Mars- The Red Planet (IC)

September 30th,2019

Time: 5:49 pm EST

Crowds of people swarmed the open field a few hundred miles away from the NüGenesis headquarters. Some brought blankets to sit and eat, while others sat in their cars and talked about what was to come. Adults were getting off of work, and kids from school, and when they did,they traveled to this area to watch an event that will change mankind as a whole, and to the convenience of those that are in foreign land, they could watch the event live on any social media platform. Before the crowd, an array of large cylinder structures swarmed the fields, and behind those structures was where a building, no larger than a standard apartment building, laid. However, despite the calm atmosphere of the audience, inside was a bit hectic.

Men and women in white coats rushed around the building, taking measurements and making sure everything was going as planned. Around a few hundred men and women wore specialized spacesuits with certain emblems to represent their careers and where they worked. Marcques walked around the room his showcased confidence gave hope to some of the engineers and co-workers, but deep down, he was scared more than anything. His first mission to Mars ended up having him tell families that their loved ones didn't make it, and that was only a small handful of people. Now, he was going to send 300 people on a six day journey (thanks to the technology provided by WARP) across the cold grasp of space to a planet that is probably a host to a multitude of lifeforms. His anxiety was overwhelming and time felt as if it was standing still to make him feel this way. He looked at his watch, '5:51 pm' , it displayed in its clear QLED screen. 9 minutes left until the speech, he began to feel uneasy, as if his stomach was on the same roller-coaster his emotions were on.

He looked into the eyes of the courageous men and women who were going to partake on this dangerous adventure to the Red Planet, he memorized their faces, their voices, and their families. He imagined himself in their shoes, leaving his daughter to the chance of never returning back, all in the name of humanity. Just the imagination killed him on the inside, he couldn't imagine what they might be feeling. He watched as the scientist who were going to be staying on Earth escort the astronauts to a back room, leaving him alone. He sat down, stressing about if things went wrong, he buried his face in his hands, as if to hide his worries. In fact, he was planning to call the entire off just so that these people can have the certainty of seeing their families, just when a small voice called him from around the corner.

"Daddy?" It said as the voice belonged to a little girl, not just any little girl, his very own daughter. Mica came into full view, with his secretary by her side. The little girl ran to her father and buried herself in his arms, as if she could sense the worry in his eyes. The warmth of his little angel filled him with both determination and worry. He didn't want to rob anyone of this moment with their children, but he remembered that they put themselves on the line to ensure mankind had its future. He couldn't back out now. He hung on to this moment, drawing upon every second of her warmth to fill him with more strength. From behind her a clock displayed the time, 5:55 pm, it was almost time.

He ended the warm embrace, and got in his knee to look Mica in her beautiful hazel eyes. "Today is an important day for us. I'm going to have to make a speech today, and I'd like you to be by my side. Can you do that?" He asked his daughter, he knew he needed her to give him strength, but he also wanted to expose her to the world of influence, and what she could do if she has the right attitude. Mica nodded in acceptance, and grabbed his hand as the two headed out the room and onto the field. It was now 6:03 pm, and Marcques was about to start his speech. The crowd hushed down, and laid their eyes on the Man of Tomorrow and his daughter. He cleared his throat, took a sip of water and gathered his thoughts.

"We as a race, have always looked up at the sky, and wondered, how are we going to get there? This question crossed our minds for thousands upon thousands of years. It drove the Wright brothers to make their first aircraft and was scattered across the desk of scienctists and novelists alike. It helped us get to the moon and fell the sand under our feet. We launched space stations to orbit our planet and telescopes to look into the vast darkness to see if there could be hope for us yet. Now, my friends, we have the means of going to our brother planet,Mars and set human eyes to witness the red dust and human feet to set foot on the Surface of the planet. And not only that, we have to means to ensure they have places to live as they journey on the Martian Planet. Please, ladies and gentlemen, stand on your feet as I name these men and women of valor to their journey to the stars. Nicholas Lanoff, Ricardo Orns, Sasha Mitchells…" He named every single individual, and while he shook their hands, Mica handed them White Rose picked from the Garden of the Nürdstrum estate.

When they were all inside, Marcques took a glance at his watch, 6:54 pm, it was almost time for actual launch. The cylinders than dropped, to reveal elegant space ships, each with their own purpose and in the middle of them were four large ones that housed the actual astronauts. The rest carried the materials needed to build the Orion Colony. Underneath the rockets were beams aimed directly at a dot consisting of a nuclear reaction core and the result was the energy being harnessed within the rockets' energy core. The rockets began to illuminate the night sky with orange and blue. Even Marcques wasn't expecting the glow to be this bright, he turned to one of his scientists in concern, and he received a nod of reassurance that everything was going as planned.

Marcques held Mica on his shoulders and listened as a man on a megaphone made the countdown. "10" His heart began to beat quicker as they loaded on a sphere with a 360° Ultra HD resolution camera on board. "9" Marcques made a silent prayer for the safekeeping of the astronauts "8...7...6..5..4...3..2" It was time. "1" The ships were lifted off the ground and a bright white light was emitted underneath them as they rocketed towards the sky. The crowd roared in celebration, but even with the celebration happening in the background, Marcques was worried about the astronauts and the dangers of space.

October 2nd, 2019

Time 5:00 Am EST

Three days later, the recording of the astronauts' daily lives were viral for the three days since the initial launch, with over 590 million still watching.. The members had great chemistry, which was a surprise due to the large number of them. The bio-human guards monitored and checked the supplies they had and made sure they were good to go. The scientists and engineers talked about their specific fields and taught the others about them. The chefs shared fish-based recipes and taught others about them. The overall atmosphere was calming, they even had video footage of the outside, so those interested can view the aesthetic side of the cosmos.

Within the individual ships, there was a sphere that propelled itself with quick bursts of air. They was controlled by Marcques and gave him one of a kind information, and even let him communicate with the passengers of the Odyssey. Marcques took a few days off of his usual routine of supervising NüGenesiss to stay at home and watch the project. His daughter was currently asleep, which was a delight because he had some time to pay attention to the project. The astronauts waved at the sphere as it passed by, and continued their routine as it left. They were halfway there, just as planned.

Marcques left the TV and headed over to the dining table where, in the dark, he laid out the plans for the Orion Colony. He grabbed a red apple and bit into it as he laid out the plan in his head. He paced back and forth his forehead, until he came with a solution to the problem he had in mind. "That's it...that'll help them" He said, satisfied with his conclusion. He headed over to the phone and gave his company a call in advance, just to make sure that the security of his astronauts he sent into space.

A hole in reality was torn asunder some many miles near the orbit of the red planet known as Mars, and in another the same had transpired. A bright light manifesting as a bridge between two parallel universes, the feat possible thanks to an extremely powerful psionic empowered gate coming from the Mars of not this world but the other. Yet despite this the bridge between both realms could not be held for very long and it's size was only just large enough to the travel of one unidentified vessel into this realm, when it passed through the gate behind had closed and the hole in space was there no more.

October 2nd, 2019

"Status report?" the youthful Empress of the Cabal Empire questioned her second in command of the Capital Class 'Grievous', his response was quick and detailed as he explained the conditions of the personnel and status of the on board weapon systems of the ship.

"In short, the crew is just suffering from the transference of the psionic gate but most of our weapon systems seem to be glitching and only the primary cannon of the capital ship is unaffected other wise the rest of the ship systems including life support and controls are fine" Admiral Cullen replied back to his Empress while having his head tilted down in respect to the Supreme Commander of Martian forces.

The Empress however wore an anxious face, while she agreed to be on this mission believing that her psionic powers could prevent the ship from being torn apart during the transference but she never had to use it in order for the travel between two realms to succeed. A strange new world could have unforeseen threats that were possibly even more dangerous than the ones she wanted her people to escape from "Is this Mars the same as our other?" she questioned a general inquiry that anyone in the command room was free to answer.

"We can't say for sure yet your highness, our scanners will take a few minutes to make that determination. But..." a random officer said before pressing a button on a digital computer which subsequently brought up an image of this reality's Mars.

The young empress let loose a small but pleased smiled as she saw it "Finally, a sign of hope" her words uttered softly in a room that had gone silent as everyone else in there had too gone silent. The images of the red planet would be displayed to the rest of the 17,000 psionic beings aboard the Grievous, their structures that dotted across the landscape and the orbital defenses that protected them from the 'Blue Devils' were not on this Mars but there was also no old scars from the original home-world in this one which gave everyone on board the idea that this could be their second chance of having a peaceful existence.

Personal Log: Lucraias "Luke" Jackson October 2nd

The days are getting lighter; Winter is approaching; the spirits of the people are rising. I've spent this past Summer fighting but my scars are healing well. My sword is quite blunt after so many battles and I have recently discarded it due to my newfound abilities, I still remember not my true home, only snippets of where I truly come from, but I know that I am needed here, these humans will need a protecter as the begin their first journey to another planet. And so a hero I may be, but my head is always bowed to our creator and our mother Sh'atna. A humble heart is a great gift indeed.

Luke Jackson would be audio-recording this log over the Atlantic Ocean where he drifted with a slight frown on his face, the colonization of Mars was something that Luke agreed with greatly, the advancement of this race was greatly needed as a whole and Luke knew that it needed to be nourished and protected.

It had been a few days since the humans had shot themselves off to the Red Planet, and Luke had been biding his own time until he knew it was his moment to join them in space, he thought that this was a perfect time. The alien had called off of work and had gotten enough time off so that he could comfortably work without pressure. With a slight thought of moving upwards the sky bent to his will and he flew no -soared- into the air with vigor. From the sky comes a sound as if thunder could be stretched. So Luke tilts his head upward and with so much as a slight movement he shoots even farther into the air vanishing into the white in the deepest of blue skies. He can feel the the cool air pressing against his face, and he begins breathing in a steady rhythm...and he smiles.

Through the stratosphere, Luke opened up his eyes and saw a clear image despite the fog set so deep into his eyes. Then abruptly, the dense air sank, making way for the haze of the barrier allowing him to escape the blotches of blue and green of his so-called ‘home’. He grinned deeper and propelled himself further for the impact; and with a burst of energy, he arose higher...

And he flew faster.

As Prime passed through the heavens, supernovas and galaxies exploded into his vision with endless colour and energy radiating off them - so close to his warm skin. The heat was immense yet his body embraced its beauty and power turning it into fuel. He could feel the pulse of the energy coursing through his veins...and his body pulsed with stored energy. He circled the Earth and then made his trek towards the Crimson Planet.

As Luke Jackson soared through the Sol System he began thinking about when he first arrived here, how lonely he had felt, how desperate he was to return to a place he could no longer remember. His mind raced. He felt gravity pull at him.

He had reached his destination.

The Odyssey floated in the dark reaches of the Solar System, pushing it's way closer and closer to its destination of Mars. The frame around the exotic surroundings was filled with ominous brittle silence, for there was no gravity to hold the ship firmly nor was there gravity to supervise Luke's mind. As he floated alongside the ship his cape fluttered out and was enrobed the brimless sparkling pool of "space". The hallowed pool of subtle light had adorned itself with the diamonds of thousand moons and of thousand dreams, for these weaved themselves on that cosmic ether of divinity......all hung in the frame of "galaxy." And Luke crept even closer to the ship until he was inches away, then taking out a note he had written prior to his trip here he pulled out the paper that had been shielded from the harsh reaches of escape velocity via Lukes TK shield. And he pressed this beautifully written note against the window of the human spacecraft.

I'm here to keep you alive. You're welcome.

Then he offered a wave. Just to be nice.

Over 280,000 pounds of equipment, roughly ninety independent operators trained to operate said equipment, and the ammunition, spare parts, weaponry, and auxiliary equipment needed to operate on Mars. Overall, more than 320,000 pounds altogether.

At a minimum of 10,000 dollars per pound just to escape orbit, this mission should have been impossible.

But then NuGenesis stepped up, throwing all their resources at the problem. Hyper-efficient designs, entire human ecosystems, all the things necessary for work, love, entertainment, and sanity. They made plans to terraform Mars, and W.A.R.P. Labs provided the means to get there. Ridiculously efficient fuel systems, a means of propulsion that operated at speeds hitherto unheard of by man.

Suddenly the impossible job they all signed up for, the job they were told would "never really happen", happened.

And Sera was there for it all.

"This is funking ridiculous. You told me this was a publicity stunt, that we'd be tying our names to this bullshit to rep the brand. That this'd all blow over in a year and we'd be sitting pretty back in Colorado! What am I going to do for two and a half years?"

She huffed, tugging at her hair as she paced the length of the minuscule barracks that had been allotted to her and her fellow "officers".

Jacques watched her from his bunk, comic book in hand, lazily flipping through the pages in the artificial grav.

"It ain't all that bad. You brought all that VR junk didn't ya? Play that."
"That was for the six week trip over! Not a two year snooze fest on planet dust-ball!"
"Well you should have thought of that before you signed on."
"I didn't— Ugh! Jackie, you're just so insufferable sometimes!"

Jacques smirked, at least until Sera snatched the comic out of his hands and began holding it hostage above her head.

"What is this Jackie? Ooh, Hawkshade X Arquitenens? Spicy!"
"You mean versus, genius. Don't make it weird."
"Where do you even get this crap? Do you draw this yourself?"
"Nope. Ordered it from a shop back home. Friend of mine works there. Loves this kind of stuff."
"You know, these pictures seem awfully detailed..."
"I told you to quit makin' it weird, twerp!"

He stood, reaching for the comic just as she pulled it away.

"Having some trouble, bumpkin?"
"You—!"

"That's enough out of both of you. We've got work to do."

Melina Hawkins stepped in, prepped in the conductive receiver suit she'd need to interface with her saboteur exosuit.

Jacques quickly straightened, snapping to attention.

"But Mel, I didn't hear anything over the—"
"Trust me Park, you will."

Just as Melina spoke, the intercom blared to life.

All security staff to stations. This is not a drill.
Repeat, all security staff to stations. This is not a drill.

"Well, shit."

"Suit up. All of you." Melina slammed her fist against the door controls, propping them open so the rest of the crew could filter through.

The team scrambled through the long hallway leading to the security hangar, the reinforced laminated glass windows displaying the vast emptiness of space all around them, and the "emergency" they'd been alerted of. Pressed against the glass was a handwritten note, its ornate calligraphy spelling out a simple, somehow unsettling message.

I'm here to keep you alive. You're welcome.

The team paused, dumbstruck by the message, and the man holding it.

"That arrogantprick!"

It was Sera that piped up at last.

"C'mon. He's not going to make a fool out of us. Let's get prepped, 'cause there's no way I'm relying on that jerkwad to protect diddly-shit."

Jacques laughed aloud, slapping his petite compatriot on the arm.

"Alright, let's get it."

Ipsum glared at the metahuman as she passed, sticking her tongue out at him as she passed the window, Jacques joining in with an obscene gesture of his own, tucking his left hand into the crook of his right arm before thrusting it upward.

The next few minutes were spent suiting up in the hangar, the whirring of armored servos locking into place. Melina spoke again, her voice broadcast over the linked radio systems. "Everyone split into your squads. Steel Walls can't deploy in here, so heavy armor team remains on standby. The rest of you, anchor up around the entry points. Spare teams in between. Get the civvies deeper into the colony ships. That funcker breaches from any window, any door, I want someone there to greet him, and I don't want it to a goddamn lab coat. Get a move on!"

Their orders received, the Silicon Edge mercenary company scattered around the ship, fast responding Arrowheads between entry points, Superior Soldiers and Saboteurs at the entrances, each armed with a bevvy of weapons designed for combat against durable foes. Whether they would help against this particular metahuman, they did not know, but with luck, there'd be no need to find out.

October 2nd, 2019. SPACE...

What was a glimmer in the distant cosmos one second, was a spacecraft shifting out of hyperdrive the next. The ship (With the title of "Tracer Round" painted in white on the side) had arrived just outside the orbit of the Red Planet itself, Mars. Inside, thick combat boots stomped along the metal hallways, until finally reaching the cockpit to peer outside...

Gabby GunTons muttered to herself, scratching at her butt cheek while looking at the ball of dust.

"Zzzt So this is home? Wow, Gabs, it's uh... It's very quaint...?"Gabby's helmet A.I, "Clerk" chimed in, his tone sounding almost apologetic at the sight.

The Gun Mistress rolled her bloodshot eyes before pressing her finger against the window's furthest corner, pointing at a small blue dot in the distance. "Negative, youscrub, that's home. "Earth" is what we call it. So fraggin' off the map that it doesn't even have a planetary code number..."

"Zzzt I'll say. Not really a surprise, though. You were saying how they haven't even discovered hyper-travel yet? How do you people live!? Seriously, I'm picturing loincloths and bone clubs here."

"What? No! Well... Primitive from an intergalactic view? That's a hard affirmative, I'm actually kind of embarrassed for us, not going to lie. But savages? Nah. They have a government, cultures, cute tech and all that jazz. Trust me, you don't want Earthlings out in space. We are the worst species."

"Zzzt Uhh, yeah, I figured as much! I mean, you have met you, right? If they're anything like your punk abs, then they must be like a Ripscald infection, yeesh."

"...All done?"

"Zzzt Yup."

"Good, have the Tracer run a system wide scan, I want to see if everything is the way it was since I've been gone." Gabby walked over to one of the dozens of weapons lockers lined against the wall, all of them opening just by proximity alone. The soldier girl started picking and choosing through the guns stuffed inside, stuffed being the key word.

She was back, and she could hardly believe it. Two years out there in the fringes of space. Two years of joining up with any army that would have her, and group of mercs that had the right ideas and gunning her way through more bloody contracts than she could keep count of. All because of her damned Ex girlfriend, the turncoat snake she was. Now? Gabby GunTons could finally seek... Closure for being wronged those long two years ago.

"Zzzt Hey, boss? You wanted me to check for anything out of the ordinary for this system, right?"

"You hard of hearing? That's what I said, yeah." Gabby pulled her personally designed "Zap n Tap" plasma rifle, giving it an inspection while absentmindedly answering her A.I.

"Sooo... Something like a freighter sized spacecraft fraggin' phasing through a wormhole?"

The merc sharply turned her head to the cockpit's window, seeing the display for herself while stomping over for a better look. Her A.I wasn't on the fritz, as there truly was a large vessel ripping itself into existence. "Clerk, have you ever seen an energy signature like that?"

"Not even close, boss. That doesn't look like any kind of warp signature I've ever scanned. Whatever it's doing, it ain't just warping from one place to another... It's PHASING into this system."

Gabby quickly sat down in her pilot's seat, pulling up an array of holograms to read and manage from. "Initial scans are showing up dry here. The design of that ship isn't even in the database, but it looks royal as frag... Independent group? Who knows. I'm expanding the scan, hopefully that's the only ship breaking space in half." She did just that, enlarging the hologram to scan for more ships. Surely enough, there was more.

Gabby leaned back in her chair, placing both hands on her helmet. "What the frag!? Seriously, this doesn't make any sense. There hasn't been this much spacecraft activity in this system for ages, never mind a freighter sized vessel. Huh. Hmm..."

"Zzzt Cool story boss, truly. Are we heading to Earth now or...?"

The gunner squinted, leaning forward again in her seat to madly work with the holograms. "Negative. This has all of my attention now, for now at least. Think about it. We have this ship over here, breaking the laws of physics... But then there's more activity inbound to Mars. With any luck, Clerk, we might be looking at some kind of conflict here. A conflict means job opportunity, a job opportunity means payment, and payment for GunTons is...?"

"Zzzt More guns-"

"You bet your digital balls it means more guns! So shut up, sit back and relax for a fraggin' second... We just need to watch and wait to see how this pans out..." Gabby grinned like any proper devil would, kicked back in the pilot's seat and grabbed her plasma rifle once again to start cleaning it. Soon enough, all would be revealed.

Vespaindica Complex

The moon under siege by stars seemed to lighten the night bringing forth stars that shone and hung in the blackness. The never ending blackness consumed everything. Except the stars which stood out like pebbles in front of a storm. Ever enduring these shone with the night cowered in a inky black sky (linked to squids). It seemed like guerrilla warfare as the darkness controlled the sky yet the stars controlled the gleaming spots of where they originated. The war continued across the constellations. Luke Jackson floated in that said darkness with a comfortable ease that made it seem as if he was simply swimming rather then drifting in the depths of space next to a ship that was about to colonize Mars.

His hands sat on the window with his note still hanging there, and though they were inside the thick walls of this spaceship Luke listened in, and he heard them speak.

"Everyone split into your squads. Steel Walls can't deploy in here, so heavy armor team remains on standby. The rest of you, anchor up around the entry points. Spare teams in between. Get the civvies deeper into the colony ships. That funcker breaches from any window, any door, I want someone there to greet him, and I don't want it to a goddamn lab coat. Get a move on!"

Luke could hear the clicking of guns being loaded and the shuffling of feet as men and women scrambled to their positions, and Luke could only think of one thing. Weakness. These humans drifted in the cosmos with nothing more than high tech human equipment. He would drift around the craft until he found a door. And the alien would pull it open with little effort. Stepping inside the craft alarms would blare but would quickly be shut off due to Luke pulling the door closed again behind him and his eyes would glow as he looked around and gathered in his surroundings.

When he was met with opposition he would look at the humans and cross his arms looking at them with a small smile on his face. "I wouldn't suggest opening fire. In this space it wouldn't be wise for you." If they decided to open fire their guns would prove ineffective against the Aliens indestructible skin, but regardless of their decision the Alien would do something truly weird. He would wave. Then he'd walk forward in the ship. "So, who's going to give me a tour of this human craft, I can have us to Mars ahead of your schedule." And with that...Luke Jackson was apart of the colonization mission. Whether the humans liked it or not he was going to help defend these people.

Time 1:00 pm

Mica was in another room, gaining education from the multitude of professors he hired to teach her. While his daughter was learning, , he was outside watching a screen of the mission. Still a few hundred million were watching the ships at the time, Marcques being one of them. He transitioned the rocketed sphere cameras, and spoke through them, having conversations with the multitude of the crew on board. However, a few things made him uncomfortable, one of them being the alien that was just hovering outside of the door. Another, seen from the cockpits of the four main ships, was a dark ominous object orbiting the Red Planet along.

"Sh*t" Marcques muttered under his breath, as he came to the realization of it being another alien ship. And what it seemed like in the comments a few other people were worried about that as well. Marcques decided to stay quiet as to not bring any further attention to the situation at hand. One of the spheres hovered and recorded the interaction between the Silicone Crew, giving a refreshing breeze of humor and relaxation to the tension at hand. The ship cruised down a few more miles,going a bit faster due to having more fuel than expected for all of the ships. However, the entire Internet went crazy when the slightly unexpected happened, the alien broke in.

Instead of panicking at the sight of such potential disaster, he began to collect his thoughts and began to map out a plan. This situation required delicacy, as to not cause any casualties, because by the way he just entered a spaceship in the vacuum of space, the alien didn't appear to care much for human casualties. Marcques used one of his controls, and began to prepare for future interactions. One of the hovering spheres, scanned the alien's biological composure and sent the information to both Marcques and NüGenesis.

"Hello, there and Good afternoon from down here" The sphere appeared to have spoken, however Marcques was just speaking through a microphone. The alien asked for a tour of the ship, or at least of the four main ones, or did he mean the dozens of ships that just held materials that surrounded them? Marcques took the safe route, not wanting to get smart when people can die "As you can see, we preferred if you would've knocked first, but as I can see, you're already here. So this ship is identical to the other four. Where it has a specialized area for each of the fields of science " He'd avoid going into details, as he was sure the alien didn't need them.

. Seeing how he had the advantage of surprise, he decided to use the alien's potential enhanced senses to gain the advantage of Intel as well. "Excuse me for asking, but could you tell us what's exactly going on the Red Planet? And if possible, to view what they're made of on the inside?" The sphere turned to the Silicone Crew and the dozens of Bio Human soldiers that were ready to execute the intruder. "Please, stand down." Marcques ordered, a slight tone of concern mingled with the words.

A sense of urgency rose inside of Marcques when he realized the potential dangers of the alien being able to hear that far. And he quickly when to work, he sent a message to all of NüGenesis to work on the new Intel received from the sphere. Marcques brought to the screen, a computer, a notebook and a desk. He began to analyze the data and see what could be possible with it.

"What's he doin'? Bailing?" Jacques scoffed, rolling an armored shoulder as their metahuman visitor moved away from the window. "What a wuss."
"You know that's not likely. Looks like he's headed for the—Shit! Everyone anchor in! NOW!" Melina sunk her anchors into the alotted ports onboard just as the pressurized doors ripped open, air currents whipping out into the void of space. A few of the unlucky ones, the slow ones, went sliding and skittering across the floor as the telekinetic powerhouse whipped the portal open and closed again. Luckily for them, and for their intruder, no one was sucked into the void of space.

Melina glared as her men trained their weapons on the stowaway, holding up an arm for them to hold fire as they closed in. If he'd wanted to antagonize them he could have killed them all in an instant. He'd caught up with the damn ship, after all.

The orb that floated in just confirmed her suspicions. They were not to open fire within the ship. Its interior was rated for the might they could bring to bear, but battling it out in a tin can that opened to the icy void of space was nobody's idea of a good time.

"All of you, back to stations. Keep the suits charging at the designated ports. I want everyone on full alert until we get there." Hawkins waved them all back, her own small band of armored operators moving forward to. "I guess that high-tech beach ball and I are going to be giving you your 'guided tour'. You want to help? You talk to him. I'm just here to make sure you don't knock anything important over." At eight feet the suit gave her a considerable size and weight advantage, but seeing as metahumans didn't play by the rules, it was little comfort for Melina to be glaring down at her target from within the normally intimidating metal shell.

"You're the one in charge, Dr. Nurdstrum. Lead the way."

Over encrypted channels, she sent orders for Jacques and Sera to keep pace a short distance off, out of sight but ready to act. Jacques stayed around the corner, mockingly imitating the posture and speech of their metahuman guest, Sera snickering in response, but both obeying.

A few hours had passed by and unfortunately it would turn out that the Capital Ship Grievous had all its secondary weaponry systems permanently disabled due to being damaged beyond repair much to the dismay of the Empress however the bad news was someone alleviated as scanning of Mars was completed and the underground networks and composition of this Mars had a 99% identical match to hers and was this fact solidified her decision to make this planet their next home.

"Your highness, our sensors have indicated a space vessel near Mars. How shall we respond?" Admiral Cullen reported to the young ivory haired woman who sat on a throne in the center of the command room. "Begin the protocol Administrator Marra Saloks set up for this situation, unless they attempt to contact us. Radio silence begins now and all our forces are to communicate between each other through psionic links" the Empress said casually as she waved her hand and focused her eyes on the data that was being sent to the terminal by her throne.

Marra Saloks the eldest sister of the Empress was a treasure to the advancement of the Cabal Empire, she always had a plan for almost any possible circumstance and the one that was about to be put into place now was one her sister carefully prepared. Beneath the belly of the large Cabal ship an opening was revealed then a handful of structures but to be exact multiple two story tall dome like buildings were launched in rapid succession from the belly of Grievous, down towards the surface of Mars before the opening was closed once more.

The protocol Marra Saloks wrote and gave Tarra was in the event that should her ship ever reach Mars and detect no signs of life that she would immediately advance to set up a base of operations should unknown vessels approach them. Tarra did not know why Marra gave her these instructions but she trusted her sister and with her telepathic abilities began to give instructions to the crew of the Grievous, one of these was to issue orbital drops of several Kell Marine squads onto the surface of Mars.

With in seconds the structures the Cabal soldiers were in would begin to withstand the heat of re-entry then finally a collision at terminal velocity, normally most space craft would be outright destroyed or suffer extreme damage but not the Cabal bunkers for they were specifically designed by the engineering corps to be able to be rapidly deployed into areas of heavy conflict. When these dome shaped bunkers landed on the surface of Mars they were completely unscathed where as the immediately vicinity was flattened regardless some more minutes passed by and a pair of Cabal Soldiers in vacuum insulated clothing would exit one of the bunkers that fell on Mars to only then plant the flag of their Empire onto the ground per one of the many instructions in Marra Salok's protocol.

Luke Jackson stood in the hallway of the ship with his hands clasped behind his back. His feet dug into the metallic ground around him and through such physical contact he could feel everything on this ship. While he had opened the door to the ship he knew the soldiers had cleared as soon as his fingers had grazed the metal. If anyone had flown out he would have grabbed them via his telekinesis.

And due to his superhearing, he could hear everyone. And he could hear everything they were saying. And he could see everything they were doing.

But he made no change.

As they strode through the ship Luke would use his X-Ray vision to scan the rest of the ships, each of which served different purposes while simultaneously listening to the woman who stood at 8 feet.

"I guess that high-tech beach ball and I are going to be giving you your 'guided tour'. You want to help? You talk to him. I'm just here to make sure you don't knock anything important over."

"Yes. I am aware." He said tilting his head to look at her unashamed, his telepathy shining out and if she wore no defenses he would pick up her comfort on standing above her...and he smiled. "I would catch anything that fell over." The humor in his voice was evident and he would continue to walk forward. Luke's posture and demeanor was that of a soldier, and while he was an alien, war was a language spoken in every tongue. He looked upon the ships with interest and he asked no questions, said nothing.

But then the sphere spoke.

"Excuse me for asking, but could you tell us what's exactly going on the Red Planet? And if possible, to view what they're made of on the inside?"

"Of course." Scanning out with his mind he would drift into focus, picking up everything "Nothing more then a simple gun runner looking for profit." But then his senses would pick up on something else, a crash upon a surface. A bunker. Feet. Weapons. Soliders. The ruffling of a flag.

"Prepare yourselves, there's activity on the planet. Be prepared for anything."

He'd look at Melina serious, the former bravado and joking done, his eyes burned bright with the heat of his vision and he'd hold out his hand for a clasp and he'd say to her. "Can we fight together?"

Then to The hovering sphere "I can get there and scout out the area if it's needed."

He was receiving large streams of information, NüGenesis employees were confused about what to do with the newly received information sent by the exo-sphere. They couldn't just created a syringe that gives people the same powers of the alien, nor could they just conjure a potion that just weakened the durability of him as well. NüGenesis was in a state of bewilderment as scientist from all of their branches hurried to find an answer.

Still at home, Marcques, was busy soothing everyone, both onboard the Odyssey and online. They needed to be calm in order to do their jobs efficiently and avoid potential casualties. Hearing that there is a gun dealer on Mars didn't at all ease the mind of Marcques, because if an extraterrestrials being was selling guns than that means someone was buying. Immediately after, the alien told him to be prepared, which confirmed his suspicions and so he immediately came up with a game plan. "We're driving in the darkness so we need to become it . Those in the Silicone division, please escort the scientist in your ship into their sleeping chambers to avoid then giving off heat signatures. Turn down the heat to its least but bearable setting, and cut off the engines. To all off them" As the lights turned off, the vantablack coating of the ship helped it blend in with the cosmos. The sphere turned to Luke, "We need you to be a diversion, but conceal what you're truly capable of to avoid them feeling threatened by you. All we need is for you to be multiple people, but on the other side of the planet " He was referring to the alien's speed, because you have to be some form of fast to catch up with a spaceship a few thousands of miles away from Earth before they were notified.

They were right over the Red Planet, and time seemed to be ticking. While on Earth, NùGenesis was busy trying to silently figure out ways to counter the alien's unique biology. While on the Odyssey, Marcques's voice guided the people on board the ship. A couple Bio-humans roamed the dark ships, they had a multitude of weapons in their being, and were ready to use them. Marcques, spoke through to sphere, talking to Luke once more "Oh, and if they do confront them, be friendly. Don't do to them what you did to us. At least try, for your safety and ours"

Marcques stopped spoke when he received a text message from one of his employees: "We did, we found a way to counter his power. Sending you the plans now" Turning off the mic Marcques received the plans, and sent them to WARP Labs. His hope restored a bit, and gained a little bit of confidence in both himself and his employees. "We can do this" He said as he turned towards his house. "We CAN do this"

"Can we fight together?"

What a joke. Like a man asking a roach if they can cohabitate.

Melina turned an iron muscle, servos whirring as she cranked her arm. "You act like we'd got a choice. Just do what you do best, Over Man, and let us handle the small stuff." She nodded to the high tech ball floating in space, ordering her men to shepherd the scientists into place and escort engineers to their positions where they could manipulate the ship in the ways the good doctor had specified. Before she took off to do the same, however, she turned to speaking sphere.

"Oh, and it's 'Silicon Edge', as in the tech that wins the day, not 'Silicon'. We're not here for boob-jobs, doc."

She turned, muttering to herself about the sheer banality of the job ahead. They were officially redundant.

But that didn't mean they were toothless.

Be friendly, the other one says. We weren't hired to make friends.

She cocked her rifle, ordering the remaining squads to power down temporarily, leaving their suits on standby. The Heavy Armor Unit was also alerted, so that they prepared themselves for deployment at a moment's notice. And then the wait began, the tensest part of any conflict. Jacques and Sera continued to snicker in the corner, but Melina just waited, letting the coming cold sink in before the heat of battle took hold.

"You act like we'd got a choice. Just do what you do best, Over Man, and let us handle the small stuff."

"Nothing you beings are doing is small. You're making big steps. Keep running."

Turning his head dutifully he would listen to the sphere, and the one controlling it.

We need you to be a diversion, but conceal what you're truly capable of to avoid them feeling threatened by you. All we need is for you to be multiple people, but on the other side of the planet "

"I have an idea, it's genius." Stay hidden. In a blur of red and blue the Prime Being would vanish back into the void of space, this time the door opened and closed so fast that the void had no time to begin sucking anything.

As he shot through the cosmos Luke slingshot himself around the planet Earth until he immerged on the opposite side of Mars facing the ships themselves...Hovering in the Mar's atmosphere Luke Jackson floated with his arms crossed, a tiny speck on a huge planet, but somehow his powers range out through space.

With a tiny smile the Telekinetic powerhouse would raise his hand and the ground thousands of feet behind him would rumble, but then it quieted. But dust rose...So much dust. It looked crusty like dried blood but it rose...all the way to space. And try as gravity tried to pull it apart, Luke's very power held it together. And as it reached the void itself it began to shift, and form words. And the observers would read it. The humans needed a distraction, a peaceful distraction. Luke could do that. Yeeeeeah. He could do that.

The dusted words read.

Hello there. I am Prime. Would you like to play a game?

A smile shone on his face as he floated there, arms extended. And while he waited for the newcomers to respond. Luke began to use his telekinesis...and he would give the now dark space fleet a large push forward...and now Luke waited to see if anyone wanted to play with the planet busting alien.

The Odyssey and its companion ships have finally touched down on the Martian soil. And from the inside, the Bio-Humans began to discuss the plans amongst themselves. A man, tall and dark, takes charge of the situation and began to discuss among them. In his helm, communications with the other Bio-Humans guarding the other three major ships can listen in to the communication. “Today, is a day where we have to be on top of our game, people. Now, we need the E-364 division to be the first to touch down on the ground, because they have what it takes to uncover the ACE As and get them up to gear,and get the coms up as well so we can talk directly to our supporters. Next, us here at the W-560 will set up a perimeter to scan any forms of life. As we have seen earlier we are not alone. The ones in the W-457 will set up the Habitable Atmosphere, to get our scientist to a safe location. Now, who’s every left needs to take care of guarding the scientists in case anything gets under our noses. Now, let’s break.”

The Bio-Humans were at work with superhuman efficiency, because ,thanks to NuGenesis, they were more than just human. Men and Women alike bolted from their respective ships and got in the position they were told. Some turned on their helmet’s full capabilities, providing them with sights everywhere. The others went to activate the Machinery, and thanks to the specialized suits they had, their original strength was doubled, allowing them to leap upwards to unlock the other ships with the Materials on it. In less than an hour the ACE As would be up and running. And in the meantime, Bio-humans scanned the extraterrestrial land for heat-signatures and electrical signatures, while concealing their own thanks to the armor.

Their black boots crushed the tender soil beneath then as they raced across vicinity to see if life was nearby, however, they knew it was there. The ships, the aliens, what they picked up, it was evident that some form of alien life had to be here, but where was the question.

Back On Earth

Marcques just finished his phone call with a person in China. Running his hand through his slick black hair. Marcques blew out some steam in his beach-facing patio. Despite the wind and the seagulls that begging for his attention. Marcques focused on the ocean, the raging sea in which consumed and killed. Was he going to be the one that got these men and women killed? Or was it that he was attracted to the destructive power of the sea. Anyways, neither made sense to him so he dismissed the thought, the video footage of the touchdown gave the Martian project a boost in the numbers of people watching. Total to around 600 Million.

Touchdown. Finally.

The Silicon Edge crew, initially antsy and long tired of sharing limited space on the cramped tin can floating through the cosmos, donned their modified Martian exploration gear and deployed alongside the NuGenesis biosoldiers. They fanned out, overseeing the construction of the domed spaces that would soon house human scientists and soldiers both.

There was electricity in the air as the heavy mechanized suits maneuvered to and fro, assisting construction and patrolling pre-established borders. Their eyes were sharp and their muscles tense as they waited within their steel shells. They were not alone, or so they were told by the superhuman who had accompanied them. Massive "Steel Wall" exosuits stationed themselves in a loose ring around the proposed settlement site, SEED-CM exoskeletal soldiers darting between the main settlement site and the outer perimeter, ferrying supplies and outfitting the larger machines with heavy metal shields and powerful exo-mounted weaponry. Part construction crew, part army, the Silicon Edge mercenaries began work immediately, and would not tire until some semblance of a structure capable of maintaining life was complete.

In the background the colony ships unfolded themselves to dump supplies and personnel into the swirling red dust, tensions high as they all awaited the appearance of the ones who had arrived before them. Fellow colonists or Martian natives, friends or foes, humanity waited with bated breath at how their crew of cosmic explorers would fare in the fated meeting between the two sides. Millions stared on as the rusty iron sands swirled and churned, their eyes scanning for any chance that those sands might redden further with the blood of the intrepid Terran explorers, their voyeuristic desire for entertainment by blood tempered by the dread of contact with a wholly inhuman foe, one that might turn its eye to Earth.

While the Vespasindica orbited Mars, an orba drone surveyed the planet closer scouting for anomalies. It ripped through the air with quicksilver speed and had the appearance of the liquid metal, Mercury.

"Temperatures at 18 degrees Celsius. Surface gravity rated at 13g." DEMI assisted the drone, eschewing the optional remote control feature installed onto the Orba device.

"Unidentified object." the A.I. detected a sentient crafted object erected from the red sands. The image was projected proxy a livefeed to the Vespaindica ship and it's crew. The red, white and yellow flag emblazoned a bird, possibly a Phoenix at it's center. Flanking the flag were soldiers of a foreign species of people.

The Orba flashed a sweeping, blinding blue lens flare across the alien's gaze before the projection of a blue non-binary emerged. The liquid-metal drone lingered with the hardlight projection before beaming off to continue it's planet survey leaving the non-binary alone with the aliens. "I'm Hecate." the non-binary stated. Although appearing as a blue phantasm, a spectre of consciousness sparked and traced the electromagnetic wavelength for transmission signals the aliens channeled communication through. Naturally she sought the transmission to obtain a pseudo telepathic reading on the settlers knowing nothing of the phonetic expressions they used. Their language.

Away from Hecate and the first encounter, the Orba drone resumed it's survey speeding at 300 kilometers per mile across the sands expanse. It pierced through the soft brush of Mars dust winds and cataloged Mars spatial data for the Vespasindica. A crater with crusted over ice capping the rim of the bowl emerged into view and a symphony of green electronic lights dance across the Orba's mutable and liquid silver form. A green globule jettisoned from Orba and impacted the bowl. Tiles of hexagon symbols emerged creating a digital cascade from mid-air and synthesizing to crysallize a geodesic dome over the crater and ice. The dome radiated to a prismatic circumference, creating hardlight constructions to fill and measure the empty space between the ice, crater, and roof of the geodesic construct. With the data recovered and resource secured the Orba continued its survey….

@kell_saloks

Luke Jackson's sudden arrival caused a scowl to form on the young Empress's face.

To the others she appeared displeased but the truth behind that scowl was that she was afraid, being a leader of the entire Cabal Empire meant that showing distress would in turn cause those around her to have doubt in their capability to succeed and morale was something the Cabal could not afford to lose not here and not now.

She raised her hand and pressed both her index finger and middle finger against her temple as she addressed all seventeen thousand crewmembers of the Grievous.

"An odd individual has appeared before us, no one is to engage him in any sort of way in fact I order everyone to behave as if his presence was nonexistent. His power appears to be second only to me, because of this let us hope that ignoring him will be sufficient to deter his actions any further and maybe even cause him to leave"

With that order transmitted and received the rest of the Cabal forces would continue their pre-planned procedure. The advantages of being several hours ahead of anyone else allowed the ground forces of Cabal to place dozens upon dozens of hidden sphere shaped motion sensors across hundreds of kilometers of Martian soil, the onboard scanners aboard the Grievous were enough to provide all the information for colonization however the ground based sensors the Kell Marines were placing in well hidden areas would allow them to monitor the movement of any other beings far outside their telepathic range even including the ability to transmit live feeds of detected motion to the terminals present on the Cabal bunkers.

The bunkers of the Cabal came with numerous supplies, basic essentials such as food and water along with medical supplies and weaponry. The large bunkers were pretty much minibases and command centers which allowed the Cabal to skip the setting up process and go straight to inventory management.

Cheap disposable Martian Drones were armed with SMG Gauss Rifles and positioned in various checkpoints around the bunkers to serve as Sentries, while disposable they still possessed perceptive abilities that surpassed that of a human in addition to greater accuracy with firearms so they were pretty decent expendable units all things considered.

First Contact

The human fleet was detected much later than the other orbiting ships by Mars however the crew aboard the Cabal Empire didn't really care about one or two ships because they appeared just too small to be of a significant threat and so were dismissed as simply a scouting force or random travelers.

What was clearly an archaic human fleet ended up being what caught the full attention of the Cabal, weren't it for the fact that the human ships appeared so poorly equipped and outdated that the Grievous decided not to open fire with the main cannon fortunately. Then without even attempting to communicate with the Cabal Empire the humans dared to land on the new world the Cabal had set their eyes on, Tarra was deeply offended after all even in a completely different universe humanity seemed to not have the slightest amount of respect for anyone.

The Empress audibly scoffed, she wanted Mars for her people and was willing to fight for it but maybe at the back of her mind she believed she could persuade the technologically inferiors humans of this reality to back off and in turn save both time and lives. Empress Tarra Saloks issued another telepathic order that reached those aboard the ship and those on the surface of Mars with the order being simple, to hold their ground and give a warning to those who trespassed their perimeter should that warning be ignored they were free to use any means necessary to ensure the sovereignty of their territory.

Second Contact

Kell Marine Zasuke stood by the flagpole of the Cabal Empire, he and his squad as well as all the others dropped to the surface were veterans in the Cabal-EDF war. To them this mission was considered one of the most important ones in the Cabal Empire, afterall prior attempts at colonization for the Empire in their reality resulted in poor success due to the EDF forces always being able to reach their territory.

This was different, Zasuke and his people should they get a foothold on this world most assuredly would be beyond the reaches of the EDF. They would have to drop everything from the old world and start anew here but it was worth it in his mind, to ensure the security of those he loved and cared about.

Bzzt, motion detected. Warning unidentified object rapidly approaching.

A Martian Drone that was serving as a sentry suddenly stated as its fine optic detected an incoming drone. It raised the Gauss SMG the Marines had outfitted it with but did not open fire it couldn't without being attacked or ordered after all.

Zasuke tilted his head up towards where the drone pointed at then pressed his index finger and middle finger against his temple, a telepathic message instantly relayed to not just his squad nearby but all the others that were connected in a psionic chain that allowed the one hundred and twenty five Kell Marines on the ground what could be considered perfect real time communication .

When what appeared to be a holographic image was projected before him the Marine's body language shifted to one of surprise, his psionic shielding was up and he had entirely expected a bomb of some sorts to be dropped on his position but then he realized it was just a old habit from the old world. When the female figure before him introduced herself the Kell Marine wondered if it was a live projection from some human on a ship or an actual artificial intelligence, regardless he did not reply to her until telepathic messages went up and down from the chain of command.

What could have taken at-least minutes with traditional communications only took mere seconds with the Cabal psionic link and Zasuke was given permission from the Empress herself to initiate communication with Hecate

"Hello Hecate, I am Kell Marine 0116 of the Cabal Empire" he replied back in perfect English however with a unique accent not found on Earth. He gestured to the squad of other Marines that were slowly walking up a hill towards him "this land you're on is being officially designated as territory of our empire per the decree of our Empress. What business have you here?" his tone through out the conversation was perfectly neutral and his fire arm pointed down at the ground in a non threatening manner.

@marcques_: @humansfirst: @kell_saloks:

The Planetbusting hero floated in the void of space with his dust-letters suspended with him, he could hear the buzz of thoughts from the martian ship and he instantly recognized telepaths. Hmm. And as he floated there he noticed no one wanted to play with him. Everything Luke was doing was to induce fear. Fear makes beings sloppy, makes them slip up and cause mistakes. Fear causes a victory for one side and defeat for another...and Luke was quite good at his fear tactics. The dust letters would begin to shift until they formed new words.

You don't want to play?

The void of space suddenly grew bright from the lethal glow from his eyes.

I promise the game is quite fun.

A hum of telekinetic energy rippled from around Luke.

You may not know it...

Luke began floating towards the ship, drifting towards them with his arms crossed against his chest. The words kept changing, their font changing from at first kind and peaceful to deformed and demonic.

฿Ʉ₮ ɎØɄ'ⱤɆ ₳ⱠⱤɆ₳ĐɎ ₱Ⱡ₳Ɏł₦₲...

He would drift even closer. Until he was almost nose to nose with her main ship, he didn't even bother using his enhanced senses to peer inside. He could do so at anytime. This was important. Luke would look at the nose of the ship and a smile would form on his lips. Luke's face moved a little too slowly, as he was taking in the surroundings more than anyone else. Then he grinned. As he did so it seemed that even the temperature of the void fell a little. Even in the dim light of space they could see his bared teeth. It was a Cheshire grin of sorts, the kind that was so wide it was more as if he wanted to eat everyone rather than say hello...

₳₦Đ ɎØɄ'VɆ ₳ⱠⱤɆ₳ĐɎ ⱠØ₴₮.

Then he was gone. -But his words remained- In a blur of red and blue it seemed as if Luke Jackson simply poofed out of existence, but in reality he had shot down towards the planet to wait for the humans.

When the Human's arrive

Luke would make his way through the crowd of people until he reached the main command. "Things didn't go exactly according to plan. But we adapt and we learn, I believe I had success either way."

Luke would spend the rest of his time helping the other humans until he heard the approach of foosteps that weren't human, and he was instantly on the alert.

"Hello Hecate, I am Kell Marine 0116 of the Cabal Empire"this land you're on is being officially designated as territory of our empire per the decree of our Empress. What business have you here?"

With a fold of his arms Prime would back away and let the humans talk to the martian. He was a solider, not a political peace-keeper. He'd fight when he had too, he wasn't gonna talk negotiation stuff...not in his wheelhouse.

Over the communication line with HQ, Melina overheard the overbearing alien announce his supposed success as she was performing her final weapons check on the semi-automatic .50 caliber rifle.

"Things didn't go exactly according to plan. But we adapt and we learn, I believe I had success either way."

She rolled her eyes. As expected, the nameless metahuman? Mutant? Alien? Whatever he was, he didn't manage to charm the friends they'd hoped for. Next she checked the 50mm grenade launcher and 4 Gauge shotgun, mounted on opposing shoulders, finishing the weapons check by powering up the forearm mounted energy blade, striking out at a nearby stalagmite. The blade sliced martian silicate easily enough. Last, but perhaps most essential, a booster check. The directional energy coughed up sand all around her, propelling her a half-dozen feet in the air before he came down again, satisfied that everything was fully functional.

And then something in the red dust caught her eye. A sphere of metal, obviously not natural, gleamed in the dull Martian sun. She recorded it from every angle she could capture without disturbing the object, aware that it could be an explosive planted ahead of time by the enemy, and then transmitted the footage back to NuGenesis' command room.

"I'm gonna need to know what the hell this thing is, eggheads. For the rest of you out in the field, be aware that we have possible threats. Spherical objects hidden in the terrain, possible explosive devices. Keep your distance."

"Roger-dodger Mel. I'll keep my eyes peeled."

"Really? Mines? Well that blows. We've got a hard enough time with those on Earth. The last thing we need is a bunch of them on Mars. As for you, Mr. Roger-Dodger, you better stay alert. You're the only one not in a full exo-suit, Jackie."

"Possible explosives. As in not confirmed, Sera. The NuGenesis staff will tell us what to do with them and what they actually are in a moment, but obviously you should stay calm and avoid them wherever you can."

"Yeah, well it's easy for you to be calm, Ky. You've got like 2 tons of metal on every side. Poor Jackie's basically our canary over there, just waiting to get popped by one of these things so we know danger's close."

"You know, I really resent that twerp."

"You know you love me, Jackie."

"Quiet. All of you. Remember we're on the job in a hostile environment with an unknown entity planting tech in our territory. If you don't have anything valuable to say keep the channel clear."

"Roger that, Mel. Park, goin' quiet."

"You got it, Hawk. Ipsum out."

"Understood. Lemon on standby."

Melina Hawkins took several paces away from the mercurial metal orb, annoyed by the fact that the landing site had ended up so being so close to territory the enemy had already charted. Just the fact that they had been there to mark the space with these objects boded ill for humanity's attempt at expansion.

The longer she stared at it, the more ball annoyed her. So she decided to do something about it. She moved to a ridge in the distance, twenty meters between her and the sphere, and took a shot with the rifle. If it blew it blew, and if not, then it would be one less mystery device to contend with.

"Lemon here. I'm getting something in the distance. East ridge of the volcano, 40° 30′ 0″ N, 250° 24′ 0″ E. Humanoids @kell_saloks, by the look of it. Putting up shield. Airburst ready. HQ, do I engage?"

Melina glanced down at her map. They were at the edge of Alba Mons, taking the high ground. Not a good position for Silicon Edge, or anyone, to engage an enemy from.

"Hey, floating billiard ball (@marcques_), you want to make friends? Now's the time. We're not waiting for more of them to move into that position. You better ready up the heavy hitter @luke_jacksontoo. I don't like the idea of charging in blind without serious backup. As for the rest of you, get ready. The enemy's got the high ground, and we're still not sure what they're capable of. Those of you not assigned to perimeter guard, converge on Heavy Armor Squad 4, and make it quick. The last thing we need is the enemy jumping us in the interim, so don't give them the time to think about it. I want you there ten minutes ago, so move!"

With that she bounded across the ridge, projected energy booster system carrying her at speed to rendezvous with Lemon's squad 4. If conflict was coming, she wanted to be there, and if it came down to conversation? Hell, she'd be there for that too. The last thing she wanted was for one of the jokers like Ipsum or Park to go around representing humanity to their neighbors.

Back on Earth

Marcques paced back and forth as he watched the Colony make itself ready. WARP Lab's ACE As were a huge help with the development of the Orion colony. His eyes searched the screen as he now manipulated a rover to view the progress. He looked at the view score, it was still high, but not as much as before as only 200 million people watched the stream. The camera of the rover captured a multitude of men, woman and robots maneuver over the Red Planet's dusty terrain. The Silicon Edge crew were a large help in this development, making a note to pay them generously. Sounds of feet running, large machinery at work, laughing, and commands filled the atmosphere of the human colonization crew.

Marcques watched the screen, squinting to sharpen his focus. He was leaned back in his office chair, and his desktop monitors gave him a near 360 veiw of the rover. As his eyes darted from monitor to monitor, in his perithual vision, he noticed something in the office with him, silent watching him from afar. He was already tense from the possible dangers of Mars now this. As he reached underneath his desk, he turned arounund. And to his surprise he saw Mica and every single pet in the house sitting in that same corner. Marcques relaxed a bit. A little curious to why she wasn't doing her lessons, he took a quick glance at the monitor's clock to find that it read 8:40 pm.

"And how long have your and the Backyardigans been sitting there?" Marcques asked, now fully turned to his daughter. He seemed impressed because she managed to bring 15 animals inside one room without them making a sound. Marcques watch as his daughter practically unburied herself from the large amount of fur, feathers, and scales that were her pets and pull up a chair next to him. '

"5 o' clock" She answered as she watched the screens. "Someone's calling for you.." She pointed out, and Marcques turned his attention to the screen. "Dr. Nürdstrum...we may have a problem"

On Mars

Jordan, the one who initially gave out the commands, scanned the terrain for any signs of life. His helmet protected him from the dust particles that swarmed the air of the Red Planets weak atmosphere. His boots easily dug into the ground of Mars and his focus was set. The ACE As, all 30 of them, were up and running. They took over the construction portion as they were better fit for it, and the Biosoldiers took to security and escort. He watched as the massive machines, constructed from WARP labs ingenuity, grabbed hold of the materials required to build this. He sighed of relief. Pretty glad they were on his side.

He was interrupted in his watching as one of his comrades came running behind him. "J" The man said, as Jordan wasn't an official head yet, but had a way of leadership "You gotta come see this" The two jogged to were a small group of biosoldiers were clustered together. A small object, hidden out in the distance, was in the hands of one of the Biosoldiers. "So, this UIO was found here. Upon close inspection seems to be some sort of surveillance." They spoke through the intercoms (intercoms as in interconnected communications) in their helmets to prevent the device from picking upon their sound. "And how did you find this?" Jordan asked as he eyed the device. "Well, the E-Visor(their means of veiwing electricity) picked up on an unknown electrical pattern between atomic bonds"

Jordan stopped listening as he pictured up the device, in the case that it was a cameras. He buried it in the ground, and called for a group of engineers to be taken to this site. He began to worry. First an alien fleet, and now surveillance tech? This was beginning to be a lot more than it initially seemed. This could potentially be an alien race planning to execute. Meaning they had to be hot on their toes. Still speaking through the intercom, he warned other Biosoldiers about the confirmation of their being life. And gave the task to some other Biosoldiers to find any more of these devices laying around.

Sitting in the middle of the construction site, the rover that Marcques controlled remained there idly. So Jordan run up to it an informed the man behind this one what was happening:

"Dr. Nürdstrum, we have a problem. We are being watched, the one of the surveillance devices has been confiscated. But we're certain there are more. The colony is around halfway done and everyone is safe." Jordan was then called on by one of his

@kell_saloks said:

What could have taken at-least minutes with traditional communications only took mere seconds with the Cabal psionic link and Zasuke was given permission from the Empress herself to initiate communication with Hecate

"Hello Hecate, I am Kell Marine 0116 of the Cabal Empire" he replied back in perfect English however with a unique accent not found on Earth. He gestured to the squad of other Marines that were slowly walking up a hill towards him "this land you're on is being officially designated as territory of our empire per the decree of our Empress. What business have you here?" his tone through out the conversation was perfectly neutral and his fire arm pointed down at the ground in a non threatening manner.

"Kell Marine, I am a representative of the Mi'Bith Empire. Our species are inhabitants of Mars. I am surveying the land documenting it’s flora, fauna, terra firma forecast.." Hecate skipped through the registry in their programming. ”Sentient life.” They grew to an esoteric size, reaching a height that would rise out the deepest gorge of the Yarlung Tsupo Canyon of Earth. Hecate’s digital sky blue eyes beamed bright through the deep haze of drifting red dust. “We approach with peace and efficiency of subsistence unlike the maladroit sentient life we’ve monitored for centuries on the planet Earth.” At a statuesque height, the A.I. scanned the geoscape, broadcasting the horizon and desert vistas of Mars which were smaller and closer in scale to the eye than in comparison to Earth’s.

In the orbit, an egg-shaped pod deposited from the Vespaindica breaking into the Mars ozone-devoid atmosphere. A mere speck to Hecate’s 3,000 mile high stature and 500 foot width. An iconoclast projection of the Cerulan's analysis of the Earthborne. Homing in on the land the A.I. spatially charted through it’s electromagnetic acuity, the pod made regimented landfall on the Valles Marineris canyon. Crashing into the crusted red sand, creating a shimmering explosion of ice-coated, red dust. Blue lights illumined the ovaline capsules vertex and eight, hovering drones exited the pod. They immediately hovered over regolith resources, dismantling the bedrock with their front legs and collecting the particle materials in their hind legs like baskets. They repeated this action with mechanical modus. Automation assigned to create a natural radiation shield from the deadly space radiation of solar flares and cosmic protons that easily engaged the ozone-empty planet.

The Orba drone surveying the planet at 300 kilometers per second hovered at the land site and flashed a green display of lights before spitting a Myrme shield out, cascading a hypermobile, hexagonal barrier at an edge lining the Valles canyon leading down the cavernous gorge below. The Apis drone's worked diligently gathering the regolith resource, unmoved by the lethal impact of UV millirads, lack of oxygen and cold temperatures.

Motion Sensor Update

Motion sensors were getting captured or even destroyed by humans from Earth, however the Cabal investment came fruitful in exchange for the cost. Since the humans were unaware of the exact nature of the devices, data would be sent to the terminals located in the bunkers of the Cabal, these terminals would transform this data into relevant information such as troop quantity based on the amount of pings detected by the sensors and even the patterns or patrol paths used by the humans based on how often they traveled a particular area.

Some sensors were they to be damaged to a certain extent would explode with only enough force to destroy a cellphone then it would release the purple psionic energy that made the object function in the first place, by the estimates from the analysts in the Cabal bunkers about 20% of the motion sensors had been detected and neutralized in some form but due to their vast range in excess of over a hundred meters some would still be able to detect the movements of the Earth colonists.

Troop Response

Before the security forces of Earth had even entered visual range the rest of the Kell Marines had become aware of their incoming advancement however they feigned being unaware of their presence while stealthily positioning a dozen or so Martian Drones with textures and colors that blended perfectly like chameleons in the rocky and dusty scenery of Mars, the drones were positioned in such a way for a perfect ambush covering multiple angles while also being very difficult to pick out of the scenery.

The drones were still on the Cabal side of territory and their usual red glow of their optics was gone to further improve their stealth, the drones were on a standby state awaiting potential provocation or further orders.

Negotiations

Zasuke's head tilted slightly to the right displaying obvious confusion in his body language, he awaited what words to say from Empress Tarra Saloks before continuing in a perfectly neutral tone "Our scanners never detected any form of life before we arrived, it's likely we both arrived at the same time" standing firm the Kell Marine ignored the warning of potential enemy advancement to his position and continued talking to the representative of the Mi'Bith Empire.

"Our Empress believes in the old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend" Zasuke paused for a moment before cautiously continuing "However this planet, we intend to keep the entirety of, not because of greed. The Empress wants you to know that" Zasuke pointed his index finger above to where the Cabal capital ship hovered in space. "The citizens of our Empire have been in a long lasting war, our current territories are unsustainable even our original home world is too close to the enemy home-world to effectively win the war, many of our people are going to be relocating to this planet as a result"

Zasuke per order of the Empress would hold his Gauss SMG with one hand and offer his other hand to Hecate in what was a gesture of unity "Still your forthcoming honesty is something the Empress appreciates, if you are willing to respect our claim to the planet we can negotiate parts of the planet that the Empress is willing to set aside for your group to inhabit. Would your superiors agree to this proposition?"

Hecate shrunk their size to meet eyes with the Kell Marine. They projected a hyperreal, simulated image of the Mars terraform the Mi'Bith empire envisioned. "We have monitored Mars. The Cerulan race prides itself on co-existing with other species versus destructive, egotistical and clumsy power plays at the expense of their people and environment. "

At the Valles Marineris canyon, The Vespa drones worked adroitly. One collected the Mars soil, analyzing the abundantly high traces of perchlorate compounds. An Orba drone zoomed low, picking the Vespa drone up to transit into the Vespaindica to deposit the perchlorate sample to the Volta Squadr. "We've studied how the Earthborne live. And while we have kept our distance we have successfully assimilated Earthborn into our Cerulan culture. " Hecate's hyperreal simulation depicted Cerulan, Martians, and Humans co-existing in a techno-ecosystem that architecturally constructed a megacity with the Mars land environment. Not against it.

"An alliance would serve us both well. " the Artifical Intelligence stated, reading over data caches detailing the untapped bacterial life resting dormant under the Mars surface. The Cerulan were a peaceful race, but pacifism was easily overridden to protect their people. The red planet was teeming with bioweapons potent towards humans.

Marcques sat in his office, as he had an appointment with someone. The colony was set up by now. Everyone was well established in their sectors, which range from armory to psychological support. The biodomes were set up, providing both environmental protection and support to those who were inside. Biomechanical, biochemical, were now being developed as to protect themselves. Now, things would get hard, a gut feeling inside made Marcques felt certain that the Alien, Luke made the alien colonist fell more threatened. The now, hologram of Marcques, sat down with the rest of the scientist. Thinking about the negotiation that may need to be had. He got everything together in his mind. And called for fastest transportation there, Luke. "Excuse me, do you think you could carry me over to the people you saw today? I'm sure you can busy inside there and put them in there knees, but we're just going to knock."

While the surface of the colony was finished, the AAs were busy drilling underneath the colony, getting the spaces ready for any shelters and large laboratories that are going to be set up. They made sure that the channels underneath the colony could support the colony from above and began to build the materials there as well.

Peaceful. That's what Luke thought of the Red Planet as he stood in a storm overlooking the planet with his watchful gaze. His sight streaked through any barrier, nothing hid from him. He could hear every sound, every voice, listening in with a protectors ear, and a warriors gaze. It was calming for Luke to just sit still and soak in the suns rays gaining in power, growing in strength, and planning for what would happen if battle broke out. With the fleet surrounding them, he knew that battle was nearby, it was practically an inevitability. Anyone who thought different was foolish.

His peace was broken as the voice of Marques peaked into his ears.

"Excuse me, do you think you could carry me over to the people you saw today? I'm sure you can busy inside there and put them in there knees, but we're just going to knock."

In a blur of pure unbridled speed and motion Luke would burst from his resting position and grab the robot the businessman had been using and shot him to the resting place of the alien beings. Setting him down Luke would look at the others, both females and he would look at them with his brow furrowing, but then his mouth would break into a smile as he nodded to the women politely. "Don't pull any funny business and we'll be fine. I'll be over here watching...." Taking a few steps back Luke would resume his stationary and almost lifeless position as he stared in an unknown distance at an unseeable something. Put he was still scarily alert. And would spring into action at any moment.