Battleship_Fusou
(The Itty-Bitty Pretty Battleship Kitty)
- Location
- Surigao Strait
Good girl, now don't forget to brush your teeth before bed, honey.
Faith in Superior Firepower [Planetary Annihilation Multicross SI]
- Thread starter Faith
- Start date
Deleted
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Deleted
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76 - Interruption
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
3:40AM is too early to be posting chapters.
76 - Interruption
"...after which point I dropped a couple of hundred Purifiers into the caves and let them go weapons free. Queen got minced in about three seconds, the rest of the swarm lasted about as long, and by the time the things got smart and started running, we'd already gotten both the Terraformer and our Cores online. Between them, they started pumping out oxygen and fixing up the atmosphere, killing off all the other uncovered bugs."
"Which was kind of anticlimactic, honestly," Hope added. "I was very disappointed with the lack of lava beams and bedrock-crushing claws displayed by the Queen before her death. Worst boss fight ever."
"Anyway," I continued, rolling my eyes, "once we cleaned up there we went back to our hub world, dug an ocean, put all the water there so the place stopped being a stupid swamp, built a -"
The rest of what I had to say caught in my mouth as a two foot high blue vortex appearing on one wall of the room, a fluffy grey critter leaping from the portal and practically bouncing off the ground up onto the table, its claws clicking on the hard surface.
As it sat down before Fusou, I noticed the number of coloured ribbons tied into its fur. The poor cat looked like it had been stuck in an arts-and-crafts room with a five year old, to be honest.
Before it even had a chance to get settled, the portal on the wall expanded, reaching down just enough to brush the floor, perhaps four feet high in total, and a human girl rushed in, a waterfall of white silk hanging from her head.
Fusou smiled as the girl darted forward, sweeping up the cat and hugging it tightly.
"Bad kitty, Muirgen! You know Fusou-mama is in the middle of a meeting…"
Her voice began to trail off as she looked up from the cat, first at Fusou and then, absolutely mortified, at us. I raised a hand lazily and waved, a smile on my face, as the horror set in.
Why is there a child in here? Why does Fusou have a child here?
How am I supposed to know?
Fusou, unaware of our silent conversation, giggled and reached out, grabbing the girl by the arm and pulling her into her lap, combing her fingers through the girl's white hair.
"Well it wasn't on the agenda, but I suppose I should introduce our new comers to the both of you. The beautiful little girl in my lap is my daughter, Lily. The little ball of trouble that started this is our cat, Muirgen."
The girl, Lily, looked like she was slowly working her way through a whole spectrum of terror and embarrassment in slow motion, her golden eyes wide as plates. Behind her, Fusou smiled warmly.
"Since you're here though Lily, why don't you at least say hello to our guests, Commanders Faith and Hope, before you decide to leave."
There was silence for a moment - whether because they were having a silent conversation or just because the girl was shy, I wasn't sure, and then Lily's shoulders slumped and she finally spoke up.
"H-Hello."
As soon as she'd spoken she leapt from Fusou's lap and back through the portal, vanishing through to wherever. Fusou cradled her head in her hands, muttering something about the girl's shy tendencies.
So… are you gunna ask, or am I?
Shoot.
"So… what was that all about?"
Fusou, head still cradled in her hands, continued mumbling. Mentally sighing, I cleared my throat to get Fusou's attention and then repeated myself. "So, uh. What was that all about?"
Fusou seemed rather depressed, hesitating before she answered.
"That was Lily, my daughter. I created her in my loneliness near the end of war in the Halo universe. Unfortunately…" Fusou froze, an expression of profound sadness crossing her features as she looked into the distance somewhere behind us, presumably gathering her thoughts before continuing.
"...Unfortunately, I let my fear of unleashing a monster get the better of me and before I had even activated Lily, I imposed some rather...rather heavy restrictions on her systems. It was a bout of short-sightedness that kept me from realizing what that would do to her development when I didn't hide the restrictions from her knowledge."
Fusou paused again, an unreadable expression crossing her avatar's features.
Okay, I was expecting a cute sappy story, not…
Hope's response was a mere 'hm', but I got the sense she felt the same.
"The fact that Lily knew, as soon as she was even aware, that she should have been far more capable than she was, that her systems had been so heavily compromised before she even started… It planted a fear of the world in her that's never left, despite my best efforts to help her. That's why she's so shy and bolted off. All because I was too afraid of fucking up."
Fusou leaned back in her chair at this point, looking up at the ceiling as she planted her palms over her eyes and sighed heavily. The most telling part though, was the self-disgust that had filled her voice as she described just what she had done.
Oh. Well.
What… what do you say to that? 'Oh, sorry you mentally crippled your only child because of your own crushing fears?'
Yeah… if someone said that about…
I quickly clamped down on that line of thinking. It wasn't worth the pain. I didn't need to ask to know Hope agreed.
After a long silence, I sighed. "Fusou, that's… I'm sorry. I get that that probably doesn't mean much from a stranger, but..."
The commander across from us huffed out an ugly, bitter little choking laugh at my reply before she sat back up, bringing her hands down from her face as she wiped away a few tears before replying.
"You have no reason to apologize, Faith. You didn't push me into what I did, you weren't even there…" Fusou's voice cracked slightly at the end of her statement.
"Doesn't stop me from feeling like shit because of it."
"Don't I know it. She's forgiven me over and over for it, but I'll always be guilty of hurting her...I hurt my little Lily so badly that she might never get past it, even with the millennia we'll likely be around for," Fusou shot back, choking on a sob as she spoke and dropped her head forwards into her hands as she propped her elbows on the table between us, tears starting to drip from beneath her silky bangs to land on the table's polished surface.
Millennia… there's a sobering thought.
It was my turn to 'hm' as I pushed my chair back and stood. Ignoring Hope's confusion, I stepped up and back onto the seat of the chair and then jumped up onto the table on my knees, sliding across the smooth surface easily. I twisted sideways to slide on one leg, allowing me to tip back over to an upright position as I reached the far side and wrapped my arms around Fusou's shoulders.
The commander - the woman, - stiffened briefly before she seemed to just give in, burying her face in my chest and sobbing for all she was worth, her arms eventually coming up to wrap around me in a tight, desperate hug.
This is not at all how I expected this meeting to go. I was thinking more imposing giant robots and thinly veiled threats.
Shut up and join the hug, Hope.
76 - Interruption
"...after which point I dropped a couple of hundred Purifiers into the caves and let them go weapons free. Queen got minced in about three seconds, the rest of the swarm lasted about as long, and by the time the things got smart and started running, we'd already gotten both the Terraformer and our Cores online. Between them, they started pumping out oxygen and fixing up the atmosphere, killing off all the other uncovered bugs."
"Which was kind of anticlimactic, honestly," Hope added. "I was very disappointed with the lack of lava beams and bedrock-crushing claws displayed by the Queen before her death. Worst boss fight ever."
"Anyway," I continued, rolling my eyes, "once we cleaned up there we went back to our hub world, dug an ocean, put all the water there so the place stopped being a stupid swamp, built a -"
The rest of what I had to say caught in my mouth as a two foot high blue vortex appearing on one wall of the room, a fluffy grey critter leaping from the portal and practically bouncing off the ground up onto the table, its claws clicking on the hard surface.
As it sat down before Fusou, I noticed the number of coloured ribbons tied into its fur. The poor cat looked like it had been stuck in an arts-and-crafts room with a five year old, to be honest.
Before it even had a chance to get settled, the portal on the wall expanded, reaching down just enough to brush the floor, perhaps four feet high in total, and a human girl rushed in, a waterfall of white silk hanging from her head.
Fusou smiled as the girl darted forward, sweeping up the cat and hugging it tightly.
"Bad kitty, Muirgen! You know Fusou-mama is in the middle of a meeting…"
Her voice began to trail off as she looked up from the cat, first at Fusou and then, absolutely mortified, at us. I raised a hand lazily and waved, a smile on my face, as the horror set in.
Why is there a child in here? Why does Fusou have a child here?
How am I supposed to know?
Fusou, unaware of our silent conversation, giggled and reached out, grabbing the girl by the arm and pulling her into her lap, combing her fingers through the girl's white hair.
"Well it wasn't on the agenda, but I suppose I should introduce our new comers to the both of you. The beautiful little girl in my lap is my daughter, Lily. The little ball of trouble that started this is our cat, Muirgen."
The girl, Lily, looked like she was slowly working her way through a whole spectrum of terror and embarrassment in slow motion, her golden eyes wide as plates. Behind her, Fusou smiled warmly.
"Since you're here though Lily, why don't you at least say hello to our guests, Commanders Faith and Hope, before you decide to leave."
There was silence for a moment - whether because they were having a silent conversation or just because the girl was shy, I wasn't sure, and then Lily's shoulders slumped and she finally spoke up.
"H-Hello."
As soon as she'd spoken she leapt from Fusou's lap and back through the portal, vanishing through to wherever. Fusou cradled her head in her hands, muttering something about the girl's shy tendencies.
So… are you gunna ask, or am I?
Shoot.
"So… what was that all about?"
Fusou, head still cradled in her hands, continued mumbling. Mentally sighing, I cleared my throat to get Fusou's attention and then repeated myself. "So, uh. What was that all about?"
Fusou seemed rather depressed, hesitating before she answered.
"That was Lily, my daughter. I created her in my loneliness near the end of war in the Halo universe. Unfortunately…" Fusou froze, an expression of profound sadness crossing her features as she looked into the distance somewhere behind us, presumably gathering her thoughts before continuing.
"...Unfortunately, I let my fear of unleashing a monster get the better of me and before I had even activated Lily, I imposed some rather...rather heavy restrictions on her systems. It was a bout of short-sightedness that kept me from realizing what that would do to her development when I didn't hide the restrictions from her knowledge."
Fusou paused again, an unreadable expression crossing her avatar's features.
Okay, I was expecting a cute sappy story, not…
Hope's response was a mere 'hm', but I got the sense she felt the same.
"The fact that Lily knew, as soon as she was even aware, that she should have been far more capable than she was, that her systems had been so heavily compromised before she even started… It planted a fear of the world in her that's never left, despite my best efforts to help her. That's why she's so shy and bolted off. All because I was too afraid of fucking up."
Fusou leaned back in her chair at this point, looking up at the ceiling as she planted her palms over her eyes and sighed heavily. The most telling part though, was the self-disgust that had filled her voice as she described just what she had done.
Oh. Well.
What… what do you say to that? 'Oh, sorry you mentally crippled your only child because of your own crushing fears?'
Yeah… if someone said that about…
I quickly clamped down on that line of thinking. It wasn't worth the pain. I didn't need to ask to know Hope agreed.
After a long silence, I sighed. "Fusou, that's… I'm sorry. I get that that probably doesn't mean much from a stranger, but..."
The commander across from us huffed out an ugly, bitter little choking laugh at my reply before she sat back up, bringing her hands down from her face as she wiped away a few tears before replying.
"You have no reason to apologize, Faith. You didn't push me into what I did, you weren't even there…" Fusou's voice cracked slightly at the end of her statement.
"Doesn't stop me from feeling like shit because of it."
"Don't I know it. She's forgiven me over and over for it, but I'll always be guilty of hurting her...I hurt my little Lily so badly that she might never get past it, even with the millennia we'll likely be around for," Fusou shot back, choking on a sob as she spoke and dropped her head forwards into her hands as she propped her elbows on the table between us, tears starting to drip from beneath her silky bangs to land on the table's polished surface.
Millennia… there's a sobering thought.
It was my turn to 'hm' as I pushed my chair back and stood. Ignoring Hope's confusion, I stepped up and back onto the seat of the chair and then jumped up onto the table on my knees, sliding across the smooth surface easily. I twisted sideways to slide on one leg, allowing me to tip back over to an upright position as I reached the far side and wrapped my arms around Fusou's shoulders.
The commander - the woman, - stiffened briefly before she seemed to just give in, burying her face in my chest and sobbing for all she was worth, her arms eventually coming up to wrap around me in a tight, desperate hug.
This is not at all how I expected this meeting to go. I was thinking more imposing giant robots and thinly veiled threats.
Shut up and join the hug, Hope.
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Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
Can I possibly sig this?
77 - Parting
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Posting this now because I may not get a chance at any point in the near future. Don't expect further updates until this time next week or thereabouts - internet availability here is absolutely abysmal.
77 - Parting
For a few minutes, the only sound in the room was Fusou's gentle sobbing, muffled by my jacket. Eventually, the crying lessened to sniffling and finally Fusou pulled away from the hug, wiping away the last of her tears.
"I...I'm sorry for breaking down like this, Faith, Hope. I...I shouldn't have dumped all of that on you two," she muttered softly.
I bent down, bringing myself down to her eye level, and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. Fusou"Hey. Speaking as a big sister, I think I'm qualified to say that sometimes you just need to have a good cry, let it all out. If anything, it was probably my fault for asking."
I think it would probably be best if we decided to bugger off around now. Let her pull herself back together a little.
I sent her my wordless agreement and stood, leaving the still-sniffling Fusou alone for a second.
Activating my Avatar's hand-mounted Fabricators, I quickly threw together a simple communications device - a hologram projector, a speaker, a microphone and a couple of buttons bolted onto the top of a long-ranged communication antenna. The whole thing sat inside a case of smooth and plain metal, a small device that fit snugly on the palm of my hand.
Placing it down on the table, I gave Fusou another smile before stepping away. "I think we'll leave you alone for a while, alright? Call me if you want to get in touch again."
As things stood, that was the only thing the device was good for - the three buttons were labelled 'Faith', 'Hope', and 'Hang Up', and those three functions were the only things I'd bothered to install, - but I was relatively sure that if she was even half as competent as I was - not exactly a high bar, either, - she'd be able to figure out the internal technology easily.
"I suppose so," Fusou said after a long moment's consideration, seemingly perking back up as if nothing had happened. "I think I need to go and check on Lily before I take some time for myself though, so I'll contact you when I'm ready and able to continue our original conversation sometime in the future. I'll let you know if I spot anything interesting happening."
Well, glad to see she's better… ish.
Our little hug now broken apart, Fusou stood and wandered around the table to the door. Whatever anomaly - and I suspected it was Slipspace, although Fusou had never admitted as such, - had blocked our connection to the Command Network dissapated, allowing the lot of us to reconnect with our units.
Interestingly, all our units reported that we'd been absent about twenty minutes - which was odd, because I was fairly certain that I'd spent about that long explaining to Fusou the absolute clusterfuck I'd made of the FTL universe, let alone the rest of the time we'd spent inside.
Hm. Neat party trick.
We really need to speak to her about tech trading. I would not mind getting my hands on that.
We don't have much to sell, though. The kinetic drain tech from Sanctum? Mind control stuff? Someone with the Halo Array isn't going to be that interested in the weapons we have.
Hm. We'll have to think on it.
The smooth panel that made up the room's door slid open as easily as it had shut, hours and/or minutes prior, and Fusou lead us out. The two of us trailed behind her as we weaved back through the Embassy and towards the docks.
The presence of armoured marines had slightly diminished, although there were still a couple hanging around, shooting us wary looks. Fusou accompanied us all the way along to the security checkpoint before turning back to us.
"I've taken the liberty of filing the necessary paperwork for you and your 'crew' to be recognized as members of Humanity from a lost colony. Currently, the only official one was the Manswell Expedition but I'll see to it that the records are adjusted."
We walked into a blatant trap and it's giving us nothing but benefits. What the hell is wrong with this world?
You're just mad 'cos you said it was a dumb idea. Bet if we'd gone to Omega, we would have just been mugged by unruly Krogan or something.
"With that, all you'll need to do is speak to Admiral Chester Gram about how you want to handle interactions with the Systems Alliance. For now at least, the Human Systems Alliance now recognizes the 'Faith Foundation' as a legitimate company in control of a sovereign world."
In which case, we should probably go steal a world that isn't in Batarian space. I feel like they would not even slightly appreciate that.
Yeah… we'll have to relocate. Not a big deal - we can dock the orbital stuff in a shipyard and jump the whole thing. Put our bases in lockdown, throw some leaves over it, and no one will ever know we were there.
"Expect the Council to lean on you hard for technology when they eventually work their way through the bureaucracy. Should you want me to change anything in what I've setup, just let me know. The Alliance won't care too much until you start making obvious moves out in the open. I hope this makes life a bit easier for you."
"That sounds good, Fusou," I said, "it's a great help. Sorry to put you through so much trouble."
Fusou reached into one of her sleeves and withdrew a small data storage device of some kind, holding it out for me to take.
"Your records are on the disk along with a few more obscure events that I'm fairly sure you'll like knowing about," Fusou explained. "For now though, you'll need to leave the station until you chose to 'officially' make contact with someone. I'll need to update the Alliance so that they won't do something exceedingly stupid about your sudden presence, but I won't be telling them any more than I have to, just so you know."
"Thanks again, Fusou. Sorry again for…" I waved my hands in a vague, all-encompassing manner. Turning away from the young woman, Hope and I looked towards the Jacob Keyes. "And so, if you don't mind, I think it's time we were off."
77 - Parting
For a few minutes, the only sound in the room was Fusou's gentle sobbing, muffled by my jacket. Eventually, the crying lessened to sniffling and finally Fusou pulled away from the hug, wiping away the last of her tears.
"I...I'm sorry for breaking down like this, Faith, Hope. I...I shouldn't have dumped all of that on you two," she muttered softly.
I bent down, bringing myself down to her eye level, and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. Fusou"Hey. Speaking as a big sister, I think I'm qualified to say that sometimes you just need to have a good cry, let it all out. If anything, it was probably my fault for asking."
I think it would probably be best if we decided to bugger off around now. Let her pull herself back together a little.
I sent her my wordless agreement and stood, leaving the still-sniffling Fusou alone for a second.
Activating my Avatar's hand-mounted Fabricators, I quickly threw together a simple communications device - a hologram projector, a speaker, a microphone and a couple of buttons bolted onto the top of a long-ranged communication antenna. The whole thing sat inside a case of smooth and plain metal, a small device that fit snugly on the palm of my hand.
Placing it down on the table, I gave Fusou another smile before stepping away. "I think we'll leave you alone for a while, alright? Call me if you want to get in touch again."
As things stood, that was the only thing the device was good for - the three buttons were labelled 'Faith', 'Hope', and 'Hang Up', and those three functions were the only things I'd bothered to install, - but I was relatively sure that if she was even half as competent as I was - not exactly a high bar, either, - she'd be able to figure out the internal technology easily.
"I suppose so," Fusou said after a long moment's consideration, seemingly perking back up as if nothing had happened. "I think I need to go and check on Lily before I take some time for myself though, so I'll contact you when I'm ready and able to continue our original conversation sometime in the future. I'll let you know if I spot anything interesting happening."
Well, glad to see she's better… ish.
Our little hug now broken apart, Fusou stood and wandered around the table to the door. Whatever anomaly - and I suspected it was Slipspace, although Fusou had never admitted as such, - had blocked our connection to the Command Network dissapated, allowing the lot of us to reconnect with our units.
Interestingly, all our units reported that we'd been absent about twenty minutes - which was odd, because I was fairly certain that I'd spent about that long explaining to Fusou the absolute clusterfuck I'd made of the FTL universe, let alone the rest of the time we'd spent inside.
Hm. Neat party trick.
We really need to speak to her about tech trading. I would not mind getting my hands on that.
We don't have much to sell, though. The kinetic drain tech from Sanctum? Mind control stuff? Someone with the Halo Array isn't going to be that interested in the weapons we have.
Hm. We'll have to think on it.
The smooth panel that made up the room's door slid open as easily as it had shut, hours and/or minutes prior, and Fusou lead us out. The two of us trailed behind her as we weaved back through the Embassy and towards the docks.
The presence of armoured marines had slightly diminished, although there were still a couple hanging around, shooting us wary looks. Fusou accompanied us all the way along to the security checkpoint before turning back to us.
"I've taken the liberty of filing the necessary paperwork for you and your 'crew' to be recognized as members of Humanity from a lost colony. Currently, the only official one was the Manswell Expedition but I'll see to it that the records are adjusted."
We walked into a blatant trap and it's giving us nothing but benefits. What the hell is wrong with this world?
You're just mad 'cos you said it was a dumb idea. Bet if we'd gone to Omega, we would have just been mugged by unruly Krogan or something.
"With that, all you'll need to do is speak to Admiral Chester Gram about how you want to handle interactions with the Systems Alliance. For now at least, the Human Systems Alliance now recognizes the 'Faith Foundation' as a legitimate company in control of a sovereign world."
In which case, we should probably go steal a world that isn't in Batarian space. I feel like they would not even slightly appreciate that.
Yeah… we'll have to relocate. Not a big deal - we can dock the orbital stuff in a shipyard and jump the whole thing. Put our bases in lockdown, throw some leaves over it, and no one will ever know we were there.
"Expect the Council to lean on you hard for technology when they eventually work their way through the bureaucracy. Should you want me to change anything in what I've setup, just let me know. The Alliance won't care too much until you start making obvious moves out in the open. I hope this makes life a bit easier for you."
"That sounds good, Fusou," I said, "it's a great help. Sorry to put you through so much trouble."
Fusou reached into one of her sleeves and withdrew a small data storage device of some kind, holding it out for me to take.
"Your records are on the disk along with a few more obscure events that I'm fairly sure you'll like knowing about," Fusou explained. "For now though, you'll need to leave the station until you chose to 'officially' make contact with someone. I'll need to update the Alliance so that they won't do something exceedingly stupid about your sudden presence, but I won't be telling them any more than I have to, just so you know."
"Thanks again, Fusou. Sorry again for…" I waved my hands in a vague, all-encompassing manner. Turning away from the young woman, Hope and I looked towards the Jacob Keyes. "And so, if you don't mind, I think it's time we were off."
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
As always, go for it.
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Threadmarked now. Unfortunately as I said there's not going to be any more chapters for some time now, due to the internet access here almost all either 'adequate, but expensive' or 'free, but useless'.
That said, I will try to throw together a bit of a buffer. Hopefully when I get back I'll be able to do a double update (maybe a triple, depends on how much I get written for FiSF compared to my other fics).
That said, I will try to throw together a bit of a buffer. Hopefully when I get back I'll be able to do a double update (maybe a triple, depends on how much I get written for FiSF compared to my other fics).
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
Depends on who is doing the appreciating. The Batarians? Or the slaves?
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
I apologise in advance for the relatively low quality of this coming chapter. To me, at least, it comes across as a bit choppy and unflowy (yes that's a word, fight me) and I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's mostly boring filler that I don't particularly care to go through and edit. The entire purpose of this chapter is to serve as a divide between the direct Escalation cross and the next section of the Commander Effect FiSF arc, and for that I guess it works, but… meh. I still don't like it too much.
Now, due to TimeSkip Shenanigans, the events of Superior Firepower are currently lagging a few years behind those of Escalation and Reverse Engineering. In order to solve this problem... well, there's really only one thing to do.
It's time for the...
Now, due to TimeSkip Shenanigans, the events of Superior Firepower are currently lagging a few years behind those of Escalation and Reverse Engineering. In order to solve this problem... well, there's really only one thing to do.
It's time for the...
LIGHTNING ROUND!
78 - Reassess
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Oh, shitty Optus home broadband, how I've missed your laggy and dysfunctional embrace! I'm sorry, I take back every bad thing I ever said! I'll never leave you for some shitty hotel hotspot in Cairns again! I love you, shitty Optus broadband! *hugs internet router tightly whilst crying*
Oh, uh.
You weren't supposed to see that. Just, uh...
Just take this chapter, and forget that ever happened.
---
78 - Reassess
The flight away from the Citadel was infinitely less tense than the flight in.
Knowing that Fusou and the Citadel Fleets weren't about to fill the Jacob Keyes' hull with mass accelerator slugs certainly helped that situation.
Hope leaned over the star chart that dominated the centre of the bridge, pointing out solar systems one by one.
"...and it has an absolutely astounding variety of wildlife, from what the Gageas are picking up, both flora and fauna. It has a little too little oxygen for decent Human habitation, but thanks to the Cores that's a very minor issue. Its twin moons are relatively high in both iron and titanium - which reminds me, I also need to ask Fusou about that Titanium-E stuff the Codex mentioned. Apparently it's some kind of super armour, and I want some."
I shot her a flat glare. She rolled her eyes and got back on track.
"Overall, I'd say this system is easily the best one for us to take. It's outside Systems Alliance space, but close to its borders - metaphorically speaking, of course, because such a concept as it refers to space empires is… laughable at best, - and also a relatively short distance from Batarian space, justifying both our initial approach vector to the Citadel and any further actions against the Hegemony."
I looked at the indicated system, its icon flashing green on the console, and nodded.
"Okay, so it's good for our purposes and a feasible choice for a distant colonization effort? Sounds perfect. How long till we arrive there?"
Hope tapped a finger against her chin, as if actually thinking about the question.
"Well… given we're no longer constrained by the Mass Relays, we can make the jump in… about eighteen seconds. The Jartar convoy would be just behind us - the shipyards are undergoing the final stage of their… uh, refits, just now."
'Refits' was a loosely applicable term, I supposed, although not entirely accurate. It would be more correct to say we were welding FTL drives and engines to the sides in a haphazard but symmetrical pattern with the full intention of scrapping them once we arrived.
'Refits' served as good shorthand, though.
"Alright, then. I guess that's decided. Send that Admiral guy Fusou was talking about a message telling him where we live and we'll head off. Just… tell him not to stick his head in for a few days, or something. I'm not sure how much Fusou will tell him or has told him, but no reason not to try and keep a secret."
Hope nodded, and set to work.
---
Our fleet's large scale FTL jump proved as accurate as ever, depositing the Jacob Keyes, eighteen orbital shipyards and several hundred attendant Orbital Fabricators into the orbital path of the system's largest planet and only garden world - Kerak IV, henceforth known as Miranda.
---
Are we allowed to do that?
Do what?
Arbitrarily name planets whatever we want.
Sure, why not? We live here now, after all. Hell, we should rename the star and the other planets, too!
Yeah, but… what if the council complain?
Fuck 'em. This isn't council space. What are they going to do about it, graffitti all our sign posts? We'll just pull a Fusou and threaten to shoot the bastards.
---
As the combined units of our little flotilla clustered up in orbit over Miranda, Hope and I hopped across to one of the half-dozen stations the Shipyards had constructed. This particular station belonged to Hope - as much as one thing can belong to a single member of a pair who shares everything, - and served as her new Biolab.
It wasn't her original station, but Hope had taken over a second for the purposes of continuing her work without breaking the charade by showing off Lume Walkers and Plague Ravagers to anyone who visited the station.
Who would want to visit the station, I had no idea, but I appreciated the caution.
The two of us had taken residence in the station's control room - which, for the purposes of current constructions, was pulling double duty as the entire operation's control room. Most of the screens showed actually useful information, for once - camera footage and sensor readouts from the various units around the planet, as well as estimated build times for our various schemes and other trivial factoids we could have easily learned by directly checking through the Command Network.
But at least it wasn't Lorem Ipsum.
The other screens showed… well, I suppose it was still technically useful information, in a way, but I didn't really find it that important. I figured we had plenty of time to science the shit out of the planet's wildlife after we established ourselves.
Hope disagreed.
She pointed at one of the images covering the half-dozen screens she'd commandeered. "See that? This breed of… I guess it's some kind of frog, kinda? It can spit water at high enough pressure to cut through granite. And they're on average something like six inches long. Seriously powerful lungs on those. And they're not even the weirdest thing on this planet."
I raised an eyebrow, uncertain of whether or not I really wanted to know.
"And, there's also a lot of huge, bulky, and otherwise uninteresting critters about for you to use your Dragon's Tooth thingies on, I guess. Whatever. Boring."
I rolled my eyes as Hope continued rambling on about the native wildlife. Meanwhile, I reached into my jacket pocket, retrieving the data storage device Fusou had given us. She'd said it contained our records and information on a few other interesting events, so I thought it best to read up.
It took only a couple of seconds for me to realize just how much work Fusou had put into the records.
Every single one of the two hundred and forty randomly generated names I'd assigned to the ship's NeoAvatars was now linked to a full biography, including education history, past employment data before they joined the Faith Foundation, medical records, and a family tree, most of which stretched back to the 19th century at the least - Hope and I had similar records, with admittedly much less detail. Presumably Fusou didn't want to restrict us too heavily in that respect.
In addition to that, the Faith Foundation as an entity had a record as a major company in the pre-Systems Alliance era, and that it had spend a lot of manpower and resources on the highly secretive 'Ringworld' expedition. When contact with the FFV Ringworld - and if Fusou thought that she was being cute by continuing the Halo reference, she was absolutely right, - was lost during the course of the cryo-sleeper's journey, the ship was presumed lost with all hands.
The loss of the single greatest concentration of assets and manpower the Faith Foundation had caused them to shut down, neatly explaining why they no longer existed in the present-day Systems Alliance. And, of course, the Ringworld Expedition had left earth prior to Fusou's arrival, explaining the different tech-bases between the two groups of humanity - the Faith Foundation had possessed 'advanced prototypes' of systems that had quickly been succeeded by first Eezo and then Fleet technologies in the Systems Alliance.
Of course, that was only half the data on the disk. The other half - interesting events of the 2140s and 2150s, from all around the galaxy, ranging from large scale natural disasters to government cover ups and classified operations.
Now that seemed more my kind of reading.
---
As the shipyards spread out into a stable orbit of the planet, the Jacob Keyes maneuvered into a lower orbit, its precious cargo - two Progenitor-grade drop pods enhanced with element zero systems and FTLverse ion engines, - hoisted from the ship's hangar by long crane arms and held out in the void.
Inside the pods, our two Osiris Commander units idled, waiting for us to assume direct control.
Usually, there wouldn't be much point in us going in person - or rather, in 'person', - but we figured since we were pretending that this was our home world, of sorts, it only made sense to ensure it had that personal touch.
Not that anyone would know either way, besides us, but it was a sentiment that Hope and I shared.
We shifted out of our Avatar bodies, our digital minds slipping back into the larger-scale and vastly more powerful Commander-sized AI Cores, and initiated the drop sequence.
---
The twin pods fell from orbit with all the grace and elegance of a sack of bricks, tumbling and jostling through the air as they were buffeted with strong winds. We could easily have corrected the course, but we didn't intend to land right where we wanted to start anyway, so it wasn't too big of an issue.
Hope's drop pod hit the ground first, launching a spray of dirt and debris high into the air. My own pod set down with a splash seconds later, landing a hundred or so metres away in the shallows.
The pod dissolved around me and I stepped out, water splashing against my giant mechanical legs as I waded up through the shallows and onto the beach proper. Hope, standing at the treeline bordering the beach, raised an arm in greeting and turned, striding back through the same gap in the trees she'd emerged from.
I followed, each step kicking up mud and sand as I trudged up the beach, water still dripping from my frame. Once I reached the treeline I paused, giving myself a moment to spray down some nanites and construct a communications beacon on the edge of the beach.
Strictly speaking, the beacon wasn't really necessary - the Osiris had the range to communicate with units on the far edge of the solar system, let alone the vessels in high orbit, and those vessels possessed long range transmitters that could easily pick up signals from the Dis system, and further still besides.
On the other hand, the beacon was a dedicated system designed to allow for that kind of communication - it worked as a much better middle man than the Jacob Keyes in terms of maintaining a communications link with Firebase Jartar. And seeing as how that was where the communicator I'd given Fusou would route messages to, it seemed rather prudent to maintain that link.
I didn't want to use her once and never talk to her again, after all.
That done, I moved to catch up with Hope, following the trail of deep footprints in the mud until I arrived at a small clearing, dominated by a three-metre deep crater. Hope stood on the other side of the clearing, single red eye scanning the distant treeline.
I think we should be able to cut a path through this woodland to the plains. It's not far. Might make for a nice highway, too, if we want to stick a sunken colony ship in the bay where you landed and pretend that was the initial landing site.
Works for me. Sounds rather nice, actually. Very thematic.
Together, the two of us pushed on through the forest, slipping into gaps between the foliage as we worked our way forward in the general direction of the plains. Fortunately for us, the band of woodlands separating the beach from the plains wasn't particularly thick, - where we were making our crossing, it was only a little over a kilometre, making it an ideal spot for our purposes.
It was only a matter of minutes before we broke through the treeline, coming to a rest on the edge of the vast grassy plains.
Well. Time to get to work.
---
Whilst the two of us did a lot of 'work', we didn't do particularly much in the way of hard labour - a great deal of time was spent planning the construction of the colony, drawing up the actual blueprints, - and checking to make sure we didn't forget anything blatantly obvious, like lights.
In terms of doing stuff that had a visible, tangible effect on the landscape? It was literally a matter of seconds to construct a Land Factory and a Teleporter, allowing a horde of Fabricator-equipped units to descend upon the plains and begin the actual work.
But hey, whatever works, right?
Oh, uh.
You weren't supposed to see that. Just, uh...
Just take this chapter, and forget that ever happened.
---
78 - Reassess
The flight away from the Citadel was infinitely less tense than the flight in.
Knowing that Fusou and the Citadel Fleets weren't about to fill the Jacob Keyes' hull with mass accelerator slugs certainly helped that situation.
Hope leaned over the star chart that dominated the centre of the bridge, pointing out solar systems one by one.
"...and it has an absolutely astounding variety of wildlife, from what the Gageas are picking up, both flora and fauna. It has a little too little oxygen for decent Human habitation, but thanks to the Cores that's a very minor issue. Its twin moons are relatively high in both iron and titanium - which reminds me, I also need to ask Fusou about that Titanium-E stuff the Codex mentioned. Apparently it's some kind of super armour, and I want some."
I shot her a flat glare. She rolled her eyes and got back on track.
"Overall, I'd say this system is easily the best one for us to take. It's outside Systems Alliance space, but close to its borders - metaphorically speaking, of course, because such a concept as it refers to space empires is… laughable at best, - and also a relatively short distance from Batarian space, justifying both our initial approach vector to the Citadel and any further actions against the Hegemony."
I looked at the indicated system, its icon flashing green on the console, and nodded.
"Okay, so it's good for our purposes and a feasible choice for a distant colonization effort? Sounds perfect. How long till we arrive there?"
Hope tapped a finger against her chin, as if actually thinking about the question.
"Well… given we're no longer constrained by the Mass Relays, we can make the jump in… about eighteen seconds. The Jartar convoy would be just behind us - the shipyards are undergoing the final stage of their… uh, refits, just now."
'Refits' was a loosely applicable term, I supposed, although not entirely accurate. It would be more correct to say we were welding FTL drives and engines to the sides in a haphazard but symmetrical pattern with the full intention of scrapping them once we arrived.
'Refits' served as good shorthand, though.
"Alright, then. I guess that's decided. Send that Admiral guy Fusou was talking about a message telling him where we live and we'll head off. Just… tell him not to stick his head in for a few days, or something. I'm not sure how much Fusou will tell him or has told him, but no reason not to try and keep a secret."
Hope nodded, and set to work.
---
Our fleet's large scale FTL jump proved as accurate as ever, depositing the Jacob Keyes, eighteen orbital shipyards and several hundred attendant Orbital Fabricators into the orbital path of the system's largest planet and only garden world - Kerak IV, henceforth known as Miranda.
---
Are we allowed to do that?
Do what?
Arbitrarily name planets whatever we want.
Sure, why not? We live here now, after all. Hell, we should rename the star and the other planets, too!
Yeah, but… what if the council complain?
Fuck 'em. This isn't council space. What are they going to do about it, graffitti all our sign posts? We'll just pull a Fusou and threaten to shoot the bastards.
---
As the combined units of our little flotilla clustered up in orbit over Miranda, Hope and I hopped across to one of the half-dozen stations the Shipyards had constructed. This particular station belonged to Hope - as much as one thing can belong to a single member of a pair who shares everything, - and served as her new Biolab.
It wasn't her original station, but Hope had taken over a second for the purposes of continuing her work without breaking the charade by showing off Lume Walkers and Plague Ravagers to anyone who visited the station.
Who would want to visit the station, I had no idea, but I appreciated the caution.
The two of us had taken residence in the station's control room - which, for the purposes of current constructions, was pulling double duty as the entire operation's control room. Most of the screens showed actually useful information, for once - camera footage and sensor readouts from the various units around the planet, as well as estimated build times for our various schemes and other trivial factoids we could have easily learned by directly checking through the Command Network.
But at least it wasn't Lorem Ipsum.
The other screens showed… well, I suppose it was still technically useful information, in a way, but I didn't really find it that important. I figured we had plenty of time to science the shit out of the planet's wildlife after we established ourselves.
Hope disagreed.
She pointed at one of the images covering the half-dozen screens she'd commandeered. "See that? This breed of… I guess it's some kind of frog, kinda? It can spit water at high enough pressure to cut through granite. And they're on average something like six inches long. Seriously powerful lungs on those. And they're not even the weirdest thing on this planet."
I raised an eyebrow, uncertain of whether or not I really wanted to know.
"And, there's also a lot of huge, bulky, and otherwise uninteresting critters about for you to use your Dragon's Tooth thingies on, I guess. Whatever. Boring."
I rolled my eyes as Hope continued rambling on about the native wildlife. Meanwhile, I reached into my jacket pocket, retrieving the data storage device Fusou had given us. She'd said it contained our records and information on a few other interesting events, so I thought it best to read up.
It took only a couple of seconds for me to realize just how much work Fusou had put into the records.
Every single one of the two hundred and forty randomly generated names I'd assigned to the ship's NeoAvatars was now linked to a full biography, including education history, past employment data before they joined the Faith Foundation, medical records, and a family tree, most of which stretched back to the 19th century at the least - Hope and I had similar records, with admittedly much less detail. Presumably Fusou didn't want to restrict us too heavily in that respect.
In addition to that, the Faith Foundation as an entity had a record as a major company in the pre-Systems Alliance era, and that it had spend a lot of manpower and resources on the highly secretive 'Ringworld' expedition. When contact with the FFV Ringworld - and if Fusou thought that she was being cute by continuing the Halo reference, she was absolutely right, - was lost during the course of the cryo-sleeper's journey, the ship was presumed lost with all hands.
The loss of the single greatest concentration of assets and manpower the Faith Foundation had caused them to shut down, neatly explaining why they no longer existed in the present-day Systems Alliance. And, of course, the Ringworld Expedition had left earth prior to Fusou's arrival, explaining the different tech-bases between the two groups of humanity - the Faith Foundation had possessed 'advanced prototypes' of systems that had quickly been succeeded by first Eezo and then Fleet technologies in the Systems Alliance.
Of course, that was only half the data on the disk. The other half - interesting events of the 2140s and 2150s, from all around the galaxy, ranging from large scale natural disasters to government cover ups and classified operations.
Now that seemed more my kind of reading.
---
As the shipyards spread out into a stable orbit of the planet, the Jacob Keyes maneuvered into a lower orbit, its precious cargo - two Progenitor-grade drop pods enhanced with element zero systems and FTLverse ion engines, - hoisted from the ship's hangar by long crane arms and held out in the void.
Inside the pods, our two Osiris Commander units idled, waiting for us to assume direct control.
Usually, there wouldn't be much point in us going in person - or rather, in 'person', - but we figured since we were pretending that this was our home world, of sorts, it only made sense to ensure it had that personal touch.
Not that anyone would know either way, besides us, but it was a sentiment that Hope and I shared.
We shifted out of our Avatar bodies, our digital minds slipping back into the larger-scale and vastly more powerful Commander-sized AI Cores, and initiated the drop sequence.
---
The twin pods fell from orbit with all the grace and elegance of a sack of bricks, tumbling and jostling through the air as they were buffeted with strong winds. We could easily have corrected the course, but we didn't intend to land right where we wanted to start anyway, so it wasn't too big of an issue.
Hope's drop pod hit the ground first, launching a spray of dirt and debris high into the air. My own pod set down with a splash seconds later, landing a hundred or so metres away in the shallows.
The pod dissolved around me and I stepped out, water splashing against my giant mechanical legs as I waded up through the shallows and onto the beach proper. Hope, standing at the treeline bordering the beach, raised an arm in greeting and turned, striding back through the same gap in the trees she'd emerged from.
I followed, each step kicking up mud and sand as I trudged up the beach, water still dripping from my frame. Once I reached the treeline I paused, giving myself a moment to spray down some nanites and construct a communications beacon on the edge of the beach.
Strictly speaking, the beacon wasn't really necessary - the Osiris had the range to communicate with units on the far edge of the solar system, let alone the vessels in high orbit, and those vessels possessed long range transmitters that could easily pick up signals from the Dis system, and further still besides.
On the other hand, the beacon was a dedicated system designed to allow for that kind of communication - it worked as a much better middle man than the Jacob Keyes in terms of maintaining a communications link with Firebase Jartar. And seeing as how that was where the communicator I'd given Fusou would route messages to, it seemed rather prudent to maintain that link.
I didn't want to use her once and never talk to her again, after all.
That done, I moved to catch up with Hope, following the trail of deep footprints in the mud until I arrived at a small clearing, dominated by a three-metre deep crater. Hope stood on the other side of the clearing, single red eye scanning the distant treeline.
I think we should be able to cut a path through this woodland to the plains. It's not far. Might make for a nice highway, too, if we want to stick a sunken colony ship in the bay where you landed and pretend that was the initial landing site.
Works for me. Sounds rather nice, actually. Very thematic.
Together, the two of us pushed on through the forest, slipping into gaps between the foliage as we worked our way forward in the general direction of the plains. Fortunately for us, the band of woodlands separating the beach from the plains wasn't particularly thick, - where we were making our crossing, it was only a little over a kilometre, making it an ideal spot for our purposes.
It was only a matter of minutes before we broke through the treeline, coming to a rest on the edge of the vast grassy plains.
Well. Time to get to work.
---
Whilst the two of us did a lot of 'work', we didn't do particularly much in the way of hard labour - a great deal of time was spent planning the construction of the colony, drawing up the actual blueprints, - and checking to make sure we didn't forget anything blatantly obvious, like lights.
In terms of doing stuff that had a visible, tangible effect on the landscape? It was literally a matter of seconds to construct a Land Factory and a Teleporter, allowing a horde of Fabricator-equipped units to descend upon the plains and begin the actual work.
But hey, whatever works, right?
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Threadmark. One is missing.
Also hey that's a nice update.
Also hey that's a nice update.
TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Oh boy! Lightning Round!
