I claim the 6th page!

Aw Kaz, you're really mean. Wait till Kovu finds out.

*loudly* I'm changing the channel!! There's nothing on THIS one except commercials.



Kaz is mean.

`Ducky

Yah, Kovey's going to throw a fit.



Um, actually, I hope not. That way he can't type.

THROWING FIT NOW!!!!!

GAHG! FINE CHAPPIIE HERE NOW!



Chapter Twenty Four: Gold and Tears



Tymen stood aginst the massive mechanical monster. He knew he was going to end up dead from this endavour, there was no way out of it. Then, just as the smoke from the missile dissapated, a voice came over the mecha's loudspeaker.

"Come on, Tymen, we don't have all day!" This was, unmistakably, the voice of,

"Tyio!" Tymen shouted.

"No foolin', hop in." Tyio said, extending the mecha's hand. Tymen did so, loaded the unconcious others onto the mech aswell, hoping it wasn't too late. Just before he lept onto it himself, he spyed the shard Asari was holding, quickly grabbing it, he jumped into the hand. Tyio then drew the hand up, opening the cargo hatch and placing them in.

"Okay Tymen, I'm going to try and escape the planet's gravity." Tyio checked off to Tymen though a comm. unit, as he sat in the cargo hold.

"Erm, okay." With pure fury, the thrusters on the back of the mech kicked into action, and, slowly, the mech lifted off the ground.

"I only have ten thousand mega-liters of fuel, I don't know if that'll be enough, so hold onto you're shorts." Tyio noted. Tymen nodded in response, then asked,

"Isn't that a lot?"

"When you're talking about rocket propellant, it's like a sip of tea." The whine of the thrusters was insane, and Tymen barely heard it when the Knn began bombarding the mech. But he certaintly felt it. The unconcious at his feet began knocking around inside the broad cargo hold, and he himself fell over and was being knocked into them.

"We're three miles high, almost out of the atmosphere." Tyio checked off, a parting shot knocked off one of the mecha's legs, but at the last instant it escaped the atmosphere and into the void.

What they saw did not please them. A massive fleet of Knn warships surrounded them, and being brough into the docking bay of the Demon's personal ship was the Penultimate."

"Dang it, Tymen get into the cockpit." Tyio ordered, and Tymen passed effortlessly through the network of passages to reach the cockpit.

"Yea?" Tymen asked.

"I wan't you to take two of the healthiest members of the crew into the cockpit, then jettison the cargo hold. Use the subspace drive in the mech, and take it to the next planet."

"What? Why aren't you going? Why are we jettisoning the cargo hold?!"

"Those people up there are really hurt, medical attention from the enemy is better than dying cold and alone in space! I'll go along, since I'm the healthiest I'll be able to break us out."

"I can go, you should pilot the ship."

"No, no, I have to go with the cargo bay, it's to important, they could all die any minute now."

"You don't trust me? Do you think I'll defect to the Knn?! I've had plenty of chances!" Tymen shouted. Tyio grabbed Tymen's shoulders and shook him.

"Don't you under stand!? I have to go, I have to get there as soon as possible! I must save her!" Tymen understood perfectly Tyio's meaning, and the latter cursed himself for revealing his true reason for going with the cargo hold.

"I'll...bring Seraph and Juiso down...they seemed the least hurt."

"It'll take ten days to get to the next planet, since this mecha is only outfitted with a subspace drive, do you think it has enough subspace matrix and rations to make it?"

"Certainly matrix....I dunno about rations, but then again, you've been getting plump off of food from the Penultimate, you could use a little fast." Tymen plushed, and Tyio laughed a kind of half hearted laugh, as he went to fetch Seraph and Juiso. Tyio did so, and then Tymen quickly jettisoned the cargo hold and jumped into subspace, before the Knn could capture him. The ten days passed slowly, the ration supply was extremely precious and indeed, before the three of them arrived, they had become rather thin.

It was morning for them, and morning in the system, as the sun just peaked over the side of the planet.

"Finally, we've arrived, I don't think I could make it another day without food..." Tymen sighed, as he guided the mech into the gravitational pull of the planet. The mech barely made it through the atmosphere, and was clearly unable to be used again. As they stepped out onto the lush, green planet, they found something spectacular in the underbrush.

The planet was covered in gold! As they trudged through the underbrush, they found another amazing thing. A bunch of broken capsules, atleast as high as a rabbit. And a few feet away from one of them, was a felled, strange, insect like being.



There, that's not all of the chapter, but most of it.

Garghness, sorry bout the delay, but I've barely had any fre time this week...

Sigh. Nicefulness.

`Ducky

Ultimaness....

Gah, late again.



Ruxor, as always, Kove!

Kovey, what happened to "not letting Apokallyipsis die"? It's been two weeks and more, and still no more updates. *looks dangerous* I've done Conquests, you do Apokallyipsis now.

Okay, okay, I guess you're right. Hn, here's the next chapter, but not all of it.

Mwaha, now that I've forced myself through this part, the creative juices flow again where they were once stagnant, expect more soon.



Chapter Twenty Five: Legacy



It had a turqoise carapace, and was humanoid, it was damp with a strange liquid and it's undeniably insect wings clung to it's back. Cautiously, Tymen, Juiso and Seraph plodded torward it. Seraph grabbed it by it's shoulder and turned it over. It's head was odd, flat on the face with a mouth part and two eyes, but the rest of the head was a ribbed membrane with a V shaped piece of carapace laid over it. Suddenly, it sputtered, fluid bubbling out of it's mandibles and it's eyes opening, bright and yellow. Silently, it pulled itself up, and turned to the three of them, as they stared at it awkwardly.

"Who are you?" It asked. Or did it? It's mouth didn't move, but it's haunting voice was undeniably present in there minds.

"Wh...I..." They fumbled, until Seraph stood ahead of them, stating,

"I am Seraph, leader of the clan Konitar. Who are you is a more fitting question."

"I...have no name." It...said.

"Well, then what is this place?" Seraph posed, more than a little intimitaded by the telepathic insect which stood two feet taller than all of them.

"I...don't know." The insect intoned psychicly.

"What do you mean you don't know, this is you're planet, isn't it?"

"Intruth, yes, but the only names I have for it a green and gold, blue and black. It cannot be summed in a single word." Seraph paused for a moment, then asked again.

"Fine, have you seen something resembling this?" Tymen, feeling her cue, lifted the nearly complete map.

"I remeber that, though I have never seen it." Seraph begame enraged, and grabbed the insect by the neck, which was a feat considering it's height.

"Stop talking in riddles! Have you seen it or--" Seraph was cut off when the large insect, smacked Seraph to the other side of the clearing with his massive claw.

"It is in the Temples of Gold, which from here is away from the sun once it dies." Tymen thought,

"Does he mean the last piece is torward the sun during nightfall?" Seraph drew a blaster, preparing to shoot the insect. But Tymen merely raised his hand in protest.

"No, don't, the next shard is that way." Tymen pointed westward. He didn't question the insects words. Seraph's mouth opened, shakingly, as if to say something, but Juiso beat her to it,

"C'mon, Seraph, let's give it a shot, what've we to lose?" Seraph thought a moment, then sighed in resignation, and they trudged on westwardly.



They had been walking for some time, and once the excitement had passed into memory, the whining of there stomachs became prominent.

"Are any of these plants good to eat?" Juiso asked, touching a large leaf as he walked past it. Insect reached up and grabbed a fruit from a tall tree, a height untouchable to the much shorter rabbits.

"My father ate of these fruits, as did my mother." He held out the orange-yellowish fruit to them. In the hour they had been walking, his appearance had already changed. He was atleast half a foot taller, the ribbed membrane of his skull had fused and become a single, smooth orb. His wings had dried, becoming long, wide, colorful, elegant wings that the weld with ease. And a white line like a tear had begun to extend from the bottom of his eyes. It was something none of them were willing to venture a guess at.

Insect tossed the fruit he picked to Seraph, who brought it up to her nose and sniffed it, then took a small, cautious bite out of it. Instantly, color returned to her paled skin, and she delved her face into it, the yellowish juice lining her mouth.

"Well, it's certaintly not toxic, Insect, could you pick some more?" She said, the hostile air of a hour before gone.

"It is done." His wings transformed into a smear, a crisp buzz filling the rabbit's ears as he hovered up, picking a dozen of the fruit. They all feasted on it quickly, energy flowing through there blood once again. Insect merely ate one, and it was a small one at that. When asked why he ate so little, he merely replied,

"I hunger not." After there meal on alien food, they began the journey through the planet once again, spirits lifted. In another thirty minutes they saw massive golden caps peaking over the horizon,

"The Temples of Gold beckon."



After another hour of walking, they reached a massive clearing, in which sat three massive, golden pyramids. Accompanying it, however, was a not so welcome sight.

Strew all around and through the clearing and on the temples were skeletons and corpses, some of rabbit-like nature, and some in the nature of a decidedly large beast.

"What...happened here?" Tymen asked, rising from one of the bodies, questioning Insect.

"I have not known."

"You said you've been here." Seraph stated.

"My great-great-great-great-great-grand father was here for a minute, and he sensed energy like that which you showed me." Insect explained, and he, at this point, had the white tear like things reach his chin, and a wonderful red crest had sprouted from his simian ridge.

"Do you sense the energies now?" Juiso asked.

"The energies are the same." Reluctantly, they trode into the middle golden temple, as it seemed the one of paramount importance, as Insect could not exactly determine the energies location, only it's ambience. Throught the hallways of the golden temple lay the corpses of thease rabbit like, and beast like beings, weapons lying about, toppled structures, and sprayings of blood.

"Evil energy fills this place. I fear." Insect said, as calmly as he could. And though the others wouldn't state it quite so planily, dispite all the action they'd seen recently, they were afraid, aswell. After walking the morbid maze for what seemed like days, but was really only two hours, they arrived at what appeared to be a central room.

"This is a Heart of Darkness, but here also exists a tinge of goodness, the item you seek."

Good story, Kove!

RuxOr!!

Yay you posted moreeee!!!

*frolicks happily*



I like Insect.

`Ducky

JoY! YaY! yAy! RuxOr! Woot! Kove rOx!!!!!

Kovey, I LOVE you and this!

Is it over? Did I miss it?

Can I be part of the traveling group, sorta the strategist and the "walking library"?

I'm not asking for any brute strength type of stuff. Please? Please? PLEASE?

Aw, pretty please?

I'll... I'll... I'll give you my Bag-O-Stuff™ if you let me be part of the story.

Impeccable.

Ehe, sorry Gen, this story is about ready to go to that great big War Tavern in the sky.

And, I never let anybody join this story in the first place.

Don't even think about letting it die! *smack*





...ow...





`Ducky

Ofcourse I wouldn't...

The four's footfalls sounded errie in the gloom of the chamber. The corpses which had been throught the temple were here aswell, and in even greater concentration. At the center of the chamber, which ascended atleast thirteen stories tall. And at the center was a pedistal.
"Insect, can you sense where the shard is?" Seraph asked with great eagerness.
"It is definatley on this level, and it is very near....prehaps the pedistal..." Insect echoed through there minds. Cautiously, they approached the pedistal, finding it covered in dust and debris, like most of the things in the chamber. But, Tymen knew better, and, sifting through the junk, found a pie piece shaped piece of gold, coordinates etched in it.
"This...this is it, the last piece of the map!" Tymen fumbled through his pockets, retrieving the nearly complete map, and placing the last shard in it's place, blue energy fusing the map together, whole once more.
"Light! Anyone have a flashlight?" Tymen asked, unable to see the complete map in the darkness.
Insect walked up beside Tymen, opening his mandibles, a phospherescent glow eminating from them, illuminating a large portion of the room.
"You'll never cease to amaze me." Tymen stated, as he began looking over the complete map. To his dismay, he found only the five planets they had visited, Carrotous, Mosshein, Knnryshaa, Turtani, and whatever planet they were on now. The planet holding Symballen's Archon was nowhere to be found!

Up Next: Chapter Twenty-Six: Falyn Dreams

Eeee! YaY! Good
`Ducky

I KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!!! AT least I think I do...

Mwaha, okay Kaz, what's gonna happen next?
Mwaha, there's no way you'll guess, mwaha, mwaha,
MWAHAHA!

If I guess right here and now I might spoil it... so check the source code to see them.

yah can't do that with vBulliten Kaz...so just post it backwards or something, everyone has probably figured it out by now anyway

You're getting WORSE then ME, Koveh.

Hurry up PLEASE?!


`Duckay

I know, I know, Ducky, but I was all enthused about writing it just before the JCF clamed up for untold time, I'm attempting to get back into the swing of things.

*sulks*

"How can this be?!" Tymen shouted aloud, the noise cascading through the abyss of the temple.
"What is it?" Seraph inquired, peeking over his shoulder.
"The planet with the Archon on it is nowhere to be found!"
"Let me see it!" Seraph snatched it out of Tymen. After quickly, yet closely examining it, she arrived at the same conclusion,
"He's right," She sighed heavily,"nothing." Insect scampered over, holding it carefully in three fingered hands, he examined it, as the others waited eagerly.
"Incomplete!" Insect declared.
"But...but all the shards are in they're proper places, aren't they?"
"Yes, but there are notches in bottom, it must attach to something else." The words reverberated from Insect's thoughts.
"But wha--" Seraph was cut short, when a blast of light eminated from the pillar where the shard was found. They all whipped around to see a bizarre being with a humanoid body and a squid like head appear levitating off of the pedistal, apparently a hologram.
"That...that's the thing we saw above Turtani." Seraph hissed, recalling the intresting situation that had been.
"Ook'Tagoth nammala syesm orfkamm uyluoyok eetmad Askaamla reyn qudoson xelhuuaa buerna Cvv Ka'konok, evpress Yulolulmada ieyah weskrop maroonat varuylen juut tryemmrunn wakrusk oiunzaash estaron eyukan, jefan qweet mehad nelupius, varqus ned, ofan Knn ofan Jidem ofan Sikrem Teradoss sufak...nimelan asanta Askaamla." The being spoke in the same dark, harsh tounge it spoke above Turtani, and then faded away. A instant later, it was replaced by a being that looked rather like a rabbit. It had no fur, no ears, it's hair was shorter, it's entire body shorter, hands and feet smaller, and it's skin was a raw pink.
"My name is Jacob Okana. If you are seeing this, approximatley two thousand years have passed since my death, plus the time it has been since anything living has been in this chamber. A few days ago, a temporal distortion opened on our planet. Out of it emerged a creature...like a large, bipedal rabbit, named Seraph Konitus," Seraph gasped audibly,"she said she was there to save the universe, but, using technology such as I have never seen, began decimating our bases, and loading the Goldvyour, our slaves, into her large ship, which was shaped like a Y. We resisted, but it was a losing battle. A day later, another temporal distortion," A explosion and battle cries could begun to be heard in the background noise,"opened, and out of it came a being called the Demon, with leagues of grotesque monsters in tow. He began attack both us and Seraph. Shortly there after, a third distortion opened up, and out of it came a leauge of soldiers, calling themselves warriors of Ontranaught/Konitar, led by two rabbit beings named Aldan and Tymen. There was much bloodshed. Seraph's ship was disabled, the demon began to escape, but the--" A explosion racked the image of the holigram, and they could see the being being blow to pieces just before his holographic recorder went offline, and the message ended.
Tymen, Seraph, and Juiso reeled in shock.

Let me be the first to say 'you updated! Hurrah!' There is a god...There is a god...There is a god...There is a god...There is a god...There is a god...

Thank you. No stories seemed to have been updated except for tvern stories in the past week. So I've been bored stiff.

Well, thanks a bunch defalcon.


"I hate temporal science!" Juiso smacked a nearby pillar with his fist.
"Okay, so, in the future, the Demon goes into the past, to destroy the people here, because it'll affect something in the future?" Tymen posed, sitting on a cracked, dusty bench as Insect looked on, perched from a pillar and Seraph paced.
"So, we go back after him, but it's to late, so we travel back to before he went back, and I go back while this...Ontranaught...whatever it is, coalition with my clan, led by this Aldan person and yourself, prepares a war army to head off the Demon in the past." Seraph said.
"You take the Y shaped ship back to the past, roughly 2000 years ago. You begin rescuing the Goldvyours, which I assume those largish corpses we saw were the remnants of." Tymen figured.
"But the Demon arrives, and then this clan, there is a battle.
But what happenes next? Do we die?"
"In the future, you are not meant to know. The fates gave you this message only so you would know you'd travel into the past, not why or when, or what happenes afterward." Insect hissed phsycicly, fluttering down from his perch on his elongate, insectoid wings.
"So what do we do, now?" Juiso asked.
"We...we find a way off this planet, and we look for whatever else fits inside the map." Tymen commented.
"This was not part of the plan. That'll take too much time! The others may be dead on the Demon's ship by the time were done."
"They may be dead already." Insect said, not knowing the whole of what they were talking about, but piecing together enough to make that statement.
"He's right, we have to continue with the plan, there's no other option. Besides, the Demon would just be killing the only bartering chips he had." They got up, and prepared to leave the temple, but as they did they heard the KKBBIIIMM of a explosion of the ancient brick. The structure began to collapse.
"What the--" A ZZZZHHH sound could be heard, followed by the same KKBBIIIMM.
"Missles! Someone is firing at the temple!" Seraph spat out, before another tremor racked the sacred pyramid.
"It must be the Demon, or Asari! We need to get out of here!" Tymen shouted, and they bolted down the corridor whence they came, though the escape was slightly less trying, because they knew the path, but somewhat more because things were collapsing and shifting as the temple breathed is last breaths under the assault of a ship far younger than it. After ten minutes(a much shorter amount of time than it took to find they're way in) a large percentage of the temple had collapsed, but the heros found they're way to the mouth of the holy ground, just intime to see a manta ray shaped vessel fire a parting shot then leave the atmosphere.
"That's Asari's ship! But...how does she know we are here?" Seraph questioned rhetorically. Now that the sound of the chaos had passed, a deep, undertone shone through. It was a deep buzzing that permeated everything.
"What is that sound?" Juiso demanded. A moment later, Insect fell to his knees, cringing in pain.
"Insect, are you alright?" Seraph immediatley bent over and helped the fallen creature up, a trifle of a task, considering his weight and height.
"I...am alright." Breifly, the being brushed his large, insectoid fingers aginst hers, and a tremor of telepathic emotion passed from in into her. A breif taste of whatever was inside him that caused such pain. She nerely collapsed herself, the only reason she didn't was because, one, she wasn't Insect himself, and two, her brain(and all rabbit brains) were on a, dare I say, lesser order the Insects powerful, intrincate mind, so the blast was dulled upon her. But she still felt it. It was a deep, animalistic insane intense desire, the base urge to reproduce. Coupled with it was, for somereason, a hatered of that urge, comming from a higher command inside Insects thoughts, a true war in the soul. And it was inspired by the noise.
With that touch, that kiss from something greater, better than herself, Seraph's eyes were opened. She looked at Insect, yellow light shining from the slits of his eyes.
"It still burns." Insect hissed. And Seraph had newfound respect, an awe of a being which was fighting aginst hope, to evolve into something it was not, controlling that instictual rage.
But why.
There was much she didn't understand. But answers were soon in comming. In the crimson sky, a horde of insects, each eminating the same sound, flew in. There must have been tens of thousands, millions. They fell upon one another, as if attacking.
Soon, gore began to rain upon them. Insectoid wings and legs and hands and arms, and heads, still speaking as they died. Telepathic waves poured from the cloud of death, corroding and infecting the rabbits minds.
"Insect, what is happening?" Tymen insisted. Insect returned, his voice was burdened and snakelike.
"My people, live for a day, eat one meal, travel, then reproduce. We mate, and then tear the other's bodies apart. The gore will fall, releasing the eggs, which will use there parent's corpses as material for they're growth and birth a week later. We remember all the experiances of our parents, and our parents parents, all the way back to the first of us that was that way. It is a endless cycle. Only meet someone, not of the world, gave me the opprotunity to examine it," He weezed heavily,"this is not right. We are animals, but we have the power to be sentient, to live for decades. I wish I was one of you, to live for so long, to experiance so much, for real, not in handed down thoughts. I cannot have that, but--"About that time, his left arm just, disconnected from the rest of his body, and fell to the ground," A failsafe, so that even if we fail to engage in the mating, we will die.Listen, I will die shortly, but, I will clone myself, which I can do through another fail-safe. At some point, the clone will hatch. If you teach it things, keep it away from the noise, it's lifespan may increase, a little. It will clone itself, and so on." With his remaining hand, he desparatley clasped Seraph,"Please! Our people cannot continue like this! We once were great! We once traveled the stars, I can barely remember that in the most ancient of memories given to me. But evolution to a wrong course, and our lives eventually ended up to this. Most efficient, yes, but sentient, not at all. We must return to glory!" His chest opened up, clear fluid, presumably blood, spilled out, and with his remaining hand he ripped out a egg like thing. Not like the one he came from, he wasn't cloned from his parents.
"You must, please...or we are doomed to live as animals, our glory passed on." He handed the egg to Seraph. It was smooth, and sticky, unlike the large, rough egg Insect came from. His very life essence was leaving him now, and the chaos of the mating ritual was dying down, the land bathed in more corpses.
"Go north of here, fifty miles!" His voice was barely above a telepathic whisper.
"You will find the Y shape ship of which was spoke. My great great father saw it........remember, only drink from dew collected in the large leaves.............. Only eat the yellow fruit.................... Beware the Grnnzkaa, they will kill you................goodbye." His last word spoken, his body fell to pieces, a fail-safe of the evolution he hated so much.

*snifflesob*


No. Thats a rotten thing to do. I ...

...can't think of anything to say.

*sniff*



Wonderful...

`Ducky

Buh, but, I already explained about the....ANYWAY, here's another chapter, all you non-repliers out there. It's short, I know, but more to follow.

Cold, hard steel enclosed the chamber from the rest of the massive ship. It was a nail in the coffin, seeing the massive battalions of Knn soldiers marching about, the near invincible warfleet outside.
"How long have we been in here?" Ducky asked, despratley, laying on the steel floor. Tyio counted a certain set of notches he made in the steel with an iron filing.
"Eleven. Seraph, Juiso and Tymen are on the next planet by now, have been for there a day." Tyio swiveled around to face Black and Ducky, both wearing depressing Knn prisoner garb, bodies in bandages from what Asari had wrought, and a little thin due to the Knn's poor estimates of they're nutritonal needs. Being a Demon, Tyio fared a little better, but not much,
"They've already found the shard probably, and secured a grand warship, and any minute now they'll fly in, blasters blazing, and rescue us." Tyio attempted to show an optimistic side. A short while after that, the door to they're cell creaked open, revealing two large Knn soldiers. Now would have been the ideal time to escape, but Ducky and Black were in no health to mount one.
"The Demon wishes to see you all. You will follow us."

Just so I'm not banned from this board =P.

Bleh to you Kovu, only posting when I'm away and not giving anyone at all a chance to reply! I should kill you right now if printers contained anthrax, anyways good story, but your timing is horrible and you shall die for that!

No chances to reply? There are atleast 3 day intervals between each part!

and besides, I just posted something after a looong non-postness, and I'm getting yelled at *grump*

I OWN THIS PAGE TOO! MWAHAHA, Misery for all of ye!

Oh, really, Kazoo? ;P



Sigh.


`Ducky

"Yoink!"

Darn you Kaz!

Post another chapter or I'll post here everyday =P. Sort of mean how you'll post in war tavern stories but not your own. At least Copper tried to continue when she was desperately stalling.

Kaz, really, don't be evil. Not only has the greater percentage of the people of the JCF lost intrest, I have lost intrest, and there is just no will to finish this. However, *sigh* if you wish, I could tell you how it ends.

And that goes to you too, Ducky! Yes, I know you're behind this aswell, *cackle*