The Hermitage Begins . . .

[DoubleX]

X's small scout ship broke through the atmosphere and the sound inside began to escalate to a loud roar. He struggled with the yoke to pull the ship out of it's dive but the attempt was futile. He broke the cloud barrier and braced for impact as he went straight into a derelict ship...

((OOC - Your ship by the way...))

[Triunis]

Triunis was vaguely aware of a slight shaking. He looked at the ceiling as his eyes changed to a perception of light that saw X-rays. In the sky, he saw a ship crashing towards him. He changed his vision to normal and spoke loudly at Cethyn.

"We've got to move! Now!"

Seeing the Cython's lack of transport, he hoisted him onto his back and charged out of the ship. He took off running away from the ship, hoping he could get far enough away to save the insect.

[Araxis]

Cethyn was taken off guard by Triunis' reaction to the roaring sound that filled the ship. He was unused to either being toted around by other beings, as well as shaky on understanding the reasons behind some beings' willlingness to help other beings in time of need, as Triunis was doing for him now. Perhaps he would need to learn how to understand such things better, so as to increase the new awareness that he now desired . . .

The Cython was taken further by surprise as, when Triunis carried him out of his ship, he saw another ship high above, streaking directly for the wreck that the lizard beneath him was beating a hasty retreat from. How could Triunis have known that the noise that the both of them had heard in the twisted hull was the roar of a ship going down? Amazing, this lord of Treachus. Cethyn's mind was not filled with worry for his own well being, as Cython have no personal survival instincts; rather he was filled with an utterly alien apprehension for Triunis. How odd, these new emotions. They made absolutely no sense logically. Why should it matter if this lizard survive? True, he was helping Cethyn, but individuals should not matter . . . and yet, nevertheless, he felt that perhaps they did . . . how odd . . .

[DoubleX]

X stumbled out of his ship and passed out...

[Triunis]

(I know Kruck already said this, but it's advisable to use longer posts . . .)

Triunis set Cethyn down on the ground, panting heavily.

"Good Gaea! How poorly can you steer those things?"

He slowly began walking towards the ship, but then remembered the Cython behind him.

"Do you need me to help carry you? I want to see what fool managed to crash a ship that nice."

He didn't honestly believe the person to be foolish; he merely didn't want to see someone get themselves killed.

"Come on, climb on my back."

[DoubleX]

X woke up with a start and observed his surroundings. He sat up and began to rub his head, feeling a large bruise on his left temple. X pulled himself up and leaned against the side of his ship.

X spoke in galactic basic: "What planet am I on?"

[Triunis]

Triunis' eyes lit up as he heard the creature speak the basic language of the known universe. That was not something he had dealt with for a long time. He spoke slowly, stumbling over the unfamiliar words.

"Ahh . . . You to be on . . . Are on. You are on Fyia."

He smiled a little with pride. He was never really sure how to speak the language, but he did the best he could.

"Are you . . . err . . . okay?"

[DoubleX]

X switched on his UT and set the frequency.

"There, you should understand me in your native tongue. I am fine, but my ship is not..."

[Araxis]

Cethyn was lost to the exchange between the newcomer and Triunis. He was reveling in a sudden resurgence of an old feeling, one he'd thought he'd lost . . . in his mind, another Cython spoke to him . . . not the fully formed thoughts of an adult with full awareness, just the simplistic need for food that larvae project into the collective consciousness of the Cython race . . . but it was Cython! Alive! He had no idea how or why this had happened, only that it had, and that the larva needed food if it was to survive. Therefore, Cethyn immediately began pulling himself back towards the twisted wrecks of the two ships now intertwined. Perhaps the crash had somehow forced a hidden egg into hatching? That didn't make sense, but Cethyn had absolutely no idea how else it could have happened.

As he reached the wreckage, he suddenly felt a terrible feeling well up within him, a frustration with the twisted metal that prevented him from reaching the helpless larva. He wanted somehow to express his anger, and suddenly understood the bizarre custom of Orions to use odd words of damnation when angry. Turning to the two beings behind him, he called out to them for help. "Stop chattering! We need help!" Cethyn lapsed back into his old habit of refering to himself in the plural first person as his collective mind was reawakened. "Get this . . . " He searched for a suitably damning word, but could find none in the Cython language, so he just screetched a meaningless sound of rage before continuing, "wreckage off my ship!"

[DoubleX]

X turned towards his ship and pulled out a laser cutter.

"Lets get to work." X knelt down next to a thrust drive and began to work on cutting it off...

[Triunis]

Triunis blinked in surprise. This was the first time he had seen the Cython so angry. Of course, he'd only known him a few minutes . . .

He drew the Triata Blade and walked over to the ships.

"So, is this right?"

He slashed at a piece of the ship, and it fell in two. He then launched into a frenzy of attacks and begaun shredding the ships. He then cast aside what he had destroyed.

"I have faster ways if you would prefer . . ."

[DoubleX]

You owe me a power coupling now, I'd like to salvage as much as possible." X finished cutting the thruster off and began work on the laser focusing coils...

[Araxis]

Cethyn angrily beat his hands against the side of the hull of the ship before remembering his arm blades. How irksome these new emotions were, causing him to forget logic in a flurry of firey frustration! Revealing the bone blades from all four forearms with a slight popping sound, Cethyn feverishly hacked away at the metal sides, shearing away large amounts of the hull with the incredibly sharp and strong appendages, heading slowly but inexorably in the direction of the stern of the ship, towards the source of the distressed presence in his mind. He sensed that not only was the larva distressed with its situation of imprisonment in a thick metal cage, but also with the unnatural emotions that Cethyn was feeling, and the Cython assassin tried to calm himself even as he grew more frustrated with himself, the current situation, and the emotions that had manifested unnaturally and out of the blue.

Finally, with the help of the other two, enough of the hull was cut away for Cethyn to crawl inside with his current smaller physical state, and he wormed himself deep into the twisted and still hot mass towards the waiting larva. Finally he found it, a large white, pulsating worm with several black marks along its length. This was the larva of an egg-bearing Cython, the basic foundation for the beginning of a new hive, infinitely more precious than Cethyn's personal well-being. It shivered in his grasp as he gently picked it up, shuddering slightly; the shell of its egg was already gone, consumed by it as it had emerged.Now it cried out for sustenance, one of the few things its undeveloped, larval mind could project into Cethyn's. Feverishly, and with great care for the well-being of the larva, Cethyn wormed his way back out of the tunnels of the crashed ship, emerging once into brigth sunlight. Fortunately, the larva would not be bothered by the bright light, and it was of hardy enough stock to survive the relative coolness of Fyia's atmosphere compared to Orion Prime's radiation baked inferno.

Looking at the other two, especially Triunis, Cethyn said gravely, managing to convey the gravity of his words even through the buzzing monotone of his translator, "This larva must be protected at all costs. No threat must come to it, for it is more precious than the lives of ten thousand of any other individual. You must help me feed and protect it until it metamorphoses into the pupal state." The Cython assassin regarded both creatures before him once more, the newcomer and Triunis each in turn.

[DoubleX]

X scratched his head in confusion.

"What is that thing?" He looked at the writhing mass of 'jello' in the insect-creatures arms...