04 - Dawn Arrives

<< Darkest Before the Dawn

Ages - Kurtherian Gambit - The Second Dark Ages

Michael, Akio, Yuko and the rest are searching for the pieces necessary to put together a craft which Michael hopes will take him to Bethany Anne. But first, there are idiots in his way, seeking the same parts and intend to take them. By force.The challenge is they will find out what ‘force’ truly means when they dare to go up against the Dark Messiah. One way or another, Michael will get back to Bethany Anne.

04/1 - 5 SACRED CLAN'S KURTHERIAN SPACE SHIP

Group plans on how to proceed. Will need Assembly factory, somewhere on outskirts of China. Will interview workers in Japan (best tech workers), export to facility. Akio and Michael to handle interviews (mind-reading), find two plants by enemies. Hire them. Eleven boxes to dig up by hand. Yuko, Eve, Akio, Jacqueline, Mark, Sabine. Raiden (tech person), Kuro (brains), Benjiro (field commander, troops) plan how to attack digging locations, acquire boxes found. (Old Emperor executed, Feng Cheng also. Kuro, et al, now new power.)Try to attack one, sensed (smelled by Jacqueline), so withdraw. Attack second one, all killed but get tracking device onto bottom of space container to track locations. Eve, Helicopter, Sabine (Jean Dukes), Yuko (swords), Jacqueline, Mark, thirty troops plus chopper. Will wait until all are dug up, then attack and take all.

04/7 - 11 Finally all eleven dug up, attackers will hit central location at nightfall, take all. TigerDragon NV name of hacker/tech (Raiden) on tracking of container. Eve finds, gives info to Michael, Akio. Eve identifiers address, three story building, two companies. Research facility on top (above ground). Illicit experiments going on below ground (nanocyte exploration-animals, weres, vampires used as tests. Few humans involved yet.) Raiden, Kuro try to hide. Raiden in building Michael headed for, will die. With Raiden dead (by Michael and Demon, the sentient mountain lion), and no communication from Kuro, Benjiro will try to attack central location, calling in all manpower he can find, to try to retrieve spaceship, successfully complete his mission. Yuko, Eve, et al land at abandoned airfield, final location for all sixteen boxes of ship. Make themselves comfortable, warm, Sabine on guard outside. Hungry, so Mark and Jacqueline take Pod to go find some food. Several hours later a black-ops stealth chopper flew into the vicinity, depositing a number of dark figures. Started hiking toward airfield. Orochi at Sacred Clan center, in town. Doesn’t know whether to try to fulfill tasks, or to live to fight another day. Cut off the root, the vine would die. Cut off the vine, the root can grow again. He nodded sharply to himself. As the root, he needed to stay safe. Hears security alert in building, takes sword, goes to investigate. Has eighty-eight guards to protect him. Will fight intruders. Michael and Akio kill first 88, find more in next building, with guns. Go to attack. Kill all. Michael asks Eve to notify local Police to come, clean up the mess, go on to kill the 200 at the abandoned airfield, location of the hidden spaceship. Yuko, Eve, and Sabine stay inside and let them do it. When men showered and clean, Eve receives request for communication from Chinese Military. Why am I not surprised?” “That you have dishonored our sovereignty and attacked our people?” asked Longwei, a Chinese official, accusing them of the attacks in the city which Michael and Akio had done. “I offer you and those with you the chance to walk out of our sovereign land, taking only that which is on your back and leaving all else…” Suddenly, all went silent, monitor’s black. Then, a one-way communication was sent to all broadcasting facilities in the world. A new face appeared on the screen—a Caucasian face, and American. Bethany Anne’s return puts a hold on these activities for a while.

04/11 BETHANY ANNE ANNOUNCES RETURN TO EARTH ! !

“Hello,” she started, her eyes staring through the screen as if she were peering into his soul and his brain. “I am Bethany Anne Nacht. My ships will be arriving in approximately four days. Your telescopes will start to see the evidence of our armada shortly. I am providing this video on known government frequencies to allow you a chance to minimize the frenzy a space fleet might cause over Earth. You have been notified. If you happen to have my love in anything less than the best shape, I will rip your country apart and bury you under it.” She smiled happily. “Otherwise, have a good day!” Communication was restored to all channels. Spaceships were seen and discusses, Michael named and shown as her “her love”, Yuko, etc., reassured they would be safe, to not move! One hundred hours later, this message appeared over the world: “My name is Bethany Anne Nacht, and I was at one time the leader of TQB Enterprises. I have come back to Earth to set up a planetary orbital defense system. We call it the ‘BYPS system.’” “I am going to arrive over your country in twenty-four hours. Well, I and some of my ships. We are going to meet with our people who are in your country, and then around the world. We are not here to attack you, so do not attack us.” Her eyes flared red. “If we are attacked, be aware I will rain fire and destruction on those who attack us, the likes of which have not been seen in the history of our planet.” Her lips pressed together. “While I care about your safety, do not expect my concern to supersede my responsibility to my people. If you attack, you will be destroyed.” She leaned back in her chair and smiled. “Michael, I am back.”

Who was Bethany Anne? Who was Michael? A new religion was started. Their deity’s eyes flared red when she was angry. She had tried to protect the Earth, but those on Earth had killed each other. Now she was back to offer protection. Perhaps this time she would do something for her people, or was the Matriarch too displeased with humanity to care? ADAM sent protection to watch over the hangar. The raiden (Raijin, also called Raiden, a god of thunder and lightning in Japanese mythology) landed, and twelve guards descended, as Kiel and Kael-ven (Yollins) discussed how good it was to be back on Earth, protecting the Queen Bitch’s property. Michael and his group moved, in their Pods, to a safe house outside of Tokyo, to be ready for her arrival.

04/6 - 10 NANOCYTE LABS

Michael, Akio visit building, find little wrong above floors, explore bottom floors. Raiden, in room on first level down, is brains of nanocyte studies (DNA trails, manipulations). Had different code bases. Raiden had named the bases with easily remembered names – Vampire base = TQB. W for weres, and C for cats, or Sacred Clan. Maybe Russian bears, but he couldn’t get any info on them. Clan members were too close – he worked with some of them – so he hadn’t even used any of the “animals” they had turned for him. For the cats, he mainly used a mountain lion he had gotten from North America. Eighty pounds, had injected her with last of his vampire stock two nights before. Wouldn’t mix were and vamp nanocytes. A voice promised him he would be back for him in the morning. Third level down, cages. Animals, 7 humans, six male, one female. Knowing he would attack, Michael locked door between second and third levels, breaking off knob as well. Four men, two lab tech (Isami – arc-rod, Goro-choke collar)s, two security guards (Choki, Zan –submachine guns), were approaching female, Tanith’s, cage. Would shock her, incapacitate her, tie her up, do experiments. Last injections had stopped her transformations, but left her all of her Wechselbalg enhancements. Touched shock rod to cage, electrocuting her mildly, then, when chokehold firm, on her body, torturing her on purpose. spasms, pain) Michael introduced himself, killed two guards, pushed third one, Goro, into cage so that Tanith could kill him. She did. Freed of cage, she helped Michael, going to Gaku and Shiang’s cage, while Michael gave them shot to bring them up to full consciousness. Michael pushed energy into their bodies, to help them, reading minds. Tanith didn’t trust him, wanted to ditch him. Michael planned to burn down the labs. As fire was starting, another voice was heard, the mountain lion, in a glass cage at the back of the lab. Michael rescued her, also. Michael took Demon up to Raiden’s office, let Demon kill him, left three Wechselbalg in area, and one programmer (mind-wiped). 03/8 Killed all other security guards. Took Demon with him to go in Pod with Akio. Michael has a pet! Demon dropped off at one of Akio’s safe houses.

04/12, 13 BETHANY ANNE'S RETURN TO EARTH

Michael, Akio watch as first ships become apparent. Two groups in Park, one watching Pod coming down, the other watching welcoming party of 6 watching Pod coming down. Bethany Anne and Ashur appear ten feet above ground. ‘She had on boots, black leather pants, and a black blouse over a skintight shirt of some alien substance, and she wore a gold necklace. She and the dog floated the few feet to the ground and started walking toward the six (Michael, Yuko, Akio, Jacqueline, Mark, Eve). The man in the cowboy hat strode ahead of the others, his eyes for her alone.’ Michael and Bethany Anne met, kissed. Bethany Anne tries to slap him for dying. Michael gets angry, two begin to appear/disappear into Etheric, fighting, cursing, yelling. Other group still watching Pod approach landing/welcoming area (John, Eric, Darryl, Gabrielle, Scott and a few others) Akio to welcome them.

04/14 Two groups meet while Michael and Bethany Anne fight, begin to make bets on how many times they will appear. Lots of discussion, Gabrielle wins, with guess of 21 times, the fewest number. (20 or 21?) Guards learn that Jacqueline, Mark are Michael’s wards, a legacy from Gerry, Jacqueline’s Dad, who had survived on Earth long enough for Michael to come back and assume protection/guidance for them. Bethany Anne and Michael stay in Etheric for a while, talk. Michael, in Myst form when bomb exploded, was blown into Etheric as molecules. Took him ages to reconstitute, probably not before she had left Earth. That’s why she could never find him there. He wasn’t solid. When they come out, the other had left to up to ArchAngel II. Shinigami picked up Bethany Anne and Michael. Jacqueline, Mark, Akio talk with ArchAngel until they get there, see Yollins and Leath as they disembark. Met by Gabrielle.

04/15 GERRY, CAIRN RETRIEVED Giles meets Yuko, Eve, Jacqueline, Mark, Akio. Is to go down to Earth with them, as well as Barnabas. They go to Old Denver, to retrieve Gerry’s remains. Take four ships, meet current pack, are shown respect. Ships lift cairn, rocks, dirt, all, to take to ArchAngel, for burial and disposal. Were pack will be supplied with necessities, as a thank you.

04/17 ON A DATE Michael takes Bethany Anne out on a date (bring your guns), to dispatch Kuro, Chinese who had headed the activity trying to get the spaceship. 13 dead later, they go upstairs to finish up their date.

04/18, 19 GILES SIGHTSEEING IN JAPAN Eve and Yuko take Giles on sight-seeing tour of Japan. He wants to see the Senate (one of the “best” places), now wants to see a “worst place”, the Golden Gai, then another bar, with lots of “animals”, black-lights, etc. Giles gets VERY drunk, talking about Dieties, the Patriarch, and other things he shouldn’t have, endangering the image they want to project, and their operation. Just too big a mouth. Eve brings him home, as Yuko has gone off to see Inspector Hirano, her love.

04/20 Bethany Anne and group decide to not stay on Earth too long- will only complicate matters, bring back old behaviors. . Bethany Anne huffed in annoyance. “Ok, let’s get our people, make sure we have finished all the tasks we have to do, and get the fuck off this planet. We aren’t helping it by being here.” Retrieve people in Japan, contact Terry Henry Walton. Meet Dokken.

04/16 GILES AND THE KURTHERIAN SHIP

Giles is taken to the location of the sixteen crates, starts to open, examine them. Yuko, Eve, Giles, Barnabas there, no others. Chinese soldiers approaching. Barnabas (Jean Duke’s specials), Eve (Artillery for aircraft), Yuko (swords) created a symphony of destruction. Barnabas ENJOYED the killing, as she was starting to, since Michael had returned. Sabine joins them, and they repack all of the crates, Barnabas talks to Giles, reminds him that he still had a piece of the ship with him, and that when Michael found out about it … Giles reported it as borrowed for further study.

04/20, 21 GILES ON AN EXPEDITION

In searching the continent for traces of the civilization his father had talked about, and the glories of the country, Giles comes across a wasteland, and then a group of people traveling across it. Surveying the group, he found them living in tents, with mats, no shoes, little food or clothing, decides to help. Dwayne, their leader (youngish, blue eyes, white hair from the sun, tanned, wrinkled skin), shows him the camp. Looking for a place with water, to make a camp, and settle down, grow food, survive. Giles take Bernie, one of the men, to look around, find closest area. Find a good place, Giles starts transporting by Pod, automatically, to help them get there. Four Pods show up, help in the rescue mission. Mission accomplished, Giles reinforces need for good leader to any group. Last to board ships going back. Guards play joke on him, make him think he will be left with the new colony, then pick him up. He’s now “one of the gang”. Bethany Anne compliments him on his saving activities, reminds him to report the “borrowed” artifact to Lance, tells him he will get an upgraded enhancement so that he can handle alcohol, and leaves.

04/22 FREEING THE QUEEN'S ELITES

Will need battleship War Axe, (heavy lifting capabilities) to rescue Elite, complete project. Was upset with Earth’s attitudes to date, so raced through atmosphere at 30+ Machs. The War Axe approached the Pod hovering a half-mile above the collapsed building Akio had protected for the past hundred and fifty years. Eight stories under some hundred-thousand tons of rubble, six Elite warriors awakened from the deep sleep which had helped slow their aging. They had been buried inadvertently back when chaos ruled the world (An earthquake had dropped a building on them right after WWDE). They had almost failed in their rescue. But Akio had found help. Former Marine Terry Henry Walton and his werewolf partner-wife Charumati had joined forces with the Queen’s Bitch to drag humanity back to civilization, a hundred and fifty-plus-year effort. The Defender-series destroyer had the Etheric Empire’s latest traction to tractor-beam technology. Using all the power available to it, the ship latched onto the building and picked it up en masse. Akio’s Pod, swooped above the hole and stopped in mid-air, then dropped. A hundred feet down the Pod settled, and the rear ramp dropped. Six vampires were waiting. Their clothes were old, largely just rags after more than a hundred and fifty years. Akio stepped out and bowed deeply to his fellows.

04/22, 23 TERRY HENRY WALTON

Terry Henry Walton TH to his friends, stood tall and proud, his black Force de Guerre uniform crisp. waiting with his “pack”, all of the people who had helped maintain civilization during the 150 years - His werewolf wife Charumati (who was worried that so much energy was being drawn from the Etheric), Joseph and his wife Petricia (two Forsaken, who refused to drink human blood), were tigers (Aaron and Yanmei), Felicity ,enhanced, holding the hand of her werewolf husband Ted, and their daughter Marcie (nanocytes from Felicity), Kimber and her brother Kae (TH and Char’s adopted children), Charumati’s pack (Sue, Timmons, Shonna, and Merrit and their mates). All waited as a ship landed, and Akio walked out, joined by six other vampires, the Queen’s Elite, who had just been recently released from their entombment. The Elite create a corridor through which Bethany Anne and Michael pass. TH stepped towards them “Empress? “Cut the ‘Empress’ bullshit, Terry. I remember you from the Antarctica operation.” “Would you stop imitating a police academy cadet review?” She gestured them forward. “Come up here, and let’s talk like folks who have kicked some ass and now are going to get a little well-deserved R and R.” “I wanted to meet you personally and thank you for everything you’ve done, both in my name and on your own to help make the world a better place. Akio said he could not have chosen better—even if he’d had a choice.” “And now you have some choices, one of which is to take the rest you deserve. God knows you deserve it, and it’s yours if that is what you want.” “I want to invite you to take the War Axe through the Annex Gate and join my father, Lance Reynolds, in securing and expanding the brand new Etheric Federation, to work with Bad Company and export your brand of justice to the whole fucking universe?” “Come home to the stars. Come home to the Etheric Federation.” She looked at the group. “All of you.” Dokken bounces out of the ship, runs toward the group, goes to Terry. An immediate match.

04/24 PICKING UP VALERIE

Valerie, her partner Robin, Sandra, her friend, Sandra’s husband Diego and their baby Valerie, named after her, meet Michael on a street in New York. Michael invites Valerie and Robin to join them on the ship. It’s time.

04/25 YUKO'S HAPPINESS

Thanks to Eve’s continual nagging, Yuko is seeing Hirano before she leaves – result of visit unknown. “I wanted to see you before we go.” “So you’re leaving?” “It’s my duty. My life is out there...with my people.” “So you just came to say good-bye.” “Well, no. It depends.” “It’s like... Well, I made a mistake, Hirano.” “Now we’re leaving in a few hours and it’s the last chance I have to see you and I wanted to ask... Do you want to come with us? I mean, with me specifically?” “Yuko, of course I do. I just wish you hadn’t left me hanging all this time.” “I feel awful, pulling you away from your life.”He wrapped his arms around her. “I am blessed to have some good friends, but the one thing I’ve learned so far in my very short life is that the only constant is change. I’m excited to move on to the next chapter.” Somewhere in the world dawn had arrived. Not just physically, but in her heart as well.

04/25 ON DEVON

Kiel and Kael-ven “… are both ready to live a sedately dangerous life.” Talking with Michael, Eric, Scott, Darryl, about future activities. Bethany Anne walks in. Something different about her? YES! She’s pregnant. She and Michael talk a bit, both are immensely pleased, with all of the family they have and will develop, and their future activities. Together they turned toward the guys and walked over, ready to go down to the planet they would call home for a while.

                           Then they would continue the search for the Kurtherians.
                                                      Together.