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Ravager Mothership R’alshyd On board the Ravager Mothership R’alshyd (loose translation: Eternal Might), the Ravager Ventross hastily made his way through the cold and dank ship corridors until he reached his destination. Ventross entered his authorization code to enter the bridge while cursing under his breath that the automatic door was taking too long to open. After the steel door finally opened, Ventross entered the bridge and kneeled behind the captain’s chair.
“ Sir, we just received word that the Harvester has released a bio-agent into the eco system of Centra Prime and the vile plague has infected hundreds so far. What is your bidding?” Ventross stated while remaining prone on one knee.
The captain’s chair turned in his direction and the ancient Ravager commander revealed himself. The Ravager’s face was hardly visible behind a mist inside of his fishbowl visor. His raspy voice filled the bridge as he spoke. “Stand up my friend,” Nicodemus gestured, “set a course to the planet and assemble a strike team to contain the toxin.”
Ventross began to respond to his commander’s request but the battle stations alarm sounded! Before either could react, the steel door that Ventross only moments prior entered the bridge slid open and the command deck filled with Ravagers that seemed to be mutated with the plague that had been unleashed on Centra Prime. A startled and infuriated Nicodemus barked, “What is the meaning of this?!? How dare you enter the Chamber of Ancestors without my permission!!!”
A shadow figure revealed himself from the entrance to the command deck and smirked. “It is I, Rankor…however, now I will be known as General Rankor and these unfortunate creatures have volunteered to help the Crusade to infect all who stand before us” After informing his cohorts, Rankor pulled out a weapon and quickly blasted Nicodemus with what appeared to be a small dart. Nicodemus slumped unconsciously into the chair and Ventross sprung to life viciously attacking the infected Ravagers!
Rankor stepped back and let his minions do his dirty work but their senses have been dulled due to the viral agents coursing through their systems. Only moments passed before only Ventross and the traitorous Rankor stood alone on the bridge, Rankor tossed his weapon onto the floor.
“I have waited for so long to take your place Ventross. Nicodemus was weak minded and should have seen that you were not the strongest of all the guardians.” As if rehearsed thousands of times, Rankor sprung to life and attempted to blast Ventross with a spinning back suplex.
Ventross parried and countered the traitor’s maneuver with a Ventross Vivisection. “The Commander never looked in your direction because he knew you were nothing but trash!” Ventross exclaimed as he quickly put down his former cohort with a running shoulder spear and used the deadly maneuver SEVERED TIES! As Rankor grimaced on the floor, Ventross victoriously walked over to Nicodemus and removed the small dart from his beloved commander.
While Ventross’s back was turned, Rankor leapt toward his weapon and shot another small dart toward the loyalist Ravager. “I expected as much…” Ventross sadly stated as he pressed a small button on the captain’s chair causing both Ventross and Nicodemus to disappear and the small dart to miss its target.
“This isn’t over my former friend…I will have your head before this is over.” Rankor replied before turning toward the entrance corridor.
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Centrapolis Medical Center Headquarters “The Martian must be in one of these rooms.” Stated the illustrious bounty hunter, Esperanto. This Westworld Province native was known just as much for love of the bottle as he was for his wily antics in hunting escaped criminals. It is rumored that his treatment of captured criminals can be harsh and he shows no qualms about letting everyone know that “if ya do the crime and don’t want to do the time…I’ll hit ya over the head with nine.” (Only assume that the “nine” is a nine ounce bottle of booze.)
The Vagabond Priest Shepard casually kicked open one of the medical center’s doors and visually swept the room with his sidearm. “What a way to state the obvious my friend. Maybe we should take a break and have some Centran Spirits.” Shepard sheepishly commented.
“Speaking of spirits priest!” Esperanto screamed as a ghastly form of Gheist took solid shape and began to head toward the two! “I will take care of this riff raff! Shepard, you must find Lance before the Heathen Chief does God knows what!”
“Agreed. Take care my friend and meet back at the predetermined rendezvous spot” stated Shepard as he left Esperanto on his own to face off against the spectral assassin.
Gheist quickly started the deadly contest with a backside leg sweep that grounded the bounty hunter. Esperanto clambered back to his feet but his opponent was too quick for him and bounced off the wall with a leaping side kick to Esperanto’s jaw. The ghastly figure formed a blade from the surrounding mist and plunged it deep into his target’s leg causing Esperanto to scream in agony. “ You are pathetic and if your friends are anything like you…this world is ours!” Gheist calmly replied as he used SOUL SLAYER to render Esperanto unconscious. After ensuring that his prey wasn’t moving, Gheist cleaned his blade of Esperanto’s essence and faded into the darkness.
Quickly moving through the medical center, Shepard was hoping for the best after he heard what he assumed was Esperanto screaming. He must find Lance At-Las before Paganax found him. After twenty minutes of frantic searching, Shepard found his friend sprawled on a hospital room floor covered in blood, missing his right arm, and nearly beaten to death. The Vagabond priest felt like he had failed his companion and picked up the Martian from the cold floor.
“You are wasting your time priest! He is almost not of this world and is about to pass to the next.” Paganax stated as he entered the room. Shepard placed At-Las on a gurney and almost as a reaction started blasting his pistol toward Paganax. The Heathen Chief was hit several times but merely laughed as the metal rounds simply dissolved in his heated body. “You will have to do better than that priest!”
Paganax gave Shepard a hard backhand that sent the hero sprawling and the Primus ruler grabbed Shepard’s head with both hands in a vice like hold. “I am the Heather Chief and I am your death!” Paganax stated as he slammed his adversary’s face into the wall and used the feared PAGAN VOID to put down the masked hero. “Let it be known that the end times are here! I spare you and this weak Martian to spread the word that resistance is futile.” With that, Paganax jumped through the window out onto the Centra Prime battle torn city.
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Ground ZeroThe biotech facility has become a nurturing place for Murdok as he (not to mention his minions) have made this man made facility their headquarters. The Harvester of Souls has fooled several key players in this conflict to assist in his conquering of Centra and the surrounding systems. First was Rankor, who was more than willing to bring down the Ravagers and his role was to convince the lower ranks to “attempt to create an antidote” for the plague but both Rankor and Murdok knew that was not true. Second was Paganax, who Murdok convincingly promised Primus would be spared but Murdok does not intend this to be. Finally, Gheist was perhaps the easiest to convince because of the ghastly figure to inflict pain on others. Murdok was happy with the way his plan was unfolding…
Explosions rocked the facility and gunfire was erupting all around the biotech labs. Murdok had wondered how long before a raid would be attempted and was not surprised at the predictability of the human mind.
The strike was precise and the Centran strike team cut a swathe through the zombie horde with their superior firepower. “Enough!” Murdok angrily declared and headed into the fray. He plowed through the ranks and every human he touched became infected with the plague. Before the humans knew it, their numbers were dwindling and were quickly becoming outnumbered.
The Centran Commander Aegis jumped into the fray clad in an experimental battle suit that prevented him from becoming infected with the plague. The Corporal easily made his way through the masses of zombies and although there was many of them- they were easy to put down. Shortly Aegis made his way to Murdok himself and the two locked up in mortal combat!
Aegis was quicker than Murdok and used series of forearm smashes that caught his opponent off guard. A zombie intervened in the bout but Aegis lopped off the undead’s head and used the headless zombie as a springboard to drill the Harvester with a lethal jump kick to the chest!
Murdok became infuriated as the Centran was getting the best of him and charged Aegis but received an Opening Salvo maneuver! Aegis went for CORPORAL PUNISHMENT but the leader of the Uprising clamped on a chokeslam that after landing on the ground sent Aegis’s helmet bouncing away from the melee! Murdok gave an evil grin and used a Murdok Power Bomb that had Aegis favoring his left shoulder! As Murdok’s hands began glowing for him to seed Aegis for the POWER OF THE PLAGUE, Trench and Warfare appeared next to the two after they used a “bodyslide” teleporting device!
“Man, you’re right Warfare…Murdok does smell like the latrines...” Trench joked as the SWAT Team members grabbed their embattled leader and suddenly vanished.
The remaining invaders were quickly tore apart by the zombie horde and Murdok added even more underlings to his army of infected. He was pleased as overall, his schemes were going as scheduled and he will begin his second phase of the conquest for Centra sooner than expected.
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