#you put a (seemingly) very tall woman with a big ass weapon and armor in this game and im fuckign locked IN

[cynical-cemeteries]

minor spoilers for war of the tyrants: book of truth | chapter 13 (ending)

more ahilam pics but of her ult 😋😋 she’s so cool……

[viciousalicious-blog]

((Just a Paragon fanfic. RIP Paragon. Here’s to hoping someone can bring it back! Art done by @sai_drawing. Not done for this story just needed something to headline))

Personal Log

Date 40241.34. I’ve reached the surface of Aozuno in the Oren system. Gravity is reading at .332g. Day cycles last 10.37 hours. The years are 504 days. Three moons give a close orbit which has thankfully made the nights much easier to navigate. Temperatures are ranging from 277.594K to a minimum of 247.039. Compared to Modas, this is paradise. Nothing a cup of hot chocolate won’t fix. I’m going to begin cataloguing the local flora for the next few days before moving onto any sizeable organisms. From what I can see, the flora here consists almost exclusively of trees and bushes. I haven’t seen any flowers, or grass. Although there is some bioluminescent fungi growing on the trees. I’m surprised anything grows out of the snow here, I haven’t seen a single patch of dirt since I’ve landed here. On another note, I did find an interesting tree that looks like the hispid olive tree back on Galigas Prime. I haven’t made a complete analysis yet, but there’s a possibility of a match. If so… well that’s another mystery to solve. How did a species get half way across the galaxy? Who knows? It’s all very exciting. I’m going to go and set up my survey gear for the research competition. I think I’m doing pretty well for being behind schedule. I haven’t detected any other ships yet.

End Log

Four Days Later...

As the three bright moons lit up the night on Aozuno, Dekker was aboard her sleek yet functional starship and working diligently in her laboratory. She was surrounded by white walls, glossy metal floors and a host of light blue lights and screen panels that kept the room well lit. She was still dressed in her arctic expedition uniform after having recently come from outside. Despite that her suit was still lightly powdered in snow with small sheets of ice cracking and falling from her shoulders, it didn’t slow her down in her work. She held up a small cubicle glass container to the light as she observed the small fungus sample she had taken earlier. With a proud grin she placed the container down alongside several other similar containers, each with its own unique sample.

“Hey, ARIN.” Dekker said, seemingly to herself.

There was a very gentle chime over the ship's intercom before a very human and articulate male voice answered. “Yes ma’am? What can I help you with?”

Dekker began typing into a holographic display, the blue light of the screen brightly flashing across her face. “I need youuu… to….” Dekker trailed off as she continued to type a few more entries.

“Ma’am?” ARIN called out.

“One second…” Dekker’s once focused face turned almost blank as her fingers continued typing. With a quick sniffle, Dekker’s focus returned. “Right.” She stepped back, putting her hands on her hips. “Check the log I just made. I need you to run a second analysis on the samples I brought in and then send it back to the institute.”

Dekker could almost feel ARIN’s digital nod in the silence before he asked, “Is that all, ma’am?”

“Yep!” Dekker smiled. “Hey, what’s the status on the ship we detected earlier?”

There was a slight pause as ARIN processed the information. “Starclass: Corvette. Manufacturer Sentinel Industries. Maximum crew, 10. ID#VHC0079112-LM393. Registered name, Horseman.”

Dekker’s eye twitched ever so slightly at the ship’s name. “Alex.” She muttered. “Where is it now?”

“The ship has landed only two kilometers away, ma’am. Shall I initialize the self-defense system?”

Dekker stifled a laugh. “Oh, that won’t be necessary. Captain Boffrand isn’t a threat to anyone but himself.” Dekker headed to the ship’s cargo bay where a ramp exiting the ship automatically lowered for her to the outside. “I’m going to finish setting up a few things, ARIN. Notify me if anything changes, okay?”

“Will do, ma’am. Stay safe.” ARIN replied as Dekker exited the ship and stepped onto the crunchy snow. The sharp cold braced against her face as the lift to her ship closed behind her. It was only a minute before Dekker’s breathing became laboured. The air on Aozuno was habitable, but very thin. It would take weeks before anyone could be used to breathing on the surface. Dekker was prepared, however. She reached to her belt where she took a small plastic mask and placed it atop her nose and mouth. A small tube ran from her mask to her back as she pulled the strap over her hair bun. She took one long breath, the oxygen hissing through the artificial respiratory system.

Just outside of her ship was a small camp with metal and white crates that matched the ships aesthetic, along with other odd devices that were unidentifiable except to those who knew what they were for. They blinked with lights, and some made a soft hum. Dekker effortlessly went by each one, checking their holographic displays for various readings that took careful note of. Surrounding her ship, encampment and the small clearing of untouched snow was a black forest with a host of tall, but cluttered trees and bushes. Thanks to the generous amount of snow and glowing fungi, it was easy to peer into the woods and see how far it went. That didn’t make it more welcoming in appearance though. Dekker had already looked anxious to go back into the forests for more exploration, despite the variety of strange sounds she heard along the way.

After a few hours of walking about outside in the frosty woods of Aozuno, Dekker returned back to her encampment with a few more samples she began placing in the crates she had outside. It wasn’t long before she heard some gunfire in the distance, and then distant chatter minutes later. Dekker let out another sigh in her mask as she braced for what was about to come. Out of the forest came three men, all appropriately, if not overly dressed in spacesuits. They seemed more suited for military action than expedition as they were more bulky, armored and had magnetic slots for an array of weapons. Thankfully these men only carried rifles. It was impossible to see their faces through the mirrored visor of the helmets, but as they approached Dekker the mirrored visors became clear.

“Interesting spot to land, Dekker.” Said one of the men who stood in front as their leader. His voice came through the suit’s speaker. “There were better clearings a few klicks from here.”

Dekker brushed her blue-dyed streak of hair behind her ear. “Alex.” She acknowledged. “Fancy meeting you here.” She said with almost forced sarcasm.

“Didn’t think we’d find your crazy ass on this side of the system. The hell brings you out on Aozuno?” Alex asked. Dekker ignored him as she continued fiddling with her equipment. “Wait… don’t tell me. You’re not here for the competition are you?” The men with Alex laughed.

“You know why I’m here, Alex.” Dekker said as she never looked away from her work. “Don’t act like you haven’t been tailing me this whole time. I had to go behind schedule just to lose you in the Droz system. Funny, I don’t remember you being this clingy.”

Alex crossed his arms. “We almost bit the dust in that asteroid field too.” He stepped forward, though he suddenly felt watched as he did. He looked towards Dekker’s ship and narrowed his eyes. “You know this is an event for real explorers. Not some whackjob scientist who thinks they can do the work of a whole team with prototype hardware.”

Dekker shrugged as she finished loading a crate. “I dunno. I think my reputation speaks for itself.”

Alex scoffed. “As a lunatic?”

Dekker stopped what she was doing, and looked up before turning to Alex. “Tell me… who was it that charted the entire Tholmor system before anyone even knew it existed? Or discovered a cure for Contuses Flores with the tree fungus from from Ioria?” As Dekker went on, Alex lowered his shoulders. “And who still holds the record for most entries in the Exotic Locales Codex?”

Alex frowned. “You.”

Dekker approached Alex, standing only a few feet from him. “And out of the two of us… who graduated with highest honors from the OU’s xenobiology division?”

Alex raised a finger. “Hey, if my experiment didn’t fail I---”

Dekker chuckled “Fail? You near blew up the entire west wing!”

“But the---”

Dekker interrupted. “And I warned you about it too.”

“You can’t do this by yourself.” Alex narrowed his eyes.

“You know, I said the same thing to you before you kicked me out of your group. Maybe if you listened to me, we’d be in the same expedition party.”

Alex sighed. “You go about this alone, you’re gonna get killed.”

Dekker smiled and stepped forward. She reached up to Alex’s shoulder and spoke softly. “It’s a big universe, Alex. If there’s one thing I learned…” She gently caressed his neckline before pulling her arm back and revealed a strange insect-like creature in her palm. “We’re never alone.” Alex immediately jumped back in fright as Dekker smiled at the creature in her hand. She then thrust her hand forward, tossing the bug into the air and watching it spread its wings and fly away. Dekker patted Alex on the butt and walked back to her encampment. “Good luck boys.”

Alex grumbled to himself and gestured for his men to continue onward. “You should stow your stuff away, Dekker. Someone might try to steal it.”

Dekker didn’t look up from her work, focused once more. “Maybe you’re right. Wouldn’t want someone to cheat on the competition.”

Alex furrowed his brow. “Wait...you think I would---”

Dekker looked at Alex, giving him a sharp stare. “Wouldn’t be the first time you cheated, Alex.” Dekker’s words cut deep enough that Alex couldn’t reply and only looked at the young woman with a sincere regret before he activated the mirrored visor and continued back into the forest. Dekker continued doing her work, waiting for Alex to leave the vicinity before shutting her eyes and halting her progress. She tried briefly to return to her work before she stopped what she was doing and headed back inside.

“ARIN. Hot chocolate please.” She said as the cargo ramp lowered for her.

~

An hour later, Dekker was out of her suit and dressed in just a pair of cloth shorts and an oversized crop-top. She was huddled with a blanket surrounding her body and a large cup of hot chocolate between her legs as she sat on a couch in the dark. She was watching a holovid on an enlarged displayed. The holovid, for the most part, seemed poorly made. The set pieces were lacking, the actors were sub-par, and the script was less than cohesive. Still, Dekker watched with a genuine pleasure.

“Oh this is my favorite part, ARIN.” Dekker said, almost leaning in.

“I know, ma’am.” ARIN replied. “You’ve seen Gamma Woman 3: The Final Showdown, seven times already.” Dekker continued to smile as the action sequence played out on the screen. As the scene ended, she laid back with a sigh. “Ma’am.”

“Yeah ARIN?” Dekker replied, her eyes glued to the screen.

“Why do you continue to watch the same holovids repeatedly?” ARIN asked. “I thought the purpose of a holovid was to entertain you with unseen characters and plot. If you already know how the holovid is played out… how do you find any more enjoyment in them?”

Dekker let ARIN’s question sink in as she lowered the volume of the movie. “It’s not so much the holovid, ARIN. It’s the people who made them. I know there are better holovids out there, with enormous budgets. But those are just pumped out by big-name studios, and popular actors I’ve seen time and time again… and all of it almost seems… artificial. No offense.”

“None taken.”

“When I see these holovids, I see people who don’t have much to their name. They don’t have a lot of credits, or a big reputation to star in bigger films. But that never stopped them. They went on to make the holovids they wanted to. Even if they aren’t good at it… they like doing it. They don’t let anyone stop them from following their dreams, even when everyone else tells them they won’t make it.”

ARIN paused before replying. “I understand, ma’am. Humans are… interesting creatures.”

“We didn’t get this far by being boring.” Dekker smiled. “Let’s see how our friends are doing, yeah?” Dekker waved her hand at the screen and swiped her hand to the left bringing up an entirely different display. Now it was a map of the area surrounding the ship. On the map was a small blinking red dot. It moved ever so slightly, but Dekker knew exactly where it was. “I see Alex still hasn’t found that tracker.” Dekker readjusted her position to get more comfortable. “ARIN, keep an eye on the tracker beacon and let me know if anything comes up.” Dekker said, swiping the screen back to the holovid.

“Yes ma’am.”

~

Deep in the forests of Aozuno, Alex and his men navigated the terrain, their rifles trained forward as Alex kept his eye on a holographic map display off his wristguard. It was fairly quiet with nothing but the whirring sounds of their suits and the crunchy of ice and snow beneath their boots. There was the occasional bird and rodent the scurried around but nothing more.

“Captain, how far are we going to go?” said one of the men. “There’s nothing out here.”

"Yeah.” said the other soldier. “This place is a dead end. I don’t know why you followed Dekker here.” He stopped and rested his gun on his shoulder as he turned to Alex. “Maybe she’s just trying to waste our time.”

“Dekker doesn’t waste time.” Alex said sternly. “If she’s here… she’s found something. And I want to know what.” He dismissed the map display and looked around. “I’m not going to lose to her again.”

“She’s pulling your chain, man.” whined the soldier. “I’ve checked the radar on all scopes and I’m telling you, there’s nothing here.”

Alex huffed. “Listen, I didn’t trail Dekker across three systems just to lose to her again. If Dekker’s here, we’re close. If I did---” Suddenly there was a crack in the forest close by. It was loud enough to startle the group of men. “What was that?” His men shrugged. He gestured for one of them to move forward. “Check it out.” The man nodded and walked forward, his rifle aimed forward. Only a few moments passed before the ground violently rumbled. There was an explosion of snow as the floor erupted. Tunneling from the ground came a large four-legged beast. It nearly chomped on the soldier walking forward before it landed on the ground. It had long claws, a large snapping maw like a turtle and a thick plate-like armor across its head, back, and limbs. It gave one loud roar before charging at the soldiers.

~

Back on Dekker’s ship, the young explorer was napping peacefully as the holovid played on loop in front of her. The screen suddenly switched to the map of the area as it flashed red.

ARIN spoke up with a slightly higher volume than usual. “Ma’am, sensors read gunfire matching Captain Boffrand’s position.”

Dekker opened her eyes slowly, blinded by the screen in front of her. “Alex finally walked into its den, huh?” She groggily got off her chair and walked over to her suit. After disrobing into just her undergarments, she slipped on the suit. “This is what we’ve been waiting for. ARIN, be ready.”

“I will.” ARIN replied. “Be careful ma’am.”

“It’ll be a piece of cake. Just like on Daedalus.” Dekker smiled, slipping her arms through her suit. The uniform automatically sealed itself when pieces were in their proper place.

“The creature on Daedalus almost ate your brain.”

Dekker walked over to an equipment rack where she pulled a helmet from the wall and placed it over her head. The helmet matched the suit entirely, looking almost seamless with the rest of the uniform. Her face was hidden behind a tinted visor and several camera and lighting nodes. “Don’t worry.” She said, knocking on the helmet. “Lesson learned.” Dekker ran through the cargo bay, grabbing her tech-staff along the way before heading outside. “Be ready, ARIN.” After pressing a few buttons on her tech-staff Dekker vanished in a flash of light.

~

The armored creature had Alex and his men cornered. They soon realized that gunfire did nothing to the beast except make it angry. It dug its feet into the ground, preparing to charge the men into a rock wall. But just as it was paces away the beast was knocked to the ground by a small explosion of light.

Dekker dropped down in front of the men, helping one of the soldiers up. “Get out of here Alex!” “Go back to my ship.” The men didn’t hesitate to distance themselves as far away from the creature as possible. As the beast came out of its stupor, it turned its glaring eyes to Dekker who stood with her hands firmly grasped onto her staff. “Hey there big guy. Boy, you’re a lot bigger than the readings told me. Are you getting this ARIN?”

A voice came over her suits speaker. “Every second ma’am.”

The creature roared and charged at Dekker. In a last second dodge, she activated her rocket boots, and leapt above the beast leaving it to collide with the wall. She dropped down onto the creature's back and ran along its plating before sprinting into the forest. The terrain was tricky to navigate. There was a series of bumps and ledges that Dekker had to jump onto, thankfully her boots made much of that easy. But for the beast trailing her, it had less trouble. Its large form allowed it to traverse its native terrain much easier.

The trees that Dekker had to weave through were immediately destroyed as the beast simply ran through them, reducing them to splinters. Finally Dekker came up to a small cliff. As she looked down, the display on her helmet told her that the drop was at least 30+ meters. The creature wasn’t going to wait. Dekker took a step back and leapt off the cliff. Moments before she hit the ground she activating a button on her staff, spawning a dome shaped energy field. As she passed through it, her fall was significantly slowed allowing her to regain her orientation before landing on the ground.

The creature above merely jumped from the cliff, using its large claws to slow its descent before leaping to the floor with little consequence. Dekker continued to run away, weaving through the trees before heading back to her ship. There stood Alex and his men, still catching their breath only to watch Dekker slide down a hill and sprinting back toward them with the monster in tow. They knew their guns were useless and instead decided to run again, and hide behind Dekker’s ship. Just as she reached the campsite, Dekker tripped and fell onto the ground. She quickly turned onto her back and scurried backwards on her hands.

“Now, ARIN!” Dekker shouted. The beast leapt into the air, ready to pounce on Dekker. Suddenly a transparent energy field erected in the air between Dekker and the beast knocking it back. As it came to it looked around and realized that it was caged in a prison. It tried its best to break the walls but each time it did it was simply knocked back into the center harmlessly. Dekker stood up and brushed the snow from her pants. With a short sigh and put her hands on her hips and smiled. “Perfect.”

Alex stood forward from cover and looked at the cage the beast was in. “This was… this was all a trap.”

“Yep.” Dekker said, fascinated by the beast.

“And we were the bait.” Alex added.

“More or less.”

“How the hell did you know where we were?” Alex turned to Dekker.

Dekker smirked and walked over to Alex before removing a small inconspicuous device from his rear end. “You always did have a nice butt, Alex.”

“You used us.”

“To be fair, I didn’t need you.” Dekker placed the tracking device away. “You just made it easier. I knew where that thing was, luring it out was something else entirely. I figured since you don’t know how to be careful…”

“We could’ve died!” Alex scowled.

Dekker casually shrugged. “Well, you left me to die on Pheta 3… I’d say we’re even.” Alex couldn’t retort. Dekker was right once more. “So… how does it feel to lose to me again?” Dekker crossed her arms.

Alex let out a sigh and activated the mirrored visor before walking away. “Come on men…back to the Horseman.”

“We’re just leaving?” One of the men complained.

“If it wasn’t for Dekker we’d be dead.” Alex noted as he kept walking. His men followed after him. Dekker continued to watch him leave. “You’re going to slip up one of these days, Dekker. Just you wait…” Once the men were gone Dekker approached the caged beast which seemed to have settled for a seething anger rather than a boisterous one. It growled as Dekker put her hand on the energy field. It glared at her, hoping for just one second the field would go down and it would snap its jaws on Dekker in an instant.

“I think I’ll call you Henry. How’s that sound?” Dekker said. The creature snarled and turned away from Dekker before sitting in the center of the cage. “ARIN, let’s get this guy processed so we can head back to Omeda.”

“Right away, ma’am.” ARIN confirmed.

Dekker removed her helmet, brushing her fingers through her hair before looking up at the stars above. “So many more mysteries to see.”