You see a Starship. It looks dangerous.
CIS Victory
HoH season 11. Source: valucre.net static Gaia dump.
Meanwhile IN SPACE…
While the exact moment in which it arrived was uncertain, its presence was undeniable. The CIS Victory: router of fleets, turner of tides, leaver of Anna-worlds, held high orbit over the brilliant blue Planet Gaia. Her hull shimmered brilliantly against the unhindered sunlight, shamelessly bearing scars from numerous battles. Periodically a green flicker of energy pulsed along the ship’s length as high velocity micro-debris triggered its shields. For a predominately planet-faring world, Gaians did leave a ton of space-trash.
The doors leading into the bridge parted allowing the ship’s masked commander to enter. Shadowing the helmed figure was the Ensign, a young man who was furiously tapping away at his PDA while spouting out details to his seemingly disinterested superior.
“There’s no explaining it, sir! I’ve double-no triple checked the sensor readouts. They are genuine.”
The Commander took his seat at the helm and focused his attention on the massive display screen before him. On it were readouts, schematics, maps and other information of varying relevance pertaining to a certain super-structure called “The Arc”.
“Ensign, you are fully aware of what this information is suggesting are you not?” The Commander spoke, his eyes still fixated on the screen.
“Yes sir! Before they inexplicably went offline, the energy spikes our surface drones have detected from the island are truly alien. In fact, we haven’t seen anything like this since-”
The Commander’s eyes narrowed as he completed the Ensign’s statement. “Annaworld.”
“Y-Yes sir.” The Ensign seemed a little uneasy. Everyone on the victory knew of Annaworld. Everything they learned of the hellish place was gleaned second-hand from The Commander and the ship’s data computers. You see, the current crew of the Victory was not her original. During the Commander’s earlier years, he recalled tales of a planet wrought with unspeakable horrors. A place where the skies bled, the mountains screamed, and the oceans burned. Some said unimaginable wealth lay on its surface, others said it was a prison world for all of the damned souls of the universe, some just said it was a barren rock named after a hyper-active crazy woman. While the stories themselves varied with the teller, they all held fast to one constant: “No one leaves Annaworld”.
Being young, bold, and arguably stupid, The Commander decided to seek out this Annaworld and disprove all that silliness. Obviously the Imperial Military would not approve of such a venture, regardless of the man’s prestige. However, he and his crew had been through a lot together, and they had sworn their lives to The Commander first, and the fleet second. While there were few who could not stomach the task laid before them, majority decided to stay with their leader until the end. Unfortunately for them, that is exactly what happened.
After what was to be a routine patrol in a frontier region, the ship met with an unexpected space abnormality and “disappeared”. Officially the Victory was listed as “MIA”, those who decided to leave the ship confirmed this story (as a favor to The Commander). Thus, the Victory had gone rogue, leaving the Commander to pursue his own ambitions.
It took years, but they found Annaworld. Records after that are sketchy. All anyone knows is that the Victory reappeared in orbit of a fringe world, seemingly abandoned. Pirates and looters quickly descended upon the ship, hoping to reap its bounties. Instead they found him. While his ship was virtually unscathed, there was not a trace of The Commander’s crew. When asked about their fates, he’d simply reply with the old saying: “No one leaves Annaworld”. The questions usually ended there.
That was from a time since passed, back when The Commander still had a name. He’d found a new crew, new goals, and new strength. The Commander was not one to dwell on the past unless it involved victory. However, this new development intrigued him. Not more than a year ago he’d been drawn to Gaia, thanks to the events that transpired during the local fighting tournament. Now here he was again: same planet, same tournament. It was as if this world was calling no, yelling to him; bringing him back.
Last year he let great power fall through his fingertips. He won’t be making that mistake again.
“Ensign.”
“Aye sir?”
“Take us down.”
And suddenly...
Water extended hundreds of miles in every direction from the Victory’s current residence. After entering Gaia’s atmosphere, The Commander had decided to “cast anchor” out in the middle of the ocean. It was absurd to even suggest that a Space Carrier could keep a “low profile” anywhere but next to a star and The Commander knew every long range scanner on the planet was monitoring them. The last thing he wanted was to incite unwelcome responses by violating the airspace of some sovereign nation.
No, not until the time was right.
The starship hovered quite loudly in place a couple hundred feet above sea level. Keeping such a craft aloft was monumental energy expenditure, but the ship managed surprisingly well. Gaia’s gravity and atmospheric conditions fell comfortably within survivable ranges allowing energy to be diverted from the ship’s artificial gravity and life-support systems into propulsion.
On the bridge, The Commander diligently monitored his display screen. The more he examined the data he’d collected, the more perplexed he became. For all of the information that lay before him, he had gained nothing but more questions. Why was an island constructed solely to host a fighting tournament giving off such strange energy readings? Stranger still, he soon found out through screening of the island’s radio transmissions that the tournament had been canceled due to some unspecified malfunction. Where these two occurrences somehow related to one another? What intrigued the man most was the data (more specifically, a lack thereof) pertaining to the pylons. None of the ship’s scanners could penetrate them. Even the recon probes he’d sent to investigate stopped reporting the moment they came in close proximity of the things.
The Commander was bold, but he wasn’t a fool. He needed complete understanding of the situation on the island before he made his next move.
For now he’d watch and wait.
Meanwhile...
