16th August
22:48 GMT
While nothing like as cataclysmic as what happened to the cargo carrier, the effect is still substantial. The thrusters assembly is gone, the rear quarter of the ship almost entirely hollowed out with the hull and most heavily armoured internal structures sticking out into space. The shields are down all over the ship, so either the internal damage not immediately visible is so great as to take down the whole system or the commander saw the carrier fried by gamma containment and has decided that containing the radiation is a bigger risk to the ship than a follow up bomb.
If that was the case then they were badly wrong, as I'm already moving onto the next ship when the first is lit up with orange light once again as Lantern Mother of Mercy deploys another bomb. This one appears next to the primary weapon and detonates immediately. With the ship designed to point that weapon directly at its enemy the surrounding armour is massively thick and sophisticated. That, combined with the surrounding vacuum limiting shockwave transmission means that the front end isn't damaged anything like as badly as the rear. That is to say, it still exists. The main gun is slagged, the armour is glowing red as heavily distorted plates continue to boil away from the hull. And it looks like the secondary turrets are no longer tracking, so either power is down or we hit the bridge.
I alter my direction of travel, aiming at the next ship.
Ring, message to the fleet.
Compliance.
"Mongulists. Cease fire and withdraw or I do that to the rest of you."
"We will scour Ater Clementia of life before allowing you a victory!"
"While I would much rather recover Mother of Mercy, killing you represents an acceptable 'next best thing'. You know I can kill you. The most sensible thing you could do would be to fall back and try again when you're better prepared. I will not repeat this offer. Fire again, and we don't stop until your ships are wrecked and everyone on board is dead."
If it comes to that, Lantern Mother of Mercy will have taken substantial damage. I'd rather not make that trade…
Of course, if I'm really lucky Mongal will shout 'I'll kill you myself' and come after me in a personal fighter. If that happens I'll have a reasonable chance at turning the ship crews to my cause on the grounds that going back to Mongul minus an Engine City, a Mother of Mercy and a daughter wouldn't do much for their life insurance premiums.
"Three, two-."
"I accept your terms, but mark my words, Lantern! Your head will decorate my father's halls-!"
"And not yours. Yes, I rather understood that was how it worked. You know, if you'd rather work for someone else-?"
Channel closed.
Yes, I suppose that was a bit hopeful. The ships begin to wheel around, secondary turrets not even pointing at Ater Clementia. I don't stop or drop my railgun turrets, but as the drones fly past me without firing and head for their parent ships I start to wind down mentally. I alter my course to fall back slightly, keeping my guns trained on them but allowing my shot to gradually worsen. I wonder if there's a way to create faster than light crumblers? No, stupid question, obviously there is, but I wonder if there's a way to do it without building a full sized FTL torpedo. Those things aren't common for a good reason: they're far too easy to distract or disrupt. Some sort of… Space warping field projection, maybe..?
"Thank you for liberating me."
"There's a Human expression, Lantern Mercy. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched."
"Because some eggs may get eaten or otherwise be destroyed before that. Where can you see potential for a problem to arise?"
"Anger is a tricky beast. They might call in reinforcements, even knowing that we'd kill them in retaliation, rather than let us win. In order to let them leave I'm having to give them an escape vector where I'm not jamming faster than light travel. A way out is a way in."
"I have an additional problem."
"Oh, what's that?"
"Between the energy I am committing to the subspace pocket containing the remaining bombs and the shields I am maintaining to protect myself, my ring is very low on power."
"How low?"
"Eight percent."
"Okay, as long as they don't fire-."
"Seven percent."
What's using-? Gravity distortions. Maintaining a construct requires avarice, making it in the first place requires ring power. As long as those barriers don't get shot they don't take any more power, but the gravity distortions she's using to shield herself do. Can't recharge without dropping her construct…
Ring, is superluminal travel still available?
Confirmed.
Plot course to Lantern Mother of Mercy's locus and execute.
Compliance.
A flash and I'm back on the ground. I take a moment to reorientate myself and then march toward her, my left gauntlet disappearing into subspace as I do so.
"The plan is, you take my ring, switch to using that, then pass me your ring for me to recharge. Simple enough?"
"There will be a slight shift in the gravity distortion. They may be able to detect it."
"Six percent power remaining."
"They're quite a lot more likely to detect your construct barriers vanishing." I pull my ring off and hold it out to her. "Do it."
A tendril sprouts from my left, reaching out from the main mass. "No ritual handover this time?"
"Not for fieldwork."
Her tendril plucks my ring from my hand, my environmental shield going out as she does so. Okay, that always worries me a little, but… Air pressure's a little high on my left hand, but nothing dangerous. Local air isn't breathable by a standard pattern humanoid, but my armour's atmosphere recycling system can handle it easily for the few seconds it'll take for her to pass me hers. She pulls my ring to her central mass, a slight ripple passing through her environmental shield as she syncs them up.
"Did they notice?"
"I do not believe so." Another tendril swings around, her dimly glowing ring falling from the end into my waiting hands.
"Right."
I slide her ring onto my left ring finger, then summon her lantern from subspace. The new model lanterns look like miniature versions of the Orange Central Power Battery rather than the 'classic' design mine has. I wouldn't change it for anything, but I can't deny that the new version looks more… Appropriate, for a space-aged military police force.
"This is my cause, this is my fight-."
"Is that necessary?"
"No." I tap the ring against the body of the personal lantern.
"Charge at one hundred percent."
"But it's traditional. What we're doing, devoting our lives to improving the universe, it's a big deal. And it's easy to get distracted from the mission. Particularly with orange rings."
"How so?"
"Getting to do whatever you want is addictive. The oath is there to ensure that we constantly remind ourselves of our higher ideals, but… I don't intend to lock personal lanterns to a mantra, and there are Green Lanterns who don't use one."
"What should it consist of?"
"Something that reminds you of why you're doing this. What it is you hope to achieve with your ring. And it's traditionally four lines of eight syllables in whatever language you choose for it."
"Then I believe that I have something in mind for my own."
