know what it held, how else could she explain her perfect placement?
 

Little Ghost

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Eventually the hissing sound of melt water transitioning to steam began to die down, replaced, at first, by frantic bubbling before this too began to cool. The meteorite rock itself remained the same inky black as it had been pre-descent, in actuality unmarred by its violent impact. At least this was how it appeared at the surface. In actuality there was a certain unique quality to Inverxe itself, a gentle probing of miniscule presence that would add up over time to result in the effects that Inverxe inevitably had on all its long term visitors and inhabitants. To describe it as a malevolence would be a disservice, for how do you ascribe values such as good and evil to something so alien? Utterly uncaring curiosity would be a better term. Probably. Possibly. Maybe?

But with this probing presence came a reaction. Numerous latticework combinations realigned in their mineral housing, ancient seals coming undone as the diminishing white clouds of water vapour turned grey and then black by the smoke emitted from the collapsing sphere. It started from the top and moved its way down like a flame slowly eating its way down through the wick and wax of elliptical candle. And much like the melted insides of such a candle, the stone within the borders of the sphere turned liquid, occasionally bubbling and spilling itself outside the container with a violent hiss once it came into contact with the ice or water. Like a strange mix between the viscous consistency of tar and the rushing fluidity of water it exhibited different properties in one moment to the next.

Everything seemed to be fine, beyond the shambling mounds of increasingly animating necromorphs and the strange breeze that kept the black smoke from touching the strange twin helix sculpture that was sitting precariously close to the large hole that had been melted through the ice. At least it was fine until movement in the black sludge caused a particularly vigorous bubble to pop, sending black droplets arching up through the air. Most of the hit the walls of the hole, the same hiss as before ensuing on contact, some made it further up, clearing the lip of the crater to patter against the snow, sleet, and ice up above. A handful of droplets, changed this when they hit the Marker, a much more violent hiss before the areas surrounding them caught flame. There was a pulse of... something rippling through the air with the Marker at the centre. Then the relative quiet was shattered as the necromorphs, in eerie synch, took to one voice and screamed. The lethargic shambling of those necromorphs that had managed to become ambulant, and the twitching efforts of those that had not, was instantly replaced with frenzied activity as they, near to a one, whirled in the direction of the pit next to the marker and charged, limping when they could not run, crawling when they could not limp.

A small limb, black as the prison-rock that had brought it to Inverxe, rose above the edge and slammed hardened carapace claws through the ice and snow to achieve a better grip. It was quickly followed by a pair of white horns, the mask said horns were attached too followed, also white. A quick surge of movement saw a short figure scrabble up out of the crater on the opposite side of the marker. Black carapace, a white full-face mask (or maybe it was just the carapace itself, turned white, and with a differently textured surface), and a dark grey cloak out of multiple clothing strips draped around the four feet form. Shaking the head back and forth in a quick left-right-left-right motion, mask turned to take in the surroundings. Unending voids spied to and fro, looking at the various details of the icy cave. It was a strange place for sure, and though the distant form of Kahnzee caught the attention of infinity, other things plucked at its attention, leaving the face turned to regard the pulsing marker. Its head tilted to the side, as if in confusion, and it remained in that pose until the first, fastest, and luckiest necromorph got too close. Suddenly a black arm swing out, and a form of glowing white perfection, an organic looking thing, as if made out of intricately and polished carved bone or ivory, cut through both the swinging claw-bone-arm-tentacle things. The necromorph stumbled at its shift in balance and tumbled down next to the much smaller creature, sliding through the snow with a low droning whine before it tipped into the pit and the whine was turned into a primal screech of pain. Much like the ice, the necromorph was not long for the world as the black sludge quickly rendered it into something less and more at the same time. The luckiest necromorph, for a given definition of luck. The construct that had delimbed that particular instance of necromorphology, now non-existant, instantly snapped its attention to the object in its right hand, seemingly undisturbed by the necromorphs only a few meters away, turning the weapon this way and that.


Light seemed to come into its eyes, no longer unthinking, for those voids were indeed its eyes. There was a consciousness here, maybe sapience. And perhaps there was more...

Little Ghost's attention switched with laser focused upon the closest necromorph, twisting precariously to dodge its swiping claws, almost dancing along the lip of the crater before it began hacking pieces from the offending limbs, progressively shortening them to the increased sluggishness of the slasher type necromorph. A sudden impact, as the legless form of a leaper crashed into the pair of combatants and knocked all three into the crater again. The splashing impacts of three forms hitting the sludge bellow was followed by the agonized screams of melting necromorph, and then by something else entirely. Something of rage.

 

Neona Black

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Kahnzee watched the mutilated figures lumber forward in the dim yet colorful night. Creeping ever closer to the hole with some instinctual interest. They were but dark shadows against a painted sky in the distance. She waited a moment, as the necromorphs were notorious for attacking anything still living with a mind of its own. While the gemstone colored whispering in her head may have argued she only qualified for half of those requirements, she was sure the insane disfigured creatures wouldn’t care about details of that sort.

She noticed, however, how they did not rush her immediately. Instead, they screeched out in pure offense as their Marker was vandalized by whatever inky substance came spewing from the crater in front of it, this forced the woman to clutch her hands over her ears. Meanwhile annoyance scrunched up her face as she continued to stare at the scene, much too aware of the risk one made when turning your back to these things.

The tiefling felt it was too late to pretend to be coy here. As she watched the previously limping figures erupt into a full speed sprint, she believed she’d been noticed and prepared to do something about that. With the screams silenced, her hand shot out in front of her and produced two fingers that which began to draw an ageless symbol in the air. As the rose-color demonic woman did so, she started to repeat the words that were being whispered to her by her patron.

Then a peculiar event unfolded.

From within the hole in the ground, a small hand escaped, as if a new creature was being birthed right in front of her. The emerald green light faded from both her eyes and fingertips as she looked past her fading spell. Enthralled by what was unfolding.

Two peaks of white appear from within the grave marked by the Marker. Mostly rounded in nature and stark white like that of a picked clean corpse. She could just make out the demonic skull-like mask against the frozen lands of which it plucked itself out of. A light breeze picked up the fluttering sheets of dusty grey fabric that made up some cloak around the figure which fell around its feet.

She could make out its curiosity at this distance, but only just barely as it turned from left to right, and then left again. Seemingly unaware of its demise that was approaching it from either side of the hole as the little thing tried to figure out how it got there.

One necromorph pulled from the pack, its amber twisted flesh stretched out in its attack on the small thing. Her palm reached out and her mouth fell open to warn the unsuspecting alien, only for a flash of white light to appear with lightning fast reactions. The next moment she watched the towering monstrous figure’s body crash into the slush at the new creature’s tiny feet and go rolling into the shallow grave from which the masked figure crawled out of.

They both, she and them, watched as more of the wax-like tar arced through the air upon the heavy impact and more so when the melting creature flailed and screamed out in pain. Above his kill the bone-masked being stood, in its hand a sword - but not a sword. It appeared lance like, carved from ivory. It turned from admiring its work as two more of the extra gruesome beasts approached, attacking the small creature relentlessly.

The sparks of battle literally lit up the area, each strike the smaller creature made sent a bright flash of light into the area. Kahnzee was unable to tear her eyes off as he jumped around in the air, flipping elegantly through the chaos that were the monsters attempting to bring him down to the moon’s surface once more, all while wearing a mask - literally and figuratively. Whoever - whatever - this creature was it seemed to care very little of the danger it faced. Terror of these nightmarish things kept any who'd wander too far from home at bay from coming even this close to them.

She was just thinking about how to address the busy warrior once all of the insanity died into nothing but whatever substance pooled at the bottom of the impact when one of the creatures looked as though it would actually get a jump on the new guy. The twilight and its pallet played on the bulbous texture of the horror that stalked her potential companion. Badly proportioned shoulders framed a smaller head, the toasted colored skin still had a light glaze of ice. It raised its arms, its jaw unhinged...

There were many reasons why she acted, none of which pertained to his well being. Nor did her motives to do so include the good she would be doing for Inverxe by exterminating a few mindless bodies that have imploded or exploded into odd shapes and proportions, of which were utterly useless to the existence of anything. In fact, these things, were dead. Re-animated corpses that were a hindrance to many people on the moon, her included. Her actions were simply: Selfish.

Vibrant otherworldly green light consumes her otherwise frosty white eyes, as well the tips of the two fingers she lifted to optimal height for her spell. She began to speak in primordial tongue, ancient words that her gods breath into her mind as the wish to use their superior power formed. The prayer barely a thought before it was answered. Kahnzee set her blazing green eyes upon the unfortunate being in her way, as the ghostly neon green symbol is completed in the air.

From the center of this floating text erupted a sickly green smokey flame that normally would bestow on her enemies a mentally disturbed feeling. Unfortunately for this effect to happen to a creature, that being would need to have a mind that can feel disturbed. Instead, it simply caused pain.

It traveled through the air swiftly, straight at the short alien. At the last possible moment though it was apparent that it was slightly higher than that. The light that made up the attack cast a lime hue across the bone white shell that made up its head as it scraped past. Only for the essence filled shot to smack the oncoming threat in its grotesque face.

Upon impact it exploded violently. The necromorph’s face - if indeed it had one - splits open as it comes to a abrupt stop. The connection to its precious Marker turned to pure static while it clutched its head and threw itself back. It screeched out in its own kind of agony before it hit the crater's lip and fell back. The body landed a moment later in the destructive black goo at the bottom of the newly form mass grave site. There was a hissing noise of acid like burns hidden in the death yelps.

Her presence now known, the undead creatures also cast their net of attack in her direction. She was already forming another symbol of attack in preparation for the encroachment of the horde.
 
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