An airship was what you had intended when bringing the proposal to Raymond, but he and Trobror quickly ran away with the idea. 'Why settle for being stuck on a single planet?' had been the reptilian's words and the chief engineer agreed wholeheartedly. That in itself wouldn't have changed anything in your mind once upon a time, since you knew for a fact that an airship could be upgraded to sail through Oblivion... the two of them made sure to correct that line of thought.
Apparently both of their home realms weren't simply a planet that was surrounded by Oblivion, but one of many that hung in a pale imitation of the void between realms. Though their simply named 'space' and Oblivion are both awash in unseen energies that would destroy an unprotected vessel, one far faster than the other, space was a a relatively stable environment that needed its own protections. Dispersing heat, armor against radiation and impacts, and maintaining an air tight interior were the main concerns in space; whereas guarding against chaotic fields of nonexistence and malevolent entities was the priority in Oblivion... crew aboard an aethership could walk along the upper deck as easily as on Nirn so long as the proper magics were in place.
So it was that the three of you set about incorporating both sets of protection in the plan.
Which led to the issue of size. Trobror wanted a smaller vessel, something that could hold only two dozen people and had the minimum of everything other than speed, maneuverability, and stealth. Raymond sought a ship with maximum defensive ability and the facilities that he and Vahlen were accustomed to having back on their own world. You simply wanted to pile everything possible into a singular mobile fortress so as to not need to go through the process of rebuilding again.
Since by this point it seemed inevitable that you would be forced to move to a new world eventually, you used that as leverage to sway them to your way of thinking. Raymond agreed easily enough due to your end goal meeting his standards, but Trobror only agreed to help once you promised to make the ship capable of stealth and Oblivion travel before moving on to the rest.
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Two and a half weeks, many a magicka potion, and one extremely annoyed Cattleya later saw the basic skeleton of the ship halfway complete. It is shaping up to be a strange looking vessel, like a tower with a series of rings and four egg shaped structures intended to house much of what x-com has learned about Etherial ship building technology. Not that the rings or eggs are anywhere near being ready yet, but eventually the propulsion eggs will be mounted at an angle along the largest ring in the center of the ship at even intervals, placed so as to be capable of independent rotation along their mounting.
The reason for Cattleya's annoyance is due to having her time devoted entirely toward transmuting stone to metal, only stopping to sleep. Yourself having been making potions and using Azura's Star to enchant the 'bones' of the ship one by one even knowing that you will later need to refit the vessel piece by piece with a stronger type of metal than normal steel, you can relate. Then again... she might simply be upset that you've had the kwama open up a chasm in the forest East of their mine that is three hundred meter across and eight hundred deep.
It was a rushed excavation that was only really safe due to only needing to go straight down. The whole process has gone relatively smoothly nevertheless; with undead labor created from the skeletons found in Mountain Glenn and dead kwama workers, Raymond's guidance, and Trobror doing the heavy lifting alongside Espinoza's power armored bulk. You'd gone that route to assist in building a tower-like structure as well as to keep anyone from noticing the construction... at least until it is nearing completion, at which point it will rise just above the abandoned city's skyline.
Such a thing would be pretty hard to hide normally, but you should have the stealth enchantments in place by that point. Since you are going all in and maximizing defensive and stealth capabilities, Alteration style invisibility is something you intend to work on to perfect over a large scale. Intangibility on something you aren't in direct control of like your body means that the ship will be immobile and incapable of fighting while in that state, but that should render it undetectable to anyone on Remnant at least, though Ozpin or any of the other five powerful mages you can sense
might be able to tell that something is there.
All in all, the project is going smoothly, though the Kwama's expansion was put on hold for the first week. At the current pace, the ship should be at least flight and Oblivion ready within two months. Defenses, weaponry, and everything other than the most basic functions will take quite a bit longer.
The only real threat to your progress so far is the single bullhead that was spotted in the air over Mountain Glenn that morning.
Status: Healthy.
Magicka: (650/650)
Choose:
[] Go investigate.
[] Ignore them and keep working on the ship.
-[] Have Louise come serve as a magicka battery on the weekends, reducing build time by two weeks.
-[] Hire on additional faunus labor to speed things up. Will reduce income into the negative, dipping into the last hundred thousand Lien from Ozpin's loan, but will reduce build time by two weeks.
-[] Continue as is.
[] Do something illegal to speed up construction.
-[] take over a foundry to produce metals that won't need replaced after the ship's maiden voyage.
-[] work with Shino to steal Dust to make more Gravity Dust.
-[] Visit the nearby town of Ansel and slaughter the populace to create more undead workers.
[] POV Switch:
-[] Louise.
-[] Vicky. (Indirect control like last time)
[] Write in.
