Oriphiel

It's apparent to me that I've kept the plot to a bare minimum so far, revealing only a few details about the aliens and their backstory. Today, I'll shed a little more light on their history, which may very well show them to be far less brave and heroic than they initially made themselves out to be, depending on your point of view. This entry turned out to be much longer than I expected, exceeding the max character limit, so I split it up into two parts. For the background music, I chose a song by Hi-NRG/Disco legend Patrick Cowley, known for his hit "Megatron Man" (featured in entry twelve), as well as his collaboration with fellow musician Sylvester which resulted in popular songs like "Do You Wanna Funk?" (which, if you remember, was the first song to be featured in this journal). Patrick made his name by crafting synthesizer based Hi-NRG music catering to the club scene, however he also made a good amount of music on the side for movie soundtracks. These songs, while still rooted in his Synth Pop/Hi-NRG foundation, were much more slow and atmospheric than his other work. Of course, if you don't want to find these songs by hunting down the obscure original movies and their soundtracks, they were compiled for the 2013 "School Daze" LP.

Chapter Seventeen: Part One



It took a little convincing, but John and Cleo were able to persuade the Red Sleeve scout who was watching Luke's apartment to let them join him. The scout knew that John had been ordered to take a break from Red Sleeve matters, and he certainly didn't believe that John had given his wounds enough time to heal, however he had grown quite bored being alone for the past few hours and was glad to have the company. Together, the three of them watched Luke's apartment building intently, with Cleo making the occasional joke to help pass the time. The nights in the city had become very dark recently, and tonight was no exception, leaving the three of them somewhat blind to most anything outside of the range of the various streetlights scattered about the area, however the darkness also had the benefit of providing the scouts with a shroud that kept them from being detected. Meanwhile, inside Luke's apartment, most everyone had fallen asleep, including the aliens (who, even though they had an unforgiving work schedule, needed rest as much as anyone else). Retix found herself unable to sleep, and decided to put on a disguise and step outside for a walk under the moonlight, something that had become somewhat of a tradition for her these past few nights. Unfortunately, one of the Boss' lieutenants had remained awake. "Where are you going?" he asked, taking a drag from his cigarette. Retix turned to face him, calm yet somewhat surprised, and replied "Nowhere. Just out for a walk." "I'm supposed to watch all of you. Protect you," said the Blue Shirt as he stood up, throwing his spent cigarette to the ground and stepping on it. Retix folded her arms, saying "You've seen what we can do. Do you really think that we need your protection?"

The Blue Shirt shrugged, and said "Maybe not. But I'll tag along anyway, just in case. Don't worry, I'll be as quiet as a corpse." Before Retix could reply, Luke looked up towards her and the Blue Shirt from the couch he was sleeping on, and interjected "I'll go." The Blue Shirt looked at Luke and smiled, saying "That's generous of you. But, as the safety of these new friends of ours is of the utmost importance, I think this matter ought to be handled by a lieutenant." Luke wiped his eyes and stood up, replying "Don't forget, I am a lieutenant. I was one before all of this shit started, and I haven't been demoted yet." The Blue Shirt cleared his nose and looked to the side, saying "Yeah. Yeah, I guess you are." Luke nodded to Retix and began to walk towards the apartment's door, saying "Don't worry. If anything happens to her, it'll be my ass on the line." The Blue Shirt walked over to a chair and sat down, pulling out another cigarette as he said "Be careful. After what happened to Jason, it's clear that the Red Sleeves or some other gang are taking an interest in this apartment. I'm sure that they've got at least one scout out there now." "I've got it covered," said Retix, pulling up the lapel of her trenchcoat and tapping the edge of her hat. "Do you really think that'll fool them?" asked the Blue Shirt. Retix shrugged, and replied "It has so far." Luke put on a hat and sunglasses, and he followed Retix into the hallway outside of his apartment.

"Who's that?" asked John, nodding towards a person stepping out of the apartment complex, draped in a large trenchcoat. Not long after, another person stepped out of the building. Cleo and the scout had been playing cards to pass the time while John stayed focused on the apartment, and they both looked up in curiosity. "Oh," said the scout, "the trenchcoat. I've seen 'em before. They've come out the past few nights, usually alone." "Have you followed them before?" asked John. The scout nodded, and replied "Yeah, once. Right now i'm all alone, and I can't really tail people since I have to stay here and watch the apartment building, but back when I was first posted here, there were four of us. We noticed the trenchcoat, but we just dismissed them at first; it's a busy complex, and people are coming and going at all hours. But almost every night, the trenchcoat would step outside, and eventually we got curious. I tailed 'em, but nothing came of it." "What happened?" asked John. The scout shrugged, and replied "Seriously, nothing. They just walked over to the park and sat at a bench. After an hour or so, they got up and walked back to the building." After thinking for a moment, John said "I'm gonna follow them, see for myself. You stay here and keep an eye on things. Cleo, do you want to come with me, or stay here and watch the building?" Without responding, Cleo smiled and lifted up an arm. John grabbed her hand and helped her to her feet. The two of them followed the mysterious people in trenchcoats, and tried to eavesdrop on their quiet conversation.

For the majority of their walk, John had been asking Retix various questions about how she and the others were adjusting to Earth. However, as they continued on, he noticed that she was growing quieter with each step. He began to suspect that something was on her mind. "Are you alright?" he asked. Retix nodded, gazing towards the ground as she replied "I'm fine." "Are you sure? I don't want to pry, it's just... it seems like there's something that's bothering you." "Really, i'm fi-" began Retix, before she stopped and quickly put a hand to her forehead. Obviously in pain from one of her migraines, she nursed her head for a moment, before throwing her hand down and letting out a yell of frustration. "Are they getting worse?" asked Luke, who was not so careless that he hadn't noticed her previous headaches. "No, they're..." started Retix, before stopping and sighing. "It's not just them. It's everything. I just... I need some time to think." "I understand," said Luke. "Really, I get it. It must be stressful. The same aliens that destroyed your planet are coming for Earth, and you're the only ones who can stop them." Retix narrowed her eyes and let out a small laugh, saying "Right," in a sarcastic tone. "What?" asked Luke, wondering if he had said something that warranted her tone of voice. Retix was about to say something, before she shook her head and looked down in thought. After a moment, she said "The Threx didn't destroy our planet. Not really. We did. And I have to live with what I've done. I have to, or... or they'll have all died for nothing." "What are you talking about?" asked Luke, who was legitimately confused. Retix put a hand to her forehead, and said "We... weren't completely honest with you when we first met. We didn't exactly lie to you, but we certainly didn't tell you the truth. I..." she stopped and thought for a moment, before continuing "I don't really know where to start." She sat down on a park bench, thinking of what to say as Luke sat down beside her.

"Our world was falling apart. We were an advanced civilization with a rich history, as well as a wide array of incredible scientific advancements, and a cultural emphasis on building innovative technology. However, even we weren't immune to the basic faults of greed and pride. While the people sank further down into a devastating economic depression, the nobility became more wealthy and powerful than ever before." "Wait," said Luke, "didn't Heyt say that you all came from the ruling caste?" Retix looked down. She sighed and nodded her head, before saying "We... I didn't... I was raised in a palace, and lived in it my whole life. I didn't realize what was happening to the world around me until it was too late." By her expression, Luke could tell that she didn't truly believe that. In time, Retix continued. "The people eventually rose up in rebellion. Almost the entirety of the massive population of our planet fell into a frenzy. At first, the rebels targeted the nobility, executing as many as they could find. But they eventually turned to banditry to sustain their armies, killing innocent people and losing sight of their ideals, and our world became a place of death and chaos. We... we were desperate. The rebellion had to end, before our whole world was destroyed. And so we did what our civilization does best; faced with a problem, we built a device that would help us to overcome it."

"What kind of device?" asked Luke. Retix spent a few seconds watching ripples dance across a nearby pond, before answering "One that could stop the chaos. After the riots started, all of the surviving nobles gathered together, and we discussed how we could survive the coming days. We each had our own plan; Heyt wanted us to leave our world, using what resources we had left to start new lives in a place where the rebels would never find us. Since there were rebel pirates all around our world, taking off in a spaceship was out of the question, and his plan was to build a teleportation device with enough range to reach a far away planet that was compatible with our biology. Gor wanted us to fight rather than leave our ancestral home, to go down in an honorable blaze of glory. His plan, if you can believe it, was to use our resources to build an army of robots to fight alongside us. Valk wanted to appease the rebels, and his plan was to 'redistribute the planet's wealth', a plan that essentially boiled down to buying the rebels off in exchange for mercy. There was also a noble with us named Merrus, one of the few that tried to fix the economy before the riots started, and he wanted to negotiate with the rebels to establish a new government. He considered the noble caste to be outdated, and believed that forming some sort of system of elected representatives would destroy corruption and greed." Luke, thinking of how the elected representatives of own his planet were stereotyped as being the personification of greed and corruption, held back a laugh, and Retix continued. "Regardless, we all continued to fight with each other, until eventually one of our plans was approved by the majority. My plan."

"It was actually a very simple idea. We would use our accumulated resources to develop a machine, based off of an old form of technology that had been used for years to quell small groups of protesters. It's purpose was roughly the same, only we needed our device to have much more power and range than the old tech. We devoted all of our time to building it, and it was surprisingly difficult to create. Heyt, Valk, and Tyl were the ones who designed the majority of the machine, eventually overcoming every issue of power usage, range, and so on. In time, we had a prototype. Using it would be risky, since we had absolutely no time to test it or think about the ramifications of using it, but we were running out of time. We had no choice but to turn it on, and use it on the population." "It seems pretty obvious that it was some kind of pacification device, but what did it actually do? I mean, did it force everyone to be happy, or put everyone to sleep, or..." asked Luke, and Retix cut him off by answering "Mind control. The function of the device was to take away their free will." "Oh," responded Luke. Retix looked down, and continued her story. "It could, at a range, replace someone's higher cognitive functions and behavior with our own set of desired orders and actions. Of course, Merrus was vehemently opposed to creating it, however he honored the decision of the majority and assisted us in creating it. In time, the device was turned on, and everyone within a certain radius of our position was put under our control. We continued to improve the machine, increasing it's power and spreading the range of it's influence, until the majority of the planet was under our command."

"Of course, we wanted to leave ourselves and any other surviving nobles unchanged, and so we designed the machine to be nullified by these..." she said as she swept back her bangs, revealing a small metallic band around her head, and Luke remembered seeing the other aliens wearing them. "It's a circlet made of copper, and almost every noble proudly wore one on our planet." "Copper?" asked Luke incredulously. "Weren't you basically royalty? Why not gold or silver?" Retix shrugged, and replied "It's a tradition, dating back thousands of years. Regardless, we formatted the waves of the device to react sporadically when in contact with copper, creating a small field of interference that would repel the waves away from the wearer's mind. By doing this, we spared most of the surviving nobles from the grip of the device." "What happened next?" asked Luke. "Like I said," continued Retix, "we increased the power of the device, and gained control of the majority of the planet. There were still areas beyond our reach, such as off-world colonies, but they were conquered easily enough; with most of the population following our orders, we were able to quickly build more mind control devices, placing them in the far corners of our civilization. The rebels were defeated, and order was restored to our world. We celebrated for a time, and then set about rebuilding some semblance of a society... truly, we thought that we had accomplished some grand and magnificent task, but in reality, our people were doomed."

"What happened to your people? Did you eventually release them from the device's control?" asked Luke. Retix massaged her forehead, and replied "We had originally planned to free our people from the machine's control, however... plans change. After defeating the rebels, we discussed the matter, and we agreed that we should first release a small handful of people, studying them to see if there were any side effects before we freed the majority of the population. The people that we released quickly reverted to their previous inclinations, thinking that the rebellion was still in effect. Realizing that freeing our people would only cause a repetition of the past violence, we decided to leave them under our control until we could find a solution. Our best hope was to study them, to find a way of somehow rewriting their memories, making them forget about the rebellion, while still retaining their free will and personalities. In the meantime, every person was assigned a job, and our society was rebuilt. At first, it seemed like we had made the right choice, and maybe we had, initially... but as time passed, we once again gave in to our greed. While we were studying our people, we began to notice an effect of long-term exposure to the device's waves; loss of memories. At first, we were happy, as it meant that we would soon be able to release our people without them trying to kill us. However, as more time passed, they would begin to lose more than just memories; their minds would eventually grow weaker and weaker until even the most basic of independent functions would elude them without our guidance."

Oriphiel

Chapter Seventeen: Part Two

"We held a meeting, and discussed the matter. While some of us wanted to hold true to our promise and free our people, most of the nobles were in opposition. They believed that it was far too risky to ever free our people, and had grown very comfortable under the current system. They argued that releasing the people would be catastrophic, no matter how the waves had affected them; if they had lost too many of their memories, then releasing them would result in society collapsing into utter confusion, and if they hadn't lost enough memories, then the rebellion would begin again. Merrus tried to compromise with both sides, and proposed that we release our people in groups; every week, we would release a certain area from our control, and condition the people there to thrive once again. Looking back on it, it was a good plan, however... it was rejected by the majority." "Which side did you support?" asked Luke. After a moment of silence, Luke looked at Retix, and noticed tears running down her face. "It's probably difficult for you to understand. If you had seen the pain, the hate... the bodies stacked along the streets..." she said, wiping the tears from her eyes before continuing. "We were scared. We couldn't let it happen again. Like I said, we had grown comfortable with the ways things had become, and weren't about to risk having it all taken away. We were greedy, just as we had been in the days before the rebellion... and, once again, we paid the price."

"Time passed, and the people became more and more affected by their exposure to the waves. Eventually, our window of opportunity disappeared, and the people became too dependent on our control to ever hope of being released. Society changed drastically; while we were once a culture that thrived on innovation, with almost every member of our species able to create complex machinery, our people were now unable to perform any task beyond following orders, spending their days carrying out the most mundane of tasks. Without any conflict, there was no longer any need for weapons, and so only the nobles retained any firearms. Art, obviously, became utterly stagnant... everything that we had once cherished or taken pride in was now a hollow reminder of what we once had. In time, the Threx empire appeared and attacked, and their foreign physiology somehow rendered them immune to our device's influence. They were a civilization that took pleasure in adventuring throughout the cosmos, defeating anyone they came across and demanding a tribute from them. We didn't know of their existence before this confrontation, but as far as we could tell, they were not particularly adept at developing anything other than weapon-based technology on their own, and relied on stealing most of their tools from other cultures, forcing the scientists of conquered worlds to explain the nuances of their advances. We thought that our defenses would be enough to stop any invading threats, but we were mistaken. The only thing that the Threx had trouble with was our system of automated anti-spacecraft guns, which we quickly activated. However, after they destroyed them, we were left entirely exposed. Our mind controlled people had few weapons and no capacity for finite tactics, leading to them being completely outmatched by the seasoned invading soldiers."

After landing on our planet and routing us at every turn, they kidnapped a noble and used what must have been a very rudimentary translation device to communicate with him. He sent a message to the nobility, asking for us to meet the Threx aboard their flagship. Once there, we were to negotiate an unconditional surrender. As we had no choice but to oblige them, many of the nobles set out for their ship. However, I and a few others didn't trust the Threx, and we stayed behind. Merrus, oddly enough, decided to go with the others on the diplomatic mission, despite sharing my sentiments. I should have figured that he was up to something. And, indeed, he was. After the nobles arrived, the Threx trapped them inside the ship and slaughtered them. However, before the ambush, Merrus had used a few tools he had snuck in to scan the ship and it's databanks. The data he gathered is how we learned everything we know about the Threx, and we formed our suppositions and opinions about the Threx off of that information. Before he could be killed, Merrus used a teleportation node to escape. Not only that, but he also rescued two young nobles who had been wounded in the attack. One of them was Qez, and the other... well, he unfortunately died from his wounds not long after. Merrus had apparently surgically implanted the node within himself some time before, fearing that his opposition to the other nobles would lead to an assassination attempt. Keeping one in his pocket wasn't good enough for him, as he wanted to be able to jump at any time without delay." "What's a teleportation node?" asked Luke. "Well... I'll try to describe it briefly. My people could use computer modules to teleport, however your destination had to be calculated to an extreme degree, or else you would end up stuck inside of a wall, or have some other odd calamity happen to you. People grew tired of having to stop and find a module every time they wanted to teleport, and so nodes were invented. Basically, a node was just a hand held device that constantly scanned it's surroundings and did the calculations on it's own, allowing you to instantly warp to any module that had previously been synced with the node. Like I said before, you could still teleport to a place without any nodes or modules, but you would have to be very accurate with your calculations to pull it off. It's much easier to have a device on the other end doing the calculations for you."

"So, what happened with the Threx?" asked Luke. "After killing the nobles who had gone to meet with them, they grew even bolder. They must have thought that they had completely defeated us, killing our leaders and leaving behind a bunch of scared people who were eager to give up everything in exchange for mercy. They didn't know what we had done to our people, and they didn't realize that no number of acts of brutality could evoke any feelings of fear in them. Still, they sent out a message to our people saying that their leaders were dead, that they had no chance of winning this war, and that the Threx would spare any who assisted them in stripping the planet of all useful resources and technology. Meanwhile, Merrus had returned to us. In the data he stole from the Threx, he found various weak points on their vessels, including the flagship. He didn't believe that our mind controlled people had the capacity to fight the Threx, and demanded that they finally be freed, regardless of the consequences. He firmly believed it was the only chance of survival that we had, and that he could train a team of soldiers to exploit the weaknesses on the Threx ships, if given some time. The other nobles... disagreed."

"We killed Merrus, quickly, before he could even react, as we had other plans for our people that we knew he wouldn't ever approve of. Qez... we never told her about what happened. She was healing in isolation at the time, and as she was quite fond of Merrus, it's highly unlikely that she would ever forgive us. But it had to be done. Rather than free our people and simply hope that they could be reconditioned in such a short amount of time after being exposed to the device for so long, we decided to not leave our fate to chance. Our planet was lost, but the nobles could still escape and keep our heritage alive. We ordered all of our people to attack the Threx without relent, to serve as a distraction until we could find a way to escape. The Threx soon realized that our people were unable to be subjugated, and that not all of the nobles were dead. They also realized that our technology was so advanced that they couldn't hope of being able to understand and use it without finding the surviving nobles and forcing them to teach them. Even after the brutal rebellion, the population of our planet was still massive, and though our people were slaughtered in droves, the sheer numbers were enough to slow down the Threx in their hunt for us. Heyt sent out a probe and searched for a habitable planet where we could begin again, and he started refining the schematics that he had earlier designed for a teleportation device with enough range to instantly transport us to the best planet that he could find."

"The Threx were relentless in their search for us, and we had to stay on the run. This lasted for weeks, and even though Heyt had discovered a planet that we could survive on, Earth, our constant moving made it incredibly difficult for Heyt to make his calculations. The probe that he had sent out had a teleportation node in it, and after it had sent back readings of Earth, Heyt gave it the command to land on the planet, serving as a easy to access conduit. However, the probe happened to land in an alleyway in this city, where someone must have damaged it; the calculations it sent back were garbled and half complete. Still, it was able to send back proper scans and readings, including television broadcasts, and gave us time to learn more about your culture. Learning the indigenous language of this region wasn't easy, but we had certain devices and techniques to pick it up quickly. Heyt eventually completed the calculations, and we modified a module to have the power to send us there, as following his schematics. Right as the Threx were closing in on us, we began to make our escape. Most of us were killed, but six of us managed to teleport to Earth. Unfortunately, Gor had sustained a serious wound during the process, and he died upon arrival." "When we first met, Heyt told me that the Threx were coming to Earth. How would they know where you teleported to? And why do they care so much about finding you? Is it just a matter of pride?"

"No," replied Retix. "They want to find us because they need us, in a way. Like I said earlier, without our knowledge, almost all of the technology on our planet is useless to them for the time being. Of course, they could study it and learn to use it on their own, but that would take a very long time, and it's much easier if they simply force us to show them how everything works. Merrus' scans showed us as much. Unfortunately for us, the Threx managed to gain an edge... as I mentioned earlier, they captured one of us. A noble named Seht. He was tortured, and forced to serve them. We realized that his betrayal was a serious threat, as he could help them to find and capture us with ease, and so we eventually... assassinated him. I'd rather not talk about it. Regardless, before his demise, he revealed to the Threx rudimentary knowledge about our culture and technology. Luckily they can't teleport, but they can extract limited information from our modules. While we were teleporting to Earth, Heyt tried to make sure the module we used was as well encrypted as possible, but he knew that they had the ability to crack it within a few days. Apparently, he was designing a virus to wipe it clean after we had escaped, but he couldn't finish the coding in time. The Threx have our module, and though they can't teleport with it, they can still plainly see the coordinates of our destination. And that is how we knew that they would, in all likelihood, follow us."

Luke sat in silence, taking the time to process all of the information that he had just received. Eventually, he stood up, and said "I... can't help you." Retix looked up at Luke but said nothing, and he looked back at her as he continued. "This device you're building... it's pretty fucking obvious that it's the same one that you used to fuck up your homeworld. I mean, it is, isn't it?" Retix nodded. Luke narrowed his eyes, and said "I can't believe this. I'm sorry, but I just can't. After everything that happened to your planet, are you really going to let the same thing to Earth? Just... turn us into your slaves?" "It's not like that," said Retix. "We don't have a choice. Unless we can unite your world, the Threx are going to subjugate it." "Only because you led them here! You're making us pay for your mistakes." "'Pay for my mistakes'? I pay for my mistakes, every second of every day that I continue to live. I close my eyes, and I see the faces of each person that died because of my foolishness. I open my eyes, and I see a world that deserves infinitely more than I can offer it. I have done such horrible things that I ought to have died a thousand times over, and there is just one single glimmer of possible redemption that I see before me; I know it seems nonsensical, but I can spare your planet from the fate that befell mine. I can take something evil, like the device, and use it to accomplish something wonderful. You have to understand, by all indications, the Threx were expanding their reach at an alarming rate, and would have reached Earth in a few years whether we teleported here or not. But now, I can make the most of my past mistakes, and salvage some good from them. I can use this opportunity to save Earth from it's otherwise inevitable fate." "That's bullshit. You're going to save us by enslaving us? By destroying our minds?" "No. This time, we have more knowledge of the workings of the device. We have experience to draw from. We can design it so that it doesn't destroy the mind as quickly. We will unite the planet and fight the Threx, using Merrus' information to hit the weak points of their fleets, and then immediately free your people before any negative effects can take hold." "There are other ways to unite the world. You don't have to steal our free will." "We thought of that, but no other option could have possibly succeeded. By all of our information, your world is divided into factions that have spent years fighting each other, and convincing them to stop would take far more time than we have. Also, we have seen many of your television broadcasts, and we came to the conclusion that if we revealed ourselves to one or all of Earth's governments, we would end up being kidnapped and dissected. The only way to quickly unite the world is to use the device. We have to."

Though Luke was still angry and eager to disagree with Retix, he calmed down and took a moment to think. "You've made some questionable choices," said Luke, sitting back down on the bench, "and done some terrible things. But that's in the past. Right now, if those Threx assholes really are gunning it for our planet, then we're basically fucked. They'll catch all of the leaders of the world completely by surprise, and probably destroy our defenses before we can even flinch. But I would still rather die fighting a hopeless battle than live out the rest of my days as some soulless husk." Retix lowered her gaze and put her hands on her forehead. Though her moist eyes glistened under the scant moonlight, there were no more tears escaping them. "I have to do this. I don't have a choice." she said, although it was in a rather vacant manner, as if she was saying it to herself as much as she was saying it to Luke. He couldn't help but feel pity for her, despite everything that she and the others had done, and he felt his anger fade away. After thinking about it for some time, he came to realize that she had made what seemed to be a good point. The Threx were coming, and the only way to even have a chance at stopping them was to use the device. It still felt wrong to him, and thinking about it gave him a cold feeling. "I'll..." he began, before looking down, sighing, and continuing, "I'll help you." Retix looked up at him with a questioning glance. "You can't change what you've done in the past. I get that. And though using the same device that destroyed your world doesn't sit well with me... it's probably our only option. So I'll help you, but on one condition; that you only use the device for as long as necessary, and not for a moment more." "Of course," said Retix. "I never planned to keep it on for..." she started to say, before Luke cut her off by raising his hand. "I know," he said. "You didn't plan on keeping it on forever. But then again, you also didn't plan on leaving it on the first time around. Like you said, 'plans change'. And I just want you to know that if this plan changes, and you all try to take control of our planet for good, I will find a way to kill all of you." Retix took the threat rather well, and even smiled, though her eyes still expressed deep sorrow, replying "That sounds very reasonable."

Oriphiel

Hello, my nonexistent audience! I haven't updated this in awhile, due to a terrible cycle of alternating between being busy and being lazy. To keep you all occupied, here's something I wrote back during Manowar Week. I was going to write entries while listening to Hail to England, before we all decided to just post plain old reviews in the Manowar Week thread. It's just a side story that happens in the time gap between the story so far in Blood and Diamonds, and the next chapter (which takes place days after the last entry).

I only wrote a single entry in the side story before the idea got shot down. It's pretty tiny, as I was going to update the side story daily in small pieces. I'll be sure to write more bite-sized expansions for it in the days to come, though. Keeping true to the music that originally inspired this side story, I'll be listening to 1980s heavy metal as I write more chapters for it.

So, without further introduction, here it is. And if you don't know who Sam is, then you should pay more attention!

Side Story: Sam, Part One



Sam was unable to open her eyes, yet she could sense everything that was happening around her. She felt the sting of extreme pain constantly course through her body, the smell of metal and electrical fires invading her nostrils, and the sound of hammers and drills resonating heavily through her ears. Every now and then, the pain would be broken off by a cold and dull feeling that swept over her, and she would get a tingling sensation in her right arm and leg as if they had a terrible itch that she was unable to scratch. In time, she was able to regain control of her eyes, and she slowly opened them. She was completely unsure of what to expect; part of her found it fairly reasonable to assume that she was undergoing some sort of operation, but there was still a large part of her that couldn’t be dissuaded from believing that she had died back in that apartment. Stan always had said that her recklessness would get her killed some day. Nevertheless, she stared hard into the gloomy darkness in front of her, and turned her head around to scan her surroundings. While the room was very dimly lit and her vision was blurry, she eventually managed to make out a few figures nearby. They were moving around, working on some series of tasks as bright sparks flew through the air.

In time, one of the figures noticed that she had awakened, and approached her. Sam squinted hard at them as they drew near, and recognized them as one of the strange looking people who had bested her during her attempt to kill Luke. “Hello,” he said, picking up some kind of screwdriver and then leaning over her arm. Sam had a multitude of questions for him, however, in her current mental state, “Where am I?” was all that she could muster herself to ask. “You’re still in Luke’s apartment. You’ve been here ever since your ill-planned and ill-fated assassination attempt. Please, hold still…” he responded. She turned her head further to see just what he was doing beside her, and was understandably surprised at what she saw; everything below her right shoulder was now some sort of metal contraption, vaguely shaped liked a prosthetic, and the alien was tightening a few small screws. Sam was shocked for a moment, now remembering that her arm and leg had been destroyed before she had passed out. And upon looking down towards her feet, her suspicion that her leg had been replaced with machinery as well was confirmed.

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Oriphiel

Side Story: Sam, Part Two



It had been days since the Blue Shirts formed their alliance with the aliens, and both had gladly reaped the benefits. The Blue Shirts became proficient in the use of their new rifles, while the aliens used the gathered resources to further develop their machine, however their partnership was becoming somewhat strained. The Boss began to allocate more time to training than to gathering resources, desiring to go to war with the surrounding gangs as soon as possible, and the aliens suspected that he would eventually betray them once he had armed his whole gang and no longer needed them. Still, the aliens had little time to worry about such things, and they worked on without paying him much mind. In time, the device began to take shape, and they completed the first stage of it's growth; it was now operational, but could only corrupt those who were standing right beside it. Eventually, it would be able to control people at a distance, but the aliens currently lacked the special resources necessary to make it that powerful. Their solution to both of their problems (their distrust of The Boss, and their lack of special resources) was Sam.

"What the fuck?" asked Sam as she closed her eyes and let her head fall back down on the table. "I don't know how to respond to that," replied Tyl, continuing his work on her robotic arm. Retix walked over to the table, and put a hand on Tyl's shoulder. "If she's awake, then I'm assuming that your work is about finished?" she asked. Tyl glanced over at her and nodded, while Valk walked over to the table and scanned Sam's leg. "You guys sure this'll work?" asked Qez to the group as she continued her work on the other side of the room. Tyl replied "In all likelihood", while Valk simply shrugged. Retix looked down at Sam, and said "Well, welcome back to life. I hope you're appreciative of what we've accomplished, as it was far from easy. Merging the robotic appendages with your body, healing your burns... if Heyt hadn't studied human physiology, then we surely would have failed. Still, I'd say he did a fair job... you only died twice during the procedure." Sam was at a loss for words, and all she could do to satisfy her curiosity was to look around the room. Her eyes settled on Heyt as walked towards her. "I'd say it's about time that we gave it a proper test," he said to the group as he tilted his head towards the device in the center of the room. His words seemed to make the other aliens somewhat quiet and dejected, however they soon set about rolling the table that Sam was on towards the device. "I'm sorry," said Retix, as she lifted up Sam's hand and placed it on the device.

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Oriphiel

Side Story: Sam, Part Three



The aliens concluded their test on Sam, successfully corrupting her while she was beside the device, and they rolled the table away from it once they were satisfied with the results. While the aliens set about examining sets of data and re-calibrating the machine, Sam slowly snapped back to reality; at this point in time, the device's hold on her was fairly weak, and it couldn't grip her mind from a distance for very long. As she regained her senses, she felt an itchy and slightly painful sensation on the back of her neck, and she raised a hand to investigate it. Almost immediately, her fingers ran across what seemed to be a scar, causing the wound to sting slightly underneath her fingertips. Heyt noticed her curious probing, and said "You shouldn't touch that. We didn't have enough time to build it to be of much quality, and we certainly didn't have the means to test it beforehand. Theoretically, it should work just fine, but... well, if you tamper with it, you might accidentally corrupt it's behavioral perimeters, which would cause it to ceaselessly shoot pain signals throughout your body."

Sam quickly lowered her hand, and looked around at all of the aliens beside her, rediscovering the sense of shock that she had felt when she had first woken up. As her mind and instincts returned to her, she felt the urge to find a way out of this mysterious room. "Now," said Retix as she walked over to Sam, nursing a headache all the while, "it seems that we're just about done here. I'll bet that you have more questions than there are terrible shows on that horrid television that Qez insists on staring at, and I'll do my best to slay your confusion. Firstly, as you may have guessed, yes, we are aliens. And no, we aren't here to harm anyone. Secondly, the scar on the back of your neck is where we implanted a certain device, and it acts as a sort of fail-safe for us. Basically, if you ever try to harm any of us, it will overload your senses with pain. As long as you do what we ask of you, though, you should be fine..." Sam cut her off, rubbing an eye and stretching her sore neck to the side as she asked "'What we ask of you'? What exactly do you all want me to do?" "We simply need you to run some errands for us. It should be no problem for a skilled warrior such as yourself. You see, we're building a device that will allow us to save your world from being conquered by a fast approaching inter-galactic army, but there are certain necessary parts that may prove difficult for our current roster of allies to acquire. We would like you to acquire these parts." "And what happens to me if I tell you all to fuck off back to your homeworld?" replied Sam. "Then we start mercilessly inserting our anal probes," interjected Qez with a smile. Retix shot her a glance, and Qez looked down and returned to her work.

Retix looked back at Sam, and replied "If you turn us down, or even so much as think about betraying us, the device is set to activate. I'd rather not have to put you through that kind of pain. If, however, you decide to serve us willingly, and you do so with an exceptional level of skill, then we'll upgrade your appendages in our spare time to make you even more formidable." Sam looked at Retix in silence for a moment, assessing the situation, before standing up. Suddenly, Sam fell to the ground in a display pain, grabbing the back of her neck. Their gaze met again, and Retix shook her head while slightly raising her hands, asking "You were going to hit me, weren't you?" Sam started to get back to her feet, saying "Just making sure that you weren't bluffing. So, it looks like I really don't have much of a choice..." Retix shrugged, replying "I suppose you don't." Sam looked down and took a deep breath, a dull patina of helplessness taking the gloss of emotion from her expression. "I suppose this isn't all that different from my contract days. Alright. When do we get started?"

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Oriphiel

Side Story: Sam, Part Four



"Your first task will be a trial run of sorts, though it may prove to be somewhat difficult. However, though you'll usually have to hunt for the locations of our required resources yourself, we've already tracked down the exact location of this particular item, so in theory all you need to do is extract it without being caught," said Heyt. Sam had adapted relatively well to her current situation, although she still wore a melancholy expression. Sighing as she brushed back her hair, she curtly asked "What is it?" "A diamond with certain unique properties that would be an invaluable addition to our device. Here," he replied, handing her a piece of paper with writing scrawled across it. "This should help you. We've written down the address where it is located, as well as the name of the diamond and a description of it's physical attributes." Sam quickly snatched the piece of paper from Heyt and briefly scanned it. Almost immediately, she began to make her way towards the door. "Hold on," Heyt called after her, and she spun on her heels to face him. "The location of the diamond is a well known museum, and therefore it is probably very well protected. If you get caught trying to steal the diamond, and the authorities take you into custody, we may not be able to save you. We can't draw too much attention to ourselves until our plan reaches fruition, and we also simply don't have the time for heroic rescues. So if you fail, you're on your own, and we'll find some other way to get what we need." "Relax," replied Sam, "I'll be fine. I've done a heist or two back in the day." "I'm sure you will," replied Heyt, "but I just wanted to warn you of the dangers, so that you know what the stakes are, and to prevent you from doing anything rash. After all, it's not as though you can just walk into the museum, grab the diamond, and skip out the door with it."

"He skipped, huh?" asked Sam to the talkative security guard. "Yeah. He was practically clicking his heels as he left, with a big fuckin' grin on his face. Looked right at the security camera by the door, and just skipped away with a bag full of priceless artifacts. What a jackass." Apparently, the museum had been robbed the night before by an audacious thief, and Sam was lucky enough to have found a security guard with a big mouth. Sam didn't really expect him to give a random passerby this much information, figuring that she'd maybe get a few scant details from him, but he seemed to be quite lonely and eager for a conversation. "I thought this place was supposed to be pretty well funded. How did he just waltz past security like that?" asked Sam. The guard rolled his eyes and smiled briefly, replying "Yeah, we're well funded alright, but this place is about as secure as a fuckin' cookie jar. The new owner couldn't care less about security, figuring that nobody would have the guts to hit up a museum anyway, so he loosened everything up and fired almost all of the guards. Prick." Sam was about to ask him another question, when he became distracted by something behind her. "Goddamn it, not again! Excuse me," he said as he ran past her, heading towards someone who was giving their child a bath in one of the museum's ornate fountains. After resolving the situation, he returned to Sam, rolling his eyes and saying "Sorry about that. You wouldn't believe the shit that people pull here." "It's fine," replied Sam. "So, what do you know about the thief? Have the cops got any leads?" The guard shook his head, and replied "Nope. Nothing. Fucker got away clean."

Sam looked down and bit her lip, wondering how she would track the thief down and claim the diamond. Without any leads to follow, things were looking fairly bleak. "Oh, wait, there was one thing," said the guard as he scratched his back with the handle of his flashlight. "The thief was wearing a vest with some markings on the back. He even turned his back to the camera and pointed to it, as if he wanted us to see it. Cops think it might be a gang symbol or something." "Really? What did it look like?" "Uh... it was kinda like a skull wearing a headband." Sam looked down and thought for a moment, before smiling and asking "And this thief, did he have any piercings?" The guard shook his head, and replied "Nah. The feed is pretty fuzzy, but at one point he stuck his face right in one of the cameras and gave it a kiss, and I didn't see any piercings. Although, he did have a bunch of holes in his ears and nose, like he may have had some and decided to take them out, so who knows? Kids these days, tearing up their faces, robbing museums... I don't get it." Sam smiled and nodded, replying "Right. Anyway, thanks for the info. See you later." "Yeah, take care," he replied, before noticing someone putting their hands on a painting and running to stop them. Sam put her hands in her pockets and left the museum, with a good idea of where she might find the diamond.

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Oriphiel

Side Story: Sam, Part Five



Sam whistled along to a song that was stuck in her head as she walked towards her destination. She knew that the museum was located near the territories of two rival gangs, and that the symbol of one of those gangs, The Crazy Skulls, was on the thief's vest. However, the thief apparently drew a great deal of attention to the symbol, as if they wanted the police to see it on the security tapes. The Crazy Skull's rivals, the oddly named HE53, had a trademark penchant for piercings, which the thief obviously enjoyed though he had tried to hide that fact, and Sam was almost positive that they were setting up the Crazy Skulls for a fall. After walking down the street for a few minutes, she found herself at the hideout of the HE53, and two guards near the door looked her over. One of them leaned back against the building, while the other approached Sam. "Hey, girl," he said, throwing away his spent cigarette, "what're you doing out here? You lost?" Sam ignored him, and took a closer look at the hideout. The second guard was still back against the building, and he looked fairly cautious, as if he were ready to call for reinforcements at a moment's notice. In addition, Sam could see through a few windows with slightly parted blinds, and it was obvious that the hideout was full to capacity. In all likelihood, they were hunkered down and on the alert, making it seem quite likely that they were the thieves.

"You're a pretty little thing, but you're not very quick, are you? I asked you a question. What're you doing..." said the guard, who silenced after coming closer to Sam and getting a better look at her. "Damn," he said, looking at the scars across her face. The aliens had patched up her burn wounds quite well, but there were markings that they couldn't heal perfectly, and though from a distance Sam seemed fairly normal, up close she had a bit of a patchwork look to her. "What the fuck happened to you?" he asked. Sam rolled her eyes and took off the jacket she was wearing, revealing her metallic arm. With a single punch, she sent the guard into the air, crashing hard into the guard behind him. Just as the second guard regained his senses and started to get back to his feet, Sam kicked him with her robotic leg, and the door behind him exploded into a cloud of splinters as he fell backwards into the hideout. A gangster drinking a beer near the door took a step back and examined the scene with an expression of disbelief. Sam stepped through the doorway. "Hey," she said, nodding her head towards him.

The gangster grew ever more confused with the situation, as did all of the men scattered throughout the room behind him. As Sam started to walk towards him, he smashed his bottle of beer on the wall beside him and charged at her with the sharp remnants. Sam, beginning to understand just how strong she now was, decided to throw caution to the wind. Instead of avoiding his weapon, she shot a punch right at it. Her hand smashed through the jagged half of the bottle with ease, and continued to impact the hand behind it, breaking it with an audible crack. The guard stumbled backwards, and Sam finished him off with a heavy back-fist as more gangsters ran up to fight her. As the gang fell upon her, the scene quickly became a bloody mess; with a single punch, she managed to rip the jaw off of a gangster, as well as shatter the temple of the man beside him. Someone grabbed her from behind, and she shot out a kick to keep the gangsters in front of her at bay; needless to say, her leg tore through everyone within reach. She elbowed the man grabbing her, shattering his ribs, and pushed him away.

Someone to her side lashed out with a knife and cut her arm, and the massive amount of gangsters managed to slow her down by grabbing at her and hitting her with everything they had. However, Sam would not be defeated, and a sickening cloud of red followed every movement of her metallic appendages. She swung her robotic fist wildly, killing quite a few men in her direct vicinity, and knocking the others away. Grabbing a pool cue from the nearby billiard table, she impaled someone with it, and then, giving it a hard kick, she sent it clean through her victim and into the man behind him. At this point, the gangsters were certain that they had no chance against this demon of an enemy, and they began to run. Sam recognized a lieutenant among the scattering crowd, trying to escape, and decided to stop and interrogate him. Picking up a billiard ball, she threw it at him with her robotic arm before he could reach the door, and it shattered his leg.

Sam walked up to him and lifted him up off of the floor as the hideout became progressively scarce. "No, no... fuck!" he yelled. "Tell me where the museum haul is," she said quickly, in a calm voice. "What? We haven't hit up any museums in months..." he replied. Sam grabbed one of his facial piercings and ripped it out, causing him to scream. "Oh, come on. I know you guys hit up the museum, and I bet that if I search around in here long enough I'll find the stash anyway. So just tell me where it is, save me the trouble of having to dig through your hideout looking for it, and I won't turn your face into ground beef. Alright?" she said. The lieutenant started to gnash his teeth and sob from the pain of his wounds, and replied "I swear, we didn't hit up the museum. If we did, I'd just fucking tell you where the loot was. I'm not the seppuku type." "What? Seppuku?" asked Sam, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head, as she didn't know what the word meant. "Yeah," replied the lieutenant, "it's like back when the samurai used to kill themse-" Sam rolled her eyes, and interrupted him by ripping out another piercing. "I don't even care. Just spill," she said. The lieutenant scrunched his face and put a hand to his cheek, as blood poured across his fingers. Suddenly, he started to smile a little, and he said "I kinda already am," as he pointed to the blood spilling from his wounds. Sam stared blankly at him for a moment, before raising her hand to take out another piercing. "No, no, I was just joking, please don't," he said, and Sam relented. "Just talk already. I know for a fact that the thief was a member of your gang." The lieutenant shook his head, as if he was going to continue to display ignorance of the theft, but suddenly he stopped and narrowed his eyes. "Wait... we didn't hit up the museum. I mean, the gang didn't. But we did have a member that went rogue not too long ago. After we made a ceasefire with the Crazy Skulls, he didn't sit too well with the peace, and left the gang to keep on fighting them in his own way." "If you're lying to me..." replied Sam, but the lieutenant shook his head. "No, i'm dead serious! I swear! He's probably the fucker that you're looking for." Sam stopped and thought for a moment, setting the lieutenant back down on the ground, who winced as his damaged leg touched the floor. Sam sighed and shook her head. "Alright. You know where this guy hangs his head?"

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