“Coming to his senses Fred decided to move before any other thorans discovered them. Deciding to avoid drawing attention he used his bending to navigate the tunnels. Addy and Fred skirted the edge of the larger caverns and began working their way towards the surface.
Addy warned Fred just as they turned the corner into the surprised thoran party. He reacted instinctively as Addy moved into the attack. Fred ducked the first thoran but was caught by the next one with a swing. Crashing into the wall Fred noted that he hardly felt it. Bending the nearby rocks he flung them at the thorans. One of the thorans that was dodging Addy's tendrils noticed the projectiles and with a surprised look and a shove deflected the rocks. Advancing on Fred who levitated a few rocks around himself in defensive positions. The thoran bent a few smaller rocks at Fred who easily redirected them. The thoran looked annoyed when he levitated a couple boulders and sent them at Fred. Fred realized that he was the stronger bender when he broke the thoran's will and dodged the boulders. What he hadn't counted on was the thoran being right behind the rocks. Reacting in time to dodge the first blow but not in time for the second swing. Being caught full in the chest Fred was again surprised that he wasn't even phased. Fred shoved back the thoran was caught off guard and fell backwards. Fred noticed that Addy had subdued the rest of the thorans. The look on the recovering thoran's face made Fred pause. A message from Addy confirmed his suspicion.
“Stone skin” was the translation that Addy sent of what the thoran had said. At those words the rest of the conscious thorans stopped struggling. “Who are you?”
Not this again Fred thought. “I am a human not from earth. Who are you?”
Taking a moment to activate his translation devise the thoran responded with, “I am Savos of the thoran security force. Humans are not a warp capable race. How is there humans on another planet?”
“The refuge planet. The ascended took us there to protect us.” Fred responded.
“You mean the protectors?” Savos looked stunned.
“I have heard them called that.” Fred wasn't that surprised that they knew of the ascended. After all there were thorans on the joined worlds.
“How did you get here?” Savos seemed confused.
“I don't know. That is what I was trying to figure out when I found myself in a cell being interrogated.” Fred remembered the feeling of his life about to end and shook his head.
“We don't have any patrols in that direction, who was interrogating you?” Savos seemed more confused now.
“I don't know who he is but he tried to kill me.” Fred was a little more than upset at the memory.
Savos seemed about to respond when a detachment entered the cavern, noticing the situation and the scattered unconscious thorans around the room they took a defensive formation and began training their side arms on the two strangers.
Yelling something at the officers something about a protected race. Savos stepped forward and tripped, landing on his face. One of the officers seemed to think that Fred had made a move and fired a bolt at Fred. Fred watched his life pass in front of his eyes for the second time in that day. Feeling the heat from the blast Fred looked at his chest seeing the hole in his jacket. His skin was red hot but it wasn't melted, he hardly felt to heat, the skin looked like woven stone. Watching for a moment he saw it cool and the texture fade into normal skin. Looking up at the soldiers he saw the one that fired at him disabled from a punch from the head officer’s hand.
“You are sure he is a protected race member?” The commander asked.
“Yes, he is a human.” Savos answered.
“No human has ever been a stone skin. How is this possible?” The commander didn't seem to believe what he was hearing.
“He was on the protector’s refuge world.” Savos offered.
“Please let me scan you to verify this.” The commander made some scans and stepped back when the scans were completed. “You are human but you are also a stone skin. Forgive us if we threatened you in any way. We don't often meet members of protected races, especially humans.”
Savos informed the commander about the first incident with Fred and a few troops were dispatched to investigate.
Please come with us to our central base. Savos apologized once more for having attacked Fred.
“What is a stone skin?” Fred had heard the term a few times but didn't understand what it meant.
“Some of our people have gained the ability to manipulate earth, like you. Some of our benders were exposed to intense heat by an accident and those that survived were changed on the cellular level. They were stronger, both physically and as benders. Their organic matter shifted to a silica instead of carbon base. Their "stone skin" as it were is a result of the transformation. They age extremely slowly and seem to be able to withstand most any physical damage without any effects.”
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Kiyan with Theo and Kendra had scanned every chunk of rock within light years. Corban had scanned anything that had a remotely telepathic signature. Expanding the search they found a new star system. A star and a lone barren planet surrounded by an asteroid belt. Kiyan barely looked at the scans of the asteroid belt. Looking at the scans of the planet he found it eerily familiar. Imposing himself on the virtual scans he glanced at the landscape. He saw an ocean on one side and broken mountains on the other side. It looked a lot like the planet from the dream. This had to be where Fred was. Scans of the planet were not conclusive as the planet showed no life signs. Notifying the rest of the search team Kiyan took the Avenger to warp. Coming out of stealth in order to use the full scan strength Kiyan proceeded to conduct a detailed scan of the planet. He was nearly surprised by the com signal being sent from the planet.
“Unknown vessel, please identify yourself.” For demanding information the hail didn't identify the sender.
“This is Kiyan of the Avenger representing the allied races. Please drop your interference field so I can conduct a scan for a missing crew member.”
“Please withdraw from our space. The voice was getting insistent.”
Activating the cloak Kiyan moved the Avenger to another position. Activating a sensor ghost at his old coordinates it only took a moment before his suspicions were confirmed. Kiyan's discreet scans indicated that some weapons were activating on the planet surface. The laser beams were soon ripping through Kiyan's sensor ghost.
Kiyan raised his main shields as he came out of cloak. The rudimentary weapon systems didn't pose much risk. Kiyan told both Theo and Kendra to come out of warp farther out and come in under cloak. Kiyan held the drop ships he controlled in warp.
“Firing on an allied vessel is considered an act of war.” Kiyan found himself in a quandary, checking his shields he decided that he could keep it up all day. Whoever this race was definitely not technologically advanced.
The laser barrage stopped and scans of the planet showed no signs of civilization again. The security scanners detected the warp frame a moment before the a dozen drakken ships dropped out of warp. Kiyan almost smiled as he calculated the odds at success. Drakken were fearless if anything. The drakken opened fire as Kiyan laughed. A dozen ships compared to the fleet that he had battled the other day. Giving the command to the drop ships to come out of warp as he tried opening a com channel to the lead drakken vessel. A moment later and the drakken tried to use the com channel to upload a virus. So that is how they want to play it, Kiyan thought. The drop ships came out of warp weapons hot. The Athena and Odysseus came out of cloak with a salvo that nearly vaporized a couple of the ships. The drop ships opened fire along with the Avenger. The last few drakken were soon no longer capable of offering opposition. Of those all but one went critical and exploded taking the last one with them.
“Are you sure this is the one?” Kendra asked.
“Yes, Kiyan had a dream about this planet and they are blocking our scans.” Theo explained.
The three of them used all the vessels in the system as they scanned the planet from every angle. The int
erference field fluctuated for a moment allowing them to detect a human life sign for a half second.
“Please leave our space.” The hailing channel from the planet opened again.
“Please by all means let us enlighten you. One, your earlier display of firepower did two things, one is an act of war. Two you would have been hard pressed with one drakken ship. Three, we have detected a human life sign on the planet. Four, humans are under our protection and as such refusing to release a member of a protected race is also an act of war. And five, last but not least there are three battle cruiser class Assurian vessels in orbit each one capable of destroying your planet. Theo decided to lay it out with a little intimidation.
The response from the planet was delayed but when it came a new voice spoke. “If you are indeed the protectors we will offer you full access to our planet to conduct your search. We did not mean to insult the protectors.”
Kiyan thought that it had been a little more than an insult but if diplomatic relations could be maintained then an insult could be overlooked. “We are sending you the location of the life sign that we detected.”
The voice returned, the coordinates that you gave us are in in a restricted zone. “There has been rebel activity in that area and any search operations are not possible in that zone.”
“We are not requesting that you perform a search.” Kendra reassured. “We would perform the search.”
“Your safety is of our highest priority, we cannot allow you to be injured on our planet.”
“What then would you recommend, we allow our friend to be captured by these insurgents?” Kiyan understood the reason for diplomacy yet he was growing impatient. “We give you our word that we will not hold the people of your planet responsible for anything that happens.”
Silence was all that was heard for a few minutes before the hail replied with visual data. Kiyan transferred the stream onto a virtual display and was mildly shocked by seeing the thoran. This doesn't make sense, the thorans I know don't act like this. “Before we grant access we have one request. Our planet is hiding from the drakken ships. Thank you for defending the planet earlier. We request that you agree to defend us from the drakken. We cannot hope to fight a civil war and the drakken at the same time.”
“This can be agreed upon but we need to find our missing crew member first. After that we can discuss terms of alliance.” Theo seemed to be as tired of playing diplomatic games as Kiyan, perhaps it ran in the family.
The interference field over the portion of the planet where they had detected Fred was lowered as an answer. Kiyan disengaged from the ship and began preparing to beam down. Kendra and Theo contacted him to tell him that Draxos was being sent for and that they would all be going down. The AIs would be more than capable of handling defenses should the drakken return.
“Even Jeremy?” Kiyan asked.
“He can come with me.” Theo offered. “I will make sure nothing happens to him. As it is we will have to break up, there is too much ground to cover.”
Kiyan beamed down with Ray, Corban and Alec in one of his battle androids. They found themselves in a large cavern. Kiyan looked around for a moment before realizing there was no light yet he could see the room with near perfect clarity. The surprise elicited a response from his neural interconnect, it seems he was outfitted with a sensor system. Corban sent the message that he could see with his airbending fine so no light was necessary, Alec was outfitted with the same sensors as Kiyan. They reached out with their minds and decided that there was a faint telepathic signature from Fred to the tunnel to the right.
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Fred Addy and Savos were feeling their way through dark tunnels in the hopes that the rebels that had ambushed their detachment were not following them. They had become separated from the main group in the confusion. Fred and Addy was having a better time of it than Savos. Fred was using his bending skills to map the terrain ahead of them and Addy was benefiting from Fred's skill. Savos had some night vision but not enough to match the other's bending vision. They were trying to make sure there was no ambushes ahead of them so they were being as quiet as possible.
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Kiyan found himself and Ray the only ones walking as the other two were flying. Alec was using some gravity negating tech and Corban was airbending. He walked quietly and scanned the caves ahead. Kiyan detected the life signs the same time as Alec did. It was a moment more before Corban detected them.
“They are thoran. They must have some basic telepathic blocking ability.” Alec offered.
Kiyan thought for a moment. “With my personal shielding systems and with Alec we should be able to neutralize them. They don't have any transponder signals so we can assume that they are rebels.”
“My tactical analysis indicated pretty much the same thing.” Alec concurred.
“Be careful.” Corban admonished.
Kiyan looked at his list of cybernetic systems and found an active camouflage stealth module. Activating it he could hardly see his own hand, his skin seemed to project what was behind it giving it the appearance of invisibility. Letting Alec link with him, Kiyan watched as the AI also disappeared. Slipping up behind one of the rebels Kiyan accessed the thoran anatomical information and discovered a nerve in the neck that was exposed. Sending the information to Alec he received information about a nerve behind one of their ribs that was rather susceptible to damage from a blow. Time seemed to slow as Kiyan made his move. The first thoran was rendered unconscious and the second was only able to register an attack was happening before he too was sleeping. Turning to the last one on his side of the cave Kiyan saw the remote in the rebel's hand and reacted instinctively. He raised his hand toward the thoran and watching the blue arc that seemed to move in slow motion. The discharge blasted the rebel backwards destroying the remote in the process.
“We need to move.” Ray noted.
They soon were farther down the tunnel. Taking a turn they noticed the life signs at the same time that the ground exploded in front of them. Kiyan's shields spared him from any damage. He turned to Ray whose scales looked like they had taken the brunt of the blast, there didn't seem to be anything more than a couple fast disappearing bruises. Corban was covered in flames that seemed to leave him completely unscathed. Alec was shielded same as Kiyan and was fine. The tunnel was collapsed but Kiyan was able to bend a couple boulders out of the way and Corban melted a couple more. The group were set on by laser fire from the other side before they could continue. Corban was able to blow them back with a blast of air and Ray was through the hole and shifted in a flash. The screams were soon quieted.
Upon climbing through they found Ray holding three of the rebels in his claws. The final one was laying quietly against the cave wall. Alec soon had two of the remaining sleeping peacefully. Kiyan connected with the mind of the last one, unable to make sense of what he found he stumbled across the language centers in the thoran's mind. The rest finally began to make sense. The order to find two aliens and a security force officer that were on the loose. The Intel was that they were supposed to be coming down this tunnel.
“We couldn't have missed them, this says that we had to have passed them.” Kiyan was confused. Even if the officer had lost his transponder they would surely have detected Fred. Kiyan thought for a moment before remembering that Fred might have been able to detect them with his earthbending but wouldn't have been able determine friend or foe. If he managed to hide then that would mean they could have passed them. Focusing on life bending was different, before it had been necessary to focus on it to see life energy, now it seemed to work into Kiyan's overlay like an additional system. He walked back up the tunnel and looking at all the walls as he went. Seeing a disturbance in the energy flow in one spot he began prodding and found a couple life signs. The energy of one he recognized as Addy but the other was new. Fred should be here where Addy was, he should be close unless he was dead. Connecting with the energy of the stone Kiyan pulled surprised at the resistance he
felt but soon overcame it. The wall crumbled then exploded out at them. Kiyan easily deflected the rocks but was thrown back by someone that had followed the rubble.
Landing on his feet and jumping into the air to avoid whoever it was that was attacking him, he hardly had time to land again before he ducked a swing from a thoran. The thoran’s rib produced the desired effect and Kiyan turned to see his attacker coming in for another blow. Blocking the punch by catching the fist in his hand he was surprised to find that his strength was almost matched. He also sensed the fist that he was holding was silica in nature. A living stone? Kiyan wasn't sure what to think. Releasing the fist and ducking he sped behind the creature.
Kiyan had forgot about Addy! Her vines began encircling him even as he realized that his stealth camo was still on. Disengaging the camo, Kiyan braced for the next blow as he struggled against the vines. After a moment he realized that the creature had stopped and Addy was no longer constricting him.
“I didn't think that you guys would ever find me.” Kiyan watched as the creature began to soften and shift into the form Kiyan recognized as Fred. “They killed them all.” Fred began to collapse from the pressure of the last day. Relief overcame him as Kiyan contacted the other search teams and activated the Avenger's teleporters beaming everyone back onboard.
Opening a channel to the planet Kiyan informed them that Fred had been rescued and that a member of the thoran security force was onboard the Avenger receiving medical attention. They should assemble a delegation to discuss terms of the alliance and prepare for teleportation.
When the signal and coordinates of the delegation were assembled Kiyan locked onto the life signs of the six thorans at the coordinates and teleported them to the conference room. Theo, Kendra and Draxos messaged Kiyan telling him that they would beam over momentarily.
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Aren of the thoran people of New Thoros was rather uncomfortable with the idea of being transported to a ship that he was not entirely certain was friendly. He would have wanted a more neutral location but there seemed to be none. Finding himself in a spacious room with a table in the center his group moved towards the table. He was even more discomforted when he saw what appeared to be a human child appear out of thin air and proceed to seat himself at the table. From what he knew of the protected races, humans were the least advanced and were not capable of interstellar travel. Knowing about the protected races was something that most thorans knew about. Accidently declaring war on the protectors was not in anyone's best interests. But then again they had fired on a protectorate ship that very day.