On to the next set...

"We do have things to do..." says Inquirer.

As it goes, the husband and wife team of Inquirer and the Doctor.

"First, we need to discuss which High Lord we'll take next." She continues. "From the Cassandra files I'm still able to tap, here is our next target. The easiest of the two remaining, really."

An image from the holographic projector in the center of the table lights, showing it.

The reactions around the table vary. Some hiss in surprise (and dismay). Some shudder in horror at the visage of the undead thing.

"What kind of freak face is that?!" Crichton gasp, pointing at the Gaunt Man's image.

"That's the Gaunt Man," Betty manages to whisper, answering John.

"You're kidding, right?" Ragan laughs a little at Inquirer, almost begging. "I mean, the Gaunt Man?! He's one of the most powerful . . ."

She winds down, gasping and pointing, flummoxed at Inquirer's audacious suggested target. They knew that it probably would have been coming, this target, but the hope had been to save the hardest for last (or something)....

"He's been weakened from his stay within that All/Nothing storm," the Doctor put in, going on to explain what he meant by that. See, early on in things, the Gaunt Man got betrayed by one of his henchmen (a cyber-demon) and was exposed to a powerful Core Earth Artifact (an "Eternity Shard", an item with a LOT of possibility energy in it). Had a bad interaction between itself (a representation of "the All") and his High Lord powers (provided through his "Darkness Device, an item from "The None" or nothing, or void). Sort of akin to matter and anti- matter meeting, it was. So the Gaunt Man found himself in a bad situation, where his powers are going haywire, kind of, trying to cancel out the Eternity Shard (which is trying to punch his ticket as well). Finally got out of that, but was really drained by the process. Spotty intel found in the Cassandra files tell that he'd taken revenge on the henchmen (in a rather gruesome and public manner, by the way). Inquirer says that Gaunty probably would have gone to ground, fled back to their home cosm (like indications on what the High Lord called 3327 inferred from confused reports from the Cassandra files) , after seeing and hearing what was happening to the other High Lords, except....

"Except the Company struck early and often," the Doctor sighs. "The man's ego will not tolerate such insults to his being, so whenever yet another attempt is made . . . a LOT of collateral damage occurs."

He points to the parts of the report telling of super human "robot/androids" (avatar units in reality) in disguise who seem bent on capturing Gaunty alive for reasons the Delphi agents were not privy to, but the general consensus was beginning to point towards reasons that were NOT good (and which Inquirer mutters "Well, duh!" in agreement).

"The trouble started when his cover as a representative within the Victorian diplomatic team to Australia got blown," Inquirer says. "Gaunty seems to first try to just blend in and hide in almost plain sight, but that didn't work. That way he’d be able to perhaps be around still, to take advantage in the chaos whilst his fellow High Lords got bagged.

"Profit from it, I’m sure was his plan. Problem, though. He'd been made, you see. The Company almost had him, but lost him in the chaos and blood in the failed first attempt. From what I‘ve been able to plot on the map, he‘s making a beeline to the nearest means of travel, a place to do a "Dim Thread" teleport (a secret site useful in creating temporary portals between cosms for his agents in Australia that he‘ll take now) back to his cosm, where he‘ll have more of an advantage, he‘s hoping. Home field advantage."

No questions on how Inquirer came to that conclusion are asked. If anyone here would know the Gaunt Man’s mind, it would be her. She is the "Dungeon Master" for the Torg game, and as such was the "resident expert" on all things Torg (i.e. the best person for the job of anticipating this undead fiend’s next moves).

The plan, now, was this. Inquirer was betting that Gaunty was moving in such a manner that would be a feint towards a town (with vehicles) for transport towards a more distant (but better known) Maelstrom Bridge. It was risky, but beat the heck out of trying to track the Gaunt Man down back in his cosm.

"Unless of course you like the idea of wading through werewolves, vampyres, and other nasties," Inquirer said in an almost flip tone. Almost, but her grimace she had was hardly flip.

"We know where basically he is right now," the Doctor puts in, pointing to an area outside Perth. "We know while the Company doesn’t right now. We also have another advantage because of this particular High Lord. One which it appears that the Company isn’t aware of, you see."

With other High Lords, you were dealing with monster, but at least they had a pulse and breathed. That meant that if they died, the Darkness Device "shard" within them would vacate and lodge up in God knows who else. The High Lord known as the Gaunt Man was undead, and that meant. . . .something else. Destroy the body in all but one, special way, and the Gaunt Man would reform somewhere else, whole and unharmed after a time (with "shard" still within).

"But kill him in the One True fashion . . . which I know and which takes a LONG time for him to finally ‘die’," Inquirer smiles a little, remembering the method she’d concocted while in her "D.M." mode setting up the Torg sessions. "He’ll be paralyzed all the while AND that’ll make removal of the Shard . . .easy."

However, when has ANYTHING been as it seems, in Farscape (TV show or crossover)?

1. See, some of that "intel" in part was . . . wrong.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree