Chapter One: Beginnings

   "Im sorry, my love" Novak muttered as he knelt in front of the large marble slab. It had been seven years since his fiancé had died, he still remembered that day so vividly, the bang of the vintage gun, Sarin screaming as the bullet penetrated her skull. A tear appeared underneath his one eye, and fell upon the barren patch of sod. "Captan!" A voice broke his solemn vigil "Your needed at the bridge sir!" The captan held up a finger and the man fell silent. He buried a small parcel within the barren soil that lay in front of the tombstone and replaced his mask, "They were always your favorite." He sighed as he followed the attendant back to The Meriadas.

 

       <Notes from post>

It took far to long to get this out, it went through numerous variations before I set a set of characters I'm happy with. Ive never toyed with si/fi before, so I hope I did good. And do enjoy, I labored on this tale for a long time.

       <Notes from post end>

        <Forward>

As with any good story, we must first set the scene.  

Earth, the cradle of humanity, at least it was at one point. Earth had been mined out thousands of years ago to fuel the fires of the neo industrial revolution, leaving only the hollow husk of once was a beautiful big blue ball of life. Humans, unsatisfied with the ruin of their own planet, shifted their greedy gaze to the stars. Thus began the great era of space, humanity scattered themselves amongst the sky, makeing peace with some alien races, and war with the others. And during what was later known as "the great astral imperialism era" came the Platinum age of piracy, And it is during this Platinum age is where we find ourselves today. You shall learn all you need to know in time

       <Forward End>

 

            <Transmission Start>

Novak:

The cell was small, but not entirely uncomfortable. Novak sat in the back corner checking his gear, they had taken almost nothing, accept his more obvious weapons. his mask, a vintage revolver they had mistaken for some sort of medical apparatus, and his trusty IDM laz-core that was disguised as a pocket watch, but it was useless without any of the bodies that had been confiscated. Perfect. He had to give the empire some credit, they weren't completely stupid but they couldn't be called smart ether. His hands slid over the silver eye mask that he wore, his constant companion ever since that event 15 years ago, the soldiers had certainly tried to remove it but it only responded to his touch, it would only unveil the secret so carefully hidden behind it at his behest, and that was good. Back to the matter at hand the cell was sturdy, but it wasn't built with a thing like Novak in mind. Then there where footsteps, Novak hid his smile and sat in the middle of the cell, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. The girl nearly missed him as she ran down the hallway, but she caught herself. "Oh god" she whispered, she couldn't have been more than 15, and she wasn't wearing a uniform, something was off. "Is there something wrong little girl?" His the synthetic voice that had all but replaced his own when he had first donned the mask. The girl took a step forwards "I-Its y-you!" She said, her voice taking on an inspired tone "it is me" at that moment the mask scent him the result of the facial recognition program "Lady Antiese Ventus-Flos Imperica, fourth princess of the Imperica empire", Perfect he thought to himself, this was even better than his original objective. It hurt like hell, it always did, splitting your molecular structure apart was not suppose to be a pleasant experience, it wasn't supposed to be experienced. Within seconds Novak was on the other side of the bars. The young princess looked terrified, "I have no Idea why your highness is on this ship" he mocked her "but your much more valuable then whatever synth sent me to get." He grabbed her, but to his surprise she didn't try to fight back. He pressed a button on his belt and in a second he was gone, along with the girl, into the swirling darkness that was the personnel warp core. 

 The girl was confused, she had every right to be, personnel warping wasn't a sensation anyone besides himself had ever experienced. "The core wasn't configured for multiple people" Novak explained "this could take awhile" the girl calmed down, if only slightly "T-thank you" she whispered, but her voice echoed in the void "for what?" "You saved me"

Antiese "Flos" Ventus-Flos Imperica: 

 The ship manifested around them, Flos had always been told the ships of pirates where filthy and cramped, full of murderous brigands, but the legendary Meriadas was something else entirely, it was clean, but not immaculate like the palace, it was spacious, but not to big, there was beauty in its simplicity. The pirate captan that now led her through the labyrinthian corridors of the ship was an intimidating figure, worst of all she couldn't read him, his mask prevented that, and that eerie voice of his... it was almost as if someone was speaking for him. She had been so lost in thought she hadn't noticed where she was until the cell door slammed shut. "Spin" Novak called, a noise echoed from the ceiling, Flos looked up just as a slim purple body dropped down from the ceiling. Flos had heard tales of the Arachne, but this was her first time actually seeing one in person. Three sets of arms sat gracefully at her sides, while 6 different eyes probed all of her surroundings at once, long brown hair flowed from the top of her humanoid head. If not for the multiple arms eyes and purple skin, she could have easily been mistaken for human. "Watch her" she nodded with vigor, the Arachne was far to happy to agree to that order. 

???:

 "Anger, rage, wrath, these are what sustains him." "The reborn is much more complex than that, cant you see?" "No, no, no, we must go further back, there are things we have yet to discover about the past of the reborn!" "do you think it was his doing?" there was a pause in the chatter "If the incident was his handiwork than that would explain much." "But he has been gone for thousands of years!" "His kind do not die easy, you know this!" "Let us assume for a moment, that he still lives even after the incident, what does he have to do with the reborn?" "Anything is possible when it comes to him" "I find it harder to believe that he did not have a hand in the creation of the reborn" "then our corse of action is settled?" "Indeed, we must confirm that he still draws breath, and if he does, than we leave the reborn alone, let us vote, all in favor?" "I" "I" "I" "I" "I" "I" "than it is confirmed." 

Salem V. Novak:

Novak slammed the bulkhead behind him and sat down at his desk, pressing his hand against his mask, five seconds later he heard the telltale hiss of the clamps unhooking from his face. Gently he lifted the mask off, stood up, and walked over to the mirror in the corner of his cabin. The mask and it's holo projector's had perfectly hidden the horror that was his face, black veins extended from his right eye, the eye that had long ago traded white for black, and green for purple. He took off his shirt and traced the veins from his eye, to his neck, and across his torso, where the malice first entered his bloodstream, turning what once had flowed a bright crimson black as the Infinite void that he now traveled. The Wanderer's Blessing it had come to be known. But there was no wanderer, and this was no blessing, this curse was brought about by a mix of science and hubris. Sure, it granted him powers beyond that of a normal human, hell, he doubted he could be considered human at this point. He turned from the mirror and moved to face a wall, with focus he split his hand and stuck it through the wall, into his little hidden compartment, soon his hand returned with a picture, its edges where tattered and it's ink faded, but the image was still visible. Seris smiled at him from faded ink..... and for a moment she was in his arms again, for a moment he was free of the Wanderer's Curse, but the moment soon passed. "What new adventure will this girl bring about?" He asked Seris "How much longer must this vicious masquerade continue?"

        <Transmission end>

Author's Note

As time progresses it should become less cluttered, I just wanted to set the stage in the first chapter