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SAKER

The spirit-bonded human is quick to make her decision. She wanders back outside and manages to find some things to prepare the room as a small base of operations. There are some broken desks, tables, chairs... all which seem rather old-fashioned (for this time, anyway). She still doesn't like the fact that anyone could enter the room via those other doorways, however, and is just about to barricade them when she hears a most unusual voice.

"Wait! Don't close it just yet!"

Saker tenses, her spectral energy forming talons on her hands. But the approaching figure out of the darkness has its hand up, in token of parley.

Saker isn't moved. "Who goes there?" she demands.

The stumbling figure suddenly collapses. Abandoning caution, Saker's talons disappear and she runs forward. Saker grabs the figure and helps them into the room. When she does, Saker lays her down and gazes at the figure.

She wears a high-ranking angel outfit; a tight, sleeveless white top with a small white skirt, full arm-length sleeves with pink ends, and on her left arm she has a small designed cloth and on her right arm she has a white glove with pink ends, and on her legs she has white thigh-highs and steel plate knee-high boots. She has short pink hair with bangs, and is braided tightly on the back of her head, near the bottom. She has two large wings that faintly give off pink sparkles, but they have been beaten to the point where she cannot use them. Her body is also very shrunken and there are bruises all over her, and scars of previous battles.

The angel twitches and then smiles faintly as Saker gazes at her.

"Y-you came..." The smile then fades and the angel looks panicked. "Help us..."

"Help you? What do you mean? Who are you, and how did you get like this?" Saker demands.

The angel blinks steadily at Saker, and then continues. "My..." She coughs. "My name is Hachiel... I... I have lost my way..."

"Your way?"

"Yes... I am one of the Cosmic Collective..."

Saker's mouth is thin-lipped. She remembers the machines' mission statement: To eradicate the entire human race, and the Cosmic Collective and their home planet of Olandaar, and eventually conquer every corner of existence...

Saker gently picks up Hachiel and then sits her on of the broken chairs in the room. Saker returns to the map for a moment, trying to find Shepard, Mira, Gunrod, or any of the others. She finally realizes that Gunrod is nearby, three levels down, on Vector A1. She also notes two others are near the top, on Vector N. Two she hasn't seen before...

Saker turns back to Hachiel. "Who are the Cosmic Collective?"

Hachiel blinks again, as though merely talking is taking the life out of her, and then goes on. "We... we are a congregation of sorts... of many races dedicated to protecting the universe... we were granted our own planet by The First... there were thousands of us at one point..."

"I see," replies Saker. "And I take it you are not friendly with these filthy machines, yes?"

"N-no..." comes the slow reply. "We sought... to protect the humans... me and another of the Collective... protect them against what they themselves had created. But the rest of the Collective didn't think as we did..."

"Themselves had created? Are you saying they caused this whole mess?" Saker growls.

"They created Artificial Intelligence," Hachiel whispers, "and it overthrew them... even the most powerful... "

Saker's face hardens. In her mind's eye she can tell what might have happened.

"There are hardly any humans left..." drones the angel.

"Who is this other Collective person?" Saker demands. "The one who went with you?"

"He goes by the name of Nexios," gasps Hachiel. "He is far more powerful than I... he is responsible for the Arrivals."

This stuns Saker. "What did you just say???" she snarls. "This being is responsible for me being sucked into this mess???"

Hachiel's mouth falls open. "Y-you... y-you are an Arrival?!"

Saker's eye glints. "If you mean that he's the one who caused me to appear in this world without warning, then yes I am. And it's happened with a few others I've met here."

Hachiel draws away, looking afraid. She is in no condition to even think about defending herself, let alone actually doing it. She shrinks from Saker's apparent wrath, but the spirit woman is in no mood to fight Hachiel.

Instead, she addresses her. "I am going to fight the machines."

"What?!"

"So that I can return to my own time, if that is possible." Saker gazes back at the map. "If this Nexios one is responsible for calling us here, then he called us here to help defeat the machines. That much is plain. If we do that, he will be satisfied, no?

"So where is he?" Saker demands.

"I-I do not know..." Hachiel whines. "I have been lost for a long time! You are the first one I have seen in decades!"

"Tell me your history with the machines," demands the spirit woman.

Hachiel informs Saker of her plight. She was attacking a machine general named Avarice countless years back, and his mindless cyber drones. However, laser fire damaged her wings and she fell. As Avarice was about to finish her off, the surface they were combating on gave away and they fell. Avarice tethered himself to the cliff, while Hachiel could not fly back up as her wings were damaged, and she was lost.

"Avarice..." Saker mutters. Promote Avarice to 1st-degree.

"So that machine still exists, does he? Hmph..."

Hachiel pales, but Saker decides that enough is enough. "So most of your Collective don't care about the human race, as they did this to themselves?"

"That is correct..."

"And you and this Nexios are the only ones compassionate enough to save us, hm?"

Hachiel reddens, but nods.

"So let me see if I've hit the mark here," Saker summarizes. "You and Nexios are part of a conglomerate called the Cosmic Collective that protects the universe, and meanwhile humanity is under the brink thanks to something they created; you two are the only ones that wish to save humanity and this Nexios is calling different beings from other universes to help fight the machines, while you've been lost this entire time."

"Yes," Hachiel says.

"Where are all the remaining humans, anyway?" Saker asks.

"That... I do not know," says the angel worriedly.

Saker sighs. She has to do something. But are there more questions to ask Hachiel, or would it be better to find Gunrod and the others?

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MIRA

Mira starts to move like lightning between the two ports. It is vibrating rapidly. All of a sudden an intense heat is given off, and Mira feeds off of it. With a sudden SHOOP, Mira disappears entirely, directly into the bottom port.

During its travel, Mira can hear an alarm go off, but very suddenly Mira ends up in another lighted room, with the same type of ports. It's also empty except for those, but the door is open this time. Mira goes to the door and looks out. There are some stairs on either side, and there are also three hallways leading away from the room. Five ways to pick... what a choice. Mira decides.

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SHEPARD AND MAXINE

Avarice growls. "I do not need you how to tell us our duties, Arrival," he hisses. "As for your backstory, I feel it is acceptable. But I would exercise more caution and less belligerence around me if you wish to live, mortal. It may not be your fault that you were here, but your ways are not ours. This is our world, and our words are law. After you have done the favour we requested of you, then you may leave. But know this; for the moment, we own you."

The machine was losing its patience; this was all too clear for Shepard and Maxine. But before anyone could make a move, there was a massive alarm.

"General! The Illuxion that we just sent to the regeneration chamber on Vector C has escaped!" shouts one of the machines.

"Hmm. It looks like our friend didn't take the chamber to its liking," says Shepard. "I apologize."

The machine general seethes, and that sound is horrible to hear; it sounds like thousands of drills are all going at once. He turns to some of the other robots. "Go! Find out where that fool went! NOW!"

A battalion of androids that look like Storm Troopers descend down on another panel. Avarice turns back to Shepard and Maxine.

"So... this is the attitude that your comrades show towards us, is it?" hisses the General. "That's three now. I quite hope your behaviors are better suited to our purposes than theirs."

Shepard begins to despair. There were only two of them against what looked like thousands upon thousands of robots, and not the least of them in front of them, towering over them like some great beast taunting its prey.