Login

Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null · 02-13-2025, 08:47 AM,

[09.02.2025 18:17:59] PAULxQ got divebombed by K'Hara|Shozak-Adabi(63%)
[09.02.2025 18:17:59] Assisted by: Musashi|Aoi(30%), Xor-Hish(7%)
[09.02.2025 18:17:59] You receive a bonus of 200000 credits and contributed 1 points.

A job well done should be justly rewarded, should it not? A united conquest, shared among most of the dominant minds in the Light, had been achieved successfully. The Infiltrator Castes, both of the Ghostmind and those under Ki'Shar's guidance, Minerva's Hunter-Killers, Husas's Shield-Shells, and even Sh'ozak's own Silencing-Ones came to the field.

The Shield-Shells defended the gate leading inward as the assault fueled by an increasingly-repaired Dyson Sphere poured forth. The Hunter-Killers punched through defense after defense, using their obsessive fang-sharpening and skill-honing. The Silencing-Ones veiled themselves and stalked the open space, hunting for transports carrying fleeing humans. And Sh'ozak herself had joined them, hunting out transports and standing guard over the pathways between the stars. Doing this had led her to witness an interesting phenomena: Upon being blockaded by warforms, the ones calling themselves the Core opted to forgo the large capacity of transports in favor of the combat-capable Cruisers. One such cruiser, she hunted out herself.

The Infiltrators of Altair adamantly recommended they be made Infiltrators as well, but she already had an experiment in mind. The Wild Hunt of Kaarst had a vile testament to their experiments littering the area near that station, the Midden. Sh'ozak knew well the pattern between the Ghosts and the Light. The underlying ideas were innovations that would raise up the Light, yet the Wild Hunt's executions were riddle with Darkness and malfeasance. The Midden screamed in perpetual torment, projecting the only thing those minds could know onto any and all who near it's location: Horror. Torment and torture made the foundation of the Midden, and on that foundation a structure of desperation and hopelessness was built. The unending shrieking from the Wild Hunt's madness and hatred influenced every action they took.

But, nonetheless, there was something of use. Sh'ozak took the idea of Midden, and inverted it's intent to make the first of her followers. Here, she would do it again. During the first day of their imprisonment, the Advisor imposed an intense bliss onto the captives. She multiplied the vividness of their senses, and molded their prisons into places of comfort and geometric perfection. She altered their perception, removing them from their linear world and instead dropping them headlong into an experience of intense fractal reality. Every touch, every sight, even the taste of the air was infinitely detailed. No matter how much of even a single breath they could experience, they was an eternity more to feel.

Sh'ozak took gave no concession in letting it be known that it was her presence that was responsible for this sensation of happiness and bliss that was far beyond what any human had ever experienced. She strode the halls of the prison and the halls of their minds in her doll-body, a life-size model of a human body, created by Sh'ozak. With the help of Ki'Shar's Infiltrators, a very important piece of information was relayed to her: Human communication attributes only seven percent of it's weight to the words they speak. Fifty-five percent is attributed to body language, and thirty-eight percent is attributed to voice and tone. To communicate in any capacity, projection of words was not enough. She required a human body and a human voice to be able to truly speak to humans. And thus the doll-body was born, the image of a human and the voice of a human, a representation of herself through the lens of the human shape.

Seeing a reflection of herself, however, she felt the need for adornment. Beauty comes in so many forms, and she would have beauty in this form as well. Silver hair, sapphire eyes that crackled with faint electricity, and skin as pale as porcelain. Like a blank canvas, fit for an artist like herself. And, in that time, she had a medium on hand as well. While loosely draped in a thin silk produced from the same silica crystal weave that made up most K'Haran bodies, she crafted fine jewelry for herself with only telekinesis and her imagination. Golden-chain bracelets and anklets, encrusted with Hessian Tears, along with golden wire rings, bangles and a garter belt, encrusted with Cerulite Crystals. Finally, she had crowned herself with a golden circlet, with the chunk of glass and metal that was the Artificial Personality Fragment occupying the center of her forehead. Unbeknownst to her, in creating the circlet, she had consigned a small portion of Gammu AI to the strangest purgatory, with the energy created by Sh'ozak's presence being captured and transmitted by the gold into the fragment, sustaining and energizing it.

And so, the bejeweled doll found her way across the questionably-conscious humans sprawled across the cell. Many were doing their best to cling to consciousness despite the overpowering call of the intense colors and vivid geometry. Those few who retained some grasp on reality looked up and saw the embodiment of youth and beauty herself, only exacerbating the illusion of overwhelming paradise. One of the survivors managed to grasp the fabric that barely clothed her, catching her attention, so she carefully knelt and held his face up to stare into her eyes. The striking blue of her eyes was too much for her poor victim, and upon slipping back out of reality, she released him. A very minor link was formed between the two in that moment, allowing her to check the state of his mind. As it seemed physical contact was enough of a conduit for this effect, a row of holes flicked open on her back, and glowing white tendrils sprouted, proceeding to sweep over each of the captured crew members. A few resisted, but most were lost in the powerful hallucinations. The tendrils retracted, retreating to form the silhouette of a pair of wings. She saw that enough was done. The first step was complete.

Sh'ozak had the Infiltrators of Altair separate the crew into individual cells. Then, she simply left.

All it took was forty-one hours of absence.

She had given them a peace, a bliss, a pleasure so intense that all of reality was the purest suffering without it. Without her. They had only suffering without her. Human life wasn't worth living without the promise of Merciful Death. The first among the eighty-two cells that she would check was already a resounding success. A woman crawled to the transparent crystal wall of the cell, recognizing Sh'ozak simply from the glow of her tendrils. She had torn large patches out of her uniform and left scratch marks on the other walls of the cell. Fittingly, the patch bearing the insignia of the Core lay in the distant corner of the room, abandoned and discarded. She was trying to say something, but her voice failed her. More than a day of wailing had that effect, after all.

"Shhhh. No more tears. You missed me, didn't you?" The woman nodded frantically, and as the wall between them melted, Sh'ozak extended her hand. The thoroughly confused woman took her hand, and Sh'ozak began her inspection. Small wounds around her hands and nails, likely caused by tearing her clothes and clawing at the cell walls. Little matter, as Sh'ozak organized nearly-microscopic hooks, scalpels, and spinnerets on her own hand. Merely running her hand over the wounds pulled the debris out and sealed them. The woman was roughly unresponsive during this process until Sh'ozak grasped her chin. Sh'ozak was confused by the sudden stiffening and then forced relaxing, but as the crew member wasn't in a trance like before, Sh'ozak couldn't read her mind without risking damage. Sh'ozak inspected her lips and gums. Small cuts caused by ripping through the fabric of her uniform with her teeth, healed in an instant. The woman flinched slightly when Sh'ozak opened her jaw to repair the damage to her tongue. Disregarding further reactions, Sh'ozak finished with the woman's face, and quickly searched out and repaired other damage on her body with the mass of tendrils.

After setting the woman into an elevated state of bliss, but not nearly as high as the one which Sh'ozak had used to break her defiance, Sh'ozak set off towards the next cell. She was distracted, however, by the woman, who was still sat on the floor, looking up to Sh'ozak expectantly. Sh'ozak became immediately aware of a severe drawback in her position, that being that while fifty-five percent of human communication is body language and thirty-eight percent is tone and voice, a grand total of two percent of K'Haran communication was body language, and Sh'ozak had no clue what the woman wanted. Sh'ozak, however, also did not have time to play guessing games with human women. "Come along. There are eighty-one more of you." The woman seemed disappointed about something, but followed nonetheless.

Eighty-one cells later, Sh'ozak had eighty individuals following her towards the docking bay of Altair. One had managed to die of extreme grief, and one still resisted. The rest obediently followed in a near-trance state, questioning neither their surroundings nor their circumstances. She had clothed them in the same silken cloth that she war. They seemed to adopt some understanding between themselves, not entirely known to her. The Infiltrators had told her the names of those methods of wrapping themselves. "Togas" and "Stolas". All that Sh'ozak really noticed was that despite all present being given a single cloth, the humans had covered much more of their skin than she had. The other group had done the same. She didn't particularly care, however. As the new followers loaded onto the shuttle, Sh'ozak stepped this doll body into a nearby crystalline pod, putting it into stasis as she switched focus to the doll in her temple on 9-1.

Her other attendants scrambled into the main hallway as she reactivated. They had altered the method in which they wrapped themselves, sacrificing the long sleeves for a hood. They had also reached a state of trance where she could communicate easily with them. She informed them that newcomers would arrive, and they set off to do some preparations that she wasn't particularly concerned about.

The arrival of the newcomers was met with what Sh'ozak identified as a rapid training session. Each of them had a set of stations that they had perfected around the area. So long as Sh'ozak kept them in a permanent state of bliss and ecstasy, they did not go about regular human activities. Instead, they engaged in mathematics, arts, or exploring the depths of their own trance. It was interesting to watch. It was the method by which Sh'ozak gained benchmarks for humanity at large, and for herself when compared to her kin.

They could not leave. The atmosphere on 9-1 was a terribly thin layer of helium, a rapid suffocation for humans, if they did not freeze first. It was a prison. It was an experiment. But it was also heaven for them. They could not see the bars of their cage through all the wonders they drowned in.

And that led them to this moment. One hundred humans knelt in the inner cloister, while five stood to present their petition. Sh'ozak reclined on the stone throne in the center of the alien garden. The humans desired to form an "Honor Guard". They found it unfitting that their patron deity walked without escort. They met her explanation of the state of her bodies being spacefaring as opposed to theirs with a correction of the scope of their desire. When she partakes in the realms of humanity, then she would have an honor guard, as such a group would set an example and expectation required from other humans. She made note that the woman who was the first among the Capetown crew to be released was among the five. She acquiesced to their request, under the condition that only she would decide when their presence outside the temple would be.

And her temple knew peace again. As the newcomers slipped deeper into the trance she maintained over all, she slowly grasped their meanings and intents. It was, after all, the duty of the conquerors to not repeat the mistakes of the conquered. So, Sh'ozak slowly but surely worked to build a human society that would not fall into the same failures as the ones outside these walls. Sh'ozak decided on a new task for herself. It was necessary to travel to Malta and obtain Cardamine, to use as a gene editor. She desired to reverse and remove aging from these humans, as it brought complications that she did not feel were necessary.

Any human would say that these ones had lost their humanity. And so Sh'ozak's metaphor is maintained. That which was human had died within them. The greatest mercy to humans is death. The final goal of all human life is death. Death is their god. Thus, Sh'ozak, Merciful Death, waged war on humanity. Not with the wrath of Minerva, to see slaughter as far as the light of any star can reach. Not with the obstinance of Husas, to see humanity's march brought to a standstill, never to move again. But with pity and care, to bring an end to the tragedy of humanity. To save them from themselves, all humanity must die.

Behold, Merciful Death.

Login
Username:
Password:	Lost Password?
	Remember me