The Practice War [Complete]

May 22nd, 2130

Fifteen years of preparation after the last battle, bending the collected passion and genius of humanity to the task of finding a way to survive not just the Regular Fleet bearing down on you, but what would come next. The last five months had given you little time to consider what lay after this coming battle, but you'd seen traces of it in talking with the crews of the Unison Couriers you'd never realised Lina was building. You'd known that the Unisonbound would need to board ships to move around the system, if the battle became spread out as Lina had thought it might. But your assumption had been that the role would be filled as part of another ship's broader role, not that the 223 would get purpose-built couriers.

There were five of them in total, each equipped with one of the highly prized drives traded with the Contact Fleet for a deeper explanation of what Practice truly was. There was little more to the craft beyond that barring basic systems. Each ship could carry the full complement of the 223 in what you knew was relative comfort for a warship, and their primary defence was a stealth suite reverse-engineered from the Tombstone hull coating with help from Project Insight and their relative insignificance. Or more precisely, that had been their primary defence before the Unisonbound boarded the craft five months ago.

You'd intended to spend most of your time out there training with the FSN, preparing for what was coming. And you'd done that, too, whilst helping to teach the Unisonbound Auxiliaries how to best use the new strength they'd all acquired so recently. You'd hoped to be able to do the latter, and things had just gone well for the Two Twenty Three in the time you'd had.

Valkyries: 100 + 32 (Nat 100 rollover) + 36 = 168. Overwhelming Success. Nat 100 cancels time penalty for Valkyries and Unison Training.
Unison Training: 55 + 36 = 91. Solid Success.

Very well, in fact.

Lina had obviously expected you to make changes to your temporary homes, the ships had been designed with that in mind. Giving every one of them the endurance under fire of a full FSN capital ship, however, had not been. And Vega and the smattering of other Harmonials among the Unisonbound had bent their talents to the other defensive systems, seeking a result as close to pure harmony with one's surroundings as one could get in the stealth suite. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but it was much more than they'd had before. Making more work for yourself after the battle, you'd thought ruefully, when Vega showed you the final results.

Training the new Unisonbound had gone far better than anyone had hoped, too. Although you weren't able to dedicate as much personal time to the matter as you'd hoped to, it didn't seem to matter. All older Potentials, well acquainted to the strengths of their Foci, the only real difficulties had been teaching them how to use the vastly increased capacity to act against the conditions of local reality; things like flight being the most common one. Many Potentials knew how to use suit systems to fly, but that was a different thing altogether to the sort of motion a Unisonbound could call upon.

From the reports you'd read the year before, as part of the nominal commander of the Two Twenty Three, you'd been worried about the new Unisonbound being able to join the battle, let alone survive it unaided. There'd been ways to handle that, of course, one of the original plans for the Two Twenty Three in the SBOS had been to keep them aboard ships and use their Practice to enhance or repair things. That wasn't going to be necessary now, though you might have preferred that it was. You knew intellectually that the unit that had been assembled since you'd worked out how to create Unison Platforms were in the same general ballpark as you'd been the last time you'd thought the Shiplords. But that had been against a Tribute Fleet. Regulars were an entirely different proposition.

Fortunately, you'd prevailed on them the need to act primarily as auxiliaries and support. The true line of battle engagements would be left to your unit. That still worried you; the Two Twenty Three had been inordinately lucky against the Tribute Fleet and that good fortune was unlikely to hold. At the same time, the Two Twenty Three were far, far more dangerous than they'd been then.

Filling the unit out had plugged holes you'd never even realised were there, and in the decade and a half since the Second Battle of Sol, nearly every member of the group had produced at least one Artefact. And then there were the Speakers of the unit. Not many of them, the technique wasn't for just any Potential. But you'd trained eight more Unisonbound of varying Foci since Mir. Including you and Vega, that made eleven Speakers, almost five percent of the unit. Given how important Speaking had been to victory in the Second Battle of Sol, you were confident that was going to matter.

(Unisonbound battle couriers highly upgraded, new Unisonbound trained fully for auxiliary roles in the battle to come, with enough focus placed on core skills to ensure survival. Every member of the 223 has reached Adept level competence.)

Of course, that wasn't the only thing that was going to matter, and you'd spent your fair share of days away from the FSN as it drilled and prepared for the battle bearing down on you. If there was one thing that your life had taught you, it was of the strength of a people united in purpose. It had not been skill that supplied the power which had unleashed Purify, after all. That had been the strength of billions behind you in that moment, strength you'd never have been given if the world hadn't been united. Humanity was going to need that power again.

Mother of Circles: 67 + 33 = 100/2 (Time Penalty) = 50. Success.
Worldheart: 55 + 33 = 88/2 (Time Penalty) = 44. Bare Success

There were downsides, it seemed, to having spent so long out of the public eye. You were still more than capable as a speaker, but some of the ease in how you'd faced those around you with awful truths had blunted itself. Part of that was simple time pressure, but there was another side to it. You wanted to protect the world for another, in a way you'd never felt before Iris. Nothing you did was exactly poor, and you did bring the people together, but it was less smooth than it had been before. Nothing to complain about, but you feel as if you could have done better.

(No appreciable effect on morale)

But the Circles are behind you. It would take far, far more than emotion to change that. With them, you have done all you can to prepare them for what's coming. Many of them were not old enough to understand the phenomenon which gripped humanity at the height of the Second Battle of Sol. Explaining that, and ensuring that people understand the commitment it represents, is an important part of your time. Looking at it honestly, it takes up more time that was spent on your speeches.

Nexus: 46 + 34 + 20 (Arsenal of Wisdom) = 100. Success

It's a difficult sacrifice to make. Morale has a place in battles, and making sure humanity was ready for the fight ahead isn't unimportant in the least. Survival though? That's vital. So most of your time is spent on this, bringing together a much larger consensus of power than you'd had when forging your latest Artefact. In the Second Battle of Sol, you'd kindled a spark and had it grow into a beacon, and all of it by accident. This time you knew what you were doing.

You didn't have much a yardstick to go off of, but you did remember the feel of nascent power as it had begun to gather ahead of the Second Battle of Sol. This…it wasn't stronger, but it was deeper in ways that you struggled to understand even now. Billions of people reaching into the well of power unevenly shared by humanity, to grant the fragments held by their souls to you. You still wondered if that trust was justified, but you were the only person who'd done this before. At least on this scale.

(+100 to Nexus Interface, ??? triggered.)

You only hope you can put it to use in a more controlled fashion than you had during the battle. You know, thanks to Phoebe and Project Insight that you will be taking the field against Medicament-class ships, as well as their larger cousins. The ships of a Regular Fleet are not so large as Collectors, but they are far more advanced, and numerous when deployed. Against that, you will need more than just power, but the ability to use it freely.

The key to which lies buried in your memory, out of reach last year, but there is a reason you dedicated as much time as you did to it this one. The song of power that had held your soul is not one you wish to replicate in full, but it will serve as a fine example to forge your own melody. You only need recover it. Not as simple as it sounds, no. But it's necessary.

Lyrics of Fire: 91 + 34 + 20 (Arsenal of Wisdom) = 145 - 20 (Time Penalty) = 125 + 157 = 282/275.

Necessity, some have said, is the mother of many things. Mostly invention, though, and here it proves so. Getting to the music itself this year is just an act of completion; it seems that you were most of the way there already. The main work this year was taking what you'd found and making it yours. And there you've succeeded. You will never like violence, or using your Focus aggressively. Sometimes, though, that's necessary. And now you'll be able to.

(Amanda Hawk gains trait: Healer's Edge)

Through all that, and you managed somehow not to be totally absorbed by your work. You fought for every hour and minute of freedom to be with your family before the battle, some of whom would be there with you. At least Iris has promised to stick to infospace combat with Vision and Marcus' teams…unless absolutely necessary. You weren't happy about that caveat, but you also could tell a losing proposition when you saw one.

Still, she's not treating this with any overconfidence. She's nervous as anyone who's never truly fought for their life is before battle; you were like this before the Second Battle of Sol. And that, it makes you glad. Because it means that she will be careful. That absolutely necessary will mean that. You're not sure you could have handled her being on the battlefield in any other circumstance, though she will be on it in her avatar. Aboard Lina's command ship, of all places. A little strange, but there's symmetry there too, considering your presence on it in humanity's last engagement with the Shiplords.

The entire FTL capable FSN, along with escorts, has been placed around the edge of the SEZ. When the Shiplords arrive, they will be ready. Response groups lie within, anchored around Mars and Earth, each bristling with their own orbital defences, supplemented by the true Orbitals. The Third Battle of Sol isn't going to be the same, grinding affair as the Second, but a war far more in line with battles as the Contact Fleet's races know them. And in those, initiative lies with the defender. As advantages go, it's not the greatest – initiative can always be turned against you if your enemy has reserves you don't know about. But Lina will take every advantage humanity can get, and so will you.

You can only hope that it will be enough.