The Avatar

Chapter 1

High Admiral unit111 was an imposing creature, about 7’ 5” he was taller than any human, but this height was very un-natural, it is what happens when one spends too much time in the abyss as unit111 had. unit111 stood on strong legs which were a bit muscular. He had three fingers on each hand which were attached to arms that came down from the shoulders. Below the neck unit111 was like a human, with some differences, of course. His neck was long and curved forwards about two thirds along its length. His neck ended in a bone plated point, these bone plates covered the mouth and out from small drill holes in the top bone plate came wires hooked to unit111s brain which attached to small viewing cameras which were fitted into his helmet. His helmet covered his head and part of his neck. He had mechanical gauntlets on which armoured and protected his delicate fingers and hands. He armoured boots as well, he wore a special, close fitting jacket made of a soft but strong fabric made from Retnuh hide which was not common at all. unit111 was said to have been created by his old and trusted friend, miiheiwa when he attempted to create a familiar to serve him. unit111 fled and was drawn to the abyss where he found a large group of people known simply as the DAC, they worshipped and controlled the abyss and they were evil. They took unit111 in where he met two other friends, known only as the Destroyer (or Doomsoul) and the Protector (or Nidking who was king of a tyrannical bug race known simply as the Nids). The Protector being a scientist as well did experiments on the large cat form which was unit111’s original form. He managed to reorder unit111’s body into the form it is now. unit111 then drew miiheiwa to the DAC who helped him bring their other friend, Lord of a mighty warrior nation (the Zigorus humanoid carnivores who are about 7’ tall) Zigzagas. For a time, unit111 plied his trade as a fighter pilot for the tiny DAC navy but in time the Destroyer realised his skill and promoted him to squadron commander, he became the leader of Chaos squadron. unit111 used his connections with a half mechanical race that were skilled engineers and they made many ships for the DAC which were far better than the old rusted ones the DAC had been using previously. But then, those known simply as the Enemy came and they laid siege to the magnificent DAC city of Abyliss where they had moved when the Enemy had attacked their old home far away. What followed was the infamous ‘Siege of Abyliss’ which killed off many of the DACs elite and commoners but that is another tale for another time. After the siege, the veteran unit111 helped the shattered remnants make it to the outer-rim under the leadership of their new leader, the Destroyer. In the outer-rim, the new DAC home world known as Haven was built and the DAC began the long way to recovery. For his actions and due to the fact that there was no longer enough members of the elite to run the navy the office of High Admiral was given to unit111 effectively giving him complete control of the DAC navies. unit111 had now become a powerful figure but there were still those leaders who had given him freedom and so he followed their orders, almost totally to the letter unless he thought there might be a better way to enact those orders... This is a tale about unit111 and about his friend miiheiwa and about one ship... The Avatar...

unit111 hated the job of High Admiral, he had to have a flagship all though the huge Haljorun was more than enough it was just, too big to do anything with it other than sit there watching. The other reason he hated it was the fact he had to force people to follow orders and work on details and examining reports for him when he delegated authority, not being an elite made doing vast amounts of work meant to be done by an elite very difficult. He got by however, his skill, his plans and his knowledge helped him plan out the fleets and how to organise them as a single unit instead of just an uncontrollable horde. unit111 liked to inspect all the new ships that joined his fleet and today was one of those days. A Dailcoh’ran cruiser had arrived to be used by the DAC. Their new TX class cruisers were absolutely amazing and he had managed to obtain two. One for another fleet and one for his own fleet. The size of the cruiser was stunning, as big as a warship yet did everything like a cruiser, it was a beauty. “Sir.” One of his engineers he had taken with him to inspect the ship came up to him on the very long balcony overlooking the shipyards where the cruiser was. “We have investigated the ship on your orders and she is ready to go, top class condition I should say. Will you name here?” The engineer went on to tell him.
“The Avatar. I like that name. What are the orders from high command on Haven?” unit111 replied
“Ummm... Well sir we have been sent orders to begin an investigation in the Yurlio belt to find out what is there and see if we can see any sentient life.”
“The belt is dead, we trawled the place with drones searching for sentient life. Ah well, something to do I guess. What is our diplomatic position with the DMC?”
“I think on neutral but we barely communicate and we don’t get much news here.”
“Optar is a good world, an outpost we may be but we do our bit. Well, I think I will take the Avatar out there to search the belt. Send a transmission to miiheiwa, tell him to get his behind over here. Use the word adventures as many times as possible in the transmission.”
“ Yes sir.” The engineer turned and started to walk off towards the lift, half a mile away down the balcony.
“Oh, and send a transmission to Duck as well, he might want to do something. Find my second and tell him to get the best crew members that work very well together from the Haljorun and send them down here, I also will need some people to work in our base out there.” unit111 called after the engineer. He turned, under his helmet he grinned, adventure at last. Who knows what we will find out there...

unit111 stood in the control room before the command terminal, hands on the command link pads. Before him, as well as the screen of glass and force fields that showed the area in front of the ship, was a large green projector, it showed the planet Optar and on it was a red zone which was zoomed in to show the general area of the Avatar.

Behind the admiral on his left stood miiheiwa. He was a shadow beast, ever since he had made a mistake with a teleporter he had looked like a patch of darkness with empty white eyes. He hardly talked about the teleporter incident but following him were usually three small shadow beasts. The strange thing about shadow beasts was they could change their shape, as could miiheiwa. He wore white armour trimmed with gold and held a chain-sword-spear weapon when in battle regalia. Today, he had left his weapon and the shadow beasts in his private quarters. miiheiwa was quiet and short, about 5’8” tall. He was the weapons commander, he operated all the unmanned weapon systems and turrets, he also had command over the manned turrets few though they were.

Duck was in his quarters, he was a large, dark bug creature lord of the Shadow Crawlers. Shadow Crawlers were an enlarged insect that looked something like a cross between a beetle and an ant. Duck’s private quarters looked like the interior of an insect hive, that is to say, organic egg sacks on the walls which were curved and underground chamber like, there were mounds around the place and some indents in the wall, for his small number of hive children to sleep in. In the hold, was a large store of assorted meat just for Duck and his specialised diet. Duck was happy, “Adventure at last!” he thought. “ My children will be able to see much more than the inside of our Hive on PKT-912. Our hive is nice, the DAC will keep it in a habitable condition for us and when we return, a big party with lots of live flesh to eat... maybe some pirates, I liked the pirates they sent me as a hive anniversary present.” Duck was almost slavering at the last sentence. His small, Hive children were sleeping in their indents, sleeping peacefully, most likely dreaming of live flesh, quivering. Young ones are like that, they will dream of the strangest things, especially young Shadow Crawlers.

In the ships chapel, three monks were deep in prayer, three grey clad monks. Monks of Nord, the demon raised by the DAC from another plain of existence to do their bidding. Nord was an 8” tall demon, having to stoop so he could walk normally in the cramped corridors of the Avatar. Little is known about Nord. In time he may reveal more of his personality, but not at the moment.

“You have clearance for lift off Admiral. The sky is clear for this momentous day on Optar. Good luck and abyssal speed.” The radio transmitter emitted across the dark bridge of the Avatar.
“Power up atmospheric thrusters. Send a message to the engine command, tell them to get the engines thrumming.” Admiral unit111 commanded. Today would be a good day, he could feel it as the ship roared into life. Through the bridge viewing window he could see the tell tale shimmering of force fields being activated, most likely sound dampeners to quieten the sounds of the engines.
“Atmosssphheric Thrussstersss online Admiral. Upon your command.” One of the bridge crew said in the typical hissing and rasping voice of their species.
“ Fire up and get us into space! Activate artificial gravity. Activate all hanger shields and close all blast doors and airlocks.” unit111 commanded
Under his command the ship rose quickly and magnificently into space where the sounds from outside disappeared from the dark rooms and corridors of the Avatar. The Avatar had dark rooms and corridors because the creatures of the DAC that served aboard the ship were used to and preferred those light levels.
“miiheiwa old friend, it looks like we are off on another adventure.” unit111 said turning to his friend. “Broadcast the message we are in space to the ship.”
“Yesss sssir.”
“Take us to the edge of the solar system helmsmen then prepare for jump on my order.”
“Aye sssir!”

Cmon man, I need you to continue this.