Chronicles of the Fallen: Introduction stories for an alternate DnD setting.

[BrokenWing]

This is the first in a rather lengthy series of shorts. The stories describe a war in a setting another DM and I are working on together that basically sets up the Multiverse and Campaign Setting thousands of years later. I'm posting this one to sort of show my typical writing style and see what sorts of responses I get before I go spamming the place with dozens of short stories not related to 40k.




Aeons ago...

Kessleck-Nouayver (no-uu-ayver) was the Captain of the Nex Draconis, a top of the line Exterminator Class Dimensional Warship. Kessleck's people looked like human sized dragons who spent a majority of their time on two legs. Their coloration was something of an off platinum, though individuals could tend more towards a gray or black hue in rare cases. There was nothing unusual or rare about Kesslecks color nor about Kessleck himself. He came from a middle ranking noble family named House Draeonus, had attended all the usual academies and earned his way onto the bridge of his own ship. All of that was wonderful except he was being deployed to the outer fringes of the Eternal Empire on routine patrol.

Kessleck stood behind his command chair on the bridge, quietly observing the crew operate at their stations. The bridge layout was fairly typical, with all the stations positioned in front of the command chair, which was placed on an elevated platform at the rear of the bridge. Kessleck's people were not particularly evil, but they were stern believers in law and hierarchy, everything and everyone had their place and everyone ranked below his own species.

The Nex Draconis penetrated the plane of Mechanus at the outer edges of the plane, closest to the border with the Far Realm, but planar hopping was not something one did near population centers. Shunting or "hopping" a ship from one plane to the next required a Planar Drive, which tore open holes in the fabric of the planes to instantly travel from one location to the other. The end result was what was called the "spill-over effect." A freshly arriving ship carried with it elements of the previous plane for a few brief seconds, but such events could be catastrophic to population centers. Arriving from the Plane of Fire for example could result in setting fire to an entire city.

For the last several years Kessleck's people had been fighting an on and off war against the Gith terrorists. The Gith were quite low on the social hierarchy, being believers in magic and other such pseudo-science. In fact, the Gith were slaves to most of the other races within the Eternal Empire and had been in open rebellion for over a generation now. It had not been an effective rebellion until the thrice damned Zerthamon had taken control and begun organizing and directing Gith attacks, usually on the outer planes, far from the Empire's most tightly controlled areas.

"Anything?" Kessleck asked.

"Only standard communications of greeting." His communications officer replied. He nodded, that was good, that meant the Gith weren't doing anything to bother the boring and unfortunate inhabitants of Mechanus. At least, not today.

The next several hours of patrol went by without a problem, it was the last five minutes of the patrol that proved to be hellish.

Kessleck's attention was drawn suddenly from the sub monitor over his left eye and toward the main view screen. "What in the Nine Hells..." He said, standing slowly. "Is that a ship?"

"Yes..." Someone said. "A very...big...ship."

Big was an understatement, he could see it clearly on the screen as if it were only a few hundred feet away, when in fact it was many thousands of feet away. That must be...the size of a major city...or a continent...

The unknown ship was shaped like a serrated dagger and the vessel wasted no time in acting once it arrived. Hundreds, even thousands of smaller ships, mostly the size of the Nex Draconis (which was not particularly small itself) launched from its several bays and began swarming outward, towards the population centers of Mechanus. Kessleck nearly fell back in his chair when the main vessel opened fire on the three thousand mile long Central Cog, the heart of the Formian world and Mechanus itself. Great beams of light shot from the huge ship, slamming into the central cog with unbelievable force. The cog shuddered and quaked as parts of it turned to slag and great ravines began to spread throughout the disc as the ancient machinery cracked under the weight of fire it was taking.

"Contact Fleet Command and..." Kessleck was cut off by his communications officer who was simply shaking his head. "They're jamming us. They're jamming the whole Plane."

As if things weren't bad enough, another of the massive ships suddenly appeared and began taking on the other half of Mechanus.

"Get us out of here!" Kessleck said, understanding there was no point in trying to fight one of those ships alone, let alone two of them. So far they had been ignored, he doubted it would last long. Just before they left, he witnessed the Central Cog breaking apart. Billions of Formians made that their home...that was the center of their government and the center of the plane. Without the central cog the rest of Mechanus will cease to turn.

The Nex Draconis materialized in the Peaceful Gardens of Acheron. It was the last time the plane would ever go by that name.

"Now send the message!" He ordered, lest more ships arrive and cut off their communication.

[Brother-Captain Sharp]

I'd say this is perfect for the Literature section.

Thread moved.

[BrokenWing]

Oh, ok. Wherever you guys want.

Installments 2 and 3:


The Infernal Battlefield

Kessleck had been waiting quietly, his vessel turned down to minimum power and hiding behind one of the great floating flower jungles that moved about the garden as clouds would on the prime. After hours of waiting in nervous silence the Fourth Fleet began to arrive, individually at first, then entire battle groups at a time. The Eternal Empire's fleets were quite large and the fourth was no exception, numbering roughly eight thousand vessels.

"Power up the ship and join the main fighting wing." He ordered. The Nex Draconis emerged from behind the flower jungle and moved up to cover the starboard flank of a Command Class Battleship about two times its size. No sooner had they done this than one of the enormous enemy ships shunted into the plane. Kessleck took his seat as battle commenced.

The Nex Draconis was caught up in a quick engagement by a dozen ships its size swarming into the battle line. Energy slammed into her shields from blast after blast as the enemy swept by at high speed, unleashing devastating broadsides and zipping past before the fleet could retaliate. The Nex Draconis shuddered under a dozen impacts and her shields seemed to do nothing to slow down the incoming fire. Energy simply tore apart the armor covering the hull, shredding the starboard side's plating with almost no effort. "What in the nine hells?" Kessleck asked, wondering why his shielding was having no effect.

He brought up a sensor analysis of the incoming blasts on his sub monitor while ordering the vessel to rotate on its axis to present undamaged armor on the port side to the next wave of enemy ships.

What kind of energy is that? It doesn't even interact with our shielding. Force energy? He questioned the readout No one can manipulate force energy, it's beyond the reach of any form of technology. Force energy of course was a form of energy which seemed to ignore other forms, it was nearly invisible and something the Gith talked about as being a form of magic, but the Gith didn't believe in technology. Kessleck's people had adopted technology and abandoned all forms of magic generations ago.

The enemy soon returned and battle was engaged on a ship by ship basis, with each of the Fourth Fleet's ships engaged by dozens of enemy ships at a time. The entire fleet formation began to fracture as vessels maneuvered and fought, split apart by the actions of the mysterious enemy. The Nex Draconis was struck over and over again, its armor splintering as the ship struggled to keep functioning. Kessleck was doing everything he could to keep in the fight, but he saw ships around him exploding and disintegrating. The Fourth Fleet was falling apart.

The fleet Command Ship shuddered and explosions began tearing it to pieces along the aft section of the vessel as its drives and weapons stores began to go off from an internal fire. The ship shuddered and drifted, slowly drifting down until it crashed into the surface of the gardens and exploded in a catastrophic detonation that set the area to blaze. Soon the entire delicate garden system was up in a flames, the plane turning into a giant, raging inferno.

Kessleck activated his com system quickly, taking control of the fleet without even thinking. He ordered the ships to form into clouds instead of their more typical battle-line formation, allowing them to better defend one another rather than splitting apart and being picked off one at a time. It improved the situation, but it was clear the Fourth Fleet was going to be destroyed if they stayed much longer.

I wonder.. He considered. A flower jungle had floated over the main enemy vessel. The flower jungles were nearly the size of a large island, sometimes even larger. This particular one was quite large. "All vessels Shunt into the Plane of Fire." He ordered. The fleet vanished in moments and re-appeared in the inferno that was the Plane of Fire.

"Get us as close to that big ship as you can." He told his navigator. "Coordinate a mass Shunt." Kessleck sat down. Fleets generally traveled together when they weren't spread out, but rarely had anyone Shunted a large number of vessels at the same time. A slight miscalculation could cause all sorts of harm, but Kessleck was determined to do *some* sort of damage to the invading enemy for destroying over half of the Fourth Fleet.

The fleet soon returned to Acheron. Several vessels crashed into the huge enemy mother-ship and exploded but the majority of the fleet cloud was successful in arriving intact. Just as Kessleck had anticipated they brought a fairly sizable amount of raging fire with them. The flames washed across the large enemy ship, doing rather insignificant damage to the paint job. More importantly however they also washed across the flower jungle, turning into a giant, floating ball of fire. Kessleck ordered his ships back as quickly as they could move, anticipating not only enemy fire, but also what happened next.

The great floating island listed heavily as flames washed over the surface and destroyed the plants that had grown there for centuries in a matter of seconds. With the flowers destroyed the floating island now contained none of the energy the plants generated that kept it air born.

"External temperatures are rising rapidly." One of his officers cautioned. He glanced at his sub monitor and they were right. For the first time since the start of the battle Kessleck looked at the Plane of Acharon itself. He had expected the extreme temperatures of the Plane of Fire to fade quickly once they were here. No ship could stay in that plane for terribly long, save for the infamous "Fire Ships" of the elite strike fleets. But instead the temperature was actually at nearly the same level after only a brief decline. Looking at Acharon itself he could see why. The entire vast plane, was a beautiful garden, was now a giant raging inferno littered with shattered ships and debris. Paradise had turned swiftly into hell.

Kessleck turned his eyes back to the portion of the screen dominated by the enemy ship even as his ship shuddered under the weight of attacks directed against it. The enemy was swarming into their cloud formation again and they would soon need to retreat...again.

The floating inferno that had once been a flower jungle shuddered and fell from the sky, crashing down on-top of the enemy mother-ship. Armor plates crumpled and internal structure buckled as several tons of rock fell on-top of the ship, its weight crushing through the vessel easily. The huge ship shuddered and slowly buckled around the center, effectively folding in half around the island and plummeting to the ground below. Secondary explosions set off by the ground based inferno ripped through the hull, shredding it and scattering the ship's remains halfway across the plane. At least we know we can kill them...with half a fleet and some luck. "Retreat." He ordered. Even without the mother-ship they were still dramatically out numbered.




The Nature of the Beast


Three days later...

Kessleck had sent the remnants of the Fourth Fleet back to the Prime for repairs but had kept his limping and badly damaged ship behind to act as a scout. So far the only information they had gathered was that refugees were streaming out of Mechanus, talking about squid monsters enslaving the entire plane and slaughtering those who wouldn't back down. Kessleck was currently hiding in the Astral Plane. No one stayed in the Astral Plane for long, it was the home of the Gith terrorists and many other predators besides, like the Great Astral Dragons.

Kessleck returned to his quarters for the first time in days, running on the verge of exhaustion, his body's advanced metabolism able to keep him running for now, but eventually it would break down and he would collapse as his body would force him to get sleep.

Kessleck entered his quarters, reaching for the light controls when he saw a figure seated in the large chair beside his bed. It was a skinny figure, wraith like almost. He flicked on the light and reached for his gun, only to find the intruder already had a gun trained on him. It was a Gith, wearing the ceremonial battle dress of a Gith terrorist. "Zerthamon!" He growled, able to recognize the face of the Multiverse's most wanted man.

"I had hoped this day would never come." Zerthamon said. "I was even beginning to believe it would not. Unfortunately, it has."

"What are you talking about?" Kessleck asked, his mind racing for ways to get an upper hand in the situation...

"The Mindflayers have invaded your multiverse. You see, my people are refugees. We scattered across the Infinite Realities generations ago, fleeing our home Multiverse, which was being destroyed by an invasion of horrible creatures we call Mindflayers. They call themselves Ilithids. They are an ancient race, which feeds upon the minds of others and seeks to dominate those it does not destroy. They are utterly evil and utterly uncaring."

"Sounds familiar." Kessleck said.

Zerthamon rolled his eyes. "I am not going to get into a philosophical argument, my time here is limited. I must prepare my people to make a stand, and you must prepare yours." He said, removing a long cylinder from his belt and tossing it to Kessleck. Kessleck caught it, and noticed a ring hanging from a string attached to the closed end of the cylinder.

"Those may well save your life one day." Zerthamon said, vanishing.

Kessleck inspected the cylinder carefully, taking a moment before he realized what it was. A force sword... The ring he couldn't identify and placed on his desk. The sword he placed on his belt. Mindflayers...Zerthamon would have no reason to lie about that, and it matches at least some of what we've been hearing these last few days. We need to get one alive...

Sleep was not going to happen just yet. Kessleck returned to the bridge.

"Prepare a Shunt to Mechanus."

[BrokenWing]

The Nature of the Beast 2


3 Hours Later...

Kessleck stood in the medical bay staring at the Mind Flayer they had managed to capture in a quick smash and grab raid. There was a dead scientist on the floor with blood oozing from his ears and nose and his chief medical officer was standing beside Kessleck. They were keeping a fair distance from the creature, which was bolted to a chair and raging at them in some unknown dialect.

"It hit him with some sort of psionic attack." The officer explained."We haven't been able to get close enough to scan the creature and it doesn't speak our language or any known language."


Kessleck nodded his understanding. "I'm guessing it his more psionic abilities than that. I'd like to know what it's capable of, mentally speaking. We may be vulnerable to their weapons, but we have alot of experience against psionic abilities. If we know what he has, we can fight them on at least that level."

"Yes but we can't get close enough to sedate him." The Medical Officer said. "Or scan him."

"Can you learn from a corpse?" He asked.

"Yes." The Medical Officer said. "We can learn his anatomy, and a study of his brain would tell us all we need to know about any psionic abilities. Any of his memories could also be extracted, though we probably won't understand them. Anyway, we can't do that, it's against regulation to..." He was interrupted by a gun shot as Kessleck put a three inch diameter hole in the creature's chest with his pistol. Blood and tissue splattered against the back of the chair and the creature slumped forward.

"kill prisoners..." The Medical Officer finished.

"They've destroyed most of Mechanus and the Fourth Fleet. I don't care anymore." Kessleck said. "Learn what you can, compile a briefing and get it ready, we're heading for the Prime." He added, leaving the stunned medical officer behind.

[BrokenWing]

Pride Before the Fall...


Kessleck was back on the prime in the continent city of Karseric, capitol of the empire. He was pacing in the Command Bunker of the Lord Eternal as the highest ranking members of their society tried to get a grip on the situation they were now in and respond to it. Kessleck himself had been promoted to Admiral for his actions in directing the Fourth Fleet, it was why he was allowed in the room. Everyone was standing around a holographic table which was projecting a rotating image of the Great Wheel. Five planes were colored black for planes had had been over run by the Ilithids.

"I think we should consider allowing the outer planes to fall, make our defense in the Inner planes. Once we are victorious there we can retake what has fallen." Someone was saying.

Kessleck's blood was on fire. "Let the outer planes be enslaved and worse you mean?" He asked.

"If that is their fate. We must focus on what we can defend." The older male replied.

"It is our duty to protect the outer planes! We established control over them, it falls to us to defend them!" Kessleck insisted.

"And we will, just as soon as we've defended the more important inner planes."

"More important?" Kessleck asked. He understood the logic of course, there were more of their kind living in the Inner Planes than the Outer Planes, therefore they were more important. Kessleck understood that as well, but he also understood the duty they had to the outer planes. There had been a time when the others gathered here would have as well. Too long on top. Kessleck thought, shaking his head.

"That's not acceptable." He said.

"Not acceptable? Watch your tongue wyrmling, you are an Admiral, not a member of the Inner Court. Your duty is to follow the decision of the Lord Eternal and guide your fleet." The older male said.

The Lord Eternal had been quiet for hours, contemplating the map. The male that was the Lord Eternal was the largest and oldest of the six gathered in the room. He stood a full twelve feet in height and could have crushed Kessleck's skull in the palm of his hand without so much as a strain. The High Eternal was descended from a long line of Paragons, the most powerful and brightest of their society, going back to the dawn of their race. He turned his head to Kessleck, gazing at him with bright orange eyes.

"Tell me your plan." He told Kessleck. The room went silent. None spoke out of turn when the Lord Eternal spoke.

Kessleck took a moment to recover from the Lord Eternal's gaze. No one so important as him had ever spoken to Kessleck, it was a high honor...and it put his life on the line. If he failed to express a quality plan after questioning a superior officer, his promotion would be short lived and his life would likely end with it. He stepped forward, drawing a white line in the holographic image with his right claw. The line cut through Mount Celest like a razor. "Our best chance is to gain the aid of the Solars and their kin." He said. "We stand here, with everything we have. If we can gather any allies, it would behoove us to do so. A victory here will gain the attention of the invaders and buy us time to come up with something to counter their use of Force Energy. They have advanced and powerful minds capable of using telepathic and psionic abilities. There are two races that can exploit that to our advantage." He said.

"The Gith are not an acceptable ally." The Lord Eternal said in his deep, terrifying voice.

"That is why I said two races." Kessleck clarified.

It took the Lord Eternal a moment to search his ancient memory for the identity of the second race. He looked at Kessleck for a moment in surprise. "The Eesocarii-humanicaii? They have a limited technology and population level." He said.

"Yes, but they also adapt to changes of circumstance and environment faster than any race we have ever seen." He said. "And, they can Regenerate. They are the first true success of our genetic engineering programs. Everything we tried to make work in ourselves, we made work in them."

The Lord Eternal nodded. "I agree with your plan. Because it is yours, I put command of the operation in your hands. Be warned though, do not sacrifice everything for a phyric victory. Make the victory real or don't stand and fight."

"Yes Lord." He said, bowing deeply and leaving the chamber.

Kessleck made his way to his ship and took off, heading for the rolling plains of the continent Morcan, where the Eesocarii-humanicaii had made homes for themselves. There were only a few thousand of them, but it was only one or two that he wanted.

[BrokenWing]

The Human Element...


Kessleck was watching the young male human they'd picked up and had been doing so for two days. He had an average human build with brown hair and dark green eyes. He was currently sitting in the observation room, fidgeting with the model ships that had been placed on a large table to help him visualize how Kessleck's people and their Illithid enemies had engaged in combat in the last several battles without shocking him with hologram technology.

Kessleck sighed and entered the room. The human put one of the models back down and looked up at him from where he was seated at the head of the table. "You always setup like this?" He asked Kessleck.

"Yes, standard procedure to approach a battle in that formation." He said.

"I see." The human, Cuthbert, said. "That seems like a bad idea."

"It has worked for thousands of years." Kessleck countered, not seeing why an upstart species had any right to say something like that.

"Is it working now?" Cuthbert asked.

Kessleck looked at him. "Do you have a better idea?"

Cuthbert looked at the models. "Give me a few days..."


OC: This next post is one of the most revealing thus far. There are a few things which I will point out are taken from other things. Regeneration is taken from Doctor Who. We actually adopted a dnd version of it as a group awhile back because we were having serious problems with characters dying all over the place, even when the DM was throwing lower level stuff at them. Characters can still perma die (pretty easily actually) and do suffer for Regenerating, but it actually gives players a lot of roleplaying opportunities even in character death. Regenerations are limited to 6 rather than 12. It is explained a few ways, depending on the setting, and is being slowly phased out in the oldest of our settings, now that people seem to have stabilized and stopped losing characters left and right. I'm not sure if I'll continue to use it in other settings, it has opened up a world of interesting roleplaying, so closing it down is something I'm hesitating to do. Even if it is something of a shameless theft, a shameless theft that opens up new roleplaying opportunities doesn't seem bad at all.

This post will also begin to reveal some major truths about the setting, fundamental changes are occurring as well.

The Battle for Mount Celestia...


Kessleck had spent days going over in his head the suggestions the human had made and begun combining them with his own experience in fighting the Ilithids. He knew he would need to do something absolutely drastic to pull off a win. Chances were good they would be significantly outnumbered. All scouting attempts had indicated that the Ilithids were planning a major push against Mount Celestia within days. Kessleck had gathered allies as well, the Celestials of course, as well as a number of refugees from fallen planes ready to seek revenge for the loss of their homes. He had planned on gaining the support of the Fiends of Hell, but somehow Apollyon, Lord of Hell, had managed to seal off the Nine Hells from the rest of the Multiverse.

Kessleck put on the ring he had been given months ago and attached the sword to his belt, stepping onto the command deck of his ship and placing his hand on the back of the command chair. Cuthbert stood at his side. The man hadn't been given a weapon, but at some point he had picked up a rather heavy piece of sphereical scrap metal and attached it to a metal shaft. Kessleck looked out over the bridge crew and knew that no words of encouragement were needed. Everyone knew what this battle would mean. They would either halt the invasion and allow their forces to begin to roll it back, or all would be lost.

Kessleck had another weapon he had brought with him. It had been given to him in secret by the Gith and installed into the ship's systems. "Let's go." He said. Half of the fleet arrived precisely where it was supposed to, just ahead of Mount Celestia, on the level of Heaven, between the invading fleet and the Celestials, who took to the sky with all manner of Divine weapons. Among them was a being Kessleck didn't recognize. She floated near heaven, looking as if she were watching, rather than ready to participate. It appeared to be an angel of sorts, but it had six huge feathery wings instead of two and gold light shone from its eyes like guiding lights in a storm.

Kessleck shivered looking upon her through the view screen, he felt as if he were looking into a void and had to will himself to tear his eyes from her image. "Keep the rest of the fleet on stand by." He ordered. Moments later, the Ilithid fleet, consisting of five of their massive motherships and countless smaller vessels shunted into the plane and the battle began. Kessleck had formed all of his ships into spherical formations which floated like great defensive batteries around the four huge Super Dreadnoughts he had brought with him. These formations had taken weeks of training, but it would pay off. The usual tactic of the enemy to divide their standard formations would fail here...and so far it was. Wave upon wave of enemy vessels launched into the fleet, only to be torn apart by the unexpected formations. Still, numbers were on the side of the Ilithids.

Great beams of death shot out from the largest ships on both sides, sweeping aside entire formations with a single shot, utterly destroying everything in their path. Kessleck had prepared for this as well. On his command the Celestials took flight, activating divine items and spells they carried to form great Force Barriers where they were needed most. The remaining Celestials engaged the small Ilithid ships in combat with the weapons of Heaven.

Even with all these advantages on his side, Kessleck saw the Ilithids steadily advancing towards his formations and watched as dots representing his own ships began to disappear in frightening numbers. Still, Kessleck remained calm. He left a majority of the minor commands to his second in command while he focused his attention on the actions of the Ilithids.

"Sir, we need the rest of the fleet." His second said.

"Wait."

"But they're closing." He protested.

"Just wait." Kessleck said more firmly.

Soon the fleets were within full weapons range of one another. The great capitol ships on both sides began exchanging fire that would obliterate mountains and shatter cities. That was when the first surprise of the day ocurred. Something enormous came down from above and landed ontop of one of the huge Ilithid mother-ships. Kessleck had the view screen zoom in and was stunned. It was a Dragon, a creature so low on the hierarchy Kessleck hadn't even thought to ask for their help. This was no ordinary dragon though, it was nearly the same size as the ship it was landing on, and its wings were equally enormous, spanning hundreds of feet. It took Kessleck a moment to get over his surprise and recognize the creature. It was the much talked about (among Dragons) and until now, theoretical, Progenitor Dragon, a creature said to be almost as old as the Multiverse itself. The dragon sank its claws into the mother-ship and used its mouth to rip the entire bridge super structure free, tossing it aside like a child's play toy. It then tore into the rest of the ship with extreme fury.

Soon however the dragon was beset by a swarm of smaller ships and had its own battles to fight. No other dragons seemed to have arrived with it.

Kessleck shifted his focus to the rest of the battle and felt his ship shuddering under the impact of enemy fire. Alarms began sounding and suddenly he was standing face to face with an Ilithid invader. Somehow they had found a way to teleport some of their people onto his ships. It would cause chaos, especially if they could kill Kessleck.

Kessleck was too slow to block the Mind Flayer's sword, but a field of force energy from his ring did it for him. He drew his own Force Blade, activating the blade of white energy. They were soon exchanging attacks, blocking and slashing at one another. The Mind Flayer backed off for a moment and Kessleck didn't hesitate, realizing it was about to try to shred his mind with a psychic attack. He flung his sword at the creature, impaling it in the chest and sending it to the deck plating in a pool of its own vile black blood. Kessleck never saw the one behind him and would have been slain with a sword thrust to the back if not for Cuthbert, who smashed the creature's skull in with his improvised weapon and spit on the corpse. There were others on the ship, and Kessleck quickly dispatched security forces to deal with them.

As a second Ilithid mother-ship exploded and the Mind Flayers redoubled their efforts the formations of both sides began to break down, the ships were now engaged in hundreds of one on one battles with other ships, with Celestials and with one really large, really angry dragon. Kessleck watched in shock as two of his own Dreadnoughts exploded without warning, turning into miniature suns as their enormous reactors exploded, casting great shockwaves into the air around them, enveloping dozens of ships in their expanding novas.

"Now!" Kessleck ordered. The other half of his fleet shunted into the Plane behind the Mind Flayer forces and launched a new attack into the enemy, sowing confusing and destruction. It all seemed to be going so well, until the largest ship Kessleck had ever seen shunted into the system...the Mind Flayers had held something back too...

This mothership was the size of Mount Celestia itself and it launched a new, enormous wave of ships into the fray. There were too many now, there was no way they could hold off all of this, especially when the new ship destroyed a third of Kessleck's Dreadnoughts in a sudden, immense volley of fire. Beams of force energy tore into the Dreadnought, shredding its armor plating in moments, tearing into the softer interior of the ship. Secondary ammo explosions began tearing into the ship, causing the large frame to shudder and groan. The second volley of fire hit precisely where the first one had, digging deep into the vessel and gutting it with internal fires and explosions. The ship shuddered again, listed for a moment and then plummeted to the ground, crumpling and exploding on impact.

As hopeless as the battle now appeared, Kessleck had one last card to play...though he suspected this was going to take the efforts of more than his own ship. "Direct all fire on that ship." He ordered. His fleet began firing upon it, trying to break from their own engagements to do so, but their firepower was massively reduced.

"Fire the Cataclysm." Kessleck ordered. The ship's power shut off a moment after he gave the command. Every light blinked out, life support shut off, the shields, what was left of them, dropped and the engines cut out. A moment later however the ship shuddered violently and a beam of pure destruction shot out from the prow of the ship. The beam was half the size of Kessleck's ship and arched through the air, utterly destroying everything in its path. "The Cataclysm" was a device engineered by The Gith, a magical device that he was told drew upon the power of the multiverse itself and cast it out as a weapon. It also took every last drop of power his ship had just to fire it.

The beam struck the new Mother-ship's shields and kept going, not even slowed down by it. Kessleck had unleashed the fury of the multiverse itself and nothing could stand in its way or stay it's judgement. The beam bore into the ship's prow and armor, internal structure and the guts of the ship simply began to vaporize. By the time the beam faded, the ship had lost its prow and a good twenty percent of its mass. No ship built could survive that much destruction and remain operational. IT began to falter, secondary explosions tore new holes along its spine and the vessel began to slowly fall from the sky.

"Oh God.." Kessleck said, as he realized the ship's course. It wasn't just falling, it had been set on a suicide course with the heart of Mount Celestia itself. As power began flickering back on Kessleck ordered continued fire on the ship, hoping the fleet could cause it to break up before impact.

The Progenitor Dragon swooped in, moving up from beneath the ship and slamming its incredible bulk into the falling vessel. The ship shuddered and slowly, painfully, it began to lift upward instead of drag downward. The most powerful dragon ever conceived put everything it had into changing the course of the ship, but even that didn't seem as if it would be enough. Kessleck wanted to leave the Dragon to its task, for it was after all, just a dragon...even if it was an amazingly large and powerful one. But losing Mount Celestial despite all that had been sacrificed here was not acceptable...and part of Kessleck understood that his world was ending, even if they won this war and the old hierarchy simply didn't matter anymore.

"Can the Cataclysm fire again?" He asked.

"Not without destroying the ship." His second said.

"Living is over rated." Kessleck said. "Fire."

The Cataclysm fired again and Kessleck could feel his ship falling apart beneath his feet. Metal twisted and groaned and electronics all across the ship began exploding with the strain. The engines faltered...and died and his own ship began falling from the sky.

The Cataclysm beam struck the falling ship precisely where he had wanted it to, right in the middle. It bore through, but the ship was too thick for it to cut completely in half. The Progenitor Dragon saw its moment however and latched its claws into the front half of the ship, straining its great wings to lift it away, putting the immense arcane energy that flowed through its body into the effort, pushing far more mass than he could have otherwise. The ship pushed up a little more, groaned..and broke in half. The rear half of the ship crashed harmlessly into the ground. The other half was still going to hit Mount Celestia, despite everyone's efforts to halt it's course...but thanks to Kessleck's aiding of the Progenitor Dragon...it was only going to crash into the levels known as Heaven.

The Progenitor Dragon tried until the last moments before finally relenting and dropping from below the ship. It glided to safety on the ground and collapsed, utterly exhausted.

Kessleck's own ship crashed into the ground as well, but when the smoke cleared he found he was still alive, though the same couldn't be said for a majority of his crew. He picked himself up off of the ruined deck, pushing a huge piece of metal out of the way in the process. Cuthbert was staggering to his feet with obviously fatal wounds. Golden energy began to flow from his hands and head and he threw his head back, screaming in pain as the Regeneration process began.

The remainder of the crashing Mind Flayer ship slammed home, crashing into the Eternal Perfection of Heaven, plowing through divine structures, rock and everything else in its path. Metal sheered off and crumpled, structures collapsed and the ship exploded at last, about half way through Heaven...The explosion took off the top of Mount Celestia, utterly destroying Heaven and some of the most powerful divine beings along with it. Rocks fell and everyone in their path died.

Kessleck stood not far from the base of Mount Celestia, watching the remaining Mind Flayers break off and flee, and watching smoke rise from what had once been the top most levels of Mount Celestia. He turned his eyes then to the enormous dragon that had sacrificed so much to protect the mountain. It staggered to its feet and much to Kessleck's amazement, golden energy flowed out from its claws and head and it too began to Regenerate...
A being with natural Regeneration? Does that mean it could spread from the Humans? It can be born into other races from cross breeding?

There was much to celebrate, but the Celestials simply went home...they had to rebuild, and regroup. Their part in this war was done and their home had nearly been destroyed in the process. The great being he had seen with six wings landed in front of him though. "I will sit in judgement of your kind at the end of this war. You have torn apart all that I am, you have allowed outside invaders to despoil my gardens and destroy my machinery. Everywhere you go now, you scar me."

"But we must fight them, we can't let them take everything over and do far worse damage than the war has to the Multiverse..." Kessleck said, his void drifting off as he realized the implications of their conversation...

"Yes." She agreed. "But must I sacrifice a part of myself to end this? We will see. You use weapons that destroy entire cities, is this the way you would fight war? Destroying what you seek to protect? I am not impressed." She said.

"Who the hell are you to judge my people?" Kessleck asked in anger.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the Beginning and the End. I am that which you seek to protect and that which you scar. I give life, and I take it away. I am your creator, and I may well be your destroyer." She said, vanishing.