Hephaestus

Hephaestus is the fifth serial of season five of Category War.

## Synopsis

While searching for the fifth piece of the Neach-Gledhidh Uine, the Resistance visits an infernal world and is attacked by being made of fire.

## Plot

### The Lava Monsters (1)

In the wastes surrounding the city of Ganstarnus on Gor, two lava miners - So and Rej - are attacked by a being made of fire and lava.

After the events of Ice Screams, Ank's TARDIS is fully healed from the damage it took in The Shoal. After piloting the TARDIS to the location of the next piece of the Neach-Gleidhidh Uine, Ankarstian grumbles about how many "ice planets" they've visited. After flinging the door open, Ank finds that the TARDIS has been brought to the volcanic interior of Gor - specifically on the coastline of a lava sea. Ank leaves while muttering about "surveying the planet".

Worried about Ank due to the torture and brainwashing she suffered at the hands of the Umbra, Poseidon sends Jerome to follow Ank. Jerome finds Ank dangling the poppet that the Umbra made of Ank over a small tidal pool of lava. Jerome stops Ank from tossing it into the pool and incinerating herself.

The duo then walks back to Ank's TARDIS. After Areex asks her what she found, Ank talks about a city she spotted in the distance (the city of Ganstarnus) and a native mining party she saw in the distance. Poseidon then sees something swimming in the lava sea. This something jumps out of the sea - revealing it to be a massive being made of fire - and attacks Ank.

### The Fifth Piece (2)

Almost immediately, Jerome beats off the lava creature after morphing into a being made of liquid nitrogen. Due to this quick timing, Ank is only left with a singed jacket and fur. Sitting in her hands is the fifth piece of the Neach-Gleidhidh Uine - which the creature had been holding. Areex attempts to convince Ank to put the piece with the other four and leave Gor for the sixth piece's location. It is at this moment that the lava mining party Ank had spotted earlier arrives.

The mining party - led by a Goran named Cuir - offers to bring the gathered Resistors to Ganstarnus so that Ank can get medical help for any burns she got. Ank accepts. The mining party - now with new company - enters their repulsorcraft and sets off for Ganstarnus. While they leave, Ank looks to the nearby lava sea as it ebbs and flows.

The repulsorcraft only takes a few minutes to reach Ganstarnus - a massive city of black stone towers sitting on a large atoll. Once inside of Ganstarnus, Ank almost immediately begins exploring the extremely impressive city - noting a thin layer of material that recycles the air within Ganstarnus. While wandering around, Ank grabs the fifth piece (safely tucked away within her pocket) and wonders if the lava creature that attacked her was made by the fifth piece. This thought is quickly dispelled as Ank looks at a massive red jewel displayed within Gor's treasure vaults. Ank vaguely recognizes the jewel as coming from outside of Mutters' Spiral. She can also see something resembling a massive snake or tendril made out of shadow coiling around the jewel. Ank ignores these thoughts as a Goran medic catches up to her and directs her to Ganstarnus' finest hospital.

Outside of Ganstarnus, the sea writhes as though it is a living thing as the shadow creature that Ank had spotted coalesces into a near-human being seemingly draped in darkness.

### The God of Darkness (3)

Sitting on one of the hospital's beds, Ank allows the Goran medic from earlier to attend to her mild burns. While this is happening, they discuss Gor's status as an emerging hub of interstellar commerce. Once Ank's burns are healed, the medic leaves. Ank begins to leave but is stopped briefly by an alarm activating. Ank takes out a pistol before running out of the room.

Around the same time, Poseidon and Areex are being shown around Ganstarnus by a tour guide. They briefly discuss the fire being that they encountered before Areex looks out of a window and sees that a lava tsunami is inbound for Ganstarnus. The tour guide is apathetic towards this as seismic activity is extremely common in Gor. The tsunami then hits - allowing another fire beast to smash through a nearby window. It attempts to attack the tour guide, however, Poseidon rips a nearby tapestry from the wall and throws it over the creature. He then uses the bar that the tapestry was hanging from to beat and smother the beast to death. Poseidon and Areex then take out their guns and ready themselves to defend Ganstarnus.

While running down the corridors of Ganstarnus, Ank very quickly manages to encounter one of the fire beasts. The fire beast spots her as well and blasts fire at her, however, Ank is able to duck into an adjacent corridor. Ank spots Poseidon and Areex running down another corridor and manages to catch up to them. Ank immediately asks where Jerome is. Poseidon points to further down the corridor - where Jerome has morphed into a five headed liquid nitrogen spitting creature to fight off several of the beasts at once. The beasts are very obviously losing against a creature that can counter anything that they do and as such decide to retreat. The trio stalks the retreating army as Jerome closely follows them - managing to kill a few before they reach their hiding place within Ganstarnus - the treasure vault. Inside, the beasts bow down before the humanoid figure - declaring them to be their god. One of the creatures (their leader) then begins arguing about the loss of the piece of the Neach-Gleidhidh Uine that they had found. While this is happening, the humanoid spots Poseidon, Areex, and Ank and glares at them - causing them to fall unconscious.

They wake up inside of the treasure vault. Jerome has also been captured and has been imprisoned within a device that stops him from morphing. The more humanoid Resistors are chained to the wall. The dark-clothed humanoid introduces himself as Dorcha Aon - the manifestation of the darkness that came before the beginning of everything in existence. Dorcha Aon also reveals the origins of the fire beasts - the Bathala. One of the Bathala then unchains Ank. Dorcha Aon demands the pieces of the Neach-Gleidhidh Uine. Ank begins laughing and reveals that they only have four pieces (not counting the one that they had just found) and that the four pieces are safely tucked away inside of her TARDIS. Dorcha then reveals that he has brought Ank's TARDIS into the treasure vault. Ank says that she will hand over the pieces of the Neach-Gleidhidh Uine and walks over to her TARDIS - throwing the doors open to reveal a blinding light. Dorcha covers his eyes while hissing and is then sucked up by a dimensional vortex. The Bathala attempt to attack Ank but are then swallowed by several large rifts. The rifts then close - leaving no trace of Dorcha Aon or the Bathala behind beside the massive red jewel that started this all - which was actually a Bathala escape pod that had been jettisoned off of a Bathala warship during an interstellar battle.

By this point, Jerome has escaped all on his own (as the device was built for Sloathes and not for the Hy-Phemm) and has morphed back to his normal form. He asks Ank where the dimensional rifts came from. Ank reveals that she used her TARDIS' dimensional rift generators to flush Dorcha Aon and the Bathala into random (hopefully uninhabited) dimensions. Ank grabs the Bathala escape pod with the hopes that she can dispose of it on some uninhabited world. The other Resistors then enter the TARDIS. A few Gorans stand around watching as the TARDIS then dematerializes.

## Cast

* Ankarstian - Lesley Dunlop
* Areex - John Scott Martin
* Poseidon - Chris Barrie
* Jerome - Edward Cooke
* Dorcha Aon - Anthony Calf
* Cuir - TBA
* Leader - TBA
* Kayz - TBA
* Vatz - TBA
* So - TBA
* Rej - TBA

rest to be added

## References

* Gor is an inhabited lava world in the Sagittarius sector - specifically on the border between the Sagittarius and Gardal sectors.

## Notes

* This was the first story to feature Dorcha Aon in a major role. He previously appeared in The Shoal.