S4E15: Beyond the Stars, Part 2

'''Equestria behind them, the A Unit and G Squadron journey with Amadeus to EAO17: a main RAG base. Here they will learn the truth of their enemy, and reorganize to counter this new threat...as the Sayan Squad.'''

Plot Summary
The Vulture engaged its jump drive, taking the A Unit and G Squadron to EAO17, the main headquarters for RAG operations for their universe. Kanako inquired about the warp tunnel, leading to a brief discussion on the mechanics of subspace travel, ending when Ketsueki said the "techboys back home" would have a better expalanation for how it worked. Amadeus informed the group that they were about to arrive, and A Unit went to see the landing first-hand. Everyone from Equestria, though especially Arachni, were mesmerized by the Rebellion's technological advances, marvelling at the complex machinery and sheer number of vessels they could see in and out of the base. En-route, Ketsueki's personality noticably changed, becoming less boisterous. This was especially apparent when speaking to Amadeus, and likewise Amadeus seemed to have a subtly harsher edge when speaking to Ketsueki.

Amadeus told G Squadron to escort A Unit to the Lesser Briefing Room, not using his office because he wanted the projector. Amadeus said he would join them shortly, as he had some last-minute things to wrap up. G Squadron did as they were told, and along the way encountered Commander Achterberg, their Wing Commander. Achterberg wanted G Squadron for a mission, but he was counterracted by Amadeus' superior orders.

In the Lesser Briefing Room, Amadeus joined the group not long after their arrival. The incident with Commander Achterberg was brought up, to which Amadeus explained that Achterberg was looking for assistance for a mission to a world that suffered an "uncharacteristically brutal" conquest at the hands of The General. No less than four assault fleets were used agianst a world called Baur, including the Alpha Fleet, The General's elite forces of which The General's Head serves as flagship.

Amadeus used that as a segue to begin talking about The General. Jack, suspicious, found himself asking why he and Saiyo were present. He had been expected to be shipped off to an isolated planet. Amadeus replied that since the Greenspans had also battled the Sayan, he wanted to extend the offer to them as well. Jack at first took this to mean forced recruitment, but Amadeus assured him that they could refuse if they desired.

With that settled, Amadeus used the holographic projector to his advantage, and showed the images of several worlds before and after The General conquered them. He also displayed the transformations the native creatures had, disgusting A Unit. This is what Amadeus wanted, however: to show the true extent of The General's atrocities. To finish it off, Amadeus showed the ransacking of their own homeworld, and how it was now known as Earth Triple Zero, the central seat of The General's power.

Amadeus then showed a different world, this one untouched by The General. However, it soon fell to a different force: Sayans. A Unit, G Squadron, and the Greenspan siblings all watched as alien fauna were horribly mutated into Sayans. They were then treated ot the image of a galaxy slowly turning red as the infection spread, until it read "QUARANTINE." His point clear, Amadeus then asked for them to think about creatures like Sayans in the hands of someone like The General, who desired to destroy all of existence and restart. Helping illustrate this even further was the image of more galaxies and universes becoming red, faster than before.

The decision was unanimous to join in the fight against the Sayans. There was some hesitation, particularly on Arachnos and Kanako's part, but they were convinced over the notion of Equu M417 falling prey to the Sayan project eventually. Jack joined in, apparently ot get revenge on both the Sayan species and The General for the previous sayan incident, and Saiyo wanted ot join to help her brother. He opposed her enlistment, but was overruled by Amadeus, who wanted all the help he could get. G Squadron, already under his direct command, were also merged with the enlisting members, and they were all officially re-branded as the Sayan Squad. The Sayan Squad was a special unit Amadeus created that answered only to him, and whose purpose was solely to investigate the connection between The General and the Sayans and see if the threat is real.

Amadeus revealed that he, too, would be directly involved with the group. He justified thid by saying that with the prospect of extremely high-level threats being used as bioweapons by The General, Amadeus didn't want the Sayan Squad operating independently. He felt a high-ranking officer was required for both guidance and intelligence purposes, and offered himself. He had already arranged for his posiiton to be temporarily taken over while they were gone, or permanently if he should die. The rest of the group met this declaration with confusion but acceptance, save for Ketsueki, who looked as if he had been punched in the stomach.

Amadeus already had a mission lined up for the Sayan Squad, and they were to leave immediately. Permanently assigned to the Vulture, the Sayan Squad was to investigate the destruction of an RAG outpost on Earth M724. Reportedly it had been taken out by "a mysterious creature," and Amadeus wanted them to confirm Sayan involvement. The General's Head was detected near the planet around the time of the attack. If they discovered a Sayan, it would be a direct link between The General and the Sayans, and would possibly produce a lead for their investigation.

M724 was a bleak, dead world. Amadeus explained that it had suffered a nuclear catastrophe several centuries prior, and it was severe enough that life failed to return even over several hundred years later. The Vulture landed three miles south of their destination, in case the cause of the outpost's destruction was doing lookout. Because G Squadron was asked to leave the Mimics behind (they would have been too conspicuous), this meant everyone had to walk to their destination. Along the way, Jack told a little more about his father, and how on a whim, he apparently tried to capture a decay virus for the sake of making a "virus cannon."

Arriving at the outpost, they found it a smouldering wreck, with only a piece of wall to mark its existence. That, and the mutilated corpses strewn about. Jack found a crater leading to the underground portion of the base, where even more corpses could be found. Every Rebel operative seemed to suffer a very violent death, some killed before they had a chance to fight. One in particular was killed by having her arm torn off and shoved through her throat. The halls of the underground section were marked by something very large passing through, marked by large foot imprints in the metal floor and torn pieces form the walls.

A pile of rocks soon caught their attention, leading them to the discovery of a tunnel through the dead earth. Whatever came through the base had apparently decided to dig its way out. The tunnel led to what normally would have been a bay, but because the water had dried up, it led to open air. Below where they came out, on what used to be the sea floor, they spotted a large mass. They could tell it was not a Sayan, but as for what it was, they could not tell. It was reptilian, had a single glowing red eye, and was clearly augmented through The General's machinations. But, as they soon discovered after alerting it to their presence, this creature still retained its intelligence and was even capable of speech.

The Sayan Squad quickly learned that batlting the monster was impossible, as it had a protection generator. It also carried with itself an impressive arsenal of powerful weaponry, raning from missiles ot flamethrowers to energy cannons. Vate called in the Mimics, but not even they could break through the protection generator. Amadeus then reported in with grave news: the Head was inbound. The Sayan Squad was forced to pull a hasty retreat, with the creature warning them that running would only make them hurt worse. He then seemed to transmit their location, presumably to the Head.

The Sayan Squad made it back to the Vulture just as the Head entered real space, and began to fire on the escaping vessel. Amadeus ordered they engage the jumpdrive despite not being out of the atmosphere yet, and risking a jumpdrive failure. But up against the Head, it was deemed a risk worht taking. The Vulture jumped, and after discovering that they were not being pursued, the Vulture crew breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The Sayan Squad reported to Amadeus about the creature, who revealed it was a Cimorian Major. Cimorians had apparently led their own interstellar empire at one point, ruthless conquerors that had engaged RAG several times before. However, Cimor eventually found its way to The General's hit-list, and the Cimorians were presumed extinct since no member of the species had been seen since. Amadeus was surprised to see one working for The General, and even more shocked that apparently kept its free will. Yet more shocking still was that it was a "fully grown Major," which were a rare sub-species. Amadeus only knew of one Major ever being with the species at a time, and for it to be full-grown would mean it would have had to have existed with the previous empire. Then Amadeus began to wonder if it WAS the previous, one Emperor Cyem IV, but then immediately dismissed it.

Amadeus said that Cyem was known to be a ruthless and vicious warlord to his enemies, but caring to his own kind. He would never willingly serve The General. It was then suggested that The General might be holding something over him, such as the remainder of his species, to which Amadeus conceded the point. All the same, however, he said it mattered little to them. Amadeus planned to forward the information to High Command and have them figure something out, as their primary duty was the investigation of the Sayan project. Despite the chaotic ending, Amadeus considered the mission a success as they didn't find a Sayan.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Main Theme (Sonic: Time Attacked)
 * 2) Welcome to EAO17 - Main Theme (Battlefield 1943)
 * 3) The General's Shadow - Intro (Megaman X3)
 * 4) The General's Cruelty - Babel Tower (Rockman ZX Tunes)
 * 5) Sayan Nightmare - Nightmare (Nox Arcana)
 * 6) Project Song - Pinwheel (Dark Souls)
 * 7) A Call to Arms - Main Theme (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron)
 * 8) The Sayan Squad - Main Theme (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader)
 * 9) Mission Briefing - Main Theme -Reprise- (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron)
 * 10) Earth M724 - Burned Bodies (OFF)
 * 11) RAG Outpost - Bryyo Thorn Jungle (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption)
 * 12) Shadow of the Beast - Main Menu (Doom 64)
 * 13) Cyem - Main Theme (Doom 64)
 * 14) Vs. Cyem - Main Theme (Playstation Doom)
 * 15) Death Incoming - Speedy Comet in Orbit (Super Mario Galaxy)
 * 16) Ending Theme - Dream a Dream (Pop It Don't Drop It Edit)

Trivia

 * In the original notes, this episode appears as it does here. However, for a small period of time up to Episode 14's release, "Beyond the Stars" was one single episode until SDM decided too much was happening for there to be one single unbroken part, especially given the farewells that he felt were needed to be done in the previous episode.
 * This episode marks the official debut of Cyem, a character directly inspired by the boss character the Cycloid Emperor from the Duke Nukem franchise, right down to the appearance. This character came as the result of a chronology and lore document SDM wrote in his spare time when he was younger to try and contextualize the weak storyline of the games. Since the plot was so thin, he essentially had free reign to write whatever lore he wanted to explain the Emperor's role. As a result, SDM wound up characterizing him as an unorthodox political figure that, while ruthless to his enemies, only had the best interest of his own species at heart. SDM found that he enjoyed that that made the boss encounters less of a personal battle and more business-oriented. He felt that the characterization was just wasting away, given that the document exists only for a non-functioning computer and was little more than a glorified private fanfic, and so decided to bring "Cyem" into the Anathemus Mythos as an homage.
 * Earth M724 is actually based on a very old prototypical story concept SDM thought of long before getting involved with Hellgate known only as The Violinist. The basic premise of the story was the titular villain somehow managing to gain control of all nuclear systems, and instead of using it to threaten the world, outright destroys it. The rest of the story is then mainly characters trying to survive in a dying world, and ultimately failing. The concept was notable as it was the first time SDM truly thought about producing darker stories, going so far as to have a downer ending.