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Abandoned Artificial Asteroid Asylum

The starship has all the lines of a classic flying saucer UFO; the concave disc with a round hut rising from its center with every last inch of it would be shiny metal if it were flying through the well lighted skies of an Earth like planet but instead it is hurtling its way through the inky depths of the void between worlds on a straight course, more or less, through an enlarged asteroid field between the Sun and Jupiter. In the aftermath of what history records as the great crisis of faith all four of the inner planets ended up being destroyed with the loss of life tallying in the millions. Life in what is now referred to as the sea of shattered dreams is ever more precarious as prospectors, pirates and isolationists eek out an existence as best they can.

Humanity as it was defined in this sector has officially rendered itself extinct as factions of major religions at the time of the crisis had reach a state of animosity that programs of genocide were enacted to eliminate all living members of opposing faiths leading to the development and deployment of weapons that ultimately rendered the colonies of various entities that both supported a given religious faction and those that wanted to remain neutral but were critical to the survival of everyone were torn asunder and killing everyone unlucky enough to be dwelling on the affected worlds at the time of the event. Very few structures from before survived although the moons of two of the affected planets managed to make it out relatively unscathed and it was here that certain visitors to the solar systems were conducting mass experiments on portions of the populace with the "permission" of some of the political bodies acting as governmental supervisory bodies at the time of the event. First and foremost of these visitors was a renegade annunaki that called itself Moreau who was creating a new strain of humanity it called the kymera.

Kymera are what remains of the sapient beings that called itself the human race in this sector of the universe and aboard the patrol disc is one of the many subspecies of the kymera, an osolobo known principally as Kodyax von Fenryx a field marshal of the Peacekeepers, a militarized force of police creatures set up by a congress of surviving forces to try and impose something resembling order and civility on what remains of the region, is on general patrol in an area of the debris field simply labeled "America" when his sensors pick up an anomaly. According to official records the Howard Phillips Lovecraft memorial mental hospice has been decommissioned and abandoned for decades so why does it show signs of recent habitation? Kodyax is inclined to check it out but still needs to call it in.

"Kodyax von Fenryx calling central command," the russet furred wolf-bear enunciates into the microphone broadcasting communications to what was Earth's moon but is now simply referred to as Luna. "Kodyax von Fenryx calling central command; come in Luna."

"What is going on, Marshal Fenryx?" A female voice comes over the radio Kodyax recognizes as an Alfar woman who goes by the name of Cassandra.

"I'm picking up signs that the Lovecraft hospice is active." Kodyax reports. "Cassie, is someone authorized to use that facility?" "Not so far as I know, Kody," Cassandra answers back with a twinge of concern in her voice. "Would you mind checking it out?"

"I was just going to ask for authorization to investigate," Kodyax admits openly. "I am going in to check the place out. Any ideas as to who or what I might find?"

"Could be anybody, honestly," Cassandra returns. "The mi-go are notorious for trying to squat there and if they are there; well, you know what to do."

"With pleasure, Cassie," Kodyax says with a dark chuckle. "With pleasure, I have only too much experience dealing with those things. Kodyax out."

"Good hunting, ranger, Cassandra out." Cassie returns smugly. "Just remember to take a recorder drone with you for proper documentation."

It was never a place of comfort as it was designed from the start with his scribblings in mind, with the architect, one Xavier Edward No, obsessed with one particular work of Lovecraft's as he was an avid player of Call of Cthulhu and thus did his best to take visions of the sunken city mentioned in the text of the tale and render it in real life, who designed the artificial asteroid, he had survived the destruction of Earth by becoming a cyborg, as a tribute to his beloved author. Which is to say the building looks strange in the extreme but the facility was ultimately doomed to failure as it was constantly under siege by the mi-go, the elder things and the horde of the hobgoblin empire. Exactly why the horde adopted the terminology of Terrans for itself is a set of questions that, while many are curious about, nobody has been forthcoming enough to ask.

As Kodyax approaches in his patrol craft, it would appear that he would be the only using a spaceship inside, which does not forebode well in his own mind. The place is a beacon for the curious as it is quite the odd place to view and in its own way has become quite the tourist destination that some travel to from other galaxies let alone those that still dwell in the system, whether they be from solar farms that have been set up on the remains of Venus and Mercury or those that dwell on the moons of the various gas giants of the system. However, neither the mi-go nor the elder things have much need or even use for space ships due to their own unique evolutions that baffle many scholars but present their own set of challenges for one such as Kodyax as the lack of vital organs, especially with the mi-go who are of a strange fungal sort of alien species, makes it hard to target anywhere for massive damage which is preferable for the rapid destruction of a given creature.

Inside the command capsule of his flying saucer, Kodyax slicks back his moss green hair and smirks as he takes readings from the ship's sensors. He wears an armored uniform jumpsuit that is all black except for green stripes down his legs and arms, a green morning star on his front and a tree of life on his back. The star is the general emblem of the Peacekeeper organization with the tree representing his affiliation with the Nature Wardens a religious organization dedicating to preserving what wild places still exist so that life in the inner planets may one day begin anew although this is further made obvious for those that are aware of the various factions within the kymera by the fact that so much of his uniform is green rather some other color like red or blue or yellow all of which are indicators of what role and/or faction one belongs to within the Peacekeepers organization.

The facility has its own spaceport which for Kodyax is almost routine to access as he lets the ships arcane intelligence handle the particulars of actually piloting the craft as he makes sure he is well equipped as he has his compass ring and dowsing ring equipped as well as a set of space age goggles that negates any need for a light source he might otherwise have as they grant him the ability to see in darkness almost as good as his vision in well-lit conditions as part of his normal set of enchanted equipment before he invokes a quick prayer to the sheer unrelenting power of nature to sustain him in this its harshest of environments which causes the star and tree to pulse with divine energy as the spell is successfully casted. Special goggles are fitted to his head over his eyes to give him superior vision as he checks his gloves and boots to make sure they are up to snuff.

A mechanical eye the size of a beach ball is released from the central column and floats over to focus its articulated iris on Kodyax himself as he dons a jetpack and picks up a rifle that looks something that would have been featured in one of the old comic strips detailing the adventurous exploits of Buck Rodgers or Flash Gordon. The ship floats effortlessly in the hangar bay of the facility like a jellyfish in the waters of the ocean as a hole opens up in the floor large enough for Kodyax to fall through and he does so in a controlled manner with the eye drone following after him. The hole closes after he has departed as the lights on board dim as the interior of the craft fades to black.

Outside of the disc ship that Kodyax flew in on, the hangar is largely empty with those rocketships that are still here are in various states of disrepair with debris scattered about and making the ground a veritable minefield to traverse with sparking wires dangling from the ceiling which is a cause for concern as it means that power wise the facility is fully active and operational when it shouldn't be. Much of this is automated and Kodyax is well aware of that and the fact the place is solar powered which means that the place is still collecting energy from the sun which cannot be seen from the hangar but its presence is a known factor none the less as he moves to investigate deeper into the hospice itself. The doors open and close automatically with a motion sensor telling the aperture when it should and should not be exerting itself to perform this basic function.

Dim illumination is provided by recessed lighting fixtures set into the ceiling, the walls and the floor of the facility the dimensions of which are more or less ten foot square in their overall diameter and in pristine condition. Kodyax deactivates his jetpack to try and land so as to get his bearings more readily only to find that while the lighting and oxygenation systems are working quite well the artificial gravity that is standard in a place like this is not function at all so the corridor he is inhabited is in a state of perpetual zero gravity. This factor is unusual but not entirely unforeseen as it could mean any number of things although as soon as he notates this a set of glowing graffiti garners his attention.

Phosphorescent green glyphs of an alien origin and script illuminate a passageway directly to the east away from the hangar aperture that attracts Kody's attention. Kodyax swims over to the graffiti and activates the translating software in his suit that he knows he will need to make sense of whatever language he perceives as well as an indication of what species may have created it. Alarmingly he finds the script to be that of the elder things which is a possible indicator of just what he might encounter here although it begs the question as to what made it as elder things are not well known for lowering themselves to do actual scriptwork which means there very well could be a shoggoth or a proto-shoggoth around here somewhere that he will need to take care of at some point.

He chides himself for thinking that as soon as the thought forms in his head is if indeed there is a shoggoth in here the best he can hope for is to contain the thing and make a report of his having done so. The markings themselves are more like sign posts written in the manner that the elder things read such matters so while it seems like something major it's little more than an immigrant scribbling on the walls in his or her native directions that they can readily understand for their own convenience. But it does beg the question of why it is present and how long ago was it scribed?

The elder things in general have been a largely unwelcome inhabitant of the system although not quite to the level of malevolent belligerence to which the mi-go themselves has arisen. Movement in the distance catches Kody's eye and he moves towards it cautiously but purposefully as the eye drone speeds ahead at a good clip as it is unafraid for its own existence as it knows will be repaired later if rendered inoperable. Its image recording protocols are still very much in place which gives Kodyax the opportunity to see what is ahead of him through the media sensors of the drone.

Von Fenryx exhales a sigh of relief as the drone gets a good look at the creature and Kodyax recognizes it as a Yithian, a race of scholarly aberrations that can be negotiated with if one remembers to be mindful of what they broadcast. Physically a yithian fills the whole of the corridor with the bulk of its cone shaped body. The bulbous appendage that most persons interacting with a yithian assumes is its head swivels around to view the drone and ultimately Kodyax himself as he casually rounds the corner.

"Greetings and salutations, Peacekeeper," says a wheezy voice inside of Kody's head he assumes is emanating from the yithian itself. "What brings you to this place of madness?" "Greetings," Kodyax returns with a nod of his head, "I am Marshal Kodyax von Fenryx. I saw this abandoned facility showed signs of habitation, so I came to investigate." "I see," the yithian replies, "is this place scheduled for demolition? Or is otherwise designated as not suited for inhabitation?" "There was a major problem with the facility that caused the minds of those running it to be infected by some kind of weird mental virus," Kodyax reports, "It was also overrun with the mi-go once which is why the place is no longer in service. If you want or need this place you can list your intentions with central command. Seeing as your species is a part of the congress that stands as the ruling body now, I am not interested in trying to and run you off. I must inquire as to your attentions but other than that I have no issue with your being here."

"I thank you for that, Peacekeeper," the yithian states. "I am merely doing some research into the methods and results of this facility. There is a detail here beyond myself but we are trying to be discreet as to our presence here. We drove off the elder things that were here but as to how ultimately successful we were I cannot say. However, we do have clashes with the mi-go from time to time as well the horde."

How often do you need to deal with such matters?" Kodyax asks.

"Every few cycles or so, there is something else as well," the yithian returns, "Actually it is fortunate that you are here as we have been having some discussion as to whether or not initiate contact with you on such matters as we have been experiencing lately."

"Really?" Kodyax inquires. "What trouble are you having?" "It might be better if I showed you." The yithian answers. "Follow me, please."

The yithian leads Kodyax down a corridor that leads to a wing of the facility where the most violent psychotic inmates were interred. According to the science of the day the brain was most pliable when it was asleep so the best time to try and rehabilitate the criminal mind was during deep and thus here the most violent murderers and other deviants of society were placed in a deep cryogenic slumber so psychic technomagical devices could reform these individuals. This therapy did indeed work for many but for some truly disturbed individuals the need to inflict death and misery upon was buried so deep in their genetic code that the treatments were temporary at best and only exacerbated their conditions at their worst.

Psycho surgery units still persist but are not as ambitious as they once were; but then again since humanity is no longer in its former state this is less of a problem as somehow when Moreau did his genetic tinkering and grafted the DNA of animals onto the human genome the animal tendencies of human kind were lessened or channeled into more constructive endeavors. Among the kymera violence is not as taboo as it was seen among pure strain humans but seen as a tool to be used or not used as a given situation with those who had at least one predator in the mix striving to remain in the Peacekeepers where their destructive urges could be applied to the noble purpose of defending against enemies of the collective. Monster hunting is regarded as a sport among the more predatory kymera like Kodyax who specializes in hunting nightmarish creatures as a ranger with occasional forays into retaliatory strikes against the horde as they try to carry out programs of genocide against all non-goblins for use as food or slaves until such time as they are no longer useful in which case they are butchered for consumption.

In its heyday the Howard Phillips Lovecraft memorial mental hospice was a shining example of the wonders that could be wrought with this sort of therapy which is why the wing that housed the cryogenic freeze pods was such a major part of the facility as it not only had a high turnaround for patients, while in their pods, patients needed far less sustenance to maintain their general health so as to be able to feed such patients intravenously and then bill the state or families committing loved ones to this treatment for such amounts as to keep the hospital up and running but also highly profitable. But when the place shut down these patients along with everyone else were to be moved elsewhere which left the place eerily silent and empty for years. Kodyax is quite shocked when he enters the chamber to find it acting as a kind of weird warehouse of people once again with kymera, alfar, dwarfar and other beings inhabiting seemingly random pods up and down the chamber.

"This area should be devoid of sentients," von Fenryx growls, "How long have they been here? Do you know who is bringing them in?"

"From what we read of the manifests for this facility we thought bodies in these tubes were anomalous," the yithian states matter-of-factly. "They began appearing here over a time period we believe you designate as a month. Exactly what manner of creature is depositing them here is unknown to us at this time. No being has been tracked entering or leaving before new specimens have been discovered."

"Can't be the mi-go, this isn't their style." Kodyax postulates. "Since immigrating to this time frame and cloning yourselves along with digital resource access you have not needed to do your historical body snatching activities so this can't be you." "Your logic is admirable, marshal," the yithian mentally states as Kodyax is accessing one of the tubes which piques its curiosity. "What are you doing?"

"Testing to see if whoever is doing this is tampering with the machinery in any way, shape or form which I am hoping will give me a clue as to who's doing this." von Fenryx freely admits. "No programs are being run other than induced cryo-sleep." He sighs and shakes his head. "Whoever is doing this is warehousing sentients for something." He scratches the underside of his muzzle as if in deep thought as he contemplates what is going on. "This is most irregular and disturbing. Let me see if I can get a diagnostic on who some of these people are." He interfaces with the internal matrix containing a nude alfar woman, they are all nude and floating in the tubes but he chose the one female as she reminds him of Cassandra whom he thinks is rather attractive and if he is going to work on anyone's identity he figures he might as well get some decent eye candy out of it. "Calypso Valkyrie? I need to contact someone." He opens up a hailing frequency to central command. "Marshal von Fenryx to Central Command; Marshal von Fenryx to Central Command; Come in Central Command, over."

"Central command," an automated voice answers, "What party shall I direct your missive?" "Cassandra Valkyrie please." "One moment," the voice responds before pausing and Cassandra answering.

"What have you Kodyax?" Cassandra inquires.

"Do you know a Calypso Valkyrie?" Kodyax asks.

"Kody, this better be good," Cassandra snarls, "That is my twin sister who decided to study witchcraft and went missing last year." "I think I found her." Kodyax answers plainly. "How identical are you two?" "Many people would swear we're clones, why?" Cassandra asks.

"Really? Alrighty then!" Kodyax returns with lustful enthusiasm.

"You're looking at a nude body aren't you?" Cassandra asks in an embarrassed tone of voice. "Is she alive?" Her tone here is cautiously hopeful although thoughts of erotic fairy tale fantasies are running through her mind or some Kodyax is guessing from the inflection.

"Yes, Cassie, your sister is alive and well for the most part." Kodyax reports. "I'm in the violent criminal ward of the hospice. I found a yithian here and it guided me to this chamber."

"A yithian?" Cassandra asks incredulously. "They've been keeping quiet for months now and before they went dark they said they were going to conduct research study into mental illness." She gives an enlightened sigh before continuing. "I take my sister is in one of the tubes?" She pauses for a second and Kodyax can here the tapping of controls in use. "I'm accessing your drone." She elicits a shocked sigh. "Gods of light and darkness! There must be hundreds of people in there. And I see you ogling my sister, Kody, would you ogle me like that if I were nude." "Yes," is Kody's simple reply which causes her to blush even if he can't see her do it.

"Um," Cassandra stammers as she tries to put her thoughts into words through the uncomfortable state she finds herself in. "Be gentle, please, Callie is weird, and even if she wasn't in this state right now...I, um, she can be a bit of a wild child. Dammit!"

"Cassie?" Kodyax asks as he thinks the line just went dead.

Alfar and dwarfar are human like entities from another dimension that is referred to as the faerie realm by most although some also refer to as wonderland or Oz due to its bizarre nature. Both species are green skinned naturally with hair that is usually orange, purple or pink. Terran humans were friendly towards them for the most part as physically they resembled elves and dwarves from folk lore.

Kymera sometimes forget themselves and call alfar elves and dwarfar dwarves in which they are occasionally corrected although they are less inclined to do so now than they were a century or more ago as some of the more scholarly among them did the research and shared it with the rest of their kind. Cassandra herself is well aware of the research and is greatly amused by it to the point where she never corrects kymera who refer to her as an elf as it amuses her given the reasons why. The alfar and dwarfar postulate that when there still was an Earth others of their kind must have visited the planet and interacted with the humans living there and left enough of an impression on them that they were remembered in this way which is the main reason they have eased off on insisting on the correction and why many, Cassandra herself included, have embraced the term as a good thing.

Cassandra ended her call with Kodyax as the embarrassment was escalating to a point where she could not control her reactions. She and Calypso are as close as twins can be and in some ways she is now jealous of her sister as more than likely if Kody frees her, she will do what she can to share a bed with him and that drives her up a wall as she and Kody have been flirting with each other for years with her being too shy to act on her impulses to take it to the next level and sleep with him as she has been curious to see how that sort of thing would work out between them. But while the call may have ended she has not terminated her connection to the drone which she uses to watch him and eavesdrop on his vocalizations as he try to puzzle out for himself what this could be, going through a laundry list of aliens that are notorious for conducting abductions from the ancient lore of Earth's people.

The bulk of these stories had the abductors be the organic robot race colloquially known as the grays which in the context of Kody's current day are servants of the annunaki. The annunaki have not had any interest in experimenting on folks in recent years so it is unlikely that this phenomenon before his eyes can be attributed to them. This leads Kodyax to think of the dagonites, a fanatical cult of worshippers of Cthulhu who have discovered a means of transforming themselves into a lesser form of his likeness to the point where normal food and drink are irrelevant to their continued existence but observing pain and misery sustains indefinitely and if their countenances are to be believe tastes for them like the sweetest, most intoxicating wine ever produced.

Dagonites exist as a race of psychic vampires with an aberrant form of a sexless gray humanoid with a head like and octopus. They feed on emotions, the darker the better and it is because of this and the lengths they are willing to go to induce these feelings in others that Kodyax makes hunting them down a priority of his. As anger and hatred start to well up within Kodyax he remembers something else about the dagonites that causes him to look upon the yithian with a critical eye and that is the fact that dagonites are masters of deception with the ability to shapeshift at will as well as construct armatures to help them imitate others that are much larger than they themselves can readily imitate.

Kodyax has few methods at his disposal for readily discerning whether this is indeed a yithian that he has been interacting with or a dagonite in an elaborate disguise. The fact that the yithian has been communicating with him telepathically is a partial factor as while psychic ability is not one of the hallmarks of the yithian race it is not unknown for members of their kind to exhibit such abilities. Dagonites are somewhat aggressive which the yithian has not been but dagonite deception is legendary as Kodyax focuses a critical eye on the only other inhabitant of the chamber with him.

In his mind Kodyax goes over known yithian behaviors and compare them to the interactions he has already seen demonstrated by this particular yithian as well what has been told to him from the time he discovered the creature right this moment. On the surface this may seem paranoid but when your specialty within the Peacekeepers is hunting down and killing monsters and otherwise hostile alien lifeforms the line between too much and not enough paranoia is blurred to the point of non-existence as one never truly knows what is and what is not anomalous behavior in a given creature until after the fact as only hindsight is 20/20. The fact that it is not carrying one of the lightning cannons the race is inconsequential as only those of the warrior caste carry them and this one seems to be more of the scholarly type that race is most well known for.

Something about the yithian seems odd at it seems to recoil from the fact that Kodyax shifted his own physicality as makes his gaze suddenly becomes more scrutinizing as if telegraphing his loss of trust in the previously established relationship. The yithian seems to be getting a little more aggressive in its approach towards Kodyax as it begins to project a kind of mental static that makes his own ability to concentrate that much more difficult which is something that yithians are not know to be able to manifest but dagonites are notoriously infamous for as it affects those around it and brings the emotions it wishes to feed upon better able to be broadcasted and the happy feelings it disdains consuming is thus suppressed.

The mental static is definitely the work of a dagonite, Kodyax has killed too many of them not to be able to recognize the disruptive aura they exude in close proximity that they are able to suppress only with practice or with the aid of a device of their own devising. Kodyax takes a chance and aims his rifle at what some consider the head of the thing but others, like Kodyax, are not so sure. A barely audible destructive scream of subsonic erupts from the muzzle of his rifle to obliterate the tentacle festooned bulbous sphere containing the eyes of the creature knowing full well this will not be an instant kill but will deprive the thing of sensory input; at least until the body can be repaired.

A wave of destructive mental energy slams into Kodyax and drives him back as the alien form of the yithian starts to melt away to reveal the equally disturbing form of a dagonite which causes Kodyax to grimly smirk as his suspicions have indeed been confirmed. Von Fenryx falls back on his training and experience in dealing with these aberrant beings as he discharges his weapon once as the black beak of the creature emerges to scream something largely unintelligible at him but in his minds visions of himself being eviscerated by the thing before are brought to the forefront of his thought in a manner most visceral. A part of him is itinerantly fearful of the situation as presented which is something he knows for a fact the aberration assaulting him currently wants most desperately to elicit within him for its own satisfaction both as a means as to get him to stop firing at it and as means of feeding off of him.

As far as Kodyax is concerned it can feed on his anger and hatred of their kind all it likes, he is still going to do his best to kill it. There is a cold calculating manner to how he executes his duties even as dark emotions well up within him. Yes, he is a Peacekeeper which counts as an officer of the law but he is also a monster hunter, in fact that is his primary specialty, patrolling is usually just a vector for him to find his prey.

Dagonites are especially dangerous aberrations to hunt as they combine their own formidable ability in psychic magic with the eldritch evil granted to them by their dread lord Cthulhu, whom is still sleep in his vaulted city although its current location is now largely a mystery to most. Kodyax is among those that are in on the secret of its current location which is kept secluded and obfuscated by natural magic as druids and witches came together a ways back to weave the web of enchantment that allows Cthulhu to maintain his death like slumber without interference from the outside. In fact, Kodyax was on his way to check on the prisoner when he noticed the manufactured meteor was now active and decided to check it out on his way to check on the other thing.

Questions start to form in von Fenryx's mind about all this over the reasons this is all happening. Dagonites recruit new members by transforming humanoid alien species into their kind but only after engaging in an exhaustive brain washing program to ensure the loyalty of the person they are bringing in. The techniques and procedures used here and especially in this room lend themselves greatly to the programming that brainwashing needs in order to be successful but somehow, Kodyax feels there must be something more but he just can't lay a claw on it.

Connecting back to Central Command right now would be a mistake and he knows it as he has no clue as to how many of their kind are here. Is it just one or is there already a collective forming? Trying to interrogate the dagonite he is fighting would be an exercise in futility; his own experience has taught him that as these are beings used to deception and deluding others is part of its stock and trade.

Unbeknownst to Kodyax, Cassandra is still watching and is horrified by the scene, but in accordance with Peacekeeper protocols and procedures she absolutely needs to keep watching and documenting the fight in case an audit of his conduct should ever convene. In this instance he is clearly acting in self-defense against a dagonite invader one who was apparently trying to do something; exactly what Cassandra is unsure of. Deception is obvious but was the dagonite thinking it would kill Kodyax or merely add him to its collection and to what purpose is it stockpiling persons,

She is reluctant to call them victims because as far as she can by taking readings through the drone the subsonic resonators that were used to reform criminal minds and remold them into productive members of society have not been activated. For now this just warehousing potential victims of their systematic recruitment programs which means potentially that they have not fully set up this facility for their use yet. Rehabilitation after transformation into a dagonite is difficult but not impossible as Cassandra learn vicariously first hand when her brother was rescued from this process approximately five annual cycles ago.

Peacekeeper protocols mandate that Cassandra monitor this fight to its eventual conclusion no matter how horrifying that might be and the dangers that are potentially involved in this sort of altercation are ones that Cassie would rather not contemplate right now. Her only consolation in this confrontation is that Kodyax is a decorated veteran when it comes to dealing with xenohazards such as dagonite invaders and it is guaranteed that he is doing his best to keep collateral damage to a minimum given the stakes at risk at this juncture. The unsettling unknown here is the dagonite itself as there is no way to predict its level of skill and control over its own abilities which, thankfully, are unlikely to damage any of the physical pods in the room as their emanations are largely specialized in attacking living tissue to which the people in the pods should be largely immune to thanks to the arcane programming involved in setting up the facility that was done as a failsafe in case a psychically active criminal were to be interred there and somehow make her way to that facility with the idea of collecting an army of sort for her own purposes.

The dagonite starts to levitate to make itself a better target while simultaneously activating a psychic force field around itself that it intends to use to redirect Kody's shot to hit one of the pods which should serve as a distraction that will allow it to overpower its would be executioner's mind and exert control. The collective is only just beginning to convert this facility from its original purpose to one that will be more conducive to the cause of the dagonite race. The portal they have been using to subtlety teleport material and personnel in here is inactive now and it was on patrol to make sure there were no interlopers when it met Kodyax and rather than let him tour the facility and discover their secret plans for making this place a stronghold while they search for Ryl'Eh and awaken their master, the all mighty Cthulhu, it hatched its own plans to capture and even convert the osolobo to their cause in hopes he might have some interesting data to be shared with the collective.

But the dagonite is only the creature that Kodyax has found working here as there are other creatures skulking about the facility and even in the same room as him that he has yet to discover. The faint glow from phosphorescent fungal matter is easily dismissed as coming from the equipment itself but it is in fact the mi-go running around loose to aid the dagonite in its endeavors. Not all the minds interred in the pods are for transformation into new dagonites as some have been promised to the mi-go for their use as well.

The majority of the mi-go scuttling about the stations are not of the warrior caste but of the scientist and technician castes who are diligently working to make sure everything is set up and running smoothly for when the dagonites make full use of the station. Even after that there will be some of their kind employed by the dagonites as maintenance workers for which their contract guarantees them that they will be well paid. Kodyax was actually brought here so that the dagonite could try and subdue him and put him into one of the pods and thus leave the brain cylinders the mi-go had deposited in the one set of cells undiscovered for now.

A few of the soldier caste of the mi-go are here to provide additional security but there are more than one dagonite stationed here as there are more mi-go to supervise elsewhere as well as an exploration detail to map every room for later evaluation. They dare not access the internal computer matrix as this might trigger something and attract more attention to the site that wat they are comfortable with dealing with. When Kodyax approached in his saucer it was noted and the dagonite he is fighting now was dispatched to take care of him; the yithian disguise chosen so as to be able to directly converse with him without raising too much of a reaction.

Other dagonites are watching the fight as discreetly as they can manage in the hope of not arousing the kymera's suspicions anymore than absolutely necessary. None of them recognize Kodyax von Fenryx for who he really is or they might have chosen a different route to try and deal with him but since Kody rarely leaves anyone alive after he encounters the dagonites their ignorance is understandable. Although that said, the precision in which Kodyax is dispatching this operative of theirs is beginning to give them a clue as few enemy agents have been this effective in opposing them or caught on to a disguised operative as quickly as Kody figured out he wasn't dealing with a yithian but a cloaked dagonite.

The fact that dagonites rarely travel alone was considered by Kodyax from the moment he came to the conclusion that he was dealing with a dagonite and not a yithian which disturbs him as he manages to get in the last shot to fully eliminate his alien foe. As the smoking pile of viscera wafts its nauseating stench throughout the chamber Kodyax takes the time to put himself into a kind of trance in his sends his senses and general awareness out far and while to see what else he can detect.

Someone got the bright idea to cut the lights and plunge the whole facility into total darkness as a way of impeding the kymera's progress but this way of thinking on their parts is largely faulty as he brought the goggles with him for just such an emergency and if anything it only adds to his clarity as to what is around him. Besides which Kodyax is now utilizing a kind of supernatural sensory suite he has trained himself to unlock within his own mind to grant him extra uncanny awareness so as to locate his prey more easily and while it is difficult to initiate it is not impossible to accomplish as the view he gets of his surroundings is shocking to him in a manner most sinister. He becomes aware of the mi-go above him working on programming one of the pods in the manner in which the dagonites need them to be configured which only confirms one of his suspicion as we to what the dagonites wanted with the facility which only drives him to take action to ensure that does not happen, a resolve that has served him well in many situations both like and unlike the circumstances he now finds himself in.

While Kodyax is just fine with current lighting situation Cassandra and the drone are not as she tries to initiate filters on the camera to rectify the situation. This ultimately illuminates the drone in such a way that it becomes a target, one that is more readily available to aim at than Kodyax himself. The fact that it is broadcasting a signal somewhere is not lost on the dagonites either who are debating telepathically amongst themselves as to what to do about with some wanting to destroy the drone outright while others cautioning that doing so would only add to their suspicions.

Kody's goggles have targeting software programmed into them which he finds eminently useful as he aims is rifle carefully and takes a shot at one of the mi-go technicians directly above him. The mi-go he shot drops to the floor where is dazed and confused in addition to being fatally wounded but not quite dead as von Fenryx slams his weapon into the thing to finish it off with a satisfying crunch that is soft enough that only be audible to his ears. Above him the other mi-go is left to wonder as to the status of its fellow worker as Kodyax reloads a fresh clip into his weapon and prepares to shoot again.

"Kody," Cassandra asks in a fearfully annoyed tone of voice. "What is going on in there? The drone is having trouble focusing on whatever is there. All I'm getting are images of the pods and the occupants inside which making me more than a little weirded out."

Everything shuts off for Cassandra for a moment until Kodyax responds to her inquiry with: "Now is not a good time, Cassie, I murdered the one dagonite I found but I am sure there are more. Plus we have another mi-go infestation."

"Oh, that's just what we need." Cassandra grumbles. "I want to say it's fortunate that we have an exterminator already on site but I think that's rather redundant at this point." "It is at that," Kodyax agrees with a smirk. "Dammit!"

"What's wrong?" Cassandra asks with a worried tone.

"This gun doesn't have a spell amp," Kodyax gripes. "Otherwise I know an orison that will clear out the mi-go without my having to waste shots from the ammunition battery."

"What?!" Cassandra asks incredulously. "You still rely on magic in this day and age? Oh, wait you're a ranger, it's part of your training. Never mind."

"I have sentinel training too." Kodyax adds with a smirk. "Which is how I found the blighters. I can't be sure how many hostiles we have here but I know it's a lot."

"I know better than to doubt you, Kody," Cassandra concedes. "I know nature magic comes more easily and naturally than most others, psychic magic being the exception as that seems to be growing within peoples of the system in terms of number of users, but you're in the equivalent of a space station right? How does that work?" There is another disruption in service before Kodyax can respond, "Nature finds a way, Cassandra, life always finds a way and that is as much a part of nature as the storms Earth used to have before it and other planets in the inner system were destroyed in that war we had with the dagonites."

"Still are, Kody," Cassandra growls. "No peace accord has ever been reached with them. They want to subjugate us; not make peace with us. And what's with the communication disruptions? You're not using the drone for target practice again are you?" "It's not me, Cassie," Kodyax reports. "The mi-go want to play with the drone." "Of course those fungal gremlins want to interfere with our equipment." Cassandra sighs in an exasperated manner. And I can't see them because the buggers are too damn stealthy!"

"Getting worked up about it will solve nothing, Cassie." Kodyax states calmly. "Can you access the local grid from where you are?" "I think so," Cassandra relates. "I just need an access node to get started. But why are you so calm? I'm sitting at a command console while you're right in the thick of things."

"I'm a monster hunter in a station with an infestation of monster to kill." Kodyax returns with a dark chuckle. "The hunt is on, time to play. It's time for the Wilde Hunt!"

Cassandra stares at her screen in disbelief before smacking herself upside the head. Peacekeeper protocols are very clear about this sort of situation. The aliens are hostiles the people in the pods are hostages. Kodyax going into predator mode is considered appropriate and there's not a thing she can say or do to stop him.

Back at Central Command on Luna Cassandra has her head in her hands as a dwarfar male comes over to her. They are both wearing the same uniform with the stripes and star being gold as they are part of the administration division. Brom Blackstar absently minded grooms his orange beard as Cassandra tosses her purple haired head in frustration.

"What scallywag of a field agent are you watching now, Cassie?" Brom asks with a smirk on his face.

"Kodyax," Cassandra admits freely. "I don't know how the osolobo does it but he seems to have nose for trouble." "Where is he and why do you have him in predator mode?" Brom asks with some concern in his voice.

"Lovecraft asylum," Sandra answers simply. "It showed signs of being active." "Not supposed to be." Brom states. "What did he find?" "Plenty," Cassandra says with an exasperated sigh, "Dagonites, the mi-go and missing persons."

"Oh, that's not good," Brom speculates. "We have monsters and hostages in a place that is supposed to be abandoned and the troubleshooter on site is a monster hunter ranger. Are the cryo-sleep pods in use?" "That's where the hostages are." Cassandra reports.

"I see," Brom states with a worried tone of voice. "Do we have any suspect wagons near by?" "Checking proximity," Sandra states and sees one but shakes her head when she does. "Ratcatcher, just wonderful. Captain McDonald hates Marshal Fenryx."

"Doesn't he have an all moubit crew?" Brom asks to which Cassandra nods and sighs an exasperated sigh. "Donald McDonald, a moubit with a chip on his shoulder against every other subspecies of kymera that has a predator as one of its genome types." "But especially against Marshal von Fenryx because Kody has a nasty habit of making him look like a fool in critical situations like this." Cassandra adds ruefully.

"How large is his ship anyway?" Brom asks in all seriousness. "Is it large enough to handle this situation? Kody has a saucer which will fit a few people as it is sized for larger humanoids. Last I checked the Ratcatcher was mainly sized for moubits and they aren't that big."

"I know in McDonald's mind it's big enough." Cassandra says as she shakes his head. "Slightly larger than a patrol saucer which Kody has, one aperture large enough that an alfar could crawl through, we are human sized and he did find my sister." "I'd trust you sister with Kodyax rather than Sherlock if I were you." Brom states. "Moriarty is not the most mindful when it comes to other species and especially if they are human sized and larger. Calypso might get pregnant but that's the worst that would happen."

"Yeah, last I checked his ship was not exactly up to standard code." Cassandra admits. "I think it might be better if we didn't call him." "McDonald to central command, McDonald to central command, come in central command, over," A wheezy voice chirps in.

"I really don't want to talk to him." Cassandra grouses before pressing the button that confirms communication. "Central Command here, this is Cassandra Valkyrie, how may I help you?"

"You pinged me!" Donald screams back. "What's the emergency?"

"Hostage situation at the Lovecraft asylum," Cassandra states. "Marshal Kodyax von Fenryx is hunting monsters in order to ensure hostage safety. Can your ship safely accommodate humans?" "Of course it can! I always could!" McDonald yells back indignantly. "What; you don't think a ship made for bunny-mice like me can handle oversized humanoids?"

"Sondra, it looks like they have a warp gate," Kodyax chimes in. "I'm looking at it now. It's dagonite tech but it should still be good."

"WHAT!?! Don't tell me you're gonna let that osolobo horn in on this case!" Don yells indignantly.

"Captain McDonald!" Cassandra growls at full volume. "If I let you in on this case you will be taking orders from Marshal von Fenryx! If you cannot comply with that find someone else to pester!"

"I am the superior officer in every damn way that fucking counts!" Don screams before Cassandra cuts him off.

"Kody how many of those things have you bagged and how many more or left??" Cassandra asks.

"I've killed ten mi-go and five dagonites." Kodyax reports. "You want me to concentrate on the hostages?"

"Yes, I already know what that damn moubit is going to do." Cassandra orders. "You know how to do this sort of thing without causing too much collateral damage. How a kymera that small can do that much damage wherever he goes is beyond me."

"Overcompensating," is all Kodyax says before the line goes dead.

A mi-go engineer is jamming the signal as a dagonite alchemist is introducing a special poison into the absorption waters of the pods. Kodyax manages to kill it before it can infect many pods but there is a domino effect starting as the poison turns the life sustaining gel in a given pod into a hungry ooze monster that devours the occupant utterly in a manner of seconds. He manages to free Calypso with not much problem but out of the hundred or so captives that they started out with only sixty remain with that number dwindling fast.

The poison is a bioweapon the dagonites developed to terrorize communities into capitulating to their demands. It is also an unproven tool as the dagonites have yet to be able to actually use it. Kodyax is scrambling to free the hostages from their pods as that is the first priority since the victims are groggy and vomiting the gel that was sustaining them in the tubes but once the retching is over they are fully ambulatory and able to comprehend what is going on.

As Kodyax frees a fellow osolobo form one of the tubes the whole station shakes violently as the arrogantly smirking face of black fur with the melded features of a rat and a rabbit appears on a big screen overhead.

"Greetings, losers! It is I the great Donald McDonald, Captain of the Ratcatcher here to..."

"Fuck off, rat boy!" Kodyax yells at the screen. "You attacked the asylum with civilians inside. Why? Just to satisfy your inflated ego?"

"Kodyax?" Don McDonald says fearfully as he acknowledges the fact that Kody just yelled at him. "You are here? Why? You don't need to be here, I've come to save the day. This isn't fair!"

"This is my jurisdiction, bad rabbit!" Kodyax yells as he continues to get the hostages free. "I just lost some more hostages because the jostling from you attack allow the mix to contaminate the pods. This will be going into my report." "How dare you!" Donald screams. "Why can't just bow down to MY superiority!?"

"Egotistical much?" Calypso says as she walks back in. "Field Marshal Kodyax von Fenryx I presume?"

"Yeah, that's me, what's wrong?" Kodyax asks.

"A couple of the more techy minded of us managed to get an assembler fixed and their making a rocket to get out of this place." Calypso explains. "But there's not enough material to get everyone off this rock before the bad rabbit brings the place crashing around our ears. I managed to get in touch with my sister and she suggested I ride home with you."

"That's fine," Kodyax accedes as somebody hit the self-destruct sequence for the station. "Unless you had to cannibalize it for parts my saucer should be intact." "The saucer is your?" Calypso asks to which Kody just nods. "We saw the Peacekeeper markings and thought it might have been yours so we cleaned out everything else. We didn't want to touch the saucer because it was the only readily working craft in the hangar so if all else failed we'd be able to escape in there."

"Good thinking," Kodyax says before one of Moriarty's missiles starts a chain reaction that kills the rest of the hostages. "Well, looks that's it. I managed to save forty of you." He shakes his head ruefully. "No thanks to short sighted up there. But what did you make?" "Thirteen three person rocket sleds." Calypso answers honestly as they make their way back to the hanger. "It's not much but we can probably get to Luna with them at least. With a stops need to recharge the solar batteries but if bad rabbit keeps this up I really don't want to be around to see him collapse the place and make this shithole my tomb." Debris falls like deadly rain as Kodyax hurries Calypso onto his ship.

"Don't write him too soon, he seems determined to blow this place to smithereens." Kodyax warns when something massive jettisons out of nowhere to skewer Calypso. "I don't have time to figure out what that was." He quickly but carefully pulls out the rebar javelin impaling her. "Blessed healing waters of nature's bounty, flow into this woman so that she might still live through this dark hour of need."

Healing force flows through Kodyax and into Calypso as he drags her into his craft. She shivers from intense cold as if she were dying but eventually her breathing gets less and less labored as Kodyax guides the saucer out of the hangar and out into space. Limply she drapes herself over the chair Kody situated her in as monitors the controls to make sure they get out safely.

As they leave the artificial asteroid they are dimly aware of the fact there is another box like vessel pounding at the facility with missiles and heavy lasers. Without warning the engines of the Ratcatcher explode and eventually take the rest of the ship with it as the rocket sleds and the saucer speed their way away from the scene. Moments after McDonald's ship explodes in is fiery glory so too does the asylum.

Kodyax smirks as he looks over at Calypso and nearly drops his jaw in response to what he sees as her body starts to change. All the color beings to fade away from her as her hair starts to fall out indicating to von Fenryx that somehow she is now undergoing the metamorphosis to transform her body into that of a dagonite. He hangs his head in shame as he knows full well what he needs to but bringing himself to actually do the deed is a test of will as he summons up his courage.

Once the transformation into a dagonite has begun there is no known way of reversing the processing or even stopping it short of killing the infected. He is not surprised this is happening but he is extremely disappointed as this is the part of his job he absolutely hates performing. Among his effects for use on an uncharted world is a machete as he has found one or two places that contained a warp gate to a more tropical reality, a land he need to explore to make sure nothing untoward was hiding there before returning home to give his report.

Cassandra can feel a change as her psychic connection to her twin allows to share feelings and sometimes even conditions with the other. Her minds fills with images of Cthulhu and the same brainwashing that is ravaging Calypso's mind as she undergoes her transformation touches Cassandra's brain as well. Then as soon as these feelings and images start to creep unbidden into her psyche, the connect ends and a feeling of emptiness and loss starts to fill her up as it hollows her out which Cassandra has heard is what happens when one twin survives the death of the other.

"Cassandra Valkyrie calling Kodyax von Fenryx," Cassie's voice calls over the interspace radio that Kodyax hears and does not wish to respond to in light of what he just had to do. "Cassandra Valkyrie calling Kodyax von Fenryx, come in Kody, over." "Von Fenryx here," Kodyax returns reluctantly with melancholy coloring his voice. "Come in, Cassie." "What just happened," Cassandra demands to know. "One minute I am starting to get horrid visions of Cthulhu and whispers in my mind trying to get me to except that monster as my lord and savior. And then; nothing...you had to kill her didn't you?" "Before taking off she was skewered by a stray piece of rebar." Kodyax reports as part of giving his explanation. "I saved, I even cast a healing spell to make sure she did not die but then she started the process of turning into a dagonite."

"I don't blame you," Cassandra says in a tone meant to comfort as she knows he does not murder recklessly.

Even when he is hunting he tries to take out only the target he is after. But even so he has spent inordinate amounts of time in the illusionary suite to meditate and reflect on his actions and pray for atonement of those spirits he had to cut short.

He has his craft charter a course for Luna even as he does his best to clean up the body so that proper last rites can be performed. Cassandra renders a note to have a security detail on hand when the rocket sleds arrive even as she sets up a watch for when Kodyax arrives as she decides to do some recreational spelunking. She changes her mind when the proximity sensors of the base detect large beasts that look like giant toads without eyes but with a face of tentacles rather than any discernable feature.

As she makes her way to her apartment, Kody's saucer arrives in the hangar just ahead of the rocket sleds. Cassandra enters the craft to inspect her sister's body and confirms she beginning to turn into a dagonite as Kodyax had told her and that he took the right action no matter painful it is to see her sister's body so debased the consolation is that ultimately the osolobo saved not only Calypso but Cassandra as well as she has little doubt she would have been converted as well. She hugs him tightly and nuzzles his neck as security drones remove Calypso's body to do an autopsy on her.

Both Cassandra and Kodyax file their reports on what happened with Cassie adding her sighting of the moon beast which gets forwarded to Kodyax as hunting order. Once that is done the pair retire to Kodyax's not so modest suite as his work affords him somewhat more luxurious accommodations although some of these, such as the oversized bed and bathing facilities are better to accommodate his larger frame as osolobo are among the more larger subtypes of kymera and with him tipping the scales at four hundred sixty-five pounds with total height of six inches over nine feet with the general build one would expect of a professional warrior wanting some furnishing to be on a grander scale as those meant for a human domicile. They both get undressed before having a meal as a prelude to activities that are often engaged in by consenting adults that have a certain interest in one another.