Thread: An Eclipse of Corruption (Vuxayl x Cricket)

The winds howled at Xayun while he walked the surface of a barren planet, his ears ringing with high-pitched noises. In the distance there was a large silhouette of a pyramid, and a figure waited for him at the entrance. When he arrived she greeted him, her metallic plates gleaming under the soft light that bathed the planet's surface. I've been waiting for you for so long, Karilel said with a smile, grabbing his hand and leading him inside. Pinned to the walls and ceiling in all manner of positions were thousands of bleeding corpses, their entrails hanging down and wetting the floor with blood. Their severed limbs were rotting away on the ground, and those who still had faces were smiling. Isn't it beautiful? she said, contemplating them. I want to be beautiful too. Let's be beautiful together. Xayun grabbed his plasma rifle in terror, and when she started walking towards him he shot her in the chest, making a clean hole. Karilel looked at him with a disappointed expression, blood starting to drip down from her mouth and eyes. The other corpses started coming to life, climbing down from the walls. Xayun... I know you want it too... she said, her metal starting to rot away. Xayun woke up in panic and grasping for air, spreading his arms and legs on the bed like he was trying to hold on to something. When he realized he was still in bed, he calmed down and sighed, looking at the ceiling. Another one of those nightmares. His sheets were pretty much scraps of fabric, his talons ripping through them during his troubled sleep. He had already replaced the sheets four or five times, but they always ended up shredded from his night terrors to the point he was starting to not give a damn about the state of his bed. After catching his breath, he got dressed in a hurry, left his apartment and headed out to the downtown pub. In the Space Cadet Bar, Xayun was refreshing his PDA feed over and over, waiting for a reply to his application. He wasn't usually this excited, his drink and chunk of meat still pretty much intact on his table as he swiped his fingers on the screen every ten minutes or so. He hoped it would finally take her, the lost crew and the dreadful planet out of his mind, ending his nightmares and torment. Once the little reply notification sign popped up, Xayun jumped in his chair like an excited child, opening the new message and skimming through it as fast as he could. Denied it said. Xayun's excitement was replaced with anger and disappointment, and he threw the PDA onto the coffee table. Damn them he muttered to himself. A brief feeling of dread swept through his mind, thinking that somehow -she- was in charge of it and that she was responsible for denying his application. Ho ho no, not her! he chuckled nervously, remembering the animosity that sparked between them so long ago. But the odds were slim, and someone like her would surely prefer a more... boastful mission, he though. A moody Xayun ruminated over the denied mission, and how could he somehow force himself into it. He wasn't going to acquiesce so easily. Suddenly, his mood seemed to brighten up, and he rushed down to the counter where a dirty bartender was working. Hey there Bill, how's tricks?... look, think you can send a crate of warm Astar beer and some hot margaritas down to my ship? Fast, I got'ta fly soon. he said to to him in a nonchalant way. The bartender raised on eyebrow at him, laughed and then brought his attention back to the glass he was trying to clean. You're a funny man, Xay. How about you pay that last shipment you ordered, and maybe then I'll consider it, yeah. Xayun fiddled with his pockets and placed a small golden rectangle on the bar counter, fixated on the bartender. ... If you do it in the hour, you can keep the change. he said with his fingers over the rectangle, pushing it towards Bill. The bartender's eyes widened for a bit, looking at the small credit card and then at Xayun. Oh, why didn't you say so! My pleasure to deliver only the best to my patrons. I'll have them sent to you right away. the bartender said with a grin. Xayun chuckled, leaving the credit card on the counter. You look like crap, mate the bartender added, jesting at him. You tell me that every day... and so do you Xayun said back, heading outside to where his ship was parked. After a couple of minutes two crates got delivered to his ship, which he stored in the trunk. Xayun peeked inside them, checking the contents over two cylinders of hyperjump fuel, four high-explosive packs. Good quality stuff, he noted. He connected the cylinders to his ship and jumped inside, sitting in the pilot's seat and browsing around in his PDA. Right, what is their flight course he mumbled, reading the classified documentation for the denied mission. Yes, there it is. Hmm, well... time to give them a surprise. He inputted the coordinates onto the flight computer, making sure he would be following them from a safe distance, and took off from the starport.