Beast of Granweh

Posted on Thu Jun 14th, 2018 @ 6:22pm by Commander Mal Xustos & Chief Warrant Officer Daytona Ral & Hermes (Mercury) & Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander T'Pral Jordan & Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio & Rear Admiral Farenia Meowlith & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi & Warrant Officer Cerus Read & Ahreva Malana & Aewia Larani & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott
Edited on on Sun Jul 1st, 2018 @ 6:49pm

Mission: Curing the Black Blood
Location: Danu's Cauldron
Timeline: After "Trials of Granweh"

The stage was set, all the parties were assembled, and the plan was ready. As Danu prepared to 'heal' the infected, the away team prepared to fight the summoned beast and Ahreva Malana prepared to become a sacred vessel, whatever that meant.

What they had not expected was for Danu's Cauldron to have been a semi-active volcano.

They were literally going to fight on what looked like glowing hot rocks. It was only like body temperature for most races... but it was still the caldera of a bloody volcano. Thankfully it was at least a kilometer across so they had plenty of room to fight in, just in case the summoned beast was larger than anything else they'd seen. Given the amount of black blood they'll be compressing into one place, it was certainly a possibility.

Danu had been kind enough to use her own 'powers' AKA technology, to transport the infected into stasis units here in preparation, but they were quickly failing. "I'm going to start the process now! Be ready!" she called as she started glowing a bright neon green, drawing the blackness from the infected, through her, and sending it into Ahreva. This was no trick of technology. This was the extra organ that was unique to each of the 'Gods' of her race. Hers happened to be able to perform healing miracles like this and explained how people were able to undergo the trials without harm in her name.

The effect of her healing upon the infected was instant and plain to see. It was as if a deep shadow had been lifted from them. As for Malana... It was as if all the demons in the universe had converged upon her and twisted her into something beyond wicked and terrible. She was no longer the stony faced scientist they had come to know and... Respect. She was an Iconian Demon more terrible than their worst nightmares.

A few minutes after Danu began, she finished. The process was complete. Those in the stasis chambers were cured of the black blood infection. Danu herself looked weakened though. She still had one more task. Sending a wave of green energy into Malana, she forced the Ashravenan to summon a beast with every last bit of the black blood in her.

Malana screamed an earth shattering scream as black blood exploded out from her. It then paused mid explosion in the air for a moment before swirling and coalescing. It grew larger into a vaguely bipedal shape. Bigger it grew, still swirling. Ten meters tall. Fifteen. Twenty.

Its form started to finalize into a vaguely bipedal lizard-like form. Spines on the back, thick tail, bright red demon eyes... It let loose a familiar screaming roar that rattled the bones of everyone that could hear it. Ahreva Malana had summoned a twenty five meter tall black blood version of the old Earth movie Godzilla...

And it was freaking pissed off...

"Oh, you have GOT to be shitting me," Read commented, looking up at the creature.

Mal looked at Read and smiled.

"Trust me," he said. He activated his comm device. "Hermes, that thing we talked about? Do it now."

"Of course, my child," Hermes replied. "Incoming!"

Something began to materialize in front of the beast, something that was growing in size as it materialized, until it was roughly the same size as the beast. Within seconds, a 25 meter tall mechanical man designed to look like a Spartan warrior armed with sword and shield was standing in front of the beast. It knocked the beast back with it's shield and plunged its sword into the beast's chest, twisted it, and withdrew the blade, taking a defensive position, shield up, while it waited to see if the beast died.

Mal laughed at the expressions on everyone's faces, then explained.

"Hermes and I suspected that Danu might do something ridiculous," he said. "So we asked Hephaestus to build us something equally ridiculous. The mechanical warrior has been designed to defeat a black blood beast. It's weapons, even it's body, do damage in the same manner as these weapons Hephaestus gave us. That is to say, the mechanical man and his sword, shield, and body negate the black blood beast's regenerative abilities. Even if it is disarmed, strikes with its body with hurt the beast. Hermes modified my communicator, increasing the range so I could reach him even if he was out of the system, then he hid outside of the system and waited for my call."

Roaring in pain, the Demon Godzilla was injured but not out for the count just yet as Mecha-Spartan had missed its core. Recovering from the onslaught, it clutched at the bleeding wound as gallons of black ooze bubbled out of it. Taking a deep breath, it loosed a breath weapon attack, albeit short range, directly at the mechanical Spartan. For several moments, a spray of black energy buffeted the offending silver giant.

As the spray of black energy splashed against the Mecha-Spartan's shield, it struggled against the force of the blast, giving ground as it's feet slid backwards across the ground, just managing to stay upright. When the beast was spent and the energy blast ceased, the Mecha-Spartan charged forward with it's shield and smashed into the demon Godzilla, knocking it off balance. With the demon lizard stunned, Mecha-Spartan cut the beast again first slashing diagonally down from left shoulder to right hip, then right shoulder to left hip, then back and forth sideways across and through the beasts mid-section twice then punching it in the head with the edge of his shield, before recovering to a defensive position, shield raised, sword at the ready.

Unfortunately, though it seemed to stun the mighty beast for a moment, the Mecha-Spartan's onslaught seemed to infuriate it even more. Roaring again, Demon Godzilla charged the silver giant at full speed, barely holding himself together in the process, to bash his thick skull plate into the shield of the defending Spartan, leaving an indentation of the beast's face in it as deep as a normal man is tall. It then followed this up with another demonic breath attack against that shield at point blank, though due to its wounds, it was considerably less powerful and only about half as long.

The Mecha-Spartan reeled from the Demon-Godzilla's attack, but deflected the energy blast with less difficulty this time. When he recovered, the Mecha-Spartan backhanded the beast with its shield, then slashed it once more across the chest before decapitating the beast with a mighty swing. Then he used a spinning leg sweep, he knocked the beast onto its back. When the beast was prone, the Mecha-Spartan sheathing his sword and reached into the beast's chest. There was a sucking noise as the Mecha-Spartan ripped the beast's core from its chest. His hand began to glow red, then white hot, and the beast's core began to smolder and smoke, then caught fire. The heat was so intense that everyone around felt it. It continued until the beast's core was nothing more than a lump of ash, which the Mecha-Spartan crumbled in his hand. The Mecha-Spartan lowered his arm and began to shrink to 'normal' height, which turned out to be just over two meters. The Mecha-Spartan marched over to Mal and saluted.

"Thank you, you did very well," Mal said. The Mecha-Spartan seemed to stand up even straighter at Mal's praise. "Please standby until we're sure we won't be needing further assistance."

The Mecha-Spartan saluted, moved off to the side, and stood at attention, awaiting further orders. Mal turned to Danu.

"Alright," he said. "We've defeated the beast. What's next?"

With the core destroyed and the beast dead as dead can be, the remainder of the black blood began dissolving into thin air as if it never existed. Danu, who looked considerably weakened by recent events, leaned on a staff as she hobbled over to them. "Now we discuss the return of your crewmembers." With a snap of her fingers, the stasis chambers were unsealed, allowing those inside to be removed and awakened if they weren't so literally drained. "Your crew are free of the infection, but it may be some time before they awaken. They've been through quite the ordeal. Of course, as I mentioned before, I'll need to keep the two sisters for full proper healing. I promise, no harm will come to them and they'll be treated very well. As for your stony friend..." Danu pointed off to the center of the caldera to Malana whom was sitting still on the same altar where she'd undergone her transformation. A look of deep thought and consternation was on her face - an interesting change from the normally unmoving stoniness she normally displayed. "It seems she survived quite easily."

Mal nodded.

"And I'm grateful for that," Mal said. "And I'm grateful to you for your assistance. If there is nothing else, my people and I will take our leave...assuming our transporters are functional. If they're not, we may need a bit of assistance."

"My own resources have run dry, so let's hope that your ship can beam you out. As it is, I'll have to rest a bit before returning the two sisters and myself to my temple." Smiling a bit, Danu nodded to a small stealth monitoring drone hovering nearby. "Are your transporters back online now, friend Captain? and did you enjoy the show?"

From the drone Enalia's voice emanated. "Yes, thank you. We found it... Enlightening. Prepare to beam up, Commander. Danu, you have our sincerest thanks. If you ever have need of us, please don't hesitate. I feel we owe you. That I owe you..." It was rare for the Captain to be so solemn towards someone outside of her sphere of influence, let alone someone she hadn't even met in person, yet here she felt she owed a debt of gratitude to this god-like alien.

Danu just smiled and nodded. "Just do your best to keep peace in the galaxy and we can call it even." She then stepped back from Mal and Read and nodded again. "Safe journeys, young ones. Come back for tea sometime if you want."

"All right then," Mal said. He turned to the Mecha-Spartan. "Thank you for your help."

The Mecha-Spartan saluted Mal again. Mal smiled.

"Hermes," he said into his comm device. "Please beam my new friend up and return him to Hephaestus, and thank Hephaestus for his assistance, AGAIN. And thank you, as well."

"You're welcome, child," Hermes said as the Mecha-Spartan dematerialized in a transporter effect. "Anytime. I'll return the metal man to my brother and then rendezvous with your ship when the time is right. Safe travels!"

Mal chuckled.

"I'd say 'Godspeed', but you've already got that!" he said. He worked the control on his wrist device again. "Hera, please lock on to the Away Team, and to Commodore Meowlith, Commanders Enaes and Jordan, and Chief Warrant Officer Ral, and return us to the Hera. Make sure to beam Meowlith, Enaes, Jordan, and Ral directly to Sickbay so their condition can be monitored until they regain consciousness."

"Nexi and Aewia will be staying behind then, I assume?" replied Enalia over the comm channel. "Just as well. By all reports, I think Danu would be best able to help them after what they've been through. Fair warning, Commander. None of the actual transporter rooms are actually running so we're using the site-to-site transport systems from the bridge. We'll beam you all to my private mess. Help yourself to the pastries and drinks and I'll be down shortly to debrief you."

"Enalia," Mal said. "All of the formerly infected are unconscious. They won't be enjoying any pastries. Please be prepared to transport them to Sickbay immediately. We're ready to beam up when you are."

"That's... what I mean..." Enalia sounded frustrated, even over the comms. "They'll go to sickbay and the rest of you will go to... You know what, nevermind. Initiating transport." The comms cut out as the transporter beam carried the crew of the Hera away, minus Nexi and Aewia.

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