Petals of Carbon Steel -- You're a Pilot, Not an Ace. Try your best.

Space, nearby

"You're cutting it a little close," Cam says.

Jay's reply is predictably terse. "Got held up,"

Cam raises her eyebrows, unseen on her end of the call. "That's not like you."

Cam's known Jay for long enough that she doesn't need to see the shrug to know it happened. Or, would have happened, if he hadn't been plugged into a direct neural interface. "It's... a lot to explain."

"What, you're busy right now?" Cam shifts uncomfortably in her harness. That this is Ryan's Lancer shouldn't make a difference — same basic design as hers, after all, and the harness and controls are fully adjustable for her size. Shouldn't have, and yet it's easy to forget just how many custom tweaks Cam has added to her own cockpit over the years. But her own mecha is still being repaired, and volunteering to take Ryan's place in his was the only way she could fill in for him on this mission. The thought of him missing his daughter's birthday after having been home so near to it had been too heartbreaking to let Cam do anything else. It had been for Audrey, mostly. Cam has known that kid nearly all her life, and she'd been so excited to have both of her parents here for the party before the news about this mission had come out. Cam can't even bring herself to say that Ryan's going to owe her too much after this, as much as he'd probably be insufferably sulky about it while still insisting on understanding the necessity.

It won't stop her from forcing Ryan to watch an actually accurate historical movie later, though. Someone needs to help cultivate some good taste in him, because he's certainly not going to do it for himself. She'll come up with a shortlist for that later. For right now, though, she's got another difficult man to deal with.

Cam and Jay, along with all the other pilots currently out in space, are staged in loose patrol formation around the Garter Snake, a show of strength to keep the ships belonging to the other factions from getting any bad ideas. The vessels belonging to the SSLF, the Sons of Jupiter, the SRI, the Imperial Guard, and the mysterious Jovian Source have been spaced out strategically, the attempt being to put them all as far from one another as possible while still being equidistant from the Garter Snake.

"Kana had news," Jay says, finally answering.

Well, Kana usually has news, although it's often not as consequential as Jay seems to be implying. "Good or bad?" Cam asks.

Jay is silent for another moment or two, and Cam wonders if he'll answer. He just doesn't answer questions, sometimes. But eventually he says: "Yes."

"Which is it?" Cam asks. Pulling teeth is at least a good change from flying the same route over and over again, and looking at a largely static scan map.

"My sister is here," Jay says. "This is... good."

Cam blinks in surprise. There are only so many J-Subjects out there, after all, from what she understands. "And the bad?"

"My sister is here," Jay explains, the subtle stress on the last word sounding almost anxious. For him, at least.

"Oh," Cam says. She doesn't know much about what Jay calls his family. She can tell that the topic is deeply personal and sometimes painful, so she hasn't pushed him on it very much. Cam isn't the sort to just go around nosing into everyone's business.

Mind you, that actually seems to be his type, considering his recent love life. The thought makes Cam feel a little mean — she's sure that Kana means well. Deep down, in that very Kana way of hers. It's good that Cam could at least arrange for that custom mecha for her before they left. Even if she'll probably just wreck it again, knowing Kana.

Still, though, even though they're acting as part of a larger group here, Cam doesn't like how short-handed they are, missing both Kana and Ryan. Whatever kind of stunt she pulled last time, no one has ever accused Kana of not being a team player on the battlefield, and effective teamwork has been the difference between life and death recently enough. Nothing's going on, but somehow, the entire situation with the other ships arranged around them just sets her teeth on edge. For all the broad expanse of space around them, Cam feels boxed in, trapped almost. Did she used to feel this way while piloting in these kinds of conditions?

No, not before that first disaster with the false Verdant. If worrying about everyone else wouldn't have just made her worry more than she already did, Cam might have seriously started to reconsider that standing offer to transfer to the AIJ's sorely understaffed R&D team as a mechanic. She's better with fixing machines than she is with piloting them, maybe, but she can do the latter well enough that she's needed more out here.

"Are you all getting this?" It's Kitty, sending a copy of her scan data to the whole patrol, movement out at extreme range flagged for their attention.

"I dunno, could just be some space junk," Azara chimes in.

"This isn't a debris field," Kitty says, not mollified.

Cam frowns at the map on her own display, looking at the readouts from the object, and comparing them to her own map. She's not a scans expert, but she agrees with Kitty. Someone else beats her to expressing this:

"Yeah, it's on my scans too," says one of the Garter Snake's pilots. Her name is Shae, Cam remembers. "It doesn't look like— shit!" It just went hot!"

Over the shared scan feed, the dot in question has started moving and emitting in a way that no inanimate object possibly could. That's when the firing starts.



Onboard the AIJ Garter Snake

The entire ship gives the muted, groaning shudder that instantly tells you that something has just flared its shields. Any hope that this might have been a freak micro object vanishes as the level 1 battle stations alarm starts to blare.

"What was that?" Arianne gasps, clutching at Agnieszka's arm.

"Railgun fire," Agnieszka says, staring around at the interior of the compartment with even more than her usual cold intensity. "I knew this was a bad idea."

The alarm continues to blare, and before you can say anything to that, you realise your comm unit is competing for your attention. Picking up, you recognise the High Commander's voice at once. "Himegami?"

"Yeah, sir?" you ask, drawing a blank as to why he's calling you.

"Are you still with Grangier?" Bernard asks.

You are. Someone has to keep an eye on them, and they haven't objected to you trailing a respectful distance after them since that near miss earlier. All three of you are off to one side of the converted cargo bay, near to one of the hatches. You'd call this paranoia on Agnieszka's part, but honestly any worries she might have have been more or less borne out. "Yes," you say. "What's going—"

"Get her to fucking safety and make sure she's strapped down," he says. "The alarm isn't for show." Then the call cuts out. You think maybe he's a little stressed out by all this.

It's good enough that he did hang up, though, because Agnieszka is already pulling Arianne out the nearest hatch. Oh, for fuck's sake. You flag down the nearest other security guard, hoping that he follows your lead, and push off after the pair of them, slipping through the hatch just behind Arianne.

"Where are you going?" you demand, sailing down the shaft beyond.

Agnieszka doesn't even look back as she says: "The hangar." Arianne even flashes you an apologetic smile, as if the situation is now out of her hands. Looking at Agnieszka's steely bearing, maybe it is.

"In the middle of... whatever this is?" Another shuddering impact — whatever's happening, it's bad.

"Yes," Agnieszka says. "We're leaving."

You exchange a look with the other guard — Graves — and say: "You're going to drag Lady Grangier out into what sounds a lot like a fight?"

"Nieszka is perfectly capable of keeping me safe," Arianne says, as if this is anything that can possibly be guaranteed, given the dangers of space combat. "Do you have any idea what's going on?" she adds.

"No," you admit. "But the combat alarm's going off, so educated guess."

The ship jolts as it abruptly changes velocity, and you and Graves slam into the side of the shaft. At least it's not your leg this time, and your shoulder hits his chest rather than any harder surface. Agnieszka manages to catch Arianne in her arms and push off from the side of the shaft at just the right moment to cushion the impact for the two of them — you have no idea how she and Jay can move through zero-g like that.

"This is why we're supposed to be strapped down!" Graves gasps, still winded.

You're torn between agreement, worry for your fellow pilots outside, and intense frustration that you're trapped in here, not able to do a thing to help anyone. Instead, you're failing even at babysitting some rich girl and your boyfriend's murderous sister.

And now they're already up and gone.

"Come on!" you tug at Graves' arm despite his groaning protest. If you can't do anything outside, you can at least do what you can in here. He follows without much resistance, at least. Which is great, because also like Jay, Agnieszka is moving through the shafts of this ship like a fish through water, and it's all you can do to keep up.

Despite only having made this trip once before in her life, Agnieszka seems to have memorised the route flawlessly, retracing the path you took earlier. At least if you lose the pair of them, you know where they're going. You're about to regret that thought, however.

"Is there a way we can get to the third hangar ahead of her?" you ask, rounding on Graves a little.

"The maintenance shafts?" Graves guesses. Then looks vaguely horrified. "Not in the middle of a battle, though. Fuck, if you want to cut them off, just make sure that her mecha's locked down."

"If we can even get ahold of anyone in all this," you say. "Fast enough to make a difference, I mean."

"I can give it a shot," Graves offers. "Better than the alternatives, maybe?"

He might be right. There's a small, traitorous part of you, though, that wants to just let the pair of them go, whatever your orders. The way Jay has talked about her before, Agnieszka would certainly be handy in any kind of a fight, even if her first instinct is just to get Arianne away from danger. Your friends are out there, after all.

Article:

What do you do?

[ ] Try to go through the maintenance shafts in the middle of what sounds like combat
[ ] Try to get ahold of someone on the bridge to make sure Agnieszka can't leave with Arianne
[ ] Keep following them, but don't try too hard to stop them from leaving