HOMEWORLD: The Sword of Caaliburnous (She-Ra/Homeworld crossover)

Ajora sighed, quietly. "If you check my wrist comp, you can get the date and time. My passwords aren't that secure. But what really matters is...I wasn't on the frigate when the battle started - I was on the carrier, on the bridge, shouting at my commander about it being an illegal order."

Emilia arched an eyebrow. "Can you prove it?"

Ajora hunched her shoulders. Then she realized...

She could.

"I was on the bridge. I, uh...I know the exact disposition of everything in the first few minuets of the fight - you corroborate that with the flight recorders. If I was on the frigate, I'd have a different view of the battle, and I know I would because the kinetic frigates were deployed on the spinward front in a wall formation, like so, to keep anything from evacuating to a higher orbit in a barrage range. The heavy destryoers were in an arrowhead formation, heading straight for the center, while there were six...no, seven squadrons of Triikdor fighters, twelve each, with four squadrons of Kark attack bombers."

She blushed. "They were in claw formations, disposed in standard patterns - here, here, here, and here." She held her fingers up, charting the course.

Emilia pursed her lips slightly.

"So, you saw they were going to head for Kharak to destroy it and attempted to waylay the plans. For that you were imprisoned."

"...yeah..." Ajora said.

"And your cell?"

Ajora realized there was an answer that was almost the truth, even.

"...in the Taiidan Empire, there is an organization called the Astronomic Survey. The Eyes. They're basically spies. They keep tabs on our enemies. On the galactic council. On...disloyal elements. This fleet...they would want to keep everything that happened here as secret as they could. If it got out to the rest of the galaxy - just to the rest of the empire..."

She trailed off as Emilia listened. The Somtaaw woman drummed her fingers on the counter. She nodded. "Very...interesting." She said, slowly. "I'll need to check this information with other sources, Lieutenant." She leaned forward. "But for now, why don't you tell me about this Galactic Council?"

"High, low, high, low, high, low, high- oofh!"

Bow rocked backwards on his heels, skidding slightly as his best friend in the whole universe lashed out with a heel kick that you wouldn't expect from someone so short and water-rich as Glimtara. The impact left his forearm aching and the pad he was holding dimpled in half as his friend learned the reason why most warriors didn't throw themselves into that kind of strike in actual battle as she rebounded, lost her balance, and collapsed backwards onto the padding.

The gymnasium on this level of the Mothership, like most crew quarters, was spartan, clean, and too well used. The ship's crew had supposed to be fifty thousand Kushan, spread throughout the entire superstructure. Most of them were supposed to be centered in the cryogenics bay, the bridge, engineering and fabrication. But the Mothership, currently, had sixty eight thousand people aboard. The extra eighteen thousand were within the ranges that the ship was able to accept - but everyone was feeling the crunch of it.

They felt the crunch and appreciated it.

Bow, himself, appreciated the chance to not...

Think.

"You need to not throw yourself into things like that," Bow said, holding his hand out to Glimtara Nabaal. She scowled up at him, then grabbed his hand, huffing as he hauled her to her feet. "Keep your balance, only deliver blows you can recover from..."

"Right." Glimtara scowled at the pad he was still holding, as if it owed her something.

"...now, get ready to retreat, Glim," Bow said, grinning slightly. "Looks like shift-2 is here."

Glimtara lifted her head and huffed as she saw a collection of Sobani security specialists entering the room. They sized her up, dismissed her, then swept their gazes to Bow. They nodded to him. Kith Brother, they said. One flashed a Sobani hand sigh. Bow responded in Tiirese. "We're good, you can use the facilities."

Glimtara felt a flush rising on her dusky brown cheeks. She wanted to tell Bow it was okay - that he didn't have to earn the icy frowns from his Kiith brothers. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, lets get something to eat."

"After a shower."

"Yeah, fine, I guess!"

The mess hall they picked was bustling and the ration packs were shockingly good. One of the nice things about being on the most advanced starship ever built, the protein fabrication systems were top notch. Glimtara pushed her matzo with a fork, while Bow ate like he had been starving. "Wish we had..." she trailed off.

"Hmm?"

"You've heard they still have that Taiidani alive?" Glimtara asked.

"Yeah," Bow said. "I hope...I hope she..."

"What?"

"I don't know." Bow shook his head. "I know everyone else says good riddance to the first batch. But we're not some...Heresy War sandrunner crew - this is the Mothership. We're CEF." He sat up a bit. The name Coalition Expeditionary Force meant a lot to Bow. Both his fathers had served in Operation Khadiim. Equatorial Hells, she was pretty sure Father Gorjii had actually been at the battle that had sent the so called K'Had Sajuuk, the Kiith Sa of Kiith Gaalsiem down in flames and ended the last paroxysm of violence before the official end of the Heresy Wars. Glimtara bit her lip slightly, seeing his expression.

"They burned Kharak, Bow."

"No, the bastards who gave the orders burned Kharak. She said she was in prison for refusing to obey!"

"But-"

"You have to be fucking kidding me!"

The voice that cut across their conversation drew both their attentions.

A tall, beautiful, dark skinned Somtaaw woman was standing by the water refresher, a smokeless cigstick in her hand. Technically against the regs and on their way towards extinction - just like everything on this ship, Glimtara thought - the cigstick was thrust towards the other man she was speaking with, a grave and grim looking S'jet. Their Kiith signifiers were clear, but what was even clearer was their shared, technical circle. They might be different Kiith...but both of them were Fleet Intelligence. Their conversation dipped quieter and Glimtara glanced at Bow, then stood and casually walked not...quite...towards the water refresher.

Her ears strained.

"It's carbon dated - its older than Landfall, Em," the S'jet said.

"Bullshit!" the Somtaaw said.

"It's got a symbol of the Angel Moon on the hilt," the S'Jet said.

"Fucking bullshit," the Somtaaw said. Despite her words, her cigstick was trembling. Her hands were shaking.

"You know it," the S'jet said.

The Somtaaw woman - she was older than Glimtra by at least two decades, maybe three - smoked on the cigstick. It was smokeless, so no vapor emerged, beyond two tiny trails from her nose. She hissed. "Sajuuk's balls! It can't be, it can't fucking be that sword. Run it by Historical."

"Can I help you, Ensign?" the S'jet asked, frowning directly at Glimtra, who stood stock still.

"N-No, uh, uh, uh," she said, then saw his nametag. Her face went cold. "F...Fleet Intelligence Moderator."

It was Cynsk S'jet. Fleet Intelligence was a relatively small branch - but he was the voice of Fleet Intelligence. He had the authority to have her scrubbing corridors all week. Or worse. Much worse.

"Lets continue this conversation elsewhere, Em," Cynsk S'jet said.

Emilia Somtaaw shot Glimtara a wintery frown. "Yes. Lets." She narrowed her eyes, clearly recognizing Glimtara. Glimtara flushed.

When she returned to the table, Bow was looking a bit like he was about to say I told you so.

Glimtara took her seat. "Do you know anything about an ancient mythical sword?" she asked.

"W...I...what?" Bow stammered.

"You're Sobani!" Glimtara said.

"And swords haven't been used as a serious war-weapon for...for..." Bow paused, then leaned back in his seat, frowning slightly. Until four days ago was unsaid. There had been plenty of gunfire aboard the captured Taiidani frigate. But at the end of the day, what had broken the crew, what had made the ship Kushan hadn't been pistol, rifle or grenade.

It had been the knife.

Bow whispered. "In his name..." he put his hand to his mouth, his eyes distant. "Caaliburnous..."

Glimtara frowned. Hard. "Who is that Taiidani anyway?" She muttered.

Ajora had a hard time sleeping. The interview had been long. Slow. Grinding. And still, sleep was elusive. When she fell into it again, she had vauge, incoherent dreams of running down a ship's. Calling out for someone. Behind her, deck plating kept lifting up and hands kept reaching out, gray and pallid, catching at her ankles.

When she was dragged from sleep, it was a mercy, even if her brains felt like mush and she saw everything through a bleary wall of fatigue. She blinked away the smears of light and saw two stern faced Kushan waiting for her.

The mutely led her through the narrow containment corridors, to the chamber she had been interviewed before, and set her down. Once more, she was facing Emilia, who was looking at her with a severe frown.

"We have confirmed what you say to be true," she said. "You are...as far as is possible...not responsible for what your fleet did."

It sounded a bit like she was spitting out teeth.

But she meant it.

Ajora felt like she couldn't breathe. "S...So, I...am I free to go?"

"That's the question we need to answer now," Emilia said, frowning.

---
EMILIA: Claim "Taiidani Murderer"
KUSHAN PEOPLE: Reveal "Rumors about the sword"

AJORA'S CURRENT STATE
HEAT: 3/6
PROPS: "Loyalty: People Who Need Help and Kaja", "Motivation: I want to live", "Ajora's Full Story", "Ajora's Location", "Taiidani Fleet Motivation: Hide information from Imperial Intelligence"

EMILIA'S PROPS: "Loyalty: ???", "Motivation: ???", "Taiidani Murderer"
KUSHAN PEOPLE'S PROPS: "Loyalty: ???", "Motivation:???"
UNCLAIMED PROPS:, Taiidani Murderer

Looks like by claiming Ajora's full story, the location, and grabbing the motivation, you have enough narrative weight to get Emilia on your side! But your goal, remember, was to JOIN them! However, it does look like the Kushan People (being a fickle actor) have put a new prop on the field...

The intrigue is actually real close to being done. It's a relatively simple one, after all, to get us started off into the concept of using them. They're a major system in HEAT! Future intrigues are going to be a BIT more protracted.

Ajora breathed in - slow, ragged, through her teeth. She felt a sudden jolt of anger in her breast...but it wasn't aimed at this interrogator, this woman who was trying to be professional through what had to be a haze of sorrow so intense it made Ajora's heart hurt just to think about it. She forced her voice to be calm. Level. "This war is so old that...that most people in the galaxy don't even remember it as anything but legends and prophecies and myths." She shook her head. "And the bastards in that fleet started it again - and made us...made me into a murderer. A murderer of millions. I won't...I can't let them do that. I...there are...I can't."

She thought of Kaja.

What would Kaja do in that impossible position - stuck between her loyalty and her brains, between her precarious position and the deep, dark pit of being a lower caste mutant.

Emilia narrowed her eyes fractionally.

"I want to help," Ajora said, her eyes flaring. "I want...I can fly. I know Taiidani regs, codes. I know the galaxy." She smiled, shyly. "Parts of it, at least."

Emilia frowned, then stood. "I will need to bring this up with Fleet Intelligence."

She flipped her hand. "Wait here, crewman-" she turned midway through the conversation, to one of the burly men who waited by the door leading into the room. "-bring her something to eat."

"Yes sir."

Ajora was left with a meal that tasted like recycled proteins formatted in the blandest method imaginable, pushing around cubes of quasi-meat in quiet and darkness, waiting to see what the outcome of all of this was going to be. She didn't eat anything. There was no room in her stomach - too full of tension.


Sooooooo, what room does Ajora get!?
[ ] Glimtara
[ ] Entrapta (I haven't come up with a good Kushan name for her yet, ahh)
[ ] Perfuma (likewise)
[ ] Write In

Also, you get 15 XP! Warning: I am considering a new advancement system, but it's not ironed out yetttttt!