Nox Home World

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Nox Home World

(Tiny reply, but perhaps better to just catch up after that gap.)

"Deplorable..." Ellisia comments simply as she exits the Jumper, with both a look of disgust and sadness viewing the scene. "Lets not waste time then. Thanus, please take point."

The large man nods solemnly and steps to the front of the formation, ready to move on as directed. As always, ready to shield from any surprises they may come their way. Marik again taking his usual role of eyes, nose and ears of the group, focused on spotting potential threats before the threat spotted them. His special Aser weapon ready, currently retracted into a shortened form at about three and a half foot long.

They would all follow Siphons lead into the city.

 

[Copper]

Re: Nox Home World

"Okay, so hopefully the city isn't going to explode on us. Alternatives? Some sort of automated defense?" At the swathe of death, she grows quiet. "That went haywire and can't distinguish friend from foe? Have we seen anything like this reading before?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Both Siphon and Aya shook their heads, though it was Aya who spoke.

"I've never seen anything quite like it. The closest I could say even comes to it would be some of the cloaking fields we used, but their power signature wasn't close to what the jumper detected, and I can't believe the Nox would have kept something capable of doing this online. Yet, these Klarnell and Predators are clearly dead, but the Nox wouldn't kill."


Siphon bent down near a trio of the bodies, looking at them while Thanus and Marik stood guard. After a long moment, he spoke from his crouch, voice seeming to have a puzzled tone to it.

"None of these bodies have any wounds on them. No physical reason they should be dead. This makes no sense. The Nox don't have anything capable of killing someone without leaving any marks, not to mention that Aya is right, they wouldn't kill. They'd try to reason first, when that obviously failed they'd use their ...."


He suddenly stopped, and the others could almost see the light bulb go off, as he sucked in a breath.

"Oh ... shit. The Klarnell must have known. The only possible explanation is that the Nox tried to use their mental abilities to send them away, and the Klarnell had some kind of defense, or counter-attack on a mental level ready for them. I ... I think what we're seeing here is the result of the telepathic equivalent of a suicide bomber. Which means that unless we can find a way of helping, this might happen to Lyra too. Stasis will slow it down, but it won't stop it completely."

Growling as he stood, he shook his head.

"How though could they have known. Future or not, how in the hell could they have known that much about the Nox, unless they'd encountered and successfully learned from one?"


Shaking his head again, he started moving.

"Let's go, the energy reading is a bit further in. Let's find out if it could be hiding survivors that we can't detect, and if not ... well, I don't want to think about that yet."

 

[Copper]

Re: Nox Home World

Sho's quiet while the group makes their way through the city, mostly chewing over what Aya and Siphon had said. Picking up her pace just a little, she falls into step with the blonde Ancient, figuring she'd be better at answering what she needed to know than Siphon and his patchy memories of the time.

"You said this shield is similar to something that you guys used, right? Do you think the Nox got the idea from your people? Or the other way around? And did you guys have contact with the Nox or did they come around later?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Aya shrugged.

"It might be yes, it's hard to say for sure because this energy reading is off the charts different. They could have gotten the idea from us, we were in an alliance with them for a very long time before leaving for what you called the Pegasus Galaxy. The Nox are ... well they're older than I am for certain, might be older than the Alteran race considering how advanced they were when we first met them."


As they began to round one of the final corners, Siphon notably frowned when he saw a large door blocking the path. Handing the portable scanner he had to Aya for a moment, he managed to over-ride the doors. The moment he did, the scanner let out a loud beep as for a brief moment, about a hundred life signs popped up, on of them LITERALLY inside the reading of Sho. Aya's eyes shot wide as they again vanished, but were replaced by another energy reading. Shaking her head that she had no idea what it was, Siphon took the scanner, and Sho saw him frown, then suddenly his eyes widen in recognition.


((And leaving it there until Sho responds, cuz she sure saw that life reading standing INSIDE of her body LOL.))

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Nox Home World

At the moment the scanner beeped, the three knights likewise reacted, looking as if they'd just seen or felt something very strange, and trying to make sense of it. Thanus frowning and actually closing his eyes as he takes a breath and feels out the area. "Something strange is occurring here." He rumbles.

"A hidden pocket of space perhaps? Overlapping this area?" Ellisia remarks, pondering the strange reading. Then noticing Siphon's expression of recognition and waiting to hear it.

 

[Copper]

Re: Nox Home World

"Just thinking that maybe the Klarnell learned something about the Nox from someone they might have taken, so they'd know how to counter what they might throw against them." She doesn't look particularly happy to be following this train of thought, but it's one that running around in her head, obviously. At least until the scanner goes nuts. Letting out a squeak, she back-peddles at the sight of the life-reading occupying the same space as herself. There is, of course, nothing there. At least nothing visible. Still, she keeps herself out of the spot the other life sign occupied.

At Ellisia's remark, Sho nods her head in agreement. "Think they're...shifted? Like the, um, oh, dammit. The ones that when they cloak, they go into a parallel dimension. It'd be a way to protect themselves from the Klarnell, but they might not know it's safe to come back yet." A form of astral projection was a possibility, too, but that usually just involved the mind. Clearly there were bodies missing, too.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Siphon nodded to Sho.

"The Sodan, and similar yes. Remember that device we found back on P7R-313 that ducked you into a sub-dimensional pocket of our own dimension? This is almost exactly the same energy reading that device gave off, except in this case from the way it spiked and then has gone back down, I think the device has been damaged. It may not be a case of them not knowing it's safe but rather they may not be able to turn it off now. We may need to find the central power supply for the city and shut it down so that thing loses power. Of course ... I'm not exactly sure where the hell that might be."

Aya stepped forward smiling.

"Good thing I did come then, I do know where it is, provided they haven't changed the place around in the last few million years."


Nodding, he motioned for Aya to lead on, falling into step with her only half a step behind.




The Stargate opened and a jumper containing three squads of Alverans emerged, setting a course for the Nox city. For the moment, they couldn't seem to raise the crew inside the city.



A hyper-space window opened, and the Daina Eil'Mori emerged into normal space again. Talok began some scans, nodding to Sinnve.


"I'm detecting the jumper that Julia sent, but I am not detecting Siphon's jumper, or their life readings. Most likely they've gone into the city and the cloak is preventing me from scanning for them. You won't be able to get into the city with that golem though I'm afraid, but if anything else nasty shows up ..."

He trailed off, letting her figure out the rest.

 

[Copper]

Re: Nox Home World

"And thank you so very much for reminding me of that." She gives him a flat look, but obviously the experience wasn't horribly traumatic or she likely wouldn't be talking about it. As Aya says that she knows the way, Sho will gesture for her to go ahead. "Lead on, MacDuff. Though we probably still want to keep an eye out. Even if our interfering Ascended vaped the critters that were here, there might still be some bad stuff lurking around."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Aya nodded.

"If it's one thing I learned, it's to NEVER underestimate how resilient and annoyingly persistent the Klarnell and their pets can be."


She led them down several corridors, moving carefully and making sure the area had been swept by Siphon and the Knights before proceeding, clearly trying not to think about the possibility something unseen could suddenly leap out. Finally, they reached a large room with a massive crystal like formation in the center. Pointing to a series of consoles, Aya nodded.

"Those are the controls, it's going to take two people to shut the power down all across the city since we don't know where the device itself it."


Siphon shrugged.

"Probably a system built into the city that became damaged and can't be shut off from the other side. Once we have a Nox out on this side they probably can manually shut it down and reboot the city. At least I hope they can because once we do this, we're visible, and vulnerable if anything bad decides to show up. Everyone ready?"

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Nox Home World

"-Then I'll be ready for them." Sinnve replys to Talok. She hadn't left her golem, and so Talok was presumably watching and talking to a camera feed of her from his hangar. Currently she was standing atop the the golem whilst she waited, looking like she meant business.

- - - - -

"We're ready." Ellisia replys. "However, are we sure this is a good idea?" She continues, "What is our plan after this? We don't have any evacuation ready for them yet. The last thing we want is to pull them out of their safehouse with no where else to go, and then draw attention back here again. The cities obscuring defences may be the only reason it's still standing, for as far as we know"

"Are we able to access the city's sensor systems from here? It would be good to know when our backup arrives. They probably won't be able to contact us from outside when they do." Marik adds stepping forwards.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Siphon opened his mouth to reply to Elissia when Marik spoke. Then another panel caught his eye. Looking at it, he smiled slightly.

"Good timing Marik, these sensors are indicating a jumper heading this way, and an Alveran ship in orbit, just popped up. Betting it's Talok. As for an evac plan Elissia, at this stage there may not be a suitable one. I think these Klarnell we saw were trying to get to this place as well, I think they KNEW about the cores. I'm hoping that with an ascended having interfered with things here that means the Ancients are taking this seriously, and they're actually preventing them from doing so. My thinking is the device has either malfunctioned, or was damaged before they activated it. Once we cut the power, that will turn it off and any Nox we find ought to be able to bypass it before bringing power back online. I don't think we really have much of a choice, we can't just leave them there. We may also need their help to save Lyra, if she even can be saved now."

Just then, there was another surge, and power dimmed across the entire city, and for a long moment, a single Nox female was visible to them in the same room. The detector picked her up as well, and she seemed to be trying to touch one of the panels herself. She phased out before she could though, and power came back online.

Frowning, Siphon went to the panel she'd been by, and started looking at it. After a moment he called Aya over.

"Is that what I think it is?"


Aya looked at it for a long moment before her eyes shot wide.

"That's ... yes. The energy readings are identical."

Siphon grinned.

"I think we may have just solved the issue then. Are you folks ready? I'm going to hit this and it should drop the field keeping them phased out, but we can't be certain there aren't a handful of people hurt or any dead bodies we're not picking up that might not suddenly be under foot. Or worse. I want to be sure everyone is ready before we do this."


Talok nodded as he replied back.

"I'll send you as close as I can, and cover from orbit. When you are ready."

 

[Copper]

Re: Nox Home World

Sho listened as they discussed what to do about the panels and the complications that could arise from shutting the thing down. It seemed like one of those "burn those bridges" type situations that they tended to find themselves in. One saving grace was the flicker of the power and the Nox woman who seemed to be trying to do exactly what they were trying to do.

"So, in the interest of not suddenly sharing the same dimensional space as reappearing Nox, why don't we move so some less obvious spots in the room. If they're in here, chances are they're trying to do things to shut the machine down, so crowding around it is probably a bad idea. You especially, Siphon, because if that chick's standing right there..." She sort of lets the rest go unspoken. Other than seeing the need to move and break up the cluster that the group may have made so that there's less chance of the Nox phasing in inside one of them, she's got no issue with shutting down the cloak generator.

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Nox Home World

"Very well then. Let's do it." Ellisia replys, with just a hint of reluctance still, seeming concerned by the idea and all the unknown factors, but if the Nox woman at the console had been trying to shut down the device, that surely meant something, "Oh, and Sho perhaps makes a valid point."

- - - - -

"Rodger that white guy. Don't worry, I'm plenty ready." Sinnve responds. A moment latter the surface of her golem that she was standing upon would begin to glow a strange white, expanding out from her feet, and Sinnve would slowly descend into the glowing space whilst still standing. Seconds later she had sunk into the golem completely and was gone from all sensors, and the white patch would shrink and seal up again.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Siphon nodded.

"Yeah, let's make sure no one ends up showing up inside one of us. That'd get ugly fast."


Once everyone had spread out, Siphon reached out and hit the proper button on the console, twisting away to ensure he wasn't in the way of any suddenly shifting Nox.


Less than three seconds later, the Nox woman was suddenly visible, actually having moved away from the panel as if she too had the same idea. She'd ended up about two feet from Thanus, and when she became solid again, she smiled at him, muttered something that made no sense whatsoever, and promptly fell flat into his arms as she passed out.

Around the room, a half dozen or so Klarnell appeared, each one literally falling to the floor dead. They seemed to have scorch marks on their bodies, some of their armor literally burnt away.

Siphon had his pistol out the second the Klarnell appeared, though he blinked as he saw their condition.

"Holy shit ... the Nox didn't do that to them."


Aya looked up from the pad she held.

"Detecting about a hundred life readings scattered about the handful of rooms back where we came from. Only two of them are moving, and they are heading this way. Nox readings."

 

[Unknown Squid]

Re: Nox Home World

The knights had been somewhat ready or anticipating for any possible appearance of the Klarnel, with Ellisia's sword in hand before anyone had seen her draw it, and Marik instantly making an odd kicking jerk with his legs and litterally sliding a few meters across the floor on his heels before stopping. Just an evasive reaction, since one of the Klarnel had happened to appear next to him. The aim of his weapon follows the dead Klarnel all the way to the floor.

Fortunately it looked like they wouldn't need to fight these ones. "Why were they standing when they came out? I don't get it." Marik comments, glancing round with sharp eyes.

"And what did this to them...?" Ellisia adds, carefully looking over all the bodies, as Aya then speaks. "Then we should aim to meet up with them, and try to gather the rest as best we can. Hopefully they can shed some light on what happened here, and then we can choose our next course of action."

Thanus was still gently cradling the fainted Nox woman, with a genuine look of caring but manly concern, and looking oddly made for it. He was also examining all the apparently dead Klarnel via his acute sixth sense, to determine for sure that they were actually dead, and that none were going to get up after they left.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Thanus's 'scan' told him each of the Klarnell was VERY dead, parts of their internal anatomy had literally been vaporized out of them, including portions of what he could only guess might have once been a heart.


Siphon shook his head.

"I don't know what did that, maybe our ascended killed them. As for why they were standing when they came out ... I haven't got anything. They should have been on the floor when they appeared. For that matter, why didn't we see their bodies when the shift happened earlier? We saw her, why not them? Agreed, but let me check on her first."


Siphon took the pad from Aya, running a quick scan. He let loose a relieved sigh a few moments later.

"A little worse for the wear and exhausted, but she's not in the same condition Lyra was. I think she just passed out due to exhaustion rather than anything more serious. Thanus, you got her or you want me to?"

 

[Copper]

Re: Nox Home World

Though the possibility that whatever was on the other side of the shield could still be up and about was made clear, given the Nox woman that Thanus was holding, the Klarnell were a surprise. Of course, they were all falling over dead before Sho could get a shot off with her zat, which, in retrospect, was probably a good thing. She does, though, chime in with added suspicions as to what was up with the ones in here.

"Considering the Ascended outside just...dista-poofed the ones that weren't in the city, why are these guys even here at all? Unless something about being out of phase when it happened kept that from happening. And who knows, maybe when you're teleported elsewhere by an Ascended being and you're not in this dimension, maybe that's what happens." She sighs. "At least we've got some corpses to play around with." She pauses. "Don't the Klarnell have a cloak, too? Maybe something with the two of them..." She trails off, not having much more to go on with the theory. She'll start moving carefully amid the closest Nox, checking for signs of anything troublesome, outside of unconsciousness.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: Nox Home World

Siphon shrugged at Sho.

"I've got no idea. Being out of phase shouldn't have any bearing to an Ascended being in theory, though that one device did seem to block them from looking in, so maybe the Nox have something that works similar to it. Obviously these guys aren't moving again, which is good. As for the corpses to play with ..."


He trailed off, calibrating a different device he had and scanned one of the bodies quickly. Aya came over to look at it, and when the result popped up, her body stiffened, and Siphon's eyes both went wide and he let out a surprised sound.

"Well ... that explains a few things. But ... how? Why would ... this can't be accurate."


All of the Nox Sho came across just seemed to be out cold from exhaustion, as best as she could tell.


By now the two Nox readings moving were coming closer to them, only a few corridors away now. They seemed to be coming right towards the group anyway.



Sinnve found herself at a set of coordinates she had picked out earlier, and no sooner had she arrived than a Puddle Jumper flew over head, streaking towards the cloaked city.

 

[Copper]

Re: Nox Home World

"Well, maybe we can ask the ones that are on their way here." Sho's paying attention the door, waiting to see about the new arrivals, given the fact that the others are, at least at the moment, focused on studying the Klarnell. "Any of what you're looking at tell you how to make it easier to kill?" she asks as an off-handed question.