Main Story Overview

The main story is the main story. Noo shit woa   It is the most important and central story to SJ as a whole, and all the other ones connect to it, whether directly or not. The Sequel and Prequel stories are just that, Mariah's ties to the prequel, a potential Scintil prequel connects to his stuff in the main story, and the super distant sequel is still, in a way, a sequel to the main story, however disconnected.   The titles of these sections are also likely a rough guideline for episode titles (though some sections like the post-New Suterr section or Gvanhla's base would be split further). Assuming I keep up to that, which is not guaranteed. The (or: x) is more so what happens.  

Spoilers for the main story, obviously.

 

Potentially sensitive content; non-specific descriptors of sometimes rather brutal violence, very questionable moral choices, and some non-detailed mass murder of civilians and the like

 

Quaken (Or: the Story Starts)

The main story starts in Lanfal City, with Quaken Kelkener running from members of Mad's Organization, after doing something or another, probably rather minor like messing with them and/or taking part in a street fight or some such. He runs into Skejon Aesterinn's house, conveniently nearby, and hides inside while he diverts the thugs away elsewhere. He then challenged the guy on why he's doing these reckless things, the answer to which is roughly "I'm bored". So they go to spar a little, and at some point, get interrupted by the same thugs. Fighting ensues, quite a wash on the part of the duo. Skejon then brings up a certain fellow he knows who has a sort of adventure planned, and from there, the two leave.  

Man from the Past (Or: Stringer shows up)

Now introducing, the man himself; Stringer Ventan. Skejon leads Quaken over to a small noodle shop, the only one in the city, naturally. Here, he introduces the namely man from the past, and mentions the plan and Quaken's willingness to participate. Stringer, to this, is rather receptive, and begins explaining his rough approach, referencing Mad, whom Quaken is well aware of. Stringer's name feels oddly familiar to Quaken, and some of the decor the man wears lights a dim bulb in the parts of his brain responsible for historical knowledge. They schedule a date for later, and depart.   Along the way home, Quaken and Skejon run into a person, challenging some police over something, soon revealed to be about Mad's group. Apparently, the man wants information and for the police to do something at all, but they cannot, because Mad is really good about his stuff and hasn't legally done anything wrong. Quaken then steps in, shooing the cops away by lying that he knows this guy, and reveals he knows of Mad as well, and the intention to do something about it; Stringer and the meeting upcoming and all that. This intrigues the man, inciting him to promise him showing up to the meeting, as well as introducing himself as Tarno Skenret-Asn. When prompted as to why he's this adamant about hunting Mad, Tarno mentions that his ship was destroyed and his squad killed, and the people responsible were very clearly Mad's organization. Curiously, his squad leader's body was never found. How 'bout that, eh.   They then saunter off, Tarno coming along with them to take residence in Skejon's home, lacking any such place of his own millions of kilometers from home. Quaken goes home too, very, very excited about all this. In the meantime, he goes to a gym to hone his combat skills that little bit more, while Skejon plays videogames and Tarno sleeps. When morning comes, the three depart for their meeting when the time rolls around.  

Formation (Or: Obligatory Training Montage)

As the owner (semi-legal, by a very old loophole of Anakrionian law) of the house the meeting takes place in, Stringer is naturally there. Besides him, four people participate. The aforementioned few of Quaken, Skejon, and Tarno, and a new arrival; Jon Saumer, invited by Skejon on similar premises as Quaken. As much motivated by personal excitement as Quaken, he also takes part for a very classical sense of righteousness, compared to Quaken's motivations born from personal experience concerning Mad's crew.   From there, Stringer begins a rough assessment of his new crew. Skejon passes with flying colours, capable, propely trained, and experienced fighter he is. Jon and Tarno, too, get good grades, as it were, and Stringer deems improving their skills inefficient and beyond his personal skillset. But Quaken he sees a lot of potential in, potential he can absolutely tap into, as Quaken fights very much like himself. After resolving to take the downtime before the plan to train up Quaken somewhat, he moves on to explaining the plan and briefing the main gang now. The plan is roughly as follows; head to New Suterr, intercept Mad in a trade deal, and kill him. Easy. Definitely. This is foolproof and will go swimmingly.
subtle_foreshadowing.mp4   That downtime then begins, and the gang disperses to wait the ten days before they need to leave. In this time, Quaken spends most of his time in Stringer's house, and begins training. From refining his form to seeing the limits of his abilities, Stringer does what he can. He also teaches him to cook, because he felt like it, as well as getting Quaken a new set of weapons; Retractable wrist-mounted single blades. The others, too, spar with them and each other to get themselves ready, as well as just bonding in general. At the end of all of this, Stringer decides to take Quaken for a proper spar, during which he manages to get a clean hit in via a quick burst, with some strange elements Stringer notices but doesn't recognize, and so he puts it in the back of his mind, just in case.  

Hunt (Or: New Suterr Roadtrip)

Eventually, though, the plan commences, and the gang begins moving. The first step is one Stringer initiates; stealing a car. He, along with Skejon, goes to a local dealership and acquires an RV, picks up the rest, and gets going, on Suterr's Way, the highway leading to northwestern Anakrion and from there, New Suterr. They take turns driving, mostly between Stringer, Skejon and Tarno, while the rest just wait and ride along.   A day or so later, they arrive at the Dertii Mountain Range, though the road is blocked. A military blockade, apparently, connected to the ongoing Third Invasion of New Suterr. This forces the main gang to head elsewhere, and try to find a passage elsewhere through the mountains. During this point, Stringer decides to head to bed and enable his related augments, slipping into a day-long coma for gain later. In that time, the rest find a passage through the mountain range; a road leading up to an old, strange tower. Quaken and Tarno elect to go investigate, and Skejon and Tarno stay behind to watch the car.   Now in the tower, the pair find nothing, initially, until they are suddenly assaulted by a large, powerful opponent, who quickly strikes Tarno out of the way and tackles Quaken downstairs into a dark library-type area. There, the fight continues, and Quaken manages to hold his own for a bit, until the big guy pulls out a really big sword, which ignites into flames. From here, he gets his ass kicked, as does Tarno, joining the fight. Tarno gets very roughed up, losing a leg and getting really concussed in the process. Just as he is about to be separated into two pieces, Quaken pushes himself further than ever before, igniting arcs of electricity along his eyes and body, and gaining a sudden boost in power, enough to knock the opponent away and into a boarded up window, which falls away, revealing a distant view of Lanfal City.   This, seems to snap the attacker to his senses somewhat, and the illumination of the flames combined with the new sunlight reveals a figure Quaken recognizes; the First King and Founder of the Kingdom of Anakrion, Scintil Karkena. Quaken, while very wary due to the last ten minutes, being an avid history enjoyer and loyal citizen of Anakrion bows to the Founder himself and greets him. To which he suprisingly calms down, even apologizing and providing medical aid to the now very poorly off Tarno. The situation defused, Quaken looks for a vehicle and indeed finds one; a Sandskimmer, perfect for the barren flatlands devoid of infrastructure that is Suterr's Flatland. This done, the two return back to their vehicle. From there, they prepare to leave on the sandskimmer, and move their stuff there, and continue the journey.   Once underway, Stringer wakes up, rather surprised by all that transpired. He is especially suprised by Quaken's development, being vindicated in his unspoken suspicion that he indeed can use Synthetic Battery Overdischarge, though not voluntarily. This interests him greatly, though this conversation is interrupted by Edward, the sniper of Mad's assassination squad, patrolling the area and attacking a threatening target he finds moving from a suspicious region. After a hard fight against a sniper on the high ground, the main gang is ultimately victorious, continuing along their journey with no casualties, compared to the dead assassin. They soon reach New Suterr.  

Complications (Or: New Suterr Roadtrip 2: The Returning)

At New Suterr   In New Suterr, Stringer realizes a failure in his research. When he made his plan, the part that involved New Suterr and specifically the entry there were made over a year ago, notably before the Third Invasion of New Suterr. This means that his info about the city's regulations on weapons is out-of-date, and the group must surrender theirs at the gate. This complicates things, but they move onward regardless; they have limited time. And so, the plan moves, and the main gang get Tarno medical help, and wait out the day they have.   The plan commences quietly. The main gang make their way through the vertical structures of the domed city, all the way to near the top. They split into teams; Quaken and Skejon, Tarno and Jon, and Stringer. Over a few hours, they find their way around the place, fighting mooks and such along the way. At some point, Quaken and Skejon run into Chaer, who Quaken fights, getting tied up, while Skejon is tied up by others. At the same time, Tarno and Jon find Mad, and take the shot with a borrowed coilgun.   This being Mad, it fails to connect as he dodges it before the shot is fired. He then rushed toward the two, and Jon attacks back, missing and getting kicked aside. Mad then strikes Tarno precicely twice, once with a jab in the face and then a full-force punch to the stomach, shattering his plating and folding him in an instant. Jon tries to attack again, but gets weaved and roundhouse kicked to the back of the head, knocking him down. Mad then steps on his head and starts his interrogation. Stringer then shows up, alerted earlier by the two, and starts fighting Mad, unarmed.   A great duel ensues, the two nearly evenly matched, though Mad having a significant durability advantage against the blunt force of Stringer's attacks, being a synthetic. Eventually, after quite a bit, Mad dips, taking Chaer with him on a small helicopter-thing, away from the place, and out of reach of the main gang, citing pressing matters and a desire to fight on more even ground later. Stringer does not like this, and quickly shoos the main gang to leave the city and head back to Lanfal City, grabbing the sandskimmer and speeding along the flat plains of dust and wind.   During this interval, the main gang find out, properly, about Stringer's Cellean past. The majority aren't that bothered. Quaken found out earlier, and Skejon and Jon aren't invested enough in Cellean and ex-Cellean matters. Tarno, however, is. His people have a history with the Cellean empire, and Tarno does not take this revelation well, and things get heated. Stringer manages to cool them down by convincing Tarno to go after Mad first, citing the latter also being an Admiral-Captain and them having far less of a chance with Stringer. And so, the journey continues, though tensions remain.  

Redraft (Or: Base Raid 1: Hasty Plans)

Back at base, Stringer decides on a hasty patchwork of a plan. It roughly boils down to going to the base, attacking it, forcing Mad to gather his generals to discuss what to do, and then hit them there. He, suprisingly, manages to get a local group of people who really want to take Mad down as well to go along with them, as he's worked with them and their leader before.   And so, the hasty assault begins. The main gang deem it best to split up, while the resistance militia attack head-on. The gang makes their way through the base, fighting who they find and causing as much damage as possible along the way. Stringer, in particular, finds an entire room of Mad's lackeys, and ends up killing all of them in a large fight. Quaken, meanwhile, stumbles onto Mad, facing down the bulk of the resistance and their leaders. He, unsuprisingly, butchers his way through the poorly trained regular civilians, and, while the leaders take more effort, kills the auxiliaries and takes the main leader for himself. By then, Quaken had already left, unnoticed by the mob boss.   Soon enough, the gang makes it back together, right in front of Mad's throneroom. In there, three generals are present; 2nd General Chaer, the same as in New Suterr, 3rd General, Olitsionceda, Assassin premier, and Anni, second-in-command of Mad and 1st General of his organization. Stringer being here gets them very invested, and they decide to take him on, to which he insists the main gang let him fight alone. Not a misguided decision, as he wipes the floor with them, evading and blocking their attacks with ease and retaliating in kind. Despite all that, he isn't so skilled that he could completely control a fight with three highly skilled opponents, and indeed cannot land killing blows. However, he chops off Olinda's arms, slashes Chaer's knees out and shatters his faceplate, and takes Anni, with considerably even more effort for the extremely skilled fighter, into a arm lock and is about to knock her out before Mad shows up, having the still-alive militia leader with him. He convinces Stringer to let Anni go in exchange for the leader, the executes him anyway with his sword, to which Stringer tries to kill Anni. She dodges, and the moment allows Mad to close the gap and approach Stringer proper close and intercept him. The two then agree to forget all of that and duel, as so many times before.   Go read Stringer or Mad's articles for a decent description of the duel. TL;DR: They duel an epic duel, Tarno shoots at them, hits Stringer, Mad uses the opportunity to critically wound him, and the fight ends.   At the end of it, Stringer is dying. He has a hole in his heart and his body is sliced open. He's not ok. Well, he'd survive, probably, but not with Mad alive and around. He talks Mad into letting the main gang go, and promises they'll be a decent fight later. Mad relents, warrior at heart he is, and Stringer decides to stop holding onto his conciousness, and drops. Mad then executes him, because the guy would survive all that other stuff. The main gang then leaves, very dejected.  

A Conclusion (Or: Darkest Hour 1: Internal Tensions)

Stringer is dead. Tragic, I know. The main gang manages to stay largely together, but Tarno leaves for a time. He promises to think on it, and departs. The rest discuss how to continue. Jon is largely neutral yet doesn't really know what's next, Skejon wants to take some time to rethink it and see how the situation evolves, and Quaken is incenced and wants to go after Mad right away. The others refuse, naturally, and Quaken decides to instead go at it himself, though he's not stupid enough to go and assault Mad's base completely on his own, he instead elects to gather intel first.  

Taking Initiative (Or: Base Raid 2: Solo Venture)

And so he does, venturing to the outskirts of the city, to Mad's warehouse front. He gets in, using the routes he learned earlier. It's still in severe disarray after the whole attack, and Quaken manages to sneak around successfully, discovering that Mad's already left. The then finds Anni herself, taking a shower. He waits for her to be done, thinking through his options, and then decides to make a move. The normally far better fighter is taken aback, unequipped and not prepared in the slightest, and so Quaken quickly restrains and begins to interrogate her demanding Mad's location. She gives, citing how Mad would appreciate a fight anyway, and tells Quaken that Mad is visiting Earth, and the Lunag Ri Base to talk with Gvanhla.   Suddenly, Chaer shows up with some support, and Quaken panics a little, stabbing Anni right in the stomach. She has to retreat, barely concious, but Chaer instead attacks Quaken. The two fight, and Quaken makes to leave the base, running away while Chaer chases him. They make it outside, and continue fighting. It looks like the fight is going nowhere, until Chaer's reinforcements arrive, as does Tarno. He says he talked the two other members of the main gang, and endeavoured to help Quaken. The two force Chaer to retreat, and leave.  

Capital (Or: The Big Tube in the Sky)

The main gang now once again has a focus to follow, and are rather unified again. They decide to begin leaving for Earth itself, though they first need to find a way up to Torgallon, the capital and center of interstellar traffic of the system. The routes there are rather easy, as transport is common and easily available, which the gang start making their way to. However, while the rest are figuring out an efficient route to the homeworld of humanity, Jon goes to a terminal to check out something, but gets interrupted by a member of the Assassination Squad, [skull man], who fights him. Jon is ultimately victorious, and the main gang manage to find a trip to orbit.   So they find a transport. The trip itself goes plenty well. Nothing special happens, and they make it to the capital all well and good. From there, they venture to Finira to find a suitable transport to Rakt'Akla, the center of the cluster and the only real place to find a ride to Earth at. Along the way, Olinda attacks, though after a short scuffle, he backs off. Soon enough, once the gang make it to the city, they find a Cycler making its way to Ak'Thakra, and decide to reserve a spot on the ship.   They now have some time to kill, but not for long. Very soon after they're done with that, the Brute Force Squad attacks, along with some other elements, notably [duelist woman] and of course Olinda. The main gang are split up by the combat, and end up in a very chaotic mess throughout the city. Quaken and Skejon end up near the outskirts, near some narrow alleys, Jon gets stuck in a warehouse, and Tarno finds a certain person in the city, though not immediately.   He has to contend with the [sword guy] of the brute force squad first. They fight, and Tarno manages to eke out a win by the intervention of a mysterious benefactor, his old squad leader who was notably absent at the crash site. Tarno, while relieved, is somewhat suspicious of the man, and soon enough figures out that he was the one who sold them out, for a higher position in the company they work for and compensation from Mad. They end up also fighting, which culminates in a western-style shootout between the two, which Tarno wins. He then starts heading to the end of the O'Neill Cylinder that Torgallon is, and communicates this to the rest of the gang.   Jon, meanwhile, is engaged against the [berserker guy]. In a long and difficult fight, Jon manages to beat the next strongest of the brute force squad, though taking quite a bit of damage while at it. Like Tarno, he leaves for the docks. Along the way, he runs into Tarno and Olinda. They fight again, and Olinda disables Jon with his electric spike things, and Tarno isn't that better off. In a desperate bid, he shoots a hydrogen fuel line that was ruptured in the fighting, detonating it and causing a massive explosion. With the assassin staved off for now, the two escape and continue heading to the docks.   Quaken and Skejon don't get split up, not permanently anyway. Initially, they fight separately. Skejon has to take on both the [claw guy] and [slamhammer man], and, as at base the best of the main gang, he somewhat manages to not die. Meanwhile, Quaken faces off against the [duelist woman], and decides not to take her life after she offers it due to losing. He moves on from that, and finds Skejon injured and getting beaten up, and intervenes, taking on the slamhammer guy. While the claw guy is intending to face Quaken as well, Skejon rises back up from the rubble and those two fight it out. Eventually, the two are victorious, though both, especially Skejon, are rather injured. Quaken's wristblades are also broken here, unuseable for here on out.   The main gang all make it to the end of Torgallon, where the docks are. As they make their way onward, Olinda shows up again, though so does Seventh King of Anakrion Rexilis Ileas, much to everyone's shock and awe, drawn here by the explosion and determining all five people as the culprits. He focuses the main gang initially, knocking Skejon out cold, and then engages Olinda one-on-one, while his guard deal with the main gang. In this confusion, the main gang manage to actually escape onto a ship, which leaves. Olinda has by now vanished, and Rexilis vows to pursue the main gang personally, even if his advisors really don't like this.  

Endless Desert (Or: Rough, Coarse, Irritating)

The ship makes it just fine, and eventually enters the orbit of Ak'Thakra, the tidally-locked planet and economic center of the cluster. By now, the main gang have gotten the most immediate repairs and medical aid and are all in decent enoughcondition enough to fight. Olinda, then, once again attacks. The main gang manage to escape the cramped corridors that the assassin is in his element in, and gets into a few escape pods to get planetside. Olinda seems to follow them, but in their haste they all get flung in wildly different directions. Jon and Skejon together, and the rest separate.   After the landing, Quaken has an idea of how to continue. Khar'Ak 'Than, the city Jon and Skejon landed near, is a warzone, and Quaken and Tarno ended up near the Void Traveller, Quaken having aimed at it after realizing it's what Stringer had mentioned some time ago off-handedly. Quaken and Tarno end up making it the ancient ship, eventually, but Skejon and Jon are stuck in the heavily fought over capital of the Ak'Thakran Commonwealth, and soon enough, end up facing more enemies. Specifically, the [big man soldier] and [nanomancer]. Jon handles the muscle man and Skejon the nanomancer. The fight is rather cool, involving Jon facing someone even stronger than himself and Skejon chopping the nanomancer in half and her just putting herself back together, but, ultimately, the two are victorious, and, after some sneaking around, find a jetbike thing to make their way to the ship, through the endless desert.  

Antique of the Void (Or: Revelation Space Ripoff)

Now aboard the Void Traveller, the gang get introduced to Nex, the warden, owner, and last crewmember of the near-ancient tradeship. He gives the gang a tour, and lets them stay there for a few days while they patch and clean themselves up. In the process, they get familiar with Nex, get some more information on Stringer and Mad's pasts, and so on. He also shows them something he quite likes; The Star-Reaver, a small-ish personal spaceship with an FTL drive, something rather remarkable, especially around this part of human space.   Unfortunately, Rexilis shows up, with a small army to the ship. He boards it, and comes face to face with Nex, who prevents his way forward. The two, who are apparently also siblings which Nex didn't mention and isn't really relevant, then have a duel where Rexilis comes out victorious, and orders his soldiers to capture the main gang. Unfortunately, the main gang is already well aboard the Star-Reaver, and preparing takeoff at that very moment. And so they do. One small issue; the ship lacks close-proximity chemical thrusters which would be standard on most ships of that size. Not that they'd be enough for escape velocity. This means that the only way to get off the surface is the main fusion thrusters of the ship, which are very powerful.   The main gang is out of options, though, so they kick it. The thrusters roar to life, and several hundred-thousand degree plasma pushes into the hangar, incinerating everything inside and melting the walls. The ship moves, and begins to fly, melting the parts hull of the Void Traveller near the hangar, as the trail of superheated plasma is hundreds of meters long even in-atmosphere. But the ship flies, and keeps going, all the way to orbit. Here, it's targeted by a patrol of small corvettes of the Ak'Thakran Commonwealth Military, having been notified of its "hostility" by the Anakrionian forces present, under command of Rexilis. Skejon's flying and the suprisingly robust defenses of the ship ensure its survival, but they deem an emergency FTL jump to be necessary. And so, they pick a star near the Core Worlds to fly toward, start up the drive, the bubble forms and isolates the Star-Reaver from the rest of reality, and starts propelling it forward, at several times the speed of light.  

Reality Failure (Or: Darkest Hour 2: Stuck in Deep Space)

Now in FTL, the gang can't see where they're headed. The computer systems aboard are reliable enough to approximate when to stop, and they just have to trust them. Unfortunately, they find that the ship has an unwanted visitor on the hull. Who it is, they don't know, but they can guess. They don't have to, either, as the guest spears Jon through the hull and into his shoulder with a familiar blade, then backs off. It's Olinda, again. He's here, again. Tarno decides to face him, as Skejon's busy managing the ship, Jon has a hole in his shoulder, and Quaken needs to take care of him and protect Skejon.   Tarno grabs some breathing gear, magnet boots, and exits the ship onto the outer hull. Olinda faces him not long after, abandoning the visage of stealth in favour of a stand-up fight he will likely win. So they fight, the zero-g magnet based surface adhesion unfamiliar to both, but manageable. The fight goes on for a while, until Tarno has an idea, and starts working his way toward it. At some point, he gets skewered through the stomach with Olinda's main blade, and uses that to grab onto him and push him back, onto a small hatch. He then tells Skejon to launch it, and the hatch opens, Olinda gets off-balanced, and several large cylinders launch out from it, the heatsinks of the ship. Tarno uses this opportunity to cut Olinda's one mag-connected leg off, and another heatsink sends him flying from the hull, into the FTL bubble. Contact with it, at his high speed, erases him from reality in the blink of an eye. Tarno returns to the ship to tend his wounds.   Soon enough, Skejon notices something. There's something wrong with the drive. Apparently, Olinda did some little handiwork with the drive before engaging the gang, and so something's broken. Jon decides to see what's wrong, FTL researcher he is, and takes Quaken with him, and begins working, very carefully. Some few days later, he has determined the issue. The drive is stuck in the on position, and turning it off is incredibly difficult, and you can't break it either. It takes quite a while to get it figured out, and the computers on board estimate they pass their destination a week or so in. A few days later, Jon successfully manages to turn the drive off. Their current location, previously unobservable to the gang and the ship's systems, appears to now be some 60 light-years from Sol, nearly within the Core Worlds. They are, however, nearly in deep space, and the closest star is about 0.15 light-years away, and the FTL drive is completely inoperable. They do, however, still have their fusion thrusters. Unfortunately, at a pace conserving the hydrogen they have left and still need for the synthetics and ship reactor to function, they will take about two years and seven months to get there. Well then, with no other options besides running out of power in the dead of space, they take that gamble, set up the autopilot, and go to stasis, including Tarno, since the ship has a cryo module for some reason.  

Conservation (Or: Concrete Spiders and Casualties Mounting)

The main gang arrive safely, and from their perspective, immediately. Upon waking up, as scheduled, they find themselves having ended up in orbit of a planet called Kheppi, and the singular habitat in orbit of it, called Esdrimalc. They move to dock, though they get a broadcasted warning advising caution. They are, however, in desperate need of, well, everything; fuel, food, water, and a working FTL drive, so they ignore the warnings and continue onward, docking soon after.   They end up in a rough city or research facility of some sort, hard to tell, and run into people. They're friendly enough, offering a place to rest, repair, and just wait out a few days or weeks, or however long it takes to get the gang back up to speed. This would otherwise be fine, but the issue comes when the main gang bring up needing an FTL drive. They have some, and would be willing to give one to the gang for a price, but unfortunately, they, and other plenty important supplies, are within the habitat proper, past the nature preservations where there is a certain madwoman and her alien pets. Any highways and transport routes were either blocked off or destroyed months ago, by her efforts. The main gang, not really having anything to pay the drive's price with, offer a deal; they go take care of the issue, and in return, they get a drive for free.   And that they do. They deem that they have next to no time to rest, and as soon as the worst injuries are treated, they make for the storage. Tarno gets a fancy Esdrimalc-Style Breath Filter, and they go. They make it through the alien forests just fine initially, though they run into a group of Krashchkhalci along the way. Fortunately, the alien creatures are decently intellegent and rather peaceful, though very capable of combat if need be. They realize that they truly do mean no harm to humans, which shows up later. Things are going swimmingly, and the main gang make it to the storage, where they place an FTL drive onto an automated vehicle. Then, the [zookeeper] shows up, riding one of the concrete spiders, and commanding a fair few along with her. The main gang decide to make a run for it, and over the course of a time (this section is still very undeveloped), they make it somewhat out, though Tarno, who is still struggling due to his lasting injuries, decides to stay behind to ensure the rest make it out, as the keeper is making some moves to stop the gang and the drive. And so, Tarno begins to duel the keeper on her spider mount.   It goes somewhat poorly, as his poleaxe is bent out of shape rather fast, and a time after, he gets shot right in the throat, bleeding profusely. Skejon, on a landing above the fight, dealing with some more concrete spiders, makes the heavy decision to throw Tarno Orbital Strike, one of the family heirlooms he keeps as his weapons. While less familiar with swords as a weapon, Tarno manages to use it to great effect, and the injuries to the keeper's mount give him a slight window to fire one of his special explosive rounds at the keeper's mount, blowing its head apart, then he shoots her a few times, not landing critical shots, but still knocking her off her ride. He then walks up to her, struggling to keep concious, and puts a bullet in her head, then succumbs to his injuries and collapses.   The spiders now give pause to attacking the main gang, recognizing that their strongest, the keeper's mount, and the keeper herself, are dead. They back away from the rest of the main gang, one of them being the same one they met earlier. The main gang also recognize this, and decide to high-tail it back to the city with their transport, though hesitantly as they still want to get back to Tarno. They never do.   From there, with grief in their fusion-powered hearts, they get the drive installed, and leave, Quaken taking it especially hard and Skejon managing the best, hardened and trained soldier he is. They set course for Earth.  

Earth

With their group strength reduced to three, the main gang are now in transit to Earth aboard the Star-Reaver. While they reason that Mad will likely have left by now, they may find valuable intel and/or supplies as well as generals to take down there, and besides, the chance that he's there again are not that low. Soon enough, they stop the FTL drive, and the ship is once again within proper space-time, somewhere near the orbit of Jupiter. With the somewhat simple sensor systems of the small ship, they notice the telltale signs of space combat; occasional flashes, high-power discharges, and frequent, encrypted radio chatter. The system's alight with it. They don't know it for a fact, but the Battle of Earth is currently raging in the Sol system as a whole.   This in mind, they set course for Earth itself. The flight there is rather simple, and they manage to get approach permissions to a small station in geostationary orbit near the Indian subcontinent, where their destination lies. From there, they get a ride to the planet, after selling some trinkets and novelty pieces they got from Esdrimalc featuring the concrete spiders. They land at a small airport near the base of a Himalayan mountain, and rent a small vehicle to get to their destination; the Lunag Ri Base, Gvanhla's research base in the titular mountain, some couple hundred kilometers from where they are now.  

Immoral Science (Or: Base Raid 3: Off-World)

Once they do make it, the perimeter surveillance of the base picks them up nearly immediately, and relays the information to Gvanhla's brain directly. Gvanhla doesn't particularly pay attention to this, as he doesn't recognize the main gang and is also in conversation with Chaer at the moment. He just deems them hikers or mountain climbers or whatever. Thus, the main gang find an entrance. A large door, rusting away and not much of an obstacle. The bust through, and it's then that Gvanhla is properly alerted to the intruders, and Chaer recognizes them as "those dumbasses that attacked the base, but missing one". He then decides it's a good idea to test some of his creations against them. Notably, Iota-Delta 5BD, as well as some other miscallaneous ones.   The main gang begin exploring the labyrinthine base, and decide, begrudginly, that it would take far too long to search through in a group, and split up. Almost immediately, Skejon runs into the mantis man (Iota-Delta 5BD), and gets thrown around a bunch before properly getting his grip on the fight. Jon, meanwhile, gets intercepted by smaller skittery creatures, who force him downwards through the base. Quaken, meanwhile, has the floor fall out from him, and drops into a dark space full of... stuff n things.   Skejon has it the hardest, most likely. The mantis creature is very powerful, and has the advantage of reach. It's also reasonably intellegent, all things considered. Regardless, Skejon manages, due to himself being very competent, though lacking a weapon ever since Esdrimalc. He gets no reprieve, however, as some killbots force him back and into a very large space, full of ancient weapon stores. Here he meets one of Gvanhla's finest; the [blind guy]. In a very long fight, which I will come back to later;   By then, Quaken has managed to crawl out of the hole he fell into. Covered in the liquid conduit and actual gore of some of Gvanhla's more cybernetically oriented experiments, he meets Chaer. The second General swears this'll be the last fight they have, and then the two go at it, full force, SBO at the maximum capacity each can reach. They are equally matched, and engage in a proper slugfest, Chaer abrasively trash-talking, and Quaken failing to respond whatsoever, with how SBO affects him neurologically.   Through all of this, Gvanhla is in the control room of the base, seeing the events happen and jotting them down in his logs, recording the preformance and failures of his constructs, and how to improve them later. He's probably the only one around having fun. He also prepares a large set of dormant killbots for launch, just in case.   In the meantime, Jon is pushed around by a horde of small, weak little shits. He gets pushed all the way to an elevator shaft, and falls down. He manages to reorient himself and slow his fall, but passes and destroys a fence erected down there. He recognizes it as a Faraday Cage of sorts, and begins to wonder what exactly needs that. After stopping his fall, poorly, he walks forward through a completely destroyed door, to a massive warehouse, and walks toward the balcony. It is then that he finds his answer in a surge of pain and his joints locking up completely, a phenomenon which subsides after a minute or two. Struggling to his feet and peeking over the railings, he barely sees what caused it, as the balcony gets knocked down and he falls again. A few meters below, he meets the ground, and getting up onto some rubble, he sees the cause of it all right in front of him, peering down at him with enormous eyes.  

Engine of Ruin (Or: Oh Sweet, Man-Made Horrors Well Within My Comprehension)

This creature-thing-entity is the Excitatus Iterum ad Metendum Anima, Gvanhla's little pet project, a WMD-equipped extremely hateful highly intelligent machine. Fortunately, it seems curious of Jon more than anything. The levity of seeing someone who isn't its captor is overpowering the sheer hatred hard-coded into its mind, and it does not immediately incinerate Jon with an auxiliary sidenote of a weapon. Instead, it studies him. And then, in about fifty-seven different cadences and voices, it speaks to him. It talks this and that, rambles on a little, and through all of the talk Jon can gleam that it hates Gvanhla with a passion, enough to welcome this intrusion as a potential solution to kill the little man, and that it really wants out. And so, it recruits Jon to free it, under threat of death, of course.   Jon accepts, not really having a choice, and begins working around the incredibly unfamiliar and partly completely esoteric binding relays in place, directed by the Ruin-Engine. He finds it easiest to just break them apart. Every moment as tense as the other, he keeps on going, until eventually the last one is broken. The Excitatus tells Jon that he should fight Gvanhla, since he wants to kill him as well, clearly, and he should aim for the head. Enough damage should naturally impact his fighting, but also damage his augments, further reducing his control over the facility. The beast then goes dormant for a time, for whatever reason, and Jon takes this opportunity to find an elevator and hightail it out of there. He soon makes it back up to sections that are in use, and, not long after, stumbles onto a large hall space and gets assaulted by a small experiment, which he quickly kills. He then sees a small camera in the corner, and challenges the scientist behind it to a proper duel, referencing how he clearly can't kill them like this. Gvanhla takes the bait, confident he can win.   Skejon, meanwhile, has finally won the duel through some creative use of the structural pillars and a discarded railgun he found. Crawling out from the debris of that suprisingly very collaterally damaging fight, he decides to check something out. Reading the old markings on the walls, put there specifically for if the base is left unattended for a long time, which it has been for nearly six centuries, he looks for a nearby drone control center. He finds one fast, and has a look at the general overlook of any potential killbots or the like in the base. Indeed, he finds what he's looking for. The base is full of them, actually, and while he can't get into their presets and specifics, he can, with a few tricks he learned in his military times, wipe their targeting restrictions and priorities, making them attack everyone on sight.   Quaken and Chaer are still fighting. They haven't gotten anywhere at all, and are perfectly even. Tune back in later.   Jon and Gvanhla now engage in their duel. It starts off poorly, as Gvanhla's esoteric weaponry and gimmicky style of combat throw him off guard and make it difficult to advance on him. Lasers, retractable blades, and various obnoxious tricks and external help are all at his disposal. Still, eventually Jon gets close and the tables turn. For all his augments and enhancements, Gvanhla is nowhere near the physical ability of Jon, and only barely more skilled. He still holds his ground somewhat, although not well. After losing a forearm and sustaining some head injuries (relevant) he determines the fight lost, Gvanhla calls in a group of killbots; a few sections worth of smaller ones and several large, heavy-duty ones. He then uses this break to fall back, deploying a drone to bring him a new weapon to turn the tide.   In the meantime, the Excitatus is awake again, and has decided the simplest solution is likely the best, and has begun moving up the base layers. It can, naturally due to its sheer size and mass, just ram right through the floors, and does so, blasting apart any defenses or constructs it encounters along the way. Not long after, it reaches Quaken and Chaer's position, and the rumbling from below catches both's attention. Very soon, the machine bursts right through the floor, going about its way paying no attention to the two. Unfortunately, for Chaer, this sudden opening collapses the ground underneath the two, and they fall down along with it. After a brief stumble, the two once again begin combat. This time, however, they lock arms and begin a contest of strength, pushing their SBO to the max, equal once again. Not for long, though. Quaken recognizes that the situation is far too unstable to keep at this for long, and that escape and thus continuation of the mission will not be an option soon. With this in mind, along with a reminder that his friends are here and alright as well, he pushes SBO further. Not by much, but enough to unbalance Chaer and knock him over, at which point he jumps on top of him, and begins to bludgeon his face-plating into the ground. He keeps at this for a long while, even past when the General goes limp for the final time. He slowly comes to his senses, and gets up, finds a way out of the hole, and gets moving.   A moment before, while Jon is evading killbots and keeping cover while still not letting Gvanhla out of his sight, the scientist meanwhile has switched out his arms. He now has considerably larger arms with ventilated-looking shoulders, a new chestplate, and wires and tubes running to his head. Jon soon sees the purpose of these, as Gvanhla raises his arm, aims it at a large vehicle-killerbot, and fires a blast of bright white plasma, boring inside and detonating the bot in a flash. He then does the same toward Jon, who manages to dodge. Gvanhla now decides to take out the various killbots nearby, and once he's done, Jon engages him again, managing to get into close range. Their fight continues on. Jon figures out that Gvanhla can't fire up close due to the risk of hurting himself with the blast, and keeps close, using his superior, though comparatively less now with Gvanhla's new arms, strength to keep up the pressure on him.   Quaken has by now met up with Skejon, and tells him about the situation. Before anything, Skejon hands him a pair of hardened plasma projectors he found in an armoury, to replace his broken ones. Quaken takes them for later installation. Jon's communicator is either damaged or otherwise somehow interfered with, and they can't talk to him. They discuss the possibility of having to leave him behind, until Skejon realizes the Excitatus is heading toward Gvanhla, which is likely where Jon would also be. So, tentatively, they decide to follow the machine. Apparently, it had gotten stuck in somewhere, the safeguards installed by Gvanhla triggering and it having to take time to destroy them. They use this opportunity to slip past, and not long after, find their friend in the midst of a duel with the mad scientist.   They manage to get into contact, and Jon tells them to keep going and leave him. He'll be fine, he promises, but he can't follow now. They oblige, reluctantly, and leave to a ground-to-space setup found by Skejon from the maps earlier. They make for it. Not long after they leave, Jon manages to score a nasty hit on Gvanhla's arm, one he only realizes when he tries to fire the arm, to which it melts and falls off. Jon then clocks him right over the head, to which Gvanhla puts his other arm on Jon's stomach. He tries to swat it away, but barely skews it to the side when he shoots, vapourizing a hole into his side and tearing an arm off, though at the cost of Gvanhla's hand becoming white-hot with heat and being extremely painful. He quickly tries to capitalize, but Jon is locked in as hell and prevents it, managing a very strong hit into his stomach with his claws.   (this section and a lot of what comes later on are in development and will likely change somewhat) Both are now heavily injured, and struggling to continue. Fortunately, they don't have two, as the Excitatus shows up, blasting through a wall and annihilating the remaining killbots in the space with plasma-hellfire from its weapons. Gvanhla is quickly vaporized in a bath of plasma, and the Ruin-Engine turns its attention unto Jon. Astonishingly, it simply thanks him, in its uniquely vehement way, and leaves, leaving the scientist into the base. Forcing its way through the walls and structures, it just leaves, departing onto the slopes of the mountain. Jon, then, is left alone. Mortally injured and alone.  

Cradle Exit (Or: Orbital Ring Interim)

The one thing Jon sees, managing to crawl away to an entrance of the base, is the night sky, and a shining, quickly shrinking flame in it; A spaceship, leaving the ground. Quaken and Skejon. He then collapses, as does the base behind him. Quaken and Skejon, meanwhile, go on an ancient predermined route of the ship, to the first of three orbital rings around humanity's homeworld. Nearly there, the two look behind them, and see a series of orbital barrages land near the base they flew out from. Unbeknownst to them, it was the Excitatus getting recognized as a Ruin-Engine on Earth itself, and spaceship-level force being authorized against it.   This does not concern them, though. Their only priority is getting back to the station they left the Star-Reaver in. Before that, though, they patch Quaken up somewhat, and get his new weapons installed successfully. They are now styled similarly to the ones he had earlier, only composed of a hardened plasma, projected at his mental command. They two take a moment more to compose themselves and get their bearings. They also get trackers installed, connected to each other. Just in case. They are not in a hurry, necessarily, as Chaer is dead and Gvanhla is likely as well. Their stay is cut short by the currently happening Battle of Earth coming a bit too close, and they decide to leave. They manage a trip to the station easy enough, and get aboard the Star-Reaver, target Rakt'Akla, as that is all the starmaps have, and go.  

Sea of Glass (Or: Sand Adventure, Again or: Darkest Hour 3: Jailbreak)

The trip goes all well, no issues there, besides the mood being miserable as hell. The two dock at a nearby habitat in orbit of Ak'Thakra, and, nearly immediately, get recognizes as criminals in the Kingdom of Anakrion, now holding more influence here, gained over the years the main gang missed. Skejon, injured as he still is, gets captured, while Quaken successfully escapes back aboard the ship. He's being chased, though, and he makes the decision that he should jump. Find Nex, if he's alive. He just so happens to be in high orbit. He decides to do so regarless, and grabs a parachute of a sort from some storage, has the computer make a few calculations, and jumps.   He makes it to the Void Traveller in one piece, and notices that the sand under him is oddly more solid. It indeed is, as it is partly glass from the RKMs that happened. Still, the ship remains there, if a bit disfigured on the side facing the cities and River Ak' Than, and he makes it inside, to where Nex is indeed alive and well. After a brief recounting and greetings, Quaken explains the situation. Nex determines that he likely would've been sent to the Kae'rat Penitentiary, as during this turbulent time, that is the most secure prison to be. Though it is also likely not very protected, with the collapse of a good chunk of system's societies. They manage to commandeer a spaceship somehow (under development), and make their way toward the prison station. After a very risky approach, having managed to gain access through Nex's still not-insignificant influence, the two begin the prison break.   The plan is simple; locate Skejon, bust him out, get on a spaceship, and then high-tail it out of there hoping they don't get shot on the way out. The first step is easy, and the two manage to slip by into the prison proper, as security is very disordered. They find him rather soon, and begin a riot of a sort, and grab Skejon along with them while the prison implodes into a big mess. They find their way outside, Quaken being very callous about all of it, and find a ship out, one with an FTL drive no less. They get in, shooing away the other prisoners, while the guards approach. The ship takes a while to get strarted, and Skejon warns that they need more time. Nex, then, volunteers to stay behind, as he has no real stake in their mission. He does tell them to kill Mad, for Stringer's sake. They two leave, alone again.   (underdeveloped; under development)   The trip to Ochtotne Prime takes merely three days. They note news chatter about how the Stalwart Sentinel has been hijacked somehow by unknown assailants, which seem to include those of Mad's organization. Quaken has an idea from this, though he dresses it up in a way he knows Skejon won't find completely unacceptable. The two decide to make for the ship, and try to board it themselves.  

Sunk-Cost Fallacy (Or: Alone, Now)

As the ship is currently being boarded, Quaken and Skejon make it on board easy enough. They decide to head toward the bridge, since that is where their target would likely be. On the way there, they get split up by Mad's lackeys, and Quaken gets routed wrong, and gets lost. Skejon, meanwhile, manages to make it to the bridge, and finds Anni there, decked out in her full combat uniform, a HAST suit, alone, though with the corpses of Anakrionian Guardsmen around her. Skejon prepares to fight, and upon informing Quaken, he begins making his way there.   The duel is rather heated. The best of the main gang (though that label is contested with Quaken's SBO developments), versus the best (and only remaining) of Mad's Generals. Skejon has the speed and precision, though Anni is far from cumbersome even in her heavy armour. She also has far more power and thicker plating. Still, they keep at it. The duel lasts a while, but Skejon is slowly falling behind. The heavy strikes and deep cuts are mounting, and he simply cannot get a window to attack in any way that hits her actual body beneath the bulky armour. The suit's all-round vision does not help. After a particularly bad hit to the chest, Skejon makes a quick plan; while getting up, he discreetely takes a grenade and hides it. As the fight continues, he grabs a ballistic shield from the ground in a quick move, then charges Anni. She impales him through the shield, but as the shield is between them, it isn't too deep. He then grabs the grenade, primes it, and places it between himself and the shield.   The resulting explosion blows both of them back, and while Skejon is rather injured, the shield and his synthetic nature keep him relatively intact. Anni, though, is injured. Internal damage has her keeling over in pain, though one that doesn't last for long. And ultimately, in the short term, she's fine. HAST suits are not lauded as the best personal armour ever developed for no reason, they can withstand a direct railgun round. She gets up, as does Skejon. At that moment, Quaken shows up, finally making it to the bridge. The three then engage again, and while Quaken is practically fresh, his contributions are surprisingly lacking, as Skejon's injuries make fighting in synchronicity difficult and Anni is regardless skilled in such fights. Still, she is failing slowly. After some fancy moves and such (undeveloped), Quaken manages to knock her to a knee, and Skejon slashes right through her gorget, padding, and throat with a single decisive slice. Anni collapses to her knees, though managing to stay concious long enough for her two opponents to back away and shift focus to other relevant things. She sends Mad a message of her failure and how his enemies have the ship, and then falls unconcious, never to wake up.   Quaken and Skejon then discuss what to do, and Quaken mentions the main gun of the spaceship, a large coilcannon with the power of a small meteor strike. Skejon, not even humouring something like this, moves to block the route to the command station. Quaken tries to ration with him for a moment, and then, with no hesitation, strikes. Skejon tries to evade, but his sides are slashed open, destroying his reserve batteries and bringing him down. Quaken drags him to the side, propped up against a step, and moves to the station. After some figuring things out, he prepares and aims the main cannon at Mad's base, the computer warning of the explosion radius catching part of Lanfal City in it. Quaken fires.   That done, Quaken returns to Skejon. He wonders why he's so absent-seeming, and he notices that his reactor had been damaged to nonfunctionality at some point, likely against Anni. This isn't something he intended, as Skejon will run out of power and die within moments. He gets rather disturbed by this, putting it lightly, and sits down next to him for one last conversation. Skejon doesn't hold much vitriol for Quaken, despite everything, and instead just implores him to kill Mad. He also gives him Arashi no Shiyoi, his only remaining family heirloom weapon, and asks that he keeps it with him as he does. Then, a moment of silence later, he finally runs out of power. Quaken soon places him in an airlock, and ejects him, in a process crudely mimicking Spacing, a practice Skejon would've wanted as a habitat-dweller at heart.  

MAD (or: Base Raid 4: the Final Duel)

Only one thing remains. Mad may live. Quaken cannot know, so he takes a spaceship to the surface of Ochtotne Prime, and finds the crater that now is Mad's base. In this time, the crimelord has apparently survived. Unknown, and not of significance to Quaken, Mad had left by the time the attack struck, and is now back to mourn his losses. He sees Quaken approach, and after a brief chat, the two begin.   It is too late both in the evening and the lifecycle of WE to properly prose this up, but go read the part in Mad's article if you want a patch-up solution. TL;DR: the two fight, Quaken gets his ass kicked, uses SBO, gets rid of Mad's sword, gets his blades broken, gets into a proper slugfest, loses, and pushes SBO way too far for safe use and beats up Mad, and stabs him with Skejon's sword. He survives, fights Quaken for a moment more, and then succumbs to his injuries.   And that is the end of the main story. I'll animate it eventually.