Interval 48: Rainbow Seas
[X] sunhat
[X] bikini
[X] engineered leaves designed to look temporary
[X] thigh highs (waterproof)
[X] sarong
[x] Head to the Reefside Temple
After dressing, you head to the shuttle bay and drop into the gunners seat of the shuttle. It's a sparrowform vehicle, a fairly common and utilitarian design common on the edge of Garden space. The cargo bay and external weapon/sensor hardpoints are all standard and well known to you from the invisible recesses of your practical memory. What's non-standard is the stealth system, made from Nephilim parts the Writer obtained for you and assembled with Alex's instructions. Turn it on and you'll be next to invisible, even to military sensors.
The inside is as undecorated as the outside. The cockpit is a frontal glass bulge, the cre cabin behind it white walls for a coating of augmented reality. The ship has only a single small flex-dedicated shrine and a wall of climbing vines to relieve the blankness. The biggest internal change is the seat finish, which you did hastily after everyone sat down and realised how unpleasant the rubbery default material was going to be on a trip down with everyone in swimwear.
You've selected a mostly organic outfit. You're discovering yourself to be a flower girl. The leaf bikini appeals but reminds you vaguely of old religious iconography you can't quite place, so you decide to hedge your bets with a sarong and thigh-highs of sheer multilayered pink like flower petals, and a straw sunhat. It took a bit of time to arrange the leaves to look appealing without actually putting anything at risk, but it's time you had while you wait for the ship to reach its destination. Which is just about due.
"We're almost in position." Reizay reports over comm.
"Is anything looking at us?" Mirareki asks.
"I don't think so. The Chrysanthemum ships over Mesendra's Hope have us on their search radar but there's no evidence of focused emissions. They'll see you when you jump, but several other freighters have dropped off shuttles that have made atmospheric entry though. So it shouldn't be too suspicious."
"They probably don't care all that much." Luyu says. "The planet's too underpopulated to worry too much about air traffic control off the main routes." The four of her move into the bay behind you, and strap down in the jump seats next to the shuttle's forward lock. Luyu is wearing square, supportive sports style bikinis, each in an attractive three colour design that shows off a lot of her tanned skin and an interesting combination of muscles. She hasn't bothered with a sunhat, but each body has a different orchid culitvar in its hair, along with an array of bangles in gold and platinum. They're probably secondary aura emitters.
"I'm surprised they're not trying to isolate the planet, especially this close to the River border." Mirareki secures a heavy duffle in one of the overhead racks, making sure it's fully shut before shipping. "Aren't they worried about weapons smuggling?" She's dressed as tactically as you can be when going to the beach, with a nanoweave bikini under a soft light coloured jacket and sports cap, a pistol mostly concealed by the hem. "It's pretty tense down there. Big protests against the Chrysanthemum presence in Mesendra Bay."
"I doubt it" you say. "Weapon smuggling is fine if they want the Communion to start something."
"Seriously?" Mirareki looks at you.
"Yeah." Luyu nods. "They want a big battle where they can crush the Commune with firepower from orbit and capture as many of their fighters as possible up front. After that, they'll pull back and negotiate. The worst thing in a situation like this is an indecisive victory that leaves you with a giant guerrilla war. If possible you want the other side to feel like they started it and got smacked down."
Reizay's hologram nods. She gets it. Of course. "Anyhow, we're approaching the drop point. Juketta, are you ready?"
"Yes. Sorry. I was just doing a final check on my gear." Juketta bustles up the ramp. She's wearing a kind of tiny white bikini, made of three mathematically perfect triangles. It really sets off her blue skin.
"I didn't know they let maths botherers dress like that." Luyu says as they walk past.
"Perhapsk there's a lot of things you don't know about us." says Juketta as she hops up into the pilot seat behind you and straps in. "Ready to drop."
"Alright." Reizay says, she takes a deep breath. "Good luck. I'll join you when you head to the city."
You're a little worried about Reizay. She told you earlier she wanted to stay on ship with Atet, and gave you a big spiel about how it would be useful for her to do so because you didn't have an entire deep ship, and she could change orbits and provide electronic support from orbit, and anyway it would suit her speciality to to stay with the powerful ship mainframe rather even though she'd miss out on the beach and the adventure, and so on though an unconvincingly protracted series of excuses that seemed aimed as much at herself as you. It didn't seem the time to push it..
She's been a little off since the events on Scythia, the prison and the tower. And the two of the trinity Etta who didn't walk unconcerned up to the face of the cosmos and smash it were absent for a long time. It's been good to see Juketta surfaced and active for this project. You hope you'll see Minetta again soon.
And of course, everyone else died.
"Everyone G-safe?" Juketta asks, unnecessarily, as the shuttle would tell her if they weren't. "Alright, drop us."
The bay opens and you fall out a sky carved between night black above and the bright rainbow of Nereid below. Its seas are a beautiful mosaic, red and green and blue as alien algae and minerals fill areas of the water. Above it, green and white clouds. You can see the hurricane system hanging over the Narla's Hope, a great rotating grey funnel. You can see beacons and transmission sources, ships at sea, the stranger emissions of Nereidi sources.
There's a grey rush as the shuttle micro jumps, saving almost half an hour of usual decent, followed by the heavy bump and flash of a sudden atmospheric entry. Then you're low over the sea, a bottle green expanse of water extending out, then mixing with an area of bloody red.
"So question." Luyu says. "With all this stuff in the water, is it safe to swim in? Also, why is it like this?"
"It's mostly safe," starts Juketta, "but there can be some nasty chemicals in some areas. We think the old Nereidi civilization used a lot of deep magma vent taps and they blew during its fall. The red areas are minerals, not a blood tide. The actual pseudo-algae sections are also harmless, except during that biome's blooming season and…" " Juketta pauses, "...let me send you the colour guide. Anyway, it's an ancient Nereidi engineered ecosystem that transports oxygen and nutrients to the deep ocean. It's far more fertile than most ocean worlds."
"I'm detecting another beacon near the temple." Reizay says over the comm. "I think there's a team down there already… looks like just civilians. I checked their social media and they look like a real expedition. Some kind of university team with an academician and an influencer student type who makes videos. Archeo-Shorts."
"Oh yes, I watched some of her content. It's good, though a little light weight." Juketta says. "It's a well known site. It's not too much of a surprise to find other visitors. I've actually heard of the leader."
"There's also a group of ships far offshore. Wet navy. They appear to be four military vessels and a pair of support freighters, all belonging to some kind of conflict specialist group called 'ECHO CHAMBER'."
"Heard of them." Luyu says. "They mostly work for the Chrysanthemum, but they're not actually Chrysanthemum mercenaries."
"What does that mean?" asks Reizay .
"They're not under direct command from the Chrysanthemum war council, but have their own chain of command." Volunteer units like that are pretty common everywhere. You feel like you've heard of ECHO CHAMBER before.
The Reefside temple is some thousand kilometres west of the main settlement areas. It stands about fifty metres offshore in the centre of a lagoon, with coral reefs and trees that serve the same purpose of mangroves on all sides of it. On the landward side, the land rises up a great black and white sand beach, then vivid purple and green forests. The Temple itself is an organic looking structure like a small mountain, a pyramid of rock and coral coated with gleaming, black leafed plant life.
"Those are actually symbiotic," Juketta says. "They're one of the things that's kept the structure together for over a million years."
A white painted hovercraft is drawn up near the shore, and four figures near it watch as Juketta brings the shuttle into land, feathering the jets so as to be able to land close without spraying them with dust or zapping them with the anti-dust field.
The other team consists of a somewhat stuffy mature looking woman with a gleaming data external and long, burnished horns sticking out of her hair, a tanned young woman who gives off the air of a grad student, but whose obvious beauty and neon short-shorts suggest she's the front-woman. You guess those are the famous archaeo-shorts. A more unassuming pink-haired camera woman is looking slightly uncomfortable in cargo shorts and a mess of drone control and recording equipment.
The final woman wears shorts and a crop top with a pair of pistols at her hips and more gear on frames on her thighs. Of the group she's the only one who you think is a Communionist. She's quite eye-catching, with ivory blond hair and thick dark makeup on her lips and eyes.
You get out, save two Luyus staying in the craft just in case it does turn into a fight, and walk down to meet them.
"Good day to you," says the professor, while the influencer looking girl speaks into a camera drone about your arrival. "I wasn't aware that there was going to be another expedition here at this time."
Juketta steps forward and grabs her hand. "Ah, you must be the famous Academician Anabis." She shakes the woman's hand vigorously. "And you're filming with Archeo-Shorts? You must be Jessica."
"You watch my content?" The grad student says, sounding surprised.
"I'm a travelling historian and they came recommended for introducing this topic." She smiles.. "I'm Juketta, these are my companions." She introduces each of you.
"This is Alawen, our security" The professor indicates the tall Communion member, who nods, her eyes not ever lifting off you. "and Bethany is the camera woman."
"It's a pleasure. You're also investigating the reef side temple?"
"Yes. We've been wanting to film here for a while, and well, what with everything going on this could be the last chance." Jessica says. "Is it the same for you?"
<<What should I tell her?>> Juketta sends to you.
[ ] Tell them little, just say you're also here to document the temple and try to maintain separation.
[ ] Tell them little but try to enlist their help, don't tell them what you're specifically interested in.
[ ] Tell them you're looking to examine a particular set of murals, but not why.
[ ] Tell them the specifics, and that you're investigating the potential existence of extant creatures that were depicted by the Nereidi.
[X] bikini
[X] engineered leaves designed to look temporary
[X] thigh highs (waterproof)
[X] sarong
[x] Head to the Reefside Temple
After dressing, you head to the shuttle bay and drop into the gunners seat of the shuttle. It's a sparrowform vehicle, a fairly common and utilitarian design common on the edge of Garden space. The cargo bay and external weapon/sensor hardpoints are all standard and well known to you from the invisible recesses of your practical memory. What's non-standard is the stealth system, made from Nephilim parts the Writer obtained for you and assembled with Alex's instructions. Turn it on and you'll be next to invisible, even to military sensors.
The inside is as undecorated as the outside. The cockpit is a frontal glass bulge, the cre cabin behind it white walls for a coating of augmented reality. The ship has only a single small flex-dedicated shrine and a wall of climbing vines to relieve the blankness. The biggest internal change is the seat finish, which you did hastily after everyone sat down and realised how unpleasant the rubbery default material was going to be on a trip down with everyone in swimwear.
You've selected a mostly organic outfit. You're discovering yourself to be a flower girl. The leaf bikini appeals but reminds you vaguely of old religious iconography you can't quite place, so you decide to hedge your bets with a sarong and thigh-highs of sheer multilayered pink like flower petals, and a straw sunhat. It took a bit of time to arrange the leaves to look appealing without actually putting anything at risk, but it's time you had while you wait for the ship to reach its destination. Which is just about due.
"We're almost in position." Reizay reports over comm.
"Is anything looking at us?" Mirareki asks.
"I don't think so. The Chrysanthemum ships over Mesendra's Hope have us on their search radar but there's no evidence of focused emissions. They'll see you when you jump, but several other freighters have dropped off shuttles that have made atmospheric entry though. So it shouldn't be too suspicious."
"They probably don't care all that much." Luyu says. "The planet's too underpopulated to worry too much about air traffic control off the main routes." The four of her move into the bay behind you, and strap down in the jump seats next to the shuttle's forward lock. Luyu is wearing square, supportive sports style bikinis, each in an attractive three colour design that shows off a lot of her tanned skin and an interesting combination of muscles. She hasn't bothered with a sunhat, but each body has a different orchid culitvar in its hair, along with an array of bangles in gold and platinum. They're probably secondary aura emitters.
"I'm surprised they're not trying to isolate the planet, especially this close to the River border." Mirareki secures a heavy duffle in one of the overhead racks, making sure it's fully shut before shipping. "Aren't they worried about weapons smuggling?" She's dressed as tactically as you can be when going to the beach, with a nanoweave bikini under a soft light coloured jacket and sports cap, a pistol mostly concealed by the hem. "It's pretty tense down there. Big protests against the Chrysanthemum presence in Mesendra Bay."
"I doubt it" you say. "Weapon smuggling is fine if they want the Communion to start something."
"Seriously?" Mirareki looks at you.
"Yeah." Luyu nods. "They want a big battle where they can crush the Commune with firepower from orbit and capture as many of their fighters as possible up front. After that, they'll pull back and negotiate. The worst thing in a situation like this is an indecisive victory that leaves you with a giant guerrilla war. If possible you want the other side to feel like they started it and got smacked down."
Reizay's hologram nods. She gets it. Of course. "Anyhow, we're approaching the drop point. Juketta, are you ready?"
"Yes. Sorry. I was just doing a final check on my gear." Juketta bustles up the ramp. She's wearing a kind of tiny white bikini, made of three mathematically perfect triangles. It really sets off her blue skin.
"I didn't know they let maths botherers dress like that." Luyu says as they walk past.
"Perhapsk there's a lot of things you don't know about us." says Juketta as she hops up into the pilot seat behind you and straps in. "Ready to drop."
"Alright." Reizay says, she takes a deep breath. "Good luck. I'll join you when you head to the city."
You're a little worried about Reizay. She told you earlier she wanted to stay on ship with Atet, and gave you a big spiel about how it would be useful for her to do so because you didn't have an entire deep ship, and she could change orbits and provide electronic support from orbit, and anyway it would suit her speciality to to stay with the powerful ship mainframe rather even though she'd miss out on the beach and the adventure, and so on though an unconvincingly protracted series of excuses that seemed aimed as much at herself as you. It didn't seem the time to push it..
She's been a little off since the events on Scythia, the prison and the tower. And the two of the trinity Etta who didn't walk unconcerned up to the face of the cosmos and smash it were absent for a long time. It's been good to see Juketta surfaced and active for this project. You hope you'll see Minetta again soon.
And of course, everyone else died.
"Everyone G-safe?" Juketta asks, unnecessarily, as the shuttle would tell her if they weren't. "Alright, drop us."
The bay opens and you fall out a sky carved between night black above and the bright rainbow of Nereid below. Its seas are a beautiful mosaic, red and green and blue as alien algae and minerals fill areas of the water. Above it, green and white clouds. You can see the hurricane system hanging over the Narla's Hope, a great rotating grey funnel. You can see beacons and transmission sources, ships at sea, the stranger emissions of Nereidi sources.
There's a grey rush as the shuttle micro jumps, saving almost half an hour of usual decent, followed by the heavy bump and flash of a sudden atmospheric entry. Then you're low over the sea, a bottle green expanse of water extending out, then mixing with an area of bloody red.
"So question." Luyu says. "With all this stuff in the water, is it safe to swim in? Also, why is it like this?"
"It's mostly safe," starts Juketta, "but there can be some nasty chemicals in some areas. We think the old Nereidi civilization used a lot of deep magma vent taps and they blew during its fall. The red areas are minerals, not a blood tide. The actual pseudo-algae sections are also harmless, except during that biome's blooming season and…" " Juketta pauses, "...let me send you the colour guide. Anyway, it's an ancient Nereidi engineered ecosystem that transports oxygen and nutrients to the deep ocean. It's far more fertile than most ocean worlds."
"I'm detecting another beacon near the temple." Reizay says over the comm. "I think there's a team down there already… looks like just civilians. I checked their social media and they look like a real expedition. Some kind of university team with an academician and an influencer student type who makes videos. Archeo-Shorts."
"Oh yes, I watched some of her content. It's good, though a little light weight." Juketta says. "It's a well known site. It's not too much of a surprise to find other visitors. I've actually heard of the leader."
"There's also a group of ships far offshore. Wet navy. They appear to be four military vessels and a pair of support freighters, all belonging to some kind of conflict specialist group called 'ECHO CHAMBER'."
"Heard of them." Luyu says. "They mostly work for the Chrysanthemum, but they're not actually Chrysanthemum mercenaries."
"What does that mean?" asks Reizay .
"They're not under direct command from the Chrysanthemum war council, but have their own chain of command." Volunteer units like that are pretty common everywhere. You feel like you've heard of ECHO CHAMBER before.
The Reefside temple is some thousand kilometres west of the main settlement areas. It stands about fifty metres offshore in the centre of a lagoon, with coral reefs and trees that serve the same purpose of mangroves on all sides of it. On the landward side, the land rises up a great black and white sand beach, then vivid purple and green forests. The Temple itself is an organic looking structure like a small mountain, a pyramid of rock and coral coated with gleaming, black leafed plant life.
"Those are actually symbiotic," Juketta says. "They're one of the things that's kept the structure together for over a million years."
A white painted hovercraft is drawn up near the shore, and four figures near it watch as Juketta brings the shuttle into land, feathering the jets so as to be able to land close without spraying them with dust or zapping them with the anti-dust field.
The other team consists of a somewhat stuffy mature looking woman with a gleaming data external and long, burnished horns sticking out of her hair, a tanned young woman who gives off the air of a grad student, but whose obvious beauty and neon short-shorts suggest she's the front-woman. You guess those are the famous archaeo-shorts. A more unassuming pink-haired camera woman is looking slightly uncomfortable in cargo shorts and a mess of drone control and recording equipment.
The final woman wears shorts and a crop top with a pair of pistols at her hips and more gear on frames on her thighs. Of the group she's the only one who you think is a Communionist. She's quite eye-catching, with ivory blond hair and thick dark makeup on her lips and eyes.
You get out, save two Luyus staying in the craft just in case it does turn into a fight, and walk down to meet them.
"Good day to you," says the professor, while the influencer looking girl speaks into a camera drone about your arrival. "I wasn't aware that there was going to be another expedition here at this time."
Juketta steps forward and grabs her hand. "Ah, you must be the famous Academician Anabis." She shakes the woman's hand vigorously. "And you're filming with Archeo-Shorts? You must be Jessica."
"You watch my content?" The grad student says, sounding surprised.
"I'm a travelling historian and they came recommended for introducing this topic." She smiles.. "I'm Juketta, these are my companions." She introduces each of you.
"This is Alawen, our security" The professor indicates the tall Communion member, who nods, her eyes not ever lifting off you. "and Bethany is the camera woman."
"It's a pleasure. You're also investigating the reef side temple?"
"Yes. We've been wanting to film here for a while, and well, what with everything going on this could be the last chance." Jessica says. "Is it the same for you?"
<<What should I tell her?>> Juketta sends to you.
[ ] Tell them little, just say you're also here to document the temple and try to maintain separation.
[ ] Tell them little but try to enlist their help, don't tell them what you're specifically interested in.
[ ] Tell them you're looking to examine a particular set of murals, but not why.
[ ] Tell them the specifics, and that you're investigating the potential existence of extant creatures that were depicted by the Nereidi.
