Welcome to Hel

[Jack Ryder]

"It's been a rough few years... but things were starting to improve... until Dominus started sticking his noses into things." Jack replied with a sigh. "He pretty much destroyed the planet that was run by a friend of my wife while we were on it. Using the same race that pretty well destroyed my wife's homeworld of Xenex, a race called the Brethren. Only a scant handful of survivors from an entire planet, which barely occupy an apartment building in our capitol city. So that's put Dominus on everyone's radar, including the Dominon which have started to rattle sabres again. No bloody idea why he decided now was a good time to make himself known to us again, other than to demand this sector as his and to leave him alone. We only found Pythus a few months back when... my own counterpart, Dominus' son, had blown up our Capitol Building and abducted my father, his wife and most of his cabinet and tortured and murdered some of them... apparently he set up a base near the old Vella Cava station."

[Ashley Walker]

Leaning against the wall she slid down until she was seated, "Bloody hell! Knowing that everyone I knew outside of the sector were living in a bloody utopian world is what kept me going."

[Jack Ryder]

"Well for what it's worth, things are still pretty good... new Capitol planet, Terra Alpha... bloody paradise probably 95% of the time. Wide open spaces and lots of development. We brought back currency and jobs and it's worked out pretty well, everyone has enough to have the basics, but if you choose you can work, buy other goods and services. Y'don't have to wear replicated undies unless you want to." Jack chuckled lightly. "My big sister Angelica and my step mum Alice Huntington have a rather thriving business in that regard. Alice is a Brit as well... about as posh British as they come, people kind of lovingly call her 'Queen Alice', she was my Science Chief before my father married her and put her on the planetary science council and they equipped a frankly drool worthy lab."

[Ashley Walker]

She smirked, "A little incestuous don't you think?" She shrugged, "Well, they ain't so bad here. They get rough at times." She shrugged, "But they feed me, which is more than I can say for some of the people living here."

[Jack Ryder]

"Well that's... good, although that IS why I let myself be taken. Besides the fact that I want to see his Empire crumble around him. He hurt a lot of people I care about." Jack said as he looked at Walker. "And personally Lieutenant, you are still quite lovely. Age means nothing. Of course, being held captive for as long as you have and treated as you have been... "

"Ever the charmer Jack." Kirby said and sighed. "Although you did the stupidest thing you could... as if we couldn't have found a way out of here if it existed? Faerians tried to run up against him, most of them were killed or enslaved. The Garou mobsters... he used their hides to upholster his bedchambers. Those he couldn't turn to his side, he turned into fighters, sex slaves or labor. He's got more goons working for him all the time, he's got the Brethren and he's got dimensional portal technology."

"Say what?" Jack raised an eyebrow at that last bit. "Portals?"

"Yeah he can open up portals into other realities, there are literally hundred of realities where you and I are right here under similar circumstances, he can go to those realities and replace us. There are probably a dozen of some people and if he particularly hates someone... he kills them in every reality he can think of one at a time. He claims he's got excellent cloning tech and he does, but some of them are the same people just from another reality, hell I don't even know if I'm this reality's Kirby or if I'm from another." Kirby said and sighed heavily. "This is Hell Jack... and if Kinsey and others try to rescue you, they're just going to die too."

"Funny, I THOUGHT you had more optimism." Jack said with a smirk.

"I did and then I watched five Ethans die in front of me until I did what he wanted." Kirby said and crossed her arms. "Dominus knows how to break a person and I won't see it happen to you. You're practically a brother mate... hell I almost married your sister when Marcus was being an arse."

"She IS sleeping with Tana..." Jack chuckled.

"Depends on if that Ethan you guys got is actually real or just a quick clone that'll turn to goop... he's got those too." Kirby said with a shake of her head.

"Well, I'm a lot smarter than I was... and I have a few contingencies in place and... I'm not fully Terran." Jack said as he stood up. "But I swear to you both, I will get you home."

[Ashley Walker]

"And what have you planned?" Ashley asked, "I don't even know what that 'home' is. This has been my home for far too long."

[Black ANGEL Alpha]

"Probably something so off the wall bonkers it'll end up getting us all killed or it'll actually work..." Kirby said with a dry roll of her eyes and chuckled. "Fuck it, I'm in, whatever it is... we've all been here too long."

"I will personally make sure you're taken care of Leftenant... there's a little slice of home near the Capitol, lots of ex-pat British. And our new President is as British as they come. Hey I have nothing to gain but a friend by helping you. I'm a happily married man with practically a platoon of kids both young and old." Jack said with a smile.

"He has a point.. his wife IS hot... and he's a Ryder, they're almost loyal to a fault. Well... my husband was kind of the exception but he was young and dumb and he did eventually do right by me and our boy. So Zeke's married? Too bad y'don't have pictures. Bet he looks like his father." Kirby sighed happily.

"A bit of you both, he's got your stubborn streak and your never say die attitude..." Jack said with a wink.

"Right right... no more wallowin'... " Kirby said firmly. "Walker... what was your specialty anyway?"

[Ashley Walker]

"PhD in Humanoid Genetics. I went to medical school and realized I liked the research, but not the patients. I wanted to get some 'real world' field experience mapping the genome of alien species. That's why I was on the Kilbride.

[Jack Ryder]

"Fascinating... I've been starting similar research, my wife's homeworld was clobbered by the Brethren and honestly they're only a couple generations from no longer having enough genetic diversity to safely reproduce. Terran DNA with a few enhancements has been able to safely breed... as my own children and my wife's sister and my nephew can attest to. But of course, we don't want to entirely wipe out their genetic distinctiveness either." Jack replied.

"Oh save me from the science geeks." Kirby said with a laugh. "I'm still amused that you called yourself 'Professor'. That's we all called you behind your back even as a kid."

"I actually quite enjoy teaching, I've actually resigned my commission more than once to do that. Although it didn't help when I have the same face as the man who blew up our capitol building on the re-inauguration day. I can telepathically make people accept me, but I don't like to change people's minds forcibly like that. That isn't me." Jack said with a sigh. "Yes Leftenant... I'm a telepath... I found out only recently that mum was an El Aurian offshoot. It's complex."

[Ashley Walker]

"I would love to study your genetic structure. As far your wife goes I might be able to introduce a virus to modify the genome in order to make the species sustainable."