Accommodations
#3 of Interrealm - Semicanon
Well I got a commission that I colored up nice and ready for all of you to enjoy. At first this was going to be a sexy-style piece but looking at it now it can go into a totally different context considering what I'm about to say about it. It's Evelynn in a bit of a cramped up locker room recovering somewhat after her latest mission.
Art (c) Toughset
Days ago, Evelynn was sent on a sanctioned assignment onboard a spaceship carried by one of its allies, the Athlean Confederation: The CSS Bearing, a heavy assault starship carrying enough weapons to make any planet deader than the surface of the moon. It was supposed to be a "check and observe" mission to ensure one of its planets gets the resources and to secure a Vela superlens the most valuable item if it were to fall to enemy hands, especially the Ka-tao. One day, Evelynn began hearing rumors from the ship's crew saying that its C.O., Captain Bera is not acting right in the head and that concerns her. That is until that day everything went into total chaos.
Reports of an attack in the city on a confederation planet. People on the ground are telling them that something is going after them and an error counts it in as "Ka-tao" and with the Bearing in close, they were the first to respond. Evelynn tells Bera to wait until they can get a clear message on what's really going on down on the surface. Interrealm is already on it and sends both ground troops and Athlean forces to quell the situation. But the captain, which later was discovered to be the survivor of a brutal onslaught with the Ka-tao knows that if they get their hands on the superlens, they would have clear cut access to any world they can get their hands on. Evelynn doubts that reasoning and the two clash over the matter. He snaps and brutally orders Evelynn to stand down but she stands firm up to the point of being arrested and sent to the brig. Captain Bera can not wait and orders to arm all weapons, if the Ka-tao are there then the planet, populated with 14 billion inhabitants is a lost cause.
In the brig, Evelynn has to do something, she couldn't go into hulk mode right there without making the situation worse. That's when Ikaos, Bera's second-in-command goes out of his way to stop Bera from following through with his intent. Now it was a good time to break out using her hulk mode which made Ikaos freak out a bit to see a dragoness get ripped and huge on a whim. Breaking into the communications room and getting its crew to follow their lead, Evelynn reaches out to HQ they rush to talk to Athlean central command and again wait for a response. This leads to a tense standoff and battle onboard the starship until at long last the Premier of the Confederation called in declaring the commander relieved of his command.
Hearing those words made Bera finally snap and he arms the weapons, ready to destroy the planet if he believes it would save countless lives. Even when Evelynn furiously tells him that the threat isn't real. He still believes it and tells her that if he doesn't do this, then she will be responsible for the deaths of billions after his. With a hard tail-whip, Evelynn knocks out the captain, Ikaos can't stop the weapons in time but there is a weapons drive on the ship that can stop them. Rushing to the drive, Evelynn seriously puts her technomancy to work against the drives' anti-hacking defenses, a painful but needed process as time's running out for her and the planet below. Luckily she survived and the drive is dead stopping the weapons. Recovering in the medical bay With Ikaos now in control, he tells her that if it wasn't for her billions would have been lost. It was then discovered that the attack was not by Ka-tao but by local robbers who were trying to steal stuff they can sell on the black market, they did not know anything about the superlens. Back at Brookmont HQ, she gave her reports on what went down on the starship and what she had to do to stop it in order to await the communication. It goes without saying that despite disobeying orders and breaking protocol, she the ground troops and the fate of the planet rested on an officer they should have known was unfit to command. Which is troubling because it might hurt the confederation's relations with the rest of the allied nations in fighting the Ka-tao and the agency itself, something they need now more than ever at this time. But right now, Evelynn is off the hook for any supposed actions needed and is strongly advised to take time off while they settle this near-disaster. Meanwhile back on the now spared planet, one of the robbers enters into alleyway where he meets with a woman in a cloak, she tells him if he got the "images", the robber displayed holographic images of the superlens and most of its details, enough for the cloaked woman to take to her superiors.
The robber expects payment and as promised she did pay but she tells him to come closer, annoyed the robber walks up and he's grabbed by the woman and held in a bear-hug. Struggling to break free, the woman flexed her muscles, making them swell ferociously and exposing her body through the cloth. The robber struggles to breath and screams as his ribs and spine break in two killing him. Dropped to the ground the woman takes the cloak off revealing to be Commander X'erix. Looking down at the dead body she gives her thanks, for it has been a long time since she let her muscles out loose. Throwing the money on the body, X'erix reaches out to her superiors telling them that she has the graphics and the plan was a success. It would be a matter of time before they develop their own superlens and foreward with their true target: Prime Earth.