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Limit Theory [PA Multicross SI]

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Chapter 254
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    • Chapter 254​


    We become Slyvine's strength.

    ----------

    "Sitrep?" Drei asked as she returned to the control center. She could pay attention to a good deal of what was going on without disturbing her conversation, but she couldn't handle two conversations at once and it was good for the ex-Fog.

    "Yamato is pissed, but I can't tell what she was saying or to who." Nagara said. "I think I-402 and Iona are sharing sensor data to try and find Takao's core. Kongou is holding position and trying to blockade Iona. I-400 has been sent north, aiming for the Bering Strait."

    "Do you think they bought our deception about Takao getting the killing blow?" Drei asked.

    "No way to tell. And if the files we've gotten about Iona's crew are close to accurate, they have to be smelling something fishy in the air." Nagara frowned. "Did I use that phrase right?"

    "Eh, close enough." Drei shrugged. "Well, not in this world's version of Spanish. Anyway, let me know if you think there's going to be any fighting."

    "I don't see much happening. The Med and Atlantic are quiet right now, since the Scarlet Fleet is off the board, and Blue Steel and the Japanese fleet are in a holding pattern right now. Kongou doesn't seem to be aggressive just yet, and the only ship heading close is Yukikaze."

    "Shame." Drei said. "I really want to see if we get anyone who knows anything."

    "Yeah, it's booooring!" Nagara leaned back in her seat.

    "Whatever surprise the Admiralty Code is hiding, I bet it's going to make you wish it was boring."

    -----------------

    Hiei

    -----------------

    "The truce is over, Flagship." Hiei stated.

    "Negative." Yamato replied, her voice laced with an undercurrent of icy fury. "Do not engage. Someone is stealing cores from wrecks, and they're being extremely aggressive. When you engage, you need to make sure that you actually win. Keep a lead on I-401 until reinforcements can reach you."

    Hiei frowned for a moment. "This vessel will comply."

    ---------------

    Drei

    ---------------

    "They should be in battle right now." Cayde said, leaning in towards the holo-display. Her fingers idly plucked at her hair-drills.

    "So why aren't they?" Nagara asked.

    "We spooked them by grabbing Takao's core." Drei said. "I-400 knows that she should have been able to see the core. I wonder if they know we fired those torpedoes."

    "It doesn't matter." Cayde replied. "Yamato and her side know that we're at the table. That alone colors their perspective more than any information about our hand from that trick."

    "In which case, shall we introduce ourselves?" Drei grinned.

    "Not until they're nice and distracted." Cayde said. "Yamato will be part of the fleet. In this case, I suggest we wait until they're all looking at Iona before, ah, making a dramatic entrance."

    "All right. A sound plan." Drei said. "So now it's a matter of waiting. Fortunately, I believe I am ready to start the next phase of your training."

    -----------

    Kongou

    -----------

    60 hours later

    "This is your fault." Hiei said. The fleet, now twenty four hours travel from the coast of Japan, had been sweeping slowly and methodically as they followed what they thought was I-401.

    "No it isn't." I-400 said. "My sensors have resolution limits. I-401 slipping away is not something I could have prevented."

    Kongou stared at the floating silver dust, nanomaterial clumping together in an inert form on the surface of the water. A moment later, her reclamation completed, and what used to be an active decoy of I-401 began inching towards her hull.

    "But if you had been paying proper attention, we would at least have some idea where I-401 is." Hiei snapped. "And now we are forced to start our hunt all over!"

    "If you're done arguing, shall we discuss how we're going to find that submarine again?" Kongou interjected. "Regardless of who was at fault, the fact remains that I-401 remains at large."

    "Kongou is correct." Yamato stated. "I have already created an initial search pattern that should determine where I-401 is. Now, get to it.".

    Kongou used her thrusters to slide her hull sideways into the silver sand, absorbing it, and contacted the rest of her fleet.

    ---------------------

    Drei

    ---------------------

    "Well, I can tell that you're all doing something with your souls." Drei said, standing at the front of the training room.

    "Something productive?" Orion snarked. She'd sat down cross-legged, put her fingers to her temples, and stared as hard as possible at nothing.

    "I doubt it's directly productive." Drei said. "I mean, I think you'll have to struggle through this anyway. And I'm collecting data on what kind of material to use for your psycoframe. Do you want to try that instead?"

    "Sure." Cayde said. "I think having something concrete to focus on will help."

    Nagara nodded, lying spread out on her back.

    "Alright, give me a few minutes to peruse our collection of psychically active materials and see what jumps out at me." Drei said, sitting back against the wall.

    Orion took the opportunity to collapse onto her back as well.

    It was seven minutes later when Drei stood up and announced that she had her candidate materials.

    "First set for you." She fabricated and immediately dropped a set of metal, plastic, and composite tags into Cayde's hands, since she was the only one still sitting upright.

    Another three sets were dispersed to the other girls.

    "Alright, you start shoving your soul into these and hopefully one of them will start glowing." Drei said.

    "How precise." Orion said, grabbing at the first tag on the chain and frowning at it.

    "If I had seen someone with your core substrates that had awakened their psychic powers, I might have a better idea." Drei said. "But that would just raise more questions, wouldn't it?"

    "Yes."Cayde said. "Though you might have answers for some questions we have right now."

    "I think those questions would be more disturbing even to consider." Drei pointed out.

    -----------

    It took about three hours before Orion managed a success, her strip of doped boron carbide lighting up with a green flicker. Drei told them to take a break before coming back to help her optimize the composition.

    A/NL This one is really late. My bad. Also, I wanted to add pictures for the new girls, but AI really doesn't like hair drills, so Cayde's picture is being a pain.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • So something that I've been thinking while I binged is that the great attractor being a source of malevolent evil really reminds me of the exact same plot point from the pip and flinx novels. I wonder if it's the same thing, you were inspired by it, or just a coincidence?
     
    einargs said:
    So something that I've been thinking while I binged is that the great attractor being a source of malevolent evil really reminds me of the exact same plot point from the pip and flinx novels. I wonder if it's the same thing, you were inspired by it, or just a coincidence?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I have never heard of those before, so that's just a coincidence. I think I may have been inspired from what I heard about the Gunbuster manga (I think what happens is they go to the center of the universe, attempt to fight God, it doesn't work, and they turtle up in the solar system.)
     
    Chapter 255
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    • Chapter 255​

    "Who are you?"

    "I am your tool."

    "What is your name?"

    "Tools do not have names"

    "Who am I?"

    "You are my god."

    ------------------

    Yamato

    ------------------

    Gonzou had been predictably slippery. She was also reasonably sure that the vibration warhead and the data package wasn't onboard I-401, but aboard the Hakugei. The massive warship was obviously gone from Tokyo, given the state of the naval base and the disappearance of the Americans from their training grounds.

    Unfortunately, based on data from Kirishima and Haruna, the the submarine likely had active sound canceling technology, preventing them from being detected.

    120 hours since Takeo had been taken. Five days. And all they had to show for it was the loss of six destroyers when they stumbled across I-401 underwater and Japan managing to launch a suborbital flight into the US because of the abandoned blockade.

    The cores of the six destroyers hadn't been recovered, either. At a depth of 1200 meters, hopefully whoever was snatching her ships wasn't able to get there.

    Of course out in the middle of the open ocean, with I-401 and Hakugei having initiative on their course and speed, tracking them down would only erode the morale of her fleet. So, she would have to make sure that they were able to intercept the ships as they approached the United States.

    She dove into the Enterprise's and the Iowa's logs, looking for intelligence on the United State's port facilities. In addition to surveillance, there was also intercepted communications. Which they couldn't break the encryption on it. It was probably one-time pads, since they had recovered them from wrecked suborbital flights.

    Still, the surveillance was good. It narrowed down the possible locations for the United States to receive the vibration warhead to the three fortified port systems on the West Coast: San Diego, San Francisco, and Puget Sound. Simply put, no where else had the logistics to handle I-401 and Hakugei, as well as a safety buffer to protect the package from the Fleet of Fog just bombarding them from out of existence.

    If they tried to dock somewhere else, like say the ruins of Los Angeles, the ships would not be able to resupply quickly, and the movement of transportation both to and from the ship would reveal them. In addition, it would be easier to track the package to the inland factories of America from a less important location.

    In addition, Gunzou knew how hard it was to track a submarine at sea. He knew how hard it was for the Fog to do so, so he would assume that the Fog would attempt a blockade at the end. So if she wanted to figure out ahead of time which port would be chosen, she would need to figure out which one Gunzou thought was better. Which was an exercise in futility.

    Instead, she'd take advantage of her fleet's superior cruising speed to reposition, take over the East Pacific fleet, and set up monitoring systems around each A line of magnetic sensors would be able to detect either ship approaching any of the port. Putting the lines far enough for the fleet to reposition in time to intercept the package would make the project expensive, but they should have enough resources to do so.

    ----------------

    Drei

    ---------------

    Two months later

    Sparring using sixth-generation extech avatars was fun, even if it wasn't the most useful combat skill for them to develop.

    In addition, because of the relative inability of the material to hurt itself using brute force, the fights had to be decided using a count or point system. That had worked well for the first two weeks, before Orion and Cayde had started getting into a fierce rivalry. They'd started getting into matches in their quarters, then in the common areas, and now they were fighting in the planning and operations room.

    "You both lose." Drei rolled her eyes as she entered. Then she gripped Cayde's ankle, pulling her into the air. Orion peeled off her onto the ground.

    "This is the war room." Nagara added. "No fighting."

    The other three members of the team filed in and sat down around the table.

    "Good news." Drei said. "In about thirty minutes, Hakugei and Iona will hit the Fog sensor line around Seattle. That means we can finally rescue some more cores."

    "Excellent." Cayde said with a hungry smile, her hair and dress already restored to a pristine state.

    "Yes" Orion hissed, pumping her fists.

    "Great." "Alright." "Woo."

    "Granted, it will probably be about five to seven hours before combat actually starts. I will be watching to make sure Gunzou doesn't sneak away. If he tries, I'll intervene." Drei said. "You're all on ready-fifteen for the next twelve hours. Hopefully the flagships have the information we need to actually make progress. We've done enough simulations that the Fog's order of battle will probably be something we've actually drilled against. Don't get cocky, just get it done.

    "You're dismissed. Unless we want to play poker?" Drei held up a deck of cards.

    -------------

    It was five hours and ten minutes later when I-402 detected the Hakugei using her new magnetometers. Considering the ship was twice the mass of an aircraft carrier with her manta-ray cruise wings attached and the size of those booms, the detection range was apparently embarrassingly short.

    Still, the Fog fleet dutifully oriented towards the detected vessel, their formation adjusting as they did. Active sonar opened up, trying to find the other.

    Given the position of Iona and the way the fleet was moving....

    "Cayde. Volley in ninety seconds." Drei ordered.

    "Copied and ready, commander." The girl replied.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Guyman said:
    Meh, it'd be cool but it's fifty fifty - during Half-Life, Full Life Consequences, SI rejected dark energy tech because they'd need to overhaul most of their infrastructure and due to issue that if dark matter is overharvested Galaxies will no longer be able to maintain themselves.
    I think it's not much more dangerous than the risk of an explosion from energy storage devices containing the energy equivalent of multiple galaxies, but hey, I'm neither the author or the one in charge.
    TL ; DR, tech might be too niche, too much work or too dangerous to assimilate. Don't get your hopes up.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Can I get a link to that please? Also I forgot, is the blue wave creeper from creeper world or something else?
     
    Chapter 256
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    • Jessica


    Chapter 256

    ​

    "The preparations are complete. The circle is constructed"

    "Then the final day is here."

    ---------------

    Yamato

    ---------------

    "Found her!" Des Moines shouted, sending the location of the suspected ship. Heading 015, about three kilometers from the edge of the fleet and five kilometers from the Hakugei.

    "Desron 2, Desron 6, Batdiv 2, Crudiv 4, break off and pursue. Do not engage, and stay lose. Desron 8, Desron 2, and Batdiv 1, move up to cover the north end of the formation. Saratoga, I want your scouts on I-401 as well."

    Restructuring a fleet was always a bit of organized chaos, but I-401 was letting the Fog have the initiative for once. Des Moines reported the sub was starting to descend. Was it too little, too late? Or did Gunzou have a trick up his sleeve, as always?

    Fifteen seconds later, as the formation changes just kicked into full gear, Yahagi reported a big missile volley from heading 137.

    "No thanatonium detected." She added. "Not a corrosive barrage."

    From the southeast? How had Gunzou managed to pull that off? And why spoil the surprise with not using a-

    A second volley breached the surface of the water, adding another two hundred missiles into the mix. Yamato grimaced. Still no corrosive warheads, so what was the point?

    Five volleys were in the air before whoever was firing decided to stop. Yamato had put up her klein field and turned her attention to managing her fleet, making sure that the formations were maintained. She was not going to waste time with collisions this close to victory.

    The missiles slipped through her perfunctory point-defense fire, but nobody in the fleet was spending their attention on that. They impacted her klein field with a burning pain that turned into a sharp shock, followed with some localized numbness.

    They... were corrosive warheads? But you couldn't fit a small enough particle accelerator into a missile to prime thanatonium mid-flight! Never mind that, just focus on damage control!

    Yamato shed twenty meters and her C turret, nanomaterial flowing like sand across her hull as she tried to get a hydrodynamic form again. At the same time her point defense opened up again, this time with more attention spent. Her starboard was clear, and water boiled and ionized as she discharged as much of her field as she could before impact. With her last scrap of focus, she reversed away from her collision with Yukikaze.

    It wasn't enough. The volley scythed into her fleet, scornful of the point defense. Yukikaze was hit both fore and aft, her core disconnecting from the shock. Yamato took another twenty missiles, pushing her field to the limit to not take any hull damage.

    Yamato focused all her efforts on point defense, overriding guns across the fleet as she tried to stop the third volley. But the missiles danced, and again not a single one was hit. Small, agile, and still packing the same punch as normal corrosive torpedoes.

    She had just enough time to realize the missiles had rammed through her hull before the darkness snatched her away.


    -----------

    Drei

    -----------

    One hundred twelve ships already, in just the first minute of the battle. "Not bad, Cayde. Orion, Nagara, Jessica, mark."

    Orion's minefield of waiting missiles didn't have far to go, and the Fog vessels melted as klein fields oriented upwards failed to do anything to shots from below.

    Nagara was taking a far more aggressive role. She breached the surface, speed rising as she bore down from the north. Her guns absorbed their watertight doors, and her A and B turrets opened up on separate targets.

    At the moment, each turret had two three-barrel rotary light graviton cannons, and the red-and-black lances sprinkled across the targets' fields in a spray that would just flood the field buffer unless the defender used all their corepower to manage it.

    Seconds later, her photon cannons removed the surviving superstructure and began chopping the bow and stern into pieces.

    Meanwhile, Jessica screamed as she rammed into the formation from the southwest, literally ramming one of the flagships. Space screamed as she used her own klein field to neutralize the ASV's own. Lexington fired back, but Jessica's matrix shields absorbed the photon molecules with no complaint. Jessica's own fire melted through hull, bulkheads, and machinery alike, and Lexington was losing power.

    And it wasn't like Cayde and Orion were slacking when it came to missile spam. Their naval avatars, as well as the non-linked ones assisting them, continued to throw volley after volley of thanatonium ordnance into the fight. Still, it wasn't all over except the screaming.

    Jessica and Nagara had pretty much attracted the attention of every single Fog ship by being on the surface. Between the absurd power of particle laser point defence and having multiple layers of regenerating shields, what would be a death sentence for a Fog vessel was only moderately dangerous. Corrosion warheads detonated in fratricidal squalls of darkness, while photon and plasma attacks were hardly worth thinking about.

    Colorado and two of her cruisers attempted to grab Nagara with a gravity channel, but Nagara had a gravwell. The Fog would have a better time getting a firm grasp on a puff of smoke. And with the thanatonium in their SGC rings primed, Orion's next volley of torpedoes completely took off their front halves in a storm of black orbs and magenta lightning.

    Drei had to interface her Rainstorms directly to deal with the interference from the continuing roar of dimensional energy. Minneapolis, especially, was lucky the transporters failed safe instead of acting like the beam-up site was within operational parameters. Still, those three were safely recovered.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 257
  • Threadmarks
    • A/N: I saw @CritsHappen performing a likebombing run. Also, you can't say you called it if it wasn't in the thread.

    Orion

    Chapter 257

    ​
    "This is taking too long. I'm going to sleep until you're finished. Wake me when the training is finished."

    --------------------

    Chihaya Gonzou

    --------------------

    "Message from Hakugei." Iona said. "They have reached their safe maximum depth. Captain Komaki wants to know if we should continue to Seattle."

    "If it matters, I've come up with an idea on how the Fog knew to look for us here." Sou Oribe spoke up.

    "It does matter. We don't want the Fog hitting Seattle with everything they have left. How so?" Gonzou said, turning to face his masked friend.

    "Magnetic anomaly detection." Oribe said. "It's passive and can be deployed en masse using conventional materials."

    "Hmmm." Gunzou said. "The Fog would have to know that we would rather transfer the vibration warhead at a secure port. Alright, I'll need all the charts we have on the American West coast."

    "Why?"

    "Well, even if the Fog have access to a lot of resources, they would still have to build and install sensors. They certainly wouldn't have enough nanomaterial or computational capacity to make everything out of nanomaterial and not worry about construction hassles."

    "So you're attempting to find the outline of the sensor net by assuming the Fog spent as little as possible on their sensor network." Shizuka said. "What if they spent more?"

    "Well, they would also have to construct it, too." Oribe said. "If they take too long and we slip through, then it would be worthless."

    "Yes, I should be able to make a good guess about where the perimeter is." Gunzou said.

    "Iona, think we can rig an active decoy to mimic the Hakugei's magnetic profile?" Oribe asked.

    Then the hull shuddered.

    "Something just docked to the sail." Iona said. "Airlock, given the way water pressure is dropping."

    There was a moment of silence.

    "I didn't hear anything." Shizuka said.

    "Yes, but we haven't heard the newcomer's submarines, either." Gonzou said. "I guess we've found them."

    "They've started breaching the hatch." Iona interrupted.

    "Get another hatch between us and the sail." Gonzou ordered. "Then get ready to flood the sail and roll us over."

    Everyone on the bridge took a moment to stare at him. The idea was absurd. Sure, who was boarding would die from the pressure, but there were super-submarines out there waiting to pounce, no doubt.

    "Alright." Iona said. "I've warned Iori and Hyuuga to brace for rolling."

    Iona put a camera feed from the inside of the sail on the bridge's screen. A bright blue beam, fixed in length, was cutting through the hatch, leaving a bright orange trail and causing purplish smoke to fill the compartment. The entire hatch area was covered when the hatch, glowing orange around the cut, fell to the deck.

    Still, they all had a very clear view at the person who dropped down to land on it.

    "Alright, Gonzou! Get up here right now! I need to get you out of here!" The mercurial, blue-haired heavy cruiser shouted.

    "Takao?!" Everyone shouted.

    "Yes, it's me." Takao responded. "Now come with me if you want to live!"

    There was another moment of silence. The white cylinder in Takao's hand ignited into a blue blade.

    "Let our guest in." Gunzou said. After all, it wasn't like Iona's bulkheads could resist that blade, if that was what had cut through the hatch. And if her new hull was capable as the other ships that had shown up, there was no contesting that either.

    And most importantly, it wasn't clear if that was actually Takao or an imposter. Her outfit... well, Gunzou wasn't going to say he knew her well enough to know her fashion sense. A new jacket, a new belt, a tank top and skirt instead of a dress, and a slightly different hairstyle. Nothing that screamed "fake" at him.

    Gunzou stared at Iona, and tapped his forehead and ear. Iona stared at him back for a moment before she recognized what he was leading at, then shook her head.

    Well, if she was attached to the Fog network that would have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was Takao. No luck with that method of verification then.

    Iona had switched the screen back to showing the local map before Takao arrived.

    "Sorry, captain." That was the first thing she said.

    "Eh?" That took Gunzou off guard. Was she coerced?

    "I said I'd never join another fleet besides yours, but..."

    Gunzou frowned.

    "My new commanding officer has all the Scarlet Fleet ships in custody. She does not have any of their crew in custody." Takao crossed her arms. "If I wanted to be sure you would be safe, I needed to do this myself."

    "So the crew is gone. What about my father?" Gunzou asked.

    "I don't know." Takao said. "Musashi wasn't talking, and all I know is her superstructure was destroyed in the alpha strike. I could ask the boss."

    "Please." Gunzou ordered.

    Takao tilted her head. "She said he was dead for a decade, and Musashi just made a bunch of code that looked and sounded like him."

    "What!?" Gunzou shouted. Then he slumped back, nearly falling into his chair. "But...."

    "Come with me." Takao held out her hand.

    "What, go on your new hull?" Gunzou asked, still slumped over.

    "It's not really a hull." Takao sulked for a moment. "Anyways, I'll also need Iona's and Hyuuga's cores.

    "What for?" Gunzou asked, sitting up.

    "Taking them into custody, obviously." Takao shook her head.

    "What about us?"

    "Apparently I have permission to take you directly to the Chihaya estate. No idea how the boss managed to negotiate that."

    There was another moment of silence.

    "I say we stop prolonging what we can't stop and just go with her already." Kyouhei spoke for the first time. "The sooner we're through this, the sooner we can start figuring out how to move forward."

    "Of course."

    It took a bit for Hyuuga and Iori to make their way to the bridge. Once there, Hyuuga pulled out her core and held it out to Takao. Iona did the same.

    "As Kashihara said, let's not waste time." Takao snapped. "Your actual cores, please."
     
    Last edited:
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    • Needs more E.

    ltmauve said:
    "Magnetic anomaly detection." Oribe said. "It's passive and can be deployed en mass using conventional materials."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Specifically, one on the end of 'en masse'.

    Incidentally, degaussing and deperming are terms used to refer to various methods of reducing the magnetic anomaly of ships and submarines. Practical application of such techniques began after the dismantling of a German anti-ship mine early in World War II (November 1939). The use of magnetic detection also prompted the increasing use of non-magnetic steel and non-ferrous materials in submarine manufacture.

    I actually had no idea non-magnetic steel was a thing until we got a cheap induction hob and found that 90% of our existing pans couldn't be used with it. If you don't have an induction hob, try sticking a magnet on your cookware before buying one - you may be surprised.
     
    ptbptb said:
    Specifically, one on the end of 'en masse'.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Got it.
    ptbptb said:
    I actually had no idea non-magnetic steel was a thing until we got a cheap induction hob and found that 90% of our existing pans couldn't be used with it.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Wouldn't that be expensive, making it non-magnetic? And what benefit would it give cookware?

    I have to wonder how much of a pain deperming Hakugei would be, since her cruise module makes her beam bigger than her length. And it can be loaded with big magnetic things like armored war vehicles.
     
    ltmauve said:
    Wouldn't that be expensive, making it non-magnetic?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    It isn't so much specifically made non-magnetic, as the steel used happens not to be magnetic.
    ltmauve said:
    And what benefit would it give cookware?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Google tells me:

    Steel with high nickel content, or with manganese and some nickel is non-magnetic. Manganese improves hot working properties and increase strength, toughness and hardenability in stainless steel while nickel enhances properties such as formability, weldability and ductility, while increasing corrosion resistance.
    ltmauve said:
    I have to wonder how much of a pain deperming Hakugei would be, since her cruise module makes her beam bigger than her length. And it can be loaded with big magnetic things like armored war vehicles.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    It would no doubt be a significant pain, but doable. I guess if you're loading big magnetic things on them you first deperm those. Degaussing includes active compensation on the fly with installed electromagnets and sensors. Whatever you do, though, it isn't going to be perfect so it probably comes down to an arms race of improved sensors vs reduced magnetic anomaly.
     
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    Chapter 258
  • Threadmarks
    • A/N: Noticed a bunch of likes from @Zoratsu.

    Chapter 258​


    "But this is my core." Iona said.

    "Your core is in the forward storage room, port fore corner. Hyuuga's is with a chibi in the number five graviton float service corridor. Your actual cores, please." Takao repeated, with her hands on the shoulders of the other two mental models.

    Iona and Hyuuga looked at each other. After a moment they turned back to Takao.

    "Iona, are you going to hand your core over or not?" Takao asked, eyebrow raised. "Because at least Hyuuga is cooperating... and her chibi tripped."

    Once both of them got over their shock, Takao nodded in approval. Hyuuga's chibi arrived first. Takao simply picked up the chibi, ignoring its dropped offering, and tore it in half. Ignoring Hyuuga's own shout of alarm, she grabbed the actual core within it.

    "Once Iona's core is here, you two-" She pointed to her follow Fog, "will keep your avatars here. Everyone else will follow me up."

    With the threat of being blasted by Takao, there were several moments of silence before Iona retrieved her core, having transferred it under the deck, and handed it to Takao. She placed both the cores in a case, then went for the ladder again.

    They found themselves in what looked like a cargo bay. The moment Gunzou, last in line, stepped onto the deck, the hole warped shut. Not flowed, like nanomaterial.

    "Alright, now that that's over." Takao groaned. "If you want to have a better view, feel free to come up to the flight deck." She stepped up to the only real feature in the room, a ladder leading to a hatch one floor above the deck.

    "Flight deck?" Gunzou was parroted by at least two of his subordinates.

    "I didn't fully sign up, so I wasn't allowed to play with anything interesting." Takao sighed. She slid the hatch aside and stepped inside. "This is a cargo plane."

    "Takao, we're at a depth of 800 meters." Gunzou stated. And I hadn't even considered that it would be a bluff. That stings.

    "Yes." She said. "I know. This can also go into orbit easily. I should get us there in about fifteen minutes."

    Gunzou was the first up the ladder onto the flight deck. It looked like it was just as wide as the cargo hold, and big enough for them to stand behind the control stations easily. A row of fold-down seats ran across the back - surprisingly fancy ones, with armrests and padding. Two pilots stations sat next to each other at the front, consoles dark. Behind them were two systems stations, facing into each other with a wall for information display between them. The deck was a deep black, cut into pieces with a hexagonal white grid.

    Takao didn't bother to sit down at the console, instead unfolding a couple of the seats from the wall.

    "So are we going to ascend or not?" Gunzou asked.

    "We are." Takao sat down in one of the seats. "You should see in just a moment."

    "See... huh?" Gunzou said. The rest of crew expressed similar thoughts. In front of them was a wavering point of light, rapidly growing brighter. Gunzou froze as his eyes and ears disagreed. His ears said that the deck was down. His eyes wrote that the windscreen was up, facing towards the sun.

    The cargo plane burst through the surface, and to Gunzou's view through the side windows, seemed to emerge from an endless wall of water. Clouds were in front of his face, and Gunzou still felt himself standing still upon the floor.

    The plane nosed down, and Gunzou realized the deck was actually another window, showing the view below. The ocean was quickly cut off by the clouds, which were cut through soon enough.

    "What kind of engines does this thing have?" Iori asked. The sky was beginning to darken.

    "No idea." Takao said. "Since I didn't agree to work for them potentially forever, I'm working under heavy restrictions. While I have some control over this, it's nothing like the linked control over my avatar. That trick with the sealing hatch was the most complex thing I can do it."

    "So if the engines break..." Iori led.

    "I'm just as helpless as you." Takao tapped her chest

    "That's reassuring." Iori stated sarcastically. Then she flopped down into the lowered seat next to Takao.

    "The good news is that the flight controls seem to be artificially limited." Takao said. "Which means that I probably have a safety margin."

    "Is it a 'military power' limit or an 'engine will explode if throttled up enough' type of limit?" Iori asked.

    There was a pause.

    "Everyone's fine with taking an extra twenty minutes to get there, right?" Takao said.

    The silence was her agreement.

    "So, aren't you going to ask me any questions?" She asked again after a moment.

    "Given the situation, I'd rather not make you tell the same story to us and the government agents." Gunzou said. "Besides, none of us have a phone on us anymore, so we can't record it."

    "What makes you think that I'm going to talk to the Japanese government?" Takao asked.

    "First, the fact that you were pressured into working for your new boss. Second, the fact that we're going to be relying on the government for transport from where you land to my mother's house means they have ample opportunity to ask questions. And third, the fact remains that they can defeat the Fog means they could come back and kill you." Gunzou listed out, counting on his fingers.

    Takao blinked twice. "Alright. I suppose I can wait. And you wouldn't want to repeat yourself either. So who knows when that conversation will happen."

    "What about the bit about where we'll be stuck in cars with government agents for a while?" Kyouhei asked.

    "This plane is equipped with invisibility and can hover. I'm not going to be landing, just hovering above the ground." Takao said.

    "Invisible." Gunzou stated.

    "Dang, what else does this thing do, make turkey sandwiches?" Kyouhei chuckled. "Honestly, I might try and sign up, just so I can play with these fancy toys."

    "Not sure how well that would work out." Takao frowned.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Not_Interesting said:
    Half expected Drei to take after mother dearest and just fab a sandwitch for Kyouhei for the lolz...disappointed.
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    I mean, even if Rachel was interested in being a meta-loving memelord... it's an out-of-universe reference to Stargate Atlantis, where the requested turkey sandwich does not appear. So obviously the best response to that line would be to... not have a turkey sandwich appear.
     
    Caught back up with this. For the record, my best guess for the true identity of the evil demon slime mold is also everyone's favorite Flash-based galaxy-eating eldritch abomination.

    I'm not sure if I've ever seen the Creeper used in a fanfiction before. Kudos for finding something that would be a legitimate threat for a fanwanked PA Commander! I suppose you're saving a trip to the actual Creeper World setting for the penultimate arc? Explicitly laying out the part where this stuff has (IIRC) busted future humanity down from Kardashev 3-ish to a single desperately fleeing city-ship, multiple times, sounds like a delicious way to signpost the true threat level.

    :D


    (Unless I, and at least one other person in this thread that I noticed, are wrong, I suppose.)
     
    PyroTechno said:
    Caught back up with this. For the record, my best guess for the true identity of the evil demon slime mold is also everyone's favorite Flash-based galaxy-eating eldritch abomination.
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    Oh yeah, Creeper World. That's a fun game. And there's a new one being worked on.
    PyroTechno said:
    I suppose you're saving a trip to the actual Creeper World setting for the penultimate arc? Explicitly laying out the part where this stuff has (IIRC) busted future humanity down from Kardashev 3-ish to a single desperately fleeing city-ship, multiple times, sounds like a delicious way to signpost the true threat level.
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    I mean, IIRC that would wind up looking like Dritch's Beast hunt again, just on a larger scale. Part of the reason why the Creeper was able to defeat intergalactic civilizations multiple times was because it was willing to lie in wait for very long time frames until it was completely forgotten. So an aggressive search across the entire universe could do it.
    Besides, the Exiles already break K3 just for their portals.
     
    ltmauve said:
    Oh yeah, Creeper World. That's a fun game. And there's a new one being worked on.
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    The Creeper is probably among in most terrifying innocuous things out there, is doesn't seem that terrifying when playing the game, but then you realize that it's basically an unstoppable flood of ever growing amount of this strange aggressive liquid-like material.
     
    cryptoam said:
    If you are referring to CW4, it's already done and out(multiplayer is being worked on(yes, multiplayer)).
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    No, Knucklecracker showed us a demo of a new game, Creeper World IXE. (He posts stuff as "knucracker" on youtube) It has both top-down and side view modes, and your ships separate into their individual pixels in order to move.
    Guyman said:
    This is just me coping with the fact that the joke requires the withholding of food. >-<
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    Someone was hungry when they posted. Hopefully you aren't hungry now.
     
    Guyman said:
    "Unfortunately there is no turkey sandwich. But, we DO have a ham sandwich." or something.
    This is just me coping with the fact that the joke requires the withholding of food. >-<
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    Have a bowl full of fresh Natto be fabbed in front of him.
    With the kanji for 'We don't find your snark impressive' repeatedly written around the rim.

    And at least its also fabbed with a courtesy cover for the bowl, because oh dear god is that stuff disgusting.
     
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