Rogue Chaos- A Solus Hearth’s Warming
It had only been a couple of weeks since the defeat of Rendain and being able to free all the Draconequus that were trapped inside the Heliophage and since then, things have begun to improve… a bit. Even with the Draconequus helping them get the worlds back in order, they still had to deal with the different incursions of Varelsi that would spawn in different places from time to time. Though, gladly enough, there wasn’t any incursions going on today and all the Battleborn themselves were inside the base that they established on Bliss. Nova herself was doing repairs and modifications… all the while her voice modulator was temporarily overridden to play some cheery music for this time of year. Much to her disapproval.
It was while this was going on and the Battleborn were decorating the base that Shayne happened to ask both Discord and Eris a question that was on her mind. “Hey Eris, Discord. I was wondering about this for a while, but what kind of holidays do you have back on your homeworld?” When Eris heard that question, it almost caused her to drop an ornament on Discord’s head as she turned to face the teen.
“Well, Equestria and Equus as a whole have different holidays depending on the species and culture, but the most commonly celebrated one is Hearth’s Warming,” She explained to Shayne as Aurox handed her the next ornament to place around the entire hangar. “It’s a lot like the old earth holiday that was called Christmas, where people would go buy gifts for friends and neighbors and children would play in the snow. But on Hearth’s Warming, everyone’s able to open up the gifts and see what kind of presents they got. Some families even have large dinners and invite family from all over the world to spend the holidays with them.”
“That’s rather interesting,” The two of them heard Pendles, who was also in the room at the time, speak up as he hung a set of holiday bells over where Nova’s terminal was. “Does your homeworld have anything similar to Egg-Grog?”
“Egg… Grog?” Phoebe then asked, both confused and a little bit disgusted at the same time when the Roa said that as she went over to them. “Please do tell that you’re joking, right?”
“And don’t you mean Egg-nog?” Eris then spoke up, also confused a little bit.
“Nah, it’s called Egg-grog… and it’s nothing to joke about either,” Pendles told both both of them. “In fact, it’s an important part of the richest Roguish tradition of Newshine’s Day!” Shayne herself was going to speak up, but thought that Pendles himself might be able to explain this a little bit better than she could.
“New… shines… day.” Both Phoebe and Eris repeated simultaneously, trying to understand what Pendles was saying. The Roa nodded his head in response to both of them as he began to explain all the important… traditions to them involving the holiday the Rogues celebrated. Which included putting a Mylar Blinder over your helmet and giving yourself a reason to wear your ugliest spacesuit on that day while they watched Solus flare up and drinking Egg-Grog. It sounded simple enough and some of the traditions seemed… simple enough. Yet, some of the other battleborn overhearing this were a bit… confused.
“Just a minute, chief. How’d ya drink egg-grog while wearing a spacesuit and a helmet? That just seems impossible if you think about it.” Montana then spoke up, carrying a rather big and heavy box on his shoulders that made Shayne raise an eyebrow.
“Uhh… Montana? Isn’t that Nova’s engine?” She asked, having him look at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Why would ya think it’s the engine?” he asked.
“It said, “MAIN ENGINE: PLEASE DON’T REMOVE” on the side of the box.” Discord pointed out, leading to Montana having to put it back as Pendles got around to answering Montana’s question.
“Sorry mate, trade secret. Anyway, at midnight, you have the best part! The New shine shoeshine!” That just got both Eris and Phoebe even more puzzled than they were earlier.
“Hold on just a moment,” Eris then interjected. “Are you trying to say that you and the Rogues only shine your shoes once a year? That’s just… bizarre.”
“And what you and Discord are capable of isn’t?” Pendles then countered her statement. “No offense, Madam, but I think we can all agree that we’ve seen some weird things when your son’s on a mission with us… Anyways, I used to shine my shoes once every twenty years give or take. Now though, once a year, I take some spit and elbow grease to wipe off all the slog and grime off from where you were and where you are and BLA-DOW! You’re all set for a fresh new year of sneaking experiences.”
“Spit and elbow grease? How…… charming.” Phoebe simply stated. Discord though had a feeling that the fellow rogue was going to redirect the conversation back at her this time around.
“Oh yeah, and I’ suppose you lot in the LLC have your own tradition that’s just brimming with charm now, do ya?” The Roa’s question just made Phoebe smirk as she proudly responded to the Rogue’s question.
“As a matter of fact, we do!”
That got Shayne chuckling a little as she and Discord looked back at each other for a moment before looking back at Phoebe. “Oh-kay, what’s your dumb holiday got besides no egg-grog?”
“And no snowball fights! Don’t forget about snowball fights!” Discord then said, taking a moment to use his magic to conjure a snowball and hit Oscar Mike in the helmet with it.
“Well, we get the day off…” Phoebe first said. Initially, everyone thought she was pausing for dramatic effect until Discord himself realized something.
“Wait… That’s it? That just sounds really lame. Do you at least have Vacation Days?”
“Yeah… that’s pretty much it… Oh! And the friday before it is casual friday, so everyone wears Silver trimmings instead of the usual gold.” That just had Discord facepaw himself with his lion paw as someone else now decided to take a turn with talking. That person being Reyna this time.
“Damn, all you LLC really need to just let loose. Besides, what do you even call this holiday of yours?” She brought up a very valid point with that and it was something that Phoebe forgot to mention earlier while she was talking.
“Well, the name is still being workshopped and the officials in the guild are trying to figure out whether this is going to be recurring annually or not, but right now they’re calling it-.”
“-Company Holiday 17!! The greatest of ALL holidays!!” That response came from El Dragon, who decided to bodyslam off of a ladder in order to make the dramatic announcement… probably in the most badass way possible.
“Oh sure, big deal… You get the day off, what’s so special in that anyways? It just sounds like if you want to use your vacation days.” Discord then asked in response.
“Ah-ha! But it is the BIGGEST of deals, my friend!! Because EVERYONE gets the day off and for liability purposes, it is mandatory! Including Internal Security, the legal team, etc! They can’t hold LLC employees or staff members accountable for any form of damage sustained to company property for a full 24 hours!!” El Dragon boasted in his macho voice, catching the attention of a particular Aelfrian that just happened to be nearby.
“WOAH there… Hang on a second, I’m beginning to like the sound of this,” Mellka interjected the first chance she had. “So your saying that you guys have a grudge day where everyone just does what they want and you can steal and fight and vandalize junk to vent all your pent up frustrations?”
“Honestly, that just sounds like the Holiday Edition of The Purge.” Eris commented.
“I… I never thought about it like that,” The galactic luchadore admitted. “I just use the day to practice my Super Sentry submission holds and all my other signature moves… But now that you mentioned it, that does seem… possible.” He took a moment to think everything over, scratching his chin with his robotic arms as he looked back at everyone else. “Most of the offices are empty and it would be hard to find opponents, but yes, YES! With an access code to the Galactic Holo Arena, or robot arms strong enough to pull off the doors, you could host THE FIRST LLC BATTLE ROYALE!! Finally, Jen from the mail room will suffer the mighty wrath of El DRAGOOOON!! We’ll see how much she enjoys eating other people’s lunch when she doesn’t have any teeth and instead must savor the bitter taste of defeat!!!” With a heroic pose and an idea fresh in his mind, he turned to the rest of the group and waved to them. “Please excuse me, I must make a few calls.”
“ …… If he’s looking for competitors, sign me up!!” Discord declared, putting on a mask and a silly superhero outfit for fun. “El Dragon vs. Captain Goodguy! Only on Pay-per-view! It’s the battle of the century folks!!”
“Here comes a new challenger!” Eris giggled, causing Shayne and a few others to laugh as well. Yet, with the current topic being about El Dragon’s battle royale, that had Mellka say something else that was on her mind as Rath entered the room.
“Man, I wish the Eldrid would have something like that. All we have back on Ekkunar is Lifebloom.” The Aelfrian sighed.
“What in the world is a Lifebloom?” The Jennerit Swordsman then asked.
“Sounds like a plant to me.” Sweetie Bot then spoke up as she was helping out one of the other UPR members of the Battleborn with the decorating.
“No no, it’s not like that. The Eldrid’s holiday is named Lifebloom,” Mellka clarified. “It’s this thing where everyone gives a ‘gift’ in the morning.”
“Oh, so like a second birthday?” Shayne then spoke up.
“Kind of, but the gift is like a plant or something, sometimes a rock-.”
“Aww man, you got my hopes up.” Discord pouted, looking at Mellka. “I like birthdays.”
“Anyways…” The Aelfrian continued as she looked back at everyone else. “No matter what you get, you’re suppose to be thankful for it because it represents… something.”
“Life, child, it represents the natural beauty of life-.”
“Oh hey, it’s Katniss!” Discord chuckled again, making Thorn irritated as the sound of a mockingjay bird could be heard in the background.
“Yeah, whatever… On the Night of Lifebloom though, you open your gift, it blooms, it hatches or sits there if you got a rock-.”
“Would that happen if you’re on Santa’s naughty list?” Discord interjected when Mellka paused to catch her breath.
“-You tie off whatever you got to a moonbulb, which is like a glowing, floating plant from Ekkunar and just let it float off into Oblivion.” Mellka finished a few moments later and then mentioned something. “And for the record, I only know of what Santa Claus is because of Ghalt and the UPR. Otherwise the Eldrid don’t know about Santa Claus.”
“So let me get this straight,” Shayne then spoke up, looking at Mellka. “Your holiday involves you getting a bunch of plants and stuff from outside and trading it around the place like you’re trading an old fruit cake at a galactic flea market, only to then give it up at the end of the day?”
“No, everyone gets only one gift.” Mellka corrected her, shaking her head. “Anyway, the Green Observer on Ekkunar says that doing this helps regulate the migratory patterns of the Amber Starhawk since the sky is… well disappearing there?” However, the mentioning of the work ‘hawk’ in particular happened to capture the attention of a one feathery fellow of the UPR. One in particular who was actually part hawk.
“Okay, speaking as somethin’ from a hawk myself, that just sounds rather confusing as hell to be honest,” Benedict then spoke up. “And how do ya’ll make sure that your gift does what it’s suppose to do and at the right time-?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. I was wondering about it the first time, but it just all seemed to work out. I mean, you may just as well ask how my claw works when I want to stab somehow, how Boldur has been able to survive this long because of his stubbornness and how a Draconequus is able to control chaos magic.”
“Now that you mention it, how the hell DOES those things work-?”
“I have no idea, Benedict. Anything involving the Eldrid or Eldrid Science is weird that way. Trust me, it works.” Mellka sighed. “As for the Draconequus bit, ask Discord or Eris-.”
“I’ll tell you how it works,” Discord declared proudly; putting on a bandana, some shades and a goatee. “Because-- Reasons!”
“... That doesn’t-.”
“REASONS!!” He proclaimed once more like a overly buff man that loved the sight of explosions and always yelling all the time. All that did was cause Benedict to groan a little as he looked back at everyone that was talking and ran one of his claws through the feathers on his head.
“Y’all need to take a page from the UPR field manual and just keep it simple. That’s what I like about the BUF festival,” He explained, ignoring the sound of Discord snickering as he continued to speak. “All you have to remember are the 3 F’s: Fireworks, Feats of Strength and Falafel! All you need are all three of those and your celebration is good to go!” That had Eris grin a little as she conjured a notepad to write them down just in case if she or her son needed to use them anytime soon. For the LLC engineer next to her though, Phoebe was more puzzled then intrigued by what Benedict was trying to explain to them.
“And what, pray tell, does ‘BUF’ stand for?” That single question got Oscar Mike and Montana off of their feet to join Benedict in the center of the room like they were auditioning for a musical… one that would almost shake the entire base as all three said the same thing in response Phoebe’s simple question. “Bright Universe Festival!!”
“Wait… Benedict just called it the BUF festival… Doesn’t that mean the full name is Bright Universe Festival Festival? That’s just sounds like an repeated word error Microsoft Word forgot to catch.” Eris then said.
“Technically, if you just refer to it as the BUF, it can be taken the wrong way,” Benedict replied. “Heck, it happened to Oscar Mike when he asked Galilea if she was going to it on his first year of deployment… And it’s the reason why he’s sometimes scared of her.”
“Am not!” The clone soldier snapped in defiance.
“She’s right there,” Benedict said, causing Oscar Mike to hide behind Montana as Benedict chuckled a little. “Case in point.”
“So the UPR celebrates the rekindling of Solus with the Bright Universe Festival… Festival, with 3 F’s?” Kelvin asked as he joined in on the conversation as some of the other Battleborn were finishing up with their tasks.
“Kelvin, don’t bother, I already tri-.” Whiskey Foxtrot’s sentence was then interrupted by Oscar Mike, who’s loud and obnoxious reply did little to assist him in that moment. The conversation continued on in this fashion for quite a while… until everyone’s attention was directed towards one of the Mistletoe sets that was hung up earlier catching on fire as they all turned to see Ambra.
“Oh come on! We just placed that up there a few minutes ago!” Discord complained. Only for Ambra to sigh as she facepalmed herself.
“Really? No one’s going to ask? All of you are talking about holidays, traditions and festivals and none of you are THE LEAST BIT CURIOUS as to what sort of traditional festivities the Jennerit people have?” She then asked. A small silence drifted through the room, just as Shayne raised a hand and asked a question.
“Does it involve Blood Sacrifice?” She asked.
Kleese was the next one to ask as he was sitting in his holiday themed chair right next to Phoebe and Eris. “A day of gladiatorial games and sad music on the organ?”
“Oh, oh, I bet it involves triangles!” Alani then called out. “Triangle-palooza!!” Montana then shouted, accidently smacking Oscar Mike in the head. Mellka was the next one for calling out what could the Jennerit’s holiday tradition be and guessing on what was already said by Alani and Montana. “The Triangulation Ceremony!”
“Does it involve blood sacrifice of gladiatorial triangles?” Shayne then asked again, merging both ideas from Alani and Kleese. That was, until Discord blurted something out.
“Illuminati!” That got everyone turning towards him as he soon groaned. “Hey, you guys said Triangles and Blood Sacrifice! It can’t be just a coincidence that the thought of that crossed my mind!”
“No no no NO NO AND ABSOLUTELY NO!!” Ambra roared, infuriated by the outrageous and rather insulting guesses that she had heard over the course of a few minutes, especially Discords. “It involves, and is named, NONE OF THOSE THINGS!! Why you little-!”
“-Solus day.” At that moment, everyone in the room turned to see Deande walk into the room. “It’s just called Solus Day.”
“Oh.”
“Or at least that’s what we’re calling it,” Deande corrected herself. “I was going to message out to the other factions and the leaders of Solus Day being a proposed celebration that all the factions could agree on.”
“And what exactly happens on Solus Day?” Discord then asked her.
“Well, starting at Dawn, the Jennerit Orbital Mega ship named Exodus follows along the path of Solus’ across the sky, gradually eclipsing more and more until the ship reaches it’s zenith.”
“YES, AND?” Aurox then asked, a little intrigued.
“There’s an artificial Solar Eclipse,” The Spymistress continued. “It’s quite a thrilling spectacle, really. Exodus overtakes Solus, the eclipse ends, there’s a Viper flyover, a masquerade, et cetera, et cetera.”
“Oh wow, that sounds amazing!” Oscar Mike then commented. “I wonder if we’ll see the eclipse from Nova.”
“No, Mike, that’s not how… you know what, screw it.” Whiskey Foxtrot groaned.
“If you like, all of you are more than welcomed to join us.” Deande told them, just as Ghalt came into the room and told her something on the side… and judging from his facial expression, it seemed to be pretty important.
And Eris did not like the looks of it. “I’ll be back in a moment, Dissy.” She assured him, floating over and following both Deande and Ghalt out of the room, unnoticed by either of them until after they entered the command center in the base.
“Eris? I thought you were-.”
“Just taking a break for now.” She sighed. “So… what seems to be the problem? Judging from Ghalt’s facial expression, your concerns and also the fact that the authors need a plot right around now, something must be up.” Ghalt sighed and put his hand out on the holographic table in front of them.
“Nova, are you there?” A few moments later, Nova springed to life in the room as she looked at them.
“Finally, I’m needed for something! I thought I was going to die in there to the sound of cheery music and plants covering one of my processing units.” Nova proclaimed before looking at them. “Oh, right. It’s serious time. Need to be serious now.”
“Nova happened to inform me that ever since what transpired at the Heliophage, there was someone in particular who has been inside the simulation chamber over the course of the last few days. Claiming he needed to be in there for… therapeutic reasons.” Ghalt told them.
“Pfft… that sounds like an excuse if I’ve ever heard of one.” Eris blew it off. “Who’s even in there?” Yet, the response she heard gave her more confusion than answers… and Deande more answers then confusion.
“Attikus. I had a conversation with Ambra about this and from what we can figure out, he’s been in there reliving the events of the Third Thrall Rebellion.” Ghalt informed them.
“The what?” Eris asked.
“It was a rebellion amongst the Thrall against the Jennerit and what we needed for cover in order to sabotage the Heliophage the first time along with me committing treason against Rendain. Though this happened more recently and you were still in stone when it did occur.”
“Why geez, thanks for reminding me…” Eris grumbled, only to notice a couple of flashing lights. “Hang on, what’s that?”
“Captain, it seems like two more people have entered the simulation chambers Attikus is in… It happens to be Discord along with Shayne and Aurox…” Nova responded, showing surveillance footage.
“Why are they in there?” Deande asked, only to hear what the two of them were saying in that moment.
“Aww man, I thought mom hid the Hearth’s Warming presents in here! I don’t want to wait a few more hours to find out what I got-.”
“Discord, what are you doing?” They heard Shayne ask. “That’s the simulation room. Not the janitor’s closet that you thought had your presents.”
“I CAN DREAM, CAN’T I!?”
That just left all of them surprised… but gave Ghalt an idea. “Eris, Deande… What do you think of having those two try to break Attikus out of his depressed slump?”
“As long as I get to be with those two… Meh, it’ll help pass the time.” Eris replied, snapping her finger as she disappeared from the room. Only making Deande sigh a little.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” She asked.
“It’s the only chance we got… and they got a lot of time before that artificial eclipse happens for Solus day.” Ghalt told them as he followed Deande back to where the rest of the crew were.