The five of them were shocked to see Blunt and O standing there waiting for them to arrive and they all said their hellos and headed to the exit. This planet had a settlement around its portal then had two different factions that ran the planet and you could see the difference in the two the moment they had exited the portal room. To the south all the buildings were painted blue with blue lighting and a logo of a shield with a checker pattern of blue and white. To the north red buildings, lights, and a red shield logo with triangle pattern instead of checker.
When they left the exit it was comically half red and half blue so they were joking around walking back and forth between the two. The guards on both sides were not pleased and one shouted at them "Move along dingbats!" Even the Sandarians got a kick out of it and O responded with a grunt "What are you going to do if we don't?"
"No need to start shit with guys who have to wear colors to know which side they are on." Andrei quibbed to the group which got them to chuckle and they all left the structure and saw that there was a line continuing out on to the planet. The yellow arrow for Xena's location was to the south so they all headed into the blue zone and were expecting something from the guards but never heard a word.
They proceeded to walk for several hours with no incident of beasts or other travelers and even Mini started to wonder where they were going so she flew up high and still didn't see anything. Coming back down she asked if Andrei was sure they were going the right direction.
Andrei was going to respond when the ground around them started to shake. Mini grabbed Andrei and lifted him and her clones grabbed the Sandarians with Surany becoming her Phoenix form. The ground suddenly fell out from under them and a huge hole appeared. They looked at it and realized it was a beast's mouth. Looking at his mini map he saw the golden arrow on the hole in the ground and Andrei told them his plan.
Through Lauren he told them Mini was going to drop him down and he would let them know to follow or not. Mini let go and he descended into the hole. As soon as he entered the opening it closed and the ground looked normal again. The rest flew to where they would be safe to be on the ground again and waited for a response.
Andrei seeing the light go was expecting to be struggling to see but realized he could see perfectly fine. Something he forgot about being a vampire was that he could now see at night with ease and he hasn't thought about or noticed till this moment. He aimed his barrier where he was about to land and it slowed him down for a soft landing.
He stepped forward and decided to test if this was a beast or something else by stabbing the ground with his spear. There was no reaction and it felt like he just stabbed solid ground. He noticed he was in a tunnel and the one way had the arrow on his mini map. He continued forward and then came across a console with "Interact" on it. He did so and was expecting more than just a click sound.
Less than a second later the wall disappeared and a single door appeared behind the wall that disappeared. Andrei's "Identify" was thought about and it showed the door having a pin code and the numbers written so he followed the code and it made a beep and unlocked. Stepping through he was shocked to find a stairwell leading to further down.
He walked down the flights of stairs for a solid 10 minutes and wondered if people actually walked up these steps ever. The one side had an artificial wall and the rest felt like it was a part of the planet. The stairwell came to an end and another door with another code. He didn't memorize the first but it felt like the same code.
He opened the door and there was a hallway that didn't have any doors or lights. He walked the hallway and another door was at the end. This door didn't have a code but when he tried to push it but it didn't budge. He pulled and the door pulled back and there was substance on the other side of the door that Andrei could then see was everywhere in the next area.
Inside was a thousand eggs and Andrei had no idea what these eggs were when his "Identify" popped up a Sandarian Egg on each of them. He remembered something about Sandarians having a thousand eggs at a time but was not expecting to come across them currently. He then wondered if O's sister was the mother. He didn't know if it was possible or not.
All of the eggs were tiny but spaced out and Andrei wondered if they would grow to be the size of O before they cracked. He made sure not to step on them and continued on. The room was large but eventually he had come to the other side which now had a gate that was currently raised.
Andrei stepped through and the environment changed drastically. He was now in a lab and there were computers which none of them had "Interact" on them so he figured his interface knew he couldn't do anything with them. There were offices as well and glanced into each to make sure there wasn't an "Interact" in any of them.
He finally found the next door which led to his target. Xena was strapped into a table heavily strapped down with tubes leading to her body most likely causing her sedated state. She was larger than O by several feet was his best estimate.
Just past her table an "Interact" finally was spotted and Andrei quickly went to it to find out what this place was or to hopefully release Xena. When he interacted with the computer he was more surprised than anything to find out that the building was made by a vampire. The whole facility contained sections for more eggs to be laid. He looked through the information that was coming in about the facility via the map and what was labeled on the map.
The area he was in was considered the queen's chamber and Xena being strapped to a table was the more obvious answer. The chamber to which Andrei walked in was considered the first spawn according to the interface. The stairwell he went through was an emergency exit. He located the entrance and then through Lauren the squad outside to move to that area and he opened the entrance gate.
They walked through the entrance and all of them were closely looking around at everything. The structure was different from anything they had seen before and no one knew what to make of it. The Sandarians all were still standing outside of the gate when the rest realized none of them were entering. Mini was the first to comment "I didn't know Sandarians were scared of anything?"
"Nothing to fear, something smells wrong, something is telling us to stay clear of this no matter what. It is an intense feeling that I have never felt before." O spoke up in response to Mini. The fact his brothers hadn't moved as well told him they were experiencing the same thing. They didn't know that instinctively they were to stay away from Sandarian Eggs. The eggs released a pheromone that told the males to stay away.
"So I see you found my latest project, what brought the Galactic Federation Military to my newest experiment?" A disembodied voice rang out through the facility.
"Well you have my friend's sister as an experiment so that is why we are here. We have no idea who you are, why don't you show yourself?" Andrei responded with a shout not sure how easily he could be heard.
"Haha, you think I would show up while you have multiple people ready to take me out. I can see how many of you there are and even with the three Sandarians not coming in I know who you are and who is with you and I am not going to test my fate today." The disembodied voice rang out through the facility.
"We are leaving with Xena whether you like it or not." While he spoke, the tubes that were connected to Xena popped off.
"How did you just release her, you do not have control of this facility!" The disembodied voice shouted.
"Looks like I know more than you think, and if you think that you can stay hidden forever I know about the Vampiric Empire and I will find you." Andrei shouted out.
"The empire will crumble sooner than later, 1,000 cycles of peace my ass, the King is a nutjob and has no idea the power we hold. This Sandarian queen will make me the most powerful vampire ever and I will take my revenge on the King. She is the largest queen ever recorded and she is only a month old. You will not be taking her!" The voice was frantic in his speech but Andrei knew they were going to be ok.
He grabbed Xena and shook her to help her wake up faster and told her "We have to get up and get going now, I am with Outalomnonum and we are getting you out of here right now!"
Hearing her brother's name Xena's eyes shot open and she leapt up off the table and shot towards the entrance. She moved a lot faster than Andrei ever saw a Sandarian move; she reached her brothers and they all could then see how much larger she was compared to them. She punched her brothers' shoulders in the Sandarian way, "Good to see you brothers, join me to destroy all these eggs."
O simply told her "We can not move closer to your eggs, something is telling us to run and we can only stand still not move forward. Mini hearing this was curious as to the reason and closed the gate. O, Blunt and Trip all relaxed and took a step forward and they were visibly relieved. The gate was opened again and the three males froze and Mini told them she was going to close it again and that they would take care of the eggs. Mini figured Xena didn't want to have to kill her own children so took it upon herself.
She messaged through the earpiece to Andrei "Where are you, we need to find her eggs and destroy them, it is her wish, let's not make her do it." Sophia and Surany hearing that followed Mini knowing that Sandarians that a thousand eggs was going to mean a lot of work for all of them. Andrei through Lauren told O to take the Sandarians back to the portal and head to Goliath. He asked Lauren if she could make it to Goliath to meet the new Sandarians to add them to her telepath ability, she responded that she would be taking the portal in 2 hours to Goliath and she informed O as well.
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The Sandarians all headed to the settlement discussing what had happened. Xena was sent here with a platoon of soldiers to settle a dispute, when they arrived they were assaulted as if it was a planned trap. The soldiers that captured Xena weren't wearing the red or blue and she even pointed out that they noticed the buildings but the soldiers were in different gear.
The one man who over powered her and knocked her unconscious was also dressed in all black and had extremely pale skin according to Xena. He had red eyes that glowed when she looked him directly in the eye and then she was waking up to Andrei standing over her and she realized that the nightmares in her mind were actually happening. She went on to tell them about how she could feel herself evolving into a mother, which she didn't understand why at so young but the chemicals the vampire used on her induced her evolution into a child bearing queen.
She described the strange sensation of being inseminated and how it kick started her laying eggs which her body did out of instinct while her mind was under a trance. She didn't know that it was the vampire who was controlling her but she could remember going through the process of laying her eggs. The other thing was that she had her genetic memories of previous queens giving birth and they felt very different than hers.
O put in the coordinates for Goliath and the four of them headed into the portal. Not one of them saw the fifth person who travelled to Goliath with them. All of them would hear about it when Andrei returned from the planet.
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Andrei waited for the rest to find him as it didn't take but a few seconds and then they entered the egg room. Andrei stepped on one of the eggs and to his surprise he couldn't smash it. He stabbed it with his spear and the spear glowed like it was going to level. Andrei was kinda shocked by the action of the spear so he did it again to another egg and it glowed again. He wasn't sure but it seemed like his spear was growing in size ever so slightly.
Mini, seeing the failed step, pulled out her sword on the mech and it was deflected off the egg. She shot at it and it too was deflected. "Well I guess only your spear can kill these eggs" Mini exclaimed exasperated by the fact she didn't have anything.
Andrei tossed a blood handle to her and a dagger was produced. She stabbed an egg and sure enough it pierced and destroyed the egg and also started to glow. Surany had followed with her own blood handle weapon Andre had given her to defend against the anti ability beasts on Junti. The spiked mallet was a larger source of glowing light as she smashed eggs.
Sophia felt left out but she also was just watching them and could see how the weapons were growing in size. Andrei's spear had grown half a foot in length and two inches in girth. The heart shape end with the hooks now was size of her head looked even more impressive.
Mini's dagger was starting to look like a sword; it was getting longer and longer. The spiked mallet in Surany's hands went from an inch length spikes to nearly 6 inch spikes. Near the end of the eggs Andrei finally noticed that the blood weapon was consuming what was forming inside the egg and it was a small blood core.
The glowing and growing was from the blood handles consuming blood cores that were being created in the eggs. Andrei then started to consider what that might have meant, was this vampire going to make a vampire Sandarian hybrid? Andrei pondered this as he finished off the last of the eggs.
He looked around and they were positive they smashed all the eggs. The four of them came together and Andrei ported them to Goliath. Andrei was surprised to be standing in front of a prison cell with something inside trying to stay invisible. There was a mist in the cage that was showing the outline of a humanoid figure.
"What am I looking at?" Andrei just stated out loud hoping someone or something would respond to the question. "Intruder ported in with the Sandarians, counter measures were implemented, being has not moved or made a sound since being captured." The disembodied female voice told Andrei.
"Well you're obviously captured, are you going to speak or am I going to forget about you like the last person we captured?" Andrei casually spoke, trying to test the waters to get a response.
A loud sigh was heard and the person seeing Andrei looking him in the eyes even though being invisible decided to give up the gig and turned off his ability.
"I am dead no matter what so seeing as they have no idea how powerful you are, you have this many beasts as pets, we are so screwed so it doesn't even matter. Ra sent me, I have never been a Ra supporter but credits are credits. They use me a lot so when they send me to someone and they only give me your name and no ability it intrigued me."
"You were easy to find once you put out on the dark net a bounty for information on your location only. One of the beautiful things about the galaxy wide communication network allows for real time tracking of anyone. You guys landing on Kintherim sent us lots of pings and a few were paid nicely. The Sandarians returning matching the description of Sandarians that left with you plus one more I figured it would make more sense to infiltrate your operation through them."
"No idea I would go through a portal and land in a cage, that I still can't figure out but looking around this isn't a normal base is it?" The man asked Andrei.
"I appreciate the honesty, no this is not a normal base, and yes you are probably dead. What was your mission of infiltration? Were you planning on killing me or someone close to me?" Andrei inquired quite bluntly.
"I was to find out your bases location, defenses, personnel, strengths, weaknesses, and any information that could be used against you. But I was never instructed to kill anyone on any of my missions as I would refuse them in the first place. I use my powers for information not to assassinate someone, granted my information probably has been used to assassinate, but it wasn't by my hands."
Andrei could see the plea in his eyes and Andrei didn't know what to ask next. "Tell me who the leader of Ra is."
"Never met him/her/they/them whatever it is that leads Ra. They are a massive organization that wants to bring back the old ways of humanity before the use of abilities. Yet they use people with abilities all the time, me being a perfect example. But they are definitely xenophobic and would not be happy with you working with Sandarians."
"I plan to work with more than Sandarians as I already work with Elryn and Tantan as well. I don't care what your species is, if you're wanting to make the galaxy a shit show because of stupid beliefs you will lose to us every time. Ra seems like its leaders need to be dealt with as they keep sending people to attack me. Why me?" Andrei was asking but the spy was responding and without Andrei knowing it, he was responding against his will.
"There is a prophecy that someone will be born with the ability to take everyone's abilities and use them to reshape the galaxy. If you ever read the actual prophecy you would know it says that the person is to remove the blight off of the galaxy. That can be loosely translated to many different interpretations but good ol' leaders of Ra take it as their chance to take over the galaxy." The caged man had a look of confusion as he did not want to discuss that information at all.
"What did you give me?" The spy inquired of Andrei. "I didn't want to say any of that"
"I gave you nothing, we are just talking right now" Andrei responded with a level head remembering he can influence humans now that he had evolved into a vampire.
"Is Ra's base on a planet or do they have a ship that they use as their home base?" Andrei went more direct with his questions now that he knew he could.
"The base is hidden on a planet that can only be accessed by a portal into an enclosed chamber that is highly secured for any illegal ports." The spy was now wincing in pain as he was trying to not say anything but he kept responding.
"What is the planet's name?" Andrei persisted.
"I never knew the name, only the coordinates for the portal." He gave out the coordinates and Goliath then responded in Andrei's head "Probe has been launched to portal on P982, probe has been destroyed. Bi-passing defensive measures on portal location, new probe launched. The atmosphere is not safe to breathe on the planet's surface. Can port to a safe location outside of the base but have not located an entrance."
"Thank you Goliath!" Andrei thought like it was one of his pets but didn't get the dance from Goliath like he gets from his pets, he shook the thought out of his head and proceeded back to his room. They planned on getting Red tomorrow so he wanted to get some rest which didn't feel needed but more habitual.
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He couldn't fall asleep despite everyone being asleep on the ship so he wandered down to the VR pods. He figured the best way to get better is to climb up the rankings and also he could probably recruit from it as well.
"3,2,1, Fight!" Andrei was busy thinking about what he wanted to use to level up then looked up to see the fight was underway and also there were a lot of spectators in the crowd.
He produced a "Sledgehammer of Fire" and figured both Fire and nature were used in that so he would get those working as well as his favorite move being "Wind Hammer" with it, he wanted to figure out how to incorporate lightning more into this fight but wasn't sure if he would one shot his opponent.
The opponent was extremely fast and had two daggers with white energy flowing off of them displaying wind skills. Andrei was wondering if he could incorporate wind into his body's agility and he got a notification he wasn't expecting.
[Infuse Element Wind into Legs? Y/N]
Ask and you shall receive, he thought to himself and he decided to turn away from the opponent and run as fast as he could a circle around the arena. The opponent stopped in the middle trying to keep up with Andrei's speed watching him run the circle making him have to spin in place at the center to keep up.
Andrei came flying in and the speed and force from his swing of the sledgehammer sent the opponent flying in an animation that Andrei did not know existed as the body keep elevating and flying off the map until the dot was impossible for Andrei to even see with his enhanced vampire vision.
He was back in the lobby audibly laughing out loud as he was thinking about the expression on the face of the opponent he just hit and he couldn't get out of his head how it must have looked from that guy's perspective being launched into orbit.
"3,2,1, Fight!" Andrei looked around this time and saw a lot of the same faces from the last fight and figured he must have a following somehow but didn't understand it. They were talking about his last fight during the 30 second countdown and now all went silent awaiting what "TheAnswer" would do next.
"Sledgehammer of Lightning" he summoned to his hands and charged forward to initiate with this new opponent. The opponent had a gun which told Andrei he was going to be a ranged fighter. Andrei charged forward with his new wind element to his legs; he was on top of the opponent before they thought they needed to be ready.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity to use an ability to hopefully level it up he slammed down on the opponent thinking "Wind Hammer with Wind Slash" and the lightning from the sledgehammer exploded out and the opponents body disappeared.
He was running Skill Sap on each opponent but told himself he would not look at all that he unlocks until he is done fighting. So far he was having fun hitting opponents in one swing and moving on so he can Skill Sap as many as possible in the shortest time.
He got a message from Mini through Lauren asking if he was ok and where he was. He then looked and saw it was morning of the next day and he didn't feel too tired. He informed her of what he had been doing and he was finishing up the current battle then would exit the pod.
When it opened he was shocked to see Mini standing there with her neck exposed saying "Drink up it's been too long, I read up and even the folklore says you need to drink every few days."
Andrei glanced around the area and saw that they were alone, he still felt like it was awkward to feed on humans but it was getting easier. Mini never made it awkward and even the fact she was offering it up to him was showing him how much she cared about him.
They finished up and as her marks healed Bert appeared from the lift and saw them at a distance and called out "Hi guys, Andrei just who I need to speak to!"
"Sure Bert, what's up? My pets ok?" Andrei inquired, not sure what he might need them for. Bert looked at them confused for a moment as he had lost his train of thought then went back to what he wanted to talk about. "I wanted to ask you if I have permission to make copies of your pets with the beast nest crystal that you recovered. We can also create more for combat training so that people can get used to fighting live beasts and then taking their cores."
Andrei was liking that idea and even more so now that he knew that the blood handles needed to level up for everyone this would create a great beast training mode for Death Squad. He thought about the possibilities then he remembered he was running out of blood handles and that he needed to get more blood cores. He wasn't sure what the reception would be but he knew he needed to go back to Dracula.