The Albatross

"I'm guessing it's Page they're looking for. He said he knocked a few out in my bar and then took off... ending up here." DZ offered.

"Their main goal, however, is probably not Page. Once they find his ship, however, they may begin to search for him in earnest. I suggest getting your mech off this station as soon as possible. If the UE get ahold of it, you'll never get it back in one piece, if at all."

"If I'm not the main attraction, then, who is?" Page asked DZ.

"I'm thinking it's probably me. Long story, we can finish it in space. I suggest we all get our tails in gear and get out of here. I've got some friends on the Rock, we can hole up there when we lose the heat." DZ replies. "Sound good?"

Without waiting for a reply, DZ boarded his ship and fired it up. Glowing, pulsating red lines appeared, lending the ship a distinctly menacing appearance. "If you want to come aboard, I'm pretty sure I can blast my way out and then we'll find your ships..." DZ called down the hatch.

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Proud member of
[The Fifth Column](http://<br />
thefifthcolumn.blogspot.co<br />
m).

“Thank you very much for the offer,” Ta-vora replies smiling, “but I think I can reach my ship without many problems. Though I can only uphold the illusion for a short period of time, it should be enough to get there without being noticed.”
With that, he is once again surrounded by a bright light and a stranger stands in his place once it fades.
He hurries out of the hangar and makes his way towards the Azula.

Upon entering the hangar, Ta-vora notices that his ship was once again surrounded by UE soldiers. He immediately hides behind a crate, trying to sneak towards his ship. But suddenly he feels a tap on his shoulder.
He jumps and becomes aware of the UE soldier standing behind him.
“I'm sorry, pal, no civilians are allowed in this area.”
Ta-vora quickly looks around. Noone nearby.
“I have no time to talk. Please take my appologies.”
“For what?”
“For this!”
Ta-vora quickly reaches forward, touching the man's uncovered hand. He falls unconscious. Ta-vora winces in pain and looks at his hand, which shows several severe burns.
I have yet to perfect this technique. The shock did too much damage to both of us. Later.
He kneels down next to the soldier and examines him closely. A second later, looks like a perfect copy of the man.
He then raises his wristcom to his mouth and whispers:
“Once I give you a signal, you open the hatch just enough to let me slip in. Once I'm aboard, immediately activate the reflexion shields and bring the weapons online.”
“Ayie, Kre.”
With that, Ta-vora stands up and walks towards the ship. The other UE soldiers believe him to be one of them, so they do not try to stop him.
He pushes a button on his wristcom and the hatch open slightly. Before anyone notices, he's inside the ship.

“We're ready for the breakthrough.” announces one of the officers, once Ta-vora enters the bridge and sits down at his station.
“Very well.”
He activates the outside speakers.
“Attention to all personel within this hangar. This is Ta-vora aboard the Azula. We are about to leave this station. Part of this will be the creation of a huge hole in the hangar door, so I advise everyone to leave this hangar now, as we don't want to kill anyone unnecessarily. You have thirty seconds to comply.”
He deactivates the speakers.
At his command, the Azula lifts off and turns around, now facing the hangar gates.
“Once the thirty seconds are up, use the intervall cannons to open these doors.”
“Ayie, Kre. I see the soldiers are about to leave the hangar. Frankly, I'm surprised that they listen to you.”
“Hm, I suppose by now they know what our weapons are capable off. The doors are made out of durasteel, about five mesaj thick. And I assume they know that this can't stop us.”
“The thirty seconds are up. Noone is left in the hangar.”
“Good, get us out.”
Invisible beam of quintadimensional energy leave the hidden weapons inside the Azula. They impact on the doors, causing them to shatter into particles, none bigger than tiny rubble. Soon, the hole is big enough for the Azula, which leaves the now airless hangar.
Ta-vora calls up a map which immediately shows on one of his screens.
“Set course to The Rock, system DSN-2131.”
“Ayie, Kre. Course set.”
“Jump as soon as we're in save distance.”

Only a short time later, the Azula vanishes from normal space, going onto the long journey to the very north tip.
Aboard the bridge, Ta-vora ponders dark thoughts.
Now I have three governments against me, not counting these Renegades. I just hope it is worth all this, that I'm not too late already.

(This message has been edited by Arion (edited 06-05-2004).)

Page, Larra, and Demon stood in the docking bay, watching as DZ's warship took off into space.

"Too bad we have to leave," Larra mused. "I've got a good game going on right now."

Demon looked at Page and snickered, caused the Vell-os to ask, "What game?"

Putting on the most innocent expression she possibly could, Larra told him the story she had fed the UE soldiers.

"You said I'm WHAT?!"

"QUIET!" Demon flicked an ear, listening carefully. "They're coming. From that door." He indicated which one he meant with a sweep of his paw.

With a vicious grin, Larra shaped one hand as if she was holding an invisible tennis ball. A green ball of energy appeared, instead of the black she had used almost solely before. The ball sped across the room, spreading into a large, flat rectangle as it did so, and dropped down in front of the door. Immediately it undertook a state change, becoming a solid, gooey substance.

"It's a welcome mat," Larra said cheerfully, then grinned at Page. "You're not the only one who's allowed to show off here." As if on cue, the first of the soldiers burst through the door, stepping on the substance. It took hold immediately, causing them to fall over and get stuck even worse in the goo.

Trying not to laugh, Demon took off running, towards Kamikaze's docking bay. "Let's go!" he yelled. Larra and Page followed, reaching the ship without much trouble. Surprisingly, there wasn't much of a blockade in the area, and the three had no trouble at all evading what little was there.

The shapeshifter reached Kami first, and tapped in the security code just in time for Larra and Page to board without breaking stride. Suddenly cat-formed, he jumped on Larra's shoulder as she ran by.

Reaching the controls, the Acaran fired up her ship's engine while Page and Demon found seats. Kamikaze lifted off the ground but didn't fly ahead, instead it held it's position, shaking violently as more and more fire shot out of the back end.

"We don't have room to pick up enough speed," Larra yelled to Page, explaining over the engine's roar. "I've got to move up to full speed like this before we can go through the wall. Once I quit holding Kami back it'll be like being shot out of a cannon. Hang on!"

Quite suddenly she did just that, her ship ripping a hole through the heavy doors a little too easily. Kamikaze's three occupants were thrown back against their seats with so much force that the breath was completely knocked out of them.

The pressure subsided as the ship hurtled further from the station, and Demon was the first to talk. "Wahooo! That gets more fun every time we do it!"

Larra cheered an agreement and, as always, flipped on her stereo on random mode. By the chance the first song was by the Bad Catholics, and Demon took up his opportunity to tease Page by bouncing across the room with the fur on the top of his head sticking up, vigorously playing an air guiter.

Larra set a course for the Rock, laughing so hard she could barely type.

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

All beings with even an inkling of telepathic power receive this weak memory.

_He stood in a magnificent marketplace. There was music and dancing in a nearby tavern, but he took no notice of it. He strode purposely forward, and into a grand hall built of crafted stone. This building had existed for millennia, but something inside him was uneasy about entering it this day. Across the magnificent room, he could see a familiar face, looking toward him. He walked over to the man he had recognized.
<are the preparations made> The man’s face turned more grim.
<yes they are made the rest of the council is waiting for us there>
<do they know the plan have they rehearsed it>
<just as you said my lord we have prepared the nanites as well>
<excellent and yuosa> he paused his thought, <i am sorry that you could not have spend more time enjoying your new position>
<it is not a problem father we are helping save the legacy of our race>
<very well let us proceed>
Both he and the other man turned together and walked out of the great hall.
_

(OOC) First bar post outside the Nova Universe. I figured it was appropriate, considering what I said about it reaching across all planes of existance.(/OOC)

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"I procrastinate like there's no tomorrow!" -TRG
"Publin ann dee RIIIZZZ!" -Frankenstein's Monster Slivers rule the world.
ftp://ftp.aladdinsys...ffit/sit751.exe - for Stuffit 7.5, windows users!

The gathering was nearing completion. The song had been written and only needed to be sung. Matt wondered vaguely what would to the strangers from the bar. They were somehow important but their story was not his. He had to work toward the completion of the power transmitter and the source.

"A'Jenna, it is almost ready. Another few days and all the relays will have arrived. The message will clearly reach every Human, Voinian and Emalghion system."

Jenna glanced towards the Voinian with a touch of ire. "I thought I'd finally gotten you to stop calling me that. Never mind, it doesn't matter. Matt is preparing the center and I've built the whole project. The only person as important in this was you. You organized it, you tested it, you planned it. I'm not sure it would have ever finished without you."

"First off I'm not technically a 'person.'" I'Kshatok responded in his usual monotone.

"I don't believe it. Did you just make a joke?"

The Voinian looked away from his computer orb suddenly. "I must have been around humans to long. I believe I just did."

------------------
Life, Death. What's the difference?

Atlantic Station Control Center

Matthias Cor, UEBI Special Agent, stood glowering. His prey had escaped. All the com-taps, all the tails, all the activated sleeper agents, a waste. They'd been hunting the infamous pirate Dechtran Zel for close to three years, and had been about to spring the trap, when the bumbling UE regulars had decided to overpopulate the station. All the best-laid plans of Cor and his planning staff had been foiled by a bunch of riff-raff from a hole-in-the-wall bar. "The hell with Dechtran."

Cor stomped off to his guest quarters for a drink.

Hyperspace

The Longbow slid silently through hyperspace. The jump engines in it would allow DZ to reach the north tip and the Rock well ahead of the rest of the bar patrons.

Dechtran Zel allowed himself to relax. Plopping his booted feet on the control panel in front of him, he entrusted himself and his ship to the hyperspace computer, and drifted off into sleep.

_"Dech. Wake up. We're almost there."

Dechtran found himself in his battered old UE fighter. All the guns had been stripped off, and with his best friend Fireno's help, they'd been able to rig it to carry a copilot. Dech currently occupied the main pilot's seat, with Fireno behind.

"Final approach, you want it?" Fireno asked.

Dech nodded. "Have I ever said to to a landing?"_

"Your tea is ready, sir." The cold metallic voice of the ship's computer jolted Dechtran out of his reverie. I've got better things to do than sit around and dream, anyway...

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(url="http://"http://www.thegreenfiles.net/")www.thegreenfiles.net(/url) Coming Soon!
Proud member of (url="http://"http://thefifthcolumn.blogspot.com")The Fifth Column(/url).
thegreenfile@gmail.com
Good things come in small packages.

"OH ****!" Page gasped suddenly. "MY BAG!, I LEFT MY ****ING BAG! WE GOTTA GO BACK!"
Demon and Larra stared back at Page like he was joking. Then they noticed the firey reflection in page's eyes. The ship suddely dropped put of hyperspace, made a 180 and re-entered hyperspace, moving faster than the laws of energy and matter would allow. In about 5 minutes Kamikaze re-entered the Liat system and attatched itself to the stations hull.
Page hopped down through the docking hatch and cut a hole in the wall.
"Give me ten minutes."
Page slowly and carefully made his way to the bar. He walked right into their trap.
Hundreds of UE soldiers stood, facing the bar door Page just walked through.
"Looking for this?" A soldier in silver combat armor asked, holding up Page's bag.
"Yup," Page producing his roll of burlap from behind a potted palm tree.
"Who are you, and where are you from?"
"I'm Page Hamilton of Viking."
"Viking? sounds like a pirate city to me." The man drew a lazer saber from his side and activated it. A beam of red energy extended from the small handle he held.
"Mr. Hamilto-"
"Dont call me that," Page interrupted, clenching his fists.
"Alright, Page, you are being arrested for carrying an illegal weapon, and for disorderly conduct, also for striking an soldier, whose jaw by the way you broke, i think you'll find our government is strict once you've endured your sentence of ten years."
Page began laughing almost menacingly.
"what's so funny?" The officer growled.
"Ten years is nothing, why dont we make it life," Page drew his blaster, and opened fire on the armored soldier. To his suprise the officer was already upon him, lazer saber, above Page ready to land a blow.
There was a flash of steel, an the soldier fell to the ground in 10 peices.
"So is killing an officer a life sentence or do i need to kill more?"
The soldiers grabbed their blasters and opened fire. Page deflected a few shots with his blade and tripped on a table, flipping it over. Page sighed from his cover.
"Goddamnit, Now i have to fight for my bag?"

------------------
Valence, Always aiming for the stars...
Then realizing he should have shot the bodyguards first...

Larra sat with her feet on Kamikaze's control panel, staring aimlessly at the stars. She yawned and stretched as one of her favorite songs came on, then began singing along.

The song ended just as Demon's head popped out of the hole Page had made in the wall. "Mission accomplished," he announced cheerfully, "Fuel stolen."

Larra smiled lazily. "Perfect. That'll make up for using the hyperspace afterburner to get back here." Demon nodded, then stretched out on the floor, waiting.

Two more songs came on and ended. "It's been ten minutes." The shapeshifter looked up at Larra.

She yawned again, and spoke in a slightly teasing tone. "Don't worry, Page is a big boy. He can take care of himself. Besides, don't take people literally when they say 'be back in ten minutes'. If they said a number like seven then they were trying to be exact, and you'd know something is wrong if they don't show."

Demon simply made a shrugging motion, and started mentally counting down from thirty. He had only gotten to nineteen when Larra stood up. "I'm going to go look for him. You stay here in case we have to leave quickly." The shapeshifter nodded, snickering to himself as she dropped into the station.

Larra made her way down the halls without mishap. Reaching the bar she noticed that, strangely, the door was closed. Two soldiers stood outside, and the sound of blaster shots echoed within. Fearlessly, she approached.

“Stop right there.” The tallest one raised his blaster, leveling it at her heart. “You’re not authorized to enter. As a matter of fact, you’re under arrest for obstructing justice.” He smirked nastily. “Turns out the president doesn’t have any female advisors.”

Larra grinned back just as evilly. “Oops.” She had to give the soldier credit. He met her stare head on, something few people could do, whether they wanted to or not.

For about fifteen seconds, no sound was heard aside from the noise in the bar. Then the man’s eyes rolled back and he slumped to the ground, unconscious. The second man jerked into action, whipping out his blaster.

He didn’t have time to pull the trigger, because Larra’ fist connected with his face before he could even aim. Dumbly he lifted one hand to try and keep the blood from flowing out of his clearly broken nose, then fell backwards in a dead faint.

Larra stood over him, staring down with amusement. “Wimp. I wonder how they train you guys...” Moving back to the first man, she bent down and patted him on the head “Piece of advice buddy,” Larra sang cheerfully, “Never, ever, ever look an Acaran telepath in the eye.”

Standing up and drawing her Blazor, set to stun mode merely because she felt like it, Larra stepped forwards and kicked the door open. Almost immediately she had to dive back into the hall, as a hail of shots reminded her the that she had left her swords in the Azula.

Holstering her gun, Larra performed the same hand movement she had previously when fighting Ta-vora, and called the blades to her hands. This time, the hilts came as well.

Unable, or rather, unwanting to hold back a grin, the Acaran released her shiny swords, making them orbit around her with only a stray thought.

She drew her Blazor again, just as five men burst out of the bar, tripping on the fallen guards. Larra coolly fired five times, the orbiting swords missing her electric bolts but somehow deflecting all incoming blaster shots. Each one of her blasts struck a limb uncovered by armor, and that was all she needed.

Larra giggled and stepped over the pile of unconcsious soldiers, “Look at me, men fall down at my feet.”

Shaking her head at her own joke she charged into the bar, firing rapidly with one hand and using the other to throw large amounts of her sticky green beam onto groups of soldiers, pinning them down and plugging the bores of their weapons.

A few of the more skilled men managed to get around her projectile shots, which only proved that the mirror-like blades didn’t need to be in Larra’s hands to slice people in half.

“Hey, Page!” she yelled over the ruckus, mostly just in case the Vell-os still didn’t know he had an ally in the room, “I sure hope whatever’s in your bag was this important!”

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

OOC: 11 posts remaining time to start a countdown
OOC2: This is nothing special, just a character development.

It is about midnight ship-time aboard the Azula. Ta-vora lies in his bed, sleeping.
Strange dreams are disturbing his dreams.
He again finds himself drifting in space, feeling the pain of his dying body. He then again experiences his awakening on the planet Auril, the World of Eternal Dawn, his fear, his confusion.
Suddenly a bright blue light awakens him. Confused, he lies in the dark for a few minutes, before realizing that this blue light is real. He stares down at his matrix, which glows extremely bright.
In Kano's name, it has never done this before it is glowing like it was coded twenty layers deep!
Suddenly the light collapses, leaving Ta-vora staring shocked at the apparently dead crystal.
Have my energies left me?
But suddenly the matrix starts to glow again, slightly at first and flickering like a flame in the wind, then growing stronger until it reaches its original brightness, and even remains a bit brighter than usual.
Te aschee palor. Looks like it reached the next layer. So my matrix is now coded six layers deep. But did the light go out first? Really strange.
Ta-vora marvels in the new deepness of his matrix, feeling its newfound energies flowing through him like blood, enjoying the spiritual warmth.

Ta-vora once again meditates in the regeneration chamber. While examining the energy flows of his matrix, he becomes aware of a different flow that is connected to his matrix, but not originated within it. He traces the flow, but it fades at some point, preventing him from finding out its origin. He then examines the flow closer.
This is a second matrix that is connected to mine. Both must have evolved at the same time. There's only one matrix that can be connected to mine. Ki-jara
He again tries to follow the flow, and suddenly becomes aware of a presence he hadn't felt for a long time. It is his long-lost Ayee'Shamun. But as soon as she becomes aware of his presence, she retreats, although it feels more like she would flee from the contact.
No surprise, she must think she is hallucinating. Ta-vora thinks sadly. She is somewhere within Voinian territory, but this I knew already. How can they disrupt psionic emissions? I heared the Voinians are a completely non-psionic race. They must have help from a third party. But the Voinians are the Phanteon-equivalent of this universe. And like the Phanteon, the Voinians would never accept help

The bridge officers were surprised to see their captain at this time of the day. Ta-vora had become restless in the past few days, being obviously worried.
“Where are we?” he asks, while sitting down in his chair.
“Passing the Nemnel-system. Nothing to report. We ran into a Zachit patrol twice, they still seem suspicious about us.”
“Nothing to worry about, as long as they don't attack us.”
“And for some reason, the Kamikaze didn't pass us yet.”
“I wouldn't worry about this either. Perhaps something held them back or Larra took another course.”

And the Azula speeds on through the blue whirl of hyperspace

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

12 posts left

Downing the scalding liquid in one gulp, Dech stood. Actually, I'm not sure I do have better things to do.... Making his way throught the tight passageways of the Longbow , Dech eventually emerged in the fighter bay, where his battred UE fighter still sat.

"Fireno." Dech said out loud. "We're back to the old games. Running from the law, my friend." The red fighter-craft sat silent.

Like the silence of a tombstone... Except this tombstone is going to avenge the woman it is in remembrance of...

Dech rolled his tool box over to the dilapidated fighter. "It's been too long."

Burying himself in the simple old Earth technology, Dech remembered that day...

(quote)(flashback)

" UE445 , you are clear for hangar 22."

"Acknowledged, Control. Landing now."

Dech's hands guided the fighter to a safe landing. The two young people glanced at each other, grinning, as they disembarked. Closer than a brother and sister, they were both excited by their first solo trip out of system. With money saved up for the whole summer, they had enough for two jumps' worth of fuel, and enough to buy some goodies for their as-yet-unnamed ship.

(OOC: And I don't have a map around of the EVO universe. Anybody want to help me so I can finish my post?)

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(url="http://"http://www.thegreenfiles.net/")www.thegreenfiles.net(/url)
Proud member of (url="http://"http://thefifthcolumn.blogspot.com")The Fifth Column(/url).
Good things come in small packages.

thegreenfile@gmail.com

My bar is still here... ::tear:: Where did I go?

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<A href="http://seibertron.com/nigritude-ultramarine.php" target="_blank">Nigritude Ultramarine</A>

You're welcome in the next one. I'm pretty sure there'll be an acid pit just for old times' sake.

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(url="http://"http://www.thegreenfiles.net/")www.thegreenfiles.net(/url)
Proud member of (url="http://"http://thefifthcolumn.blogspot.com")The Fifth Column(/url).
Good things come in small packages.

thegreenfile@gmail.com

Ahem. The Acid Pit was an invention of the Boozerama Bar, which rules by the way. We are currently having a logo contest for the promotional banner. I suggest that you guys give up this slow boring bar that took a year and a half to fill up, and come to the Boozerama Bar, which is much more fast paced and fun.

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True, but you're the first one who's put it right there for me to get, I'm too lazy/stupid/forgetful to go looking for them.-Rickton
(url="http://"http://www.freewebs.com/ericspad/")Eric's Pad(/url) My Site is awesome! Come check it out.
No car, no license, no cash, no life. Coincidence?

OOC: Or you could stop being a Boozerama-whore...

Maybe we like to develop a story, instead of just randomly blasting each other. Randomly blasting each other is fine and all, but I'd rather do this at the moment.

And you're getting annoying with the "Forget your involved plots and hours of work and come write in something that takes a tenth the effort" pleas.

Shut up already. Seriously.

/OOC

Dech teleports magically back the the albatross and shoots emainiac in the head. Twice. Then he teleports back to the Longbow and his beat up old UE fighter.

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(url="http://"http://www.thegreenfiles.net/")www.thegreenfiles.net(/url)
Proud member of (url="http://"http://thefifthcolumn.blogspot.com")The Fifth Column(/url).
Good things come in small packages.

thegreenfile@gmail.com

Whoa my god! This bar's still on. It's a shame it'll get deletd though, but I hope the mods willl do an exception for once. Oh please? This is the best bar ever!

And hello to the ones who've already met me a long time ago. : )

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Cooldude

Quote

Originally posted by Cooldude:
**Whoa my god! This bar's still on. It's a shame it'll get deletd though, but I hope the mods willl do an exception for once. Oh please? This is the best bar ever!

And hello to the ones who've already met me a long time ago. : )

**

It's going to get locked anyway, I'm afraid... good bar or not, it's generally best to not let this drag on for ever. You can always start another, and make it even better.

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-- ** (url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url)**

Quote

Originally posted by Mazca:
**It's going to get locked anyway, I'm afraid... good bar or not, it's generally best to not let this drag on for ever. You can always start another, and make it even better.

**

Exactly. I've got the preliminary post in the works, and, as you can read, the Albatross is winding down. Four more posts.

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(url="http://"http://www.thegreenfiles.net/")www.thegreenfiles.net(/url)
Proud member of (url="http://"http://thefifthcolumn.blogspot.com")The Fifth Column(/url).
Good things come in small packages.

thegreenfile@gmail.com

Yeah, Green and I are starting a new bar, just so all know that we got "dibs". Sorry that I've been inactive, but I'm working on a novel, and I've got really caught up in research and stuff about it. I'll be posting again soon.

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(u)nforgiven s(eraphim)

"The time had finally come. Thousands of ships were stationed throughout the galactic west. The power of thousands of suns flowing through the most powerful broadcast message ever sent. The message itself was simple but fused with images and emotions that would effect every person differently.

Trillions of minds, billions of cities and dozens of races changed in that moment as the bridge between past and present disappeared in their minds. Some heard the Requiem as a prayer to whatever Deity they believed in. Some heard it as a plea in vain at the stupidity of warfare. Some just listened dumbstruck, the broadcast only took a fraction of a second but in that time the war stopped as Hector Berlioz and Jenna Jones combined their masterpieces from different times, but from that moment on the two pieces would be best known together.

The Requiem opens with an instrumental introduction with undercurrents of loss and mourning and Jenna's visual scene flashed seamlessly between thousands of mourners, burned corpses on the destroyed stations in Vorik and the floating corpses of the UE Navy where the battle took place, in Voinia. Then the chorus enters first with men, with a request for eternal peace Requiem aeternam dona es. The women mirror the voice as the listener feels the loss of a loved one. Not just a loved one but a person who was more important to them then their own life and they see millions of mourners. As the movement continues the anxiety grows and the transition begins to before the battle, the final day.

They see ships on both sides mass forces and armies prepare, they see soldies give their final farewell and feel the loss of the separation, the doubt that they will return alive as if they were the soldiers and their loved ones. They see the slaves in the Voinian stations worked to death by overseers and they see commanders of human fleets carefully plot for their squads to lead the assault for an increase in honor behind it all rings the word eleison , have mercy. Then the scene flashes back to those left behind offering prayers and hopes with the music and words again asking for peace.;

It has often been said that from years of preparation we earn one moment of action and this work is no different. It is indescribable as an artwork. It can only be experienced, but that bends your thoughts to much to analyze. That is why you will never hear a clear analysis of the work from anyone but the long deceased creator. The battle is no less majestic then anything anyone expected, it is also much more real then anyone could imagine. Before this work some people thought they could imagine death, but they had never experienced. Jenna delved so deep into her imagination that she recreated death. To partake in this majestic artwork is to literally die a thousand deaths.

We do not know what the galaxy would have been like without this work, but we do know that both the UE and the Voinian governments admitted to stockpiling massive quantities of quantum weaponry for offensive purposes. It is doubtful that either government would have stopped with annihilating the other. You all know how this work brought peace and eventually stability to a great portion of the Galaxy. You've had it drilled into your minds a thousand times that the Voinians and the UE could never have joined under the Confederacy without it. You also have been told that it caused the eventual unification of the Galaxy and in the last twenty years a number of extra galactic contacts, all peaceful.

What you haven't been told is the cost of the artwork being forced upon peoples minds. It is an act more atrocious in many ways then a rape or even a brainwash, forcing thoughts upon someone to whom they didn't belong. Many lost their minds and anyone operating a delicate procedure had a break in their concentration and many were wounded and died. Jenna was far too smart not to know that this would be a consequence and far too sensitive to not act upon it. She had rigged her own device to kill her when the piece was complete, and K'shatok felt that he couldn't live without her so he killed himself afterwards.

Today they are idolized by most people in the Galaxy and many outside it. You have seen their lives through their own eyes, the recordings that they didn't know existed. You have heard me explain their choices, their sacrifices. This is the galaxy that we live in, we have been at peace for sixty years. There has not been one act of terrorism for forty and not one murder for twelve. We live in a utopia but time is splitting it apart. We, the older generation are slowly dying and the generation preceding you doesn't remember what it was like before. We cannot change what has happened and I cannot change the future. Or perhaps I can."

With that I flipped the switch and raped their minds with images they didn't agree to. Before that they were only children but when they left that room they had seen and felt death. No one can escape childhood without a thorough understanding of death. Now I go to face my own, the Galaxy decreed me guilty of forced coercion, the last capital crime. I'll die in a few days but my memories will be preserved, perhaps you will earns something from them. My little class contained more than a thousand children from every major race and six of the slave races. They will help to bring peace, but before they can the Galaxy must know war again. Trillions will probably die but there is still hope. Learn from my mistakes and follow up my successes nothing is more important then peace. Not freedom, not love. My beloved Jenna taught me that very well. She was willing to act against her morals even if it meant that she would have to kill herself.

Forgive me Jenna.

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Life, Death. What's the difference?