Tida's Workspace Image.
The Maelstrom Vortex Affair [MGLN EU]
- Thread starter Dahak
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Fantasy
Away Team Call signs and roles.
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
Assault Team UW-9476
Maelstrom Vortex Breaching Team
Designation | Name | Rank | Group | Personal Callsign | Role |
Sword-01 | Lucciola "Lucy" Torban | Lance Corporal | Able | Seagull | Pilot |
Sword-02 | Anja Khamsin | Trooper | Able | Owl | Scan |
Sword-03 | Sofia Medici | Trooper | Able | | Weather |
Sword-04 | Devendra den Soro | Lance Corporal | Casa | Shadow | Recon |
Sword-05 | Mercedes von Hohenkirche | Corporal | Baker | | NCO |
Sword-06 | Tida Lanister | Lieutenant Commander | Sword | Meteor | CO |
Sword-07 | Veyron | Lieutenant | Able | | XO |
Sword-08 | Kylami Schmidt | Lance Corporal | Baker | Ironside | Armour |
Sword-09 | Gisele Koral | Knight | Baker | | Belkan |
Sword-10 | Leonid Buran | Knight | Baker | | Belkan |
Sword-11 | Tizoc "Stony" Tepetzi | Lance Corporal (Medical) | Casa | Starlight | Medic |
Sword-12 | Michele Linea | Trooper | Casa | Rickshaw | Demolitions |
Sword-13 | Eden Sharpe | Trooper | Casa | Tinker | Infowar |
Diamond | Trio Scarlet | Administrative Assistant | Caledfwlch Techniques | | Oversight |
Maelstrom Vortex Breaching Team
Designation | Name | Rank | Group | Personal Callsign | Role |
Sword-04 | Devendra den Soro | Lance Corporal | Casa | Shadow | Recon |
Sword-05 | Mercedes von Hohenkirche | Corporal | Baker | | NCO |
Sword-06 | Tida Lanister | Lieutenant Commander | Sword | Meteor | CO |
Sword-08 | Kylami Schmidt | Lance Corporal | Baker | Ironside | Armour |
Sword-11 | Tizoc "Stony" Tepetzi | Lance Corporal (Medical) | Casa | Starlight | Medic |
Sword-12 | Michele Linea | Trooper | Casa | Rickshaw | Demolitions |
Diamond | Trio Scarlet | Administrative Assistant | Caledfwlch Techniques | | Oversight |
Yunu | Fan Liuha | Lieutenant (Engineering) | Tabris | Holdfast | Engineer |
Prof | Amati Scrya | Academician | Academy of Science | Acorn | Archeologist |
Pronto | Sarika Zarooq | Lieutenant | Tabris | | XO |
Mule | Doggie | BLX-5 series drone | Tabris | | Cargo Carrier |
1-19 Formicide
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
CLASSIFIED // HOLOCAUST-FOXFIRE / PAPERCLIP / WORLDBREAKER-ECLIPSE / BLACKBOOK-INFINITE / WORLDBREAKER-SUNSTORM / INFINITE DESIRE// HORIZON-BLACK
1-19 Formicide
- - -"For at every stage of your civilizations there are numbers of you who put aside selfishness and dedicate their lives in service to something they see as being greater than themselves. I say you may prevail, I say not that you will. For in each of your generations there are men who choose to serve the gods of darkness."
- - -
Haslanti Republic Heavy Attrition Unit Gerechtigkeitsstift, Maelstrom Sargasso, Isomorphic to an unknown location in the Orion Arm, Dimensional Sea layer Sigil ᛋ (Estimated)
Falcon watch 05 June 0065
- - -
'Trio Scarlet'
- - -
As the blast doors slid open, I dropped into combat mode, my attention immediately grabbed by the massive ant-like construct wrapped around the power core in the centre of the engineering bay. 'DESIGNATING ARMOURED COMMAND UNIT AS TARGET ALPHA' My combat information systems were a little intrusive at the best of times, they then kicked into high gear, targeting carets marking the swarm of drones surrounding it with threat designations.
"Heavy Assimilator," I heard PRONTO say, her voice adopting the calm but clipped tones TSAB officers use in a crisis. What I could see of it, combined with what YUNU was feeding us through the network, implied we had very few options. Trying to economise would only bring defeat.
"Lighthawk Wings" Of course that was my Impulse Blades and my integral skill [Ride Impulse] but the Doctor had been firm about discretion being necessary. I fed power to the blades, gravity fields humming to life as I lifted off the deck. My fists came up, the Impulse Blades mounted backwards from my bracers ready to block or attack. This was danger close, making manoeuvrability and defence more valuable than top speed.
'WARNING: COMMUNICATIONS JAMMING FIELD POWERING ON.' FOUR's combat net staggered under the attack and while it still held I transferred what weak spots I could spot on the Assimilator to EIGHT. The moon-bunny carried the weapon that could damage it.
[[DIAMOND to team. FIVE and I will alternating hitting it to fix it's attention, so EIGHT can hit it with her anti-shipping attack. The rest]] !*ERROR 1005*! and I was cut off with a painful squeal tearing at my mental firewalls as the network collapsed down to just the foxes, SIX and myself. The rest should realise what to do. As FIVE and I soared into the cavernous space, weaving between massive pieces of machinery, with EIGHT tucked in behind, her shields covering our forward flanks, I could already see new drones deploying from the manufacturing bays in TARGET ALPHA's abdomen, their weapons powering up as they moved to intercept us. A flurry of glowing discs and beams of white hot flak rose from the heavy drones scattered among the swarm.
Behind us, I could see the others engaging the swarm. SIX and FOUR's plasma bolts lit up the chamber, while TWELVE's spells flung arcing projectiles that detonated among the drones. FIVE's reprogrammed hunter-killer tore through the drones with brutal efficiency.
Flaring my vanes, I launched myself down, local gravity the barest suggestion compared with my flight fields. My Impulse Blades hummed with deadly energy as I closed in on the nearest cluster of drones.
The first drone never saw me coming. My blade sliced through its chassis like it was made of paper, circuits sparking as it fell. The deck rippled as my flight field intersected it, bleeding inertia to snap me sideways out of the flak. A dozen more drones rushed at me, but I hadn't stopped, [Ride Impulse] allowing me to dance between their attacks. A quick spiral and their shattered and twisted remains rained down, joining their comrade on the ground. Ich bin Vorsprung Durch Technik.
But TARGET ALPHA was a real threat. As I twirled up around a secondary reactor core for a better vantage I saw it reconfiguring for battle, weapon barbettes spinning into existence on its carapace and shield nodes proliferating. We needed to take it down before it could build its full arsenal.
I dove towards the behemoth, corkscrewing to avoid the slashing energy beams from its newly-formed point defence systems. My impulse blade left a trail of light as I slashed at one of its legs, the energy blade splintering on the reflective chrome of the limb's armour. DAMAGE ESTIMATE: COSMETIC. The Assimilator let out an ear-piercing shriek, swinging a massive grasping claw towards me.
I boosted away just in time, the wind from its attack buffeting me through the shield of [Ride Impulse]. This wasn't going to be easy for the others, but the sheer mass of it's construction systems and armour limited it's ability to move.
TARGET ALPHA's heavy launchers spat osmium-iridium javelins through where I had been, their impact on the battle steel bulkhead shattering in the blue-violet glare of gravitic warp penetrators.
FIVE slashed past from the other side, her overdrive strike slamming into the further launcher's mounting. The sparks flaring from its servos suggested it's traverse mechanism had jammed.
Despite that TARGET ALPHA kept it's primary focus on me, which was concerning but would suffice. As I dodged another volley of energy beams, I caught a glimpse of EIGHT positioning herself for her attack run.
I dove back into the fray, my Impulse Blades humming with deadly energy. This time, I aimed for a joint of one of TARGET ALPHA's legs. The armour there should be thinner, but my blades failed to penetrate. DAMAGE ESTIMATE: COSMETIC. The behemoth turned trying to keep its primary sensors tracking me as I spun up behind it. It's starboard launcher slewed after me, it's capacitors lighting up.
Time to mix up my attacks, my younger sister had taught me the technique version of her integral skill. [Overdetonation] threw three flechette blades, twin counter-rotating mana rings charging up around each, down the barrel of the launcher to slam into the javelin and the first stage accelerator coils.
The explosions, first the metallic pentavalent nitrogen of my darts and the secondary explosions of the javelin's penetrator charge and the catastrophic energy discharge of the broken superconductor rings blew the breech of the launcher apart in an actinic glare. DAMAGE ESTIMATE: TEMPORARY.
FIVE swooped in from the opposite side, her own attack carving off one of TARGET ALPHA's point defense clusters. We were keeping it off balance, our speed and manueverabilitry preventing it from bringing its full arsenal to bear. But we couldn't keep this up for long.
A sudden barrage of flak forced me to pull up sharply, my flight fields straining against the shockwaves. As I arced away, I saw EIGHT making her move. Her rocket hammer's thermal lance ignited, and thrusters lit verniers contracting.
"Now!" I shouted, though I wasn't sure if the others could hear me.
FIVE and I redoubled our efforts, slashing into TARGET ALPHA with a series of simultaneous attacks. I pushed my systems to the limit, my cybernetic enhancements pushing my G-LOCK limit ten gravities beyond what a human mage should hope to match. FIVE's ability to match my maneuver profile suggested her enhancements were better than the Doctor's analysis. My Impulse Blades and her sword left trails of light as we danced around the massive construct, scoring hits wherever we could find an opening.
Then, in a blinding flash of light, EIGHT's weapon discharged. The antimatter plasma torch tore up through the joint between TARGET ALPHA's main body and abdomen. Shields and armour shattered under its glare, punching a hole through it's primary data transfer conduit and out through its hull.
But it wasn't over yet. Even as it reeled from the devastating hit, TARGET ALPHA's repair systems were already kicking in, nanites swarming over the damage. We needed to press our advantage.
I signaled to FIVE, and together we dove towards the gaping wound in the Assimilator's hull. Our blades flashed as we burrowed into its internals, targeting power conduits and data links to what looked like critical systems. Sparks flew and metal screamed as we tore through circuitry and power conduits. FOUR's datalink came back up providing us with a comprehensive view of the battlefield. I made a note to see if big sister could duplicate it.
TARGET ALPHA's movements became increasingly erratic, shaking it around us. But it was still dangerous, perhaps even more so in its death throes. One of the smaller drones caught me off guard, it's plasma cutter slamming into my left side, The energy burst of my bodyglove's sacrificial purge burning away a cone behind it as it burnt through into my armour and flesh. WARNING: DAMAGE TO LEFT ARM SERVOS.
Gritting my teeth against the pain, I pushed on. We were close to bringing this monster down. I could feel the crump and the inner spaces of the TARGET lit up as FIVE punched a second anti-ship attack though it's neck.
With one final, coordinated assault, FIVE and I plunged our blades into what appeared to be the databus to TARGET ALPHA's central processor. There was a moment of resistance, then a cascade of explosions rippled through the massive construct.
We barely managed to clear the hull as TARGET ALPHA collapsed, it's power core venting as it went into emergency shutdown.
As the three of us settled to the deck at the base of the ship's main power core, flight systems spinning down, I ran a quick diagnostic on my systems.
Mission complete my combat systems spun down, and with that I lost the focus it provided me.
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Trio
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
CLASSIFIED // PAPERCLIP / INFINITE DESIRE // ARKBIRD RISING
I'll lay a train of breadcrumbs for you:
Heroforge Renditions of some of the characters.
Obviously not totally accurate, but Heroforge has its limitations.
Chapter 1
And here we have all the numbers who a] don't shapechange and b] were decanted by 0075.
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1-20 The Vault
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
CLASSIFIED // HOLOCAUST-FOXFIRE / PAPERCLIP / WORLDBREAKER-ECLIPSE / BLACKBOOK-INFINITE / WORLDBREAKER-SUNSTORM / INFINITE DESIRE// HORIZON-BLACK
1-20 The Vault
- - -"The scars of battle may be invisible, but their impact is far-reaching and long-lasting."
- - -
Haslanti Republic Heavy Attrition Unit Gerechtigkeitsstift, Maelstrom Sargasso, Isomorphic to an unknown location in the Orion Arm, Dimensional Sea layer Sigil ᛋ (Estimated)
Falcon watch 05 June 0065
- - -
Tida Lanster
- - -
I had thought the fight in the hanger was intense. There we had telepathic communications, superior firepower and reinforcements.
Now without those advantages we were facing one of the terrors of the void spitting out heavier units than we'd faced so far. Mostly eight legged scorpion like units with a pair of plasma bolt launchers on each of the two forward limbs flanking their blocky heads and a beam weapon arced over their circular body on a rear mounted segmented tentacle.
Along with the various spider mechs scattered across the room. there were a few big crab like units, six legs connected radially to a hexagonal body with a pair of limbs mounted on opposite corners with a long wide head with sensor clusters on each end mounted on the side between. One limb ended with a claw mounted around an arc thrower and the other a metallic flower that generated a partial sphere of transparent green hexagons.
They came at us like a wave and our fire rippled out at them. Devendra and I providing timed rate salvos of [Crossfire Shoot] variants to clear out the smaller units with swarms of plasma bolts, Michelle's [Thunderbird's Tears] dropping indirect explosive bursts behind the crab's shields and into bigger clusters, and Fan, Stony and Sarika focusing to light up one target after another with a mix of yellow [Sunfire Wheel] discs, scarlet [Plasma Shooter] bolts, and green [Udarnaya Zvezda] stars.
Plasma bolts, and electrolasers slashed back at us as the beam weapons tried to box in our assault team.
Step by clicking step, we bled their numbers as they advanced across the larger than expected engineering spaces.
A ripple of explosions alerted us to the entry of another new type of enemy unit entering the engagement. Phantom Mirage tracked the projectiles back to one of the wing like rear corners of a triangular form nestled among a clutter of systems against the forward bulkhead. Rising on six legs radiating out from a central hub mounted the main body along with a long segmented tail that sparked as it disconnected form the systems behind it, it launched a second barrage of explosives to suppress us before a burst ripped out from the electromagnetic launcher opposite it's rocket pod.
<Hostile infowarfare nanoswarm.> Phantom Mirage warned me as one of the spikes burst against my barrier jacket's outer barriers unleashing a glowing red cloud.
The big mech ducked and suddenly sprang, leaping at least thirty meters to punch through our interlinked defences and land amidst us.
Our formation broke. As its tail swept through us Fan and I dodged aft and came up against a metallic stalagmite like eruption of high energy systems, Devendra disappeared in a sphere of shadow and the others I think fell back to the entrance portal.
A cartridge boosted [Phantom Blazer] scrapped the hacking spike launcher but the focus needed for the charge up time limited my awareness enough that I couldn't dodge the Subverter's tail. It crashed through my barrier jacket's sacrificial purge and electricity crackled from its interface probe and through my left arm and into the machinery I'd been slammed against burning a fern like pattern down the flesh of my arm.
I spasmed, control of my body usurped by the electricity coursing through me.
For a moment all I could do was watch as the Subverter's rocket feed cycled trying to reload from an empty magazine and then with a <Unity Overide.> Phantom Mirrage took direct control of my musculature isolating them from my nerves and stimulating them to action via a direct fight by thought. Phantom Mirage's thought it had to be said as I could barely cling to consciousness. I could barely make out the glowing sword bayonet of [Strike Blade] that my right arm brought down in between two of the links of the Subverter's tail, sheering it off and cutting the flow of electricity.
The last thing I saw before things went black was glowing claws tearing into the mech's hull, yellow from below striking at the drive train and light eating black from above and in through the scar left by my hit.
The last thing I heard as I lost my grip on consciousness was a roll of thunder that drowned out my heartbeat as a ripple of cluster munitions dropped beyond us.
- - -
Some minutes, and some shockingly olfactory spellwork by Sony, later I limped over to the wreck of the Assembler. Fan was frowning at something inside its hull. Well I assume she was frowning since all I could see was her legs and the posture of her tail.
"Trouble?"
"A good chunk of the hardware doesn't fit."
I propped myself on the deck with my back to one of the Assimilator's legs. "Not just repairs?"
"A set of components plugged into command net. Doesn't look or feel like the rest and isn't seem to be integrated into the design. But it does look like it was designed rather than being a jury rig."
"Someone created aftermarket add-ons for a Genocide Engine?"
"Could be. If so the add-ons look more like Haslanti or Belkan designs than the rest of the systems. Nothing else I can find in here uses sapphire wrapped computronium. It's all graphene block encasement, all flat grey boxes rather than sparkly gems."
"I don't remember anyone finding evidence that Engines manufacture sapphire for anything other than optics." Amati's head popped over the top of a near by console attached to what looked like a Transition Drive core. "Scavenging already made SWCs is common but all the drones we've looked at mounted them in a jury rigged GBE mounting."
"The mountings for these are sapphire and platinum spikes." A holowindow, presumablbly showing the same appeared by the otter's head.
"There are some other oddities," the Prof pointed out.
"First, the Assimilator is bigger than the access hatches.
Second, the Assimilator had a direct interface port that links into the ship net. It was the first weak point Kylami hit.
Third, the armoured citadel for main engineering appears to be the one for a heavier ship class."
"The Builder's swapped in the engineering citadel for a Medium Onslaught Unit, I think." put in Fan. "Except the forward power core has been replaced." She waved at the forward bulkhead,
"Except that the forward quarter of the space has been segmented off into an vault, and the Assembler appears to have been attempting to breach it." replied Academician Scrya.
"I've pretty much done what I can in here for the moment." Fan glowed yellow and shrank disappearing into the hole she had wedged herself into. A moment later she dropped into my lap in her, admittedly cute, true fox form and propped herself up rear paws on my thighs and forepaws on my chest to nuzzle the side of her mint-scented muzzle against my cheek before dashing over to the nest of equipment the Subverter had been resting in and reverting to her human form. With a fluffy tail and supracranial ears of course. Those she was deliberately choosing to add or proudly refusing to subtract depending on your point of view.
I glanced over at Amati.
"It's often easier to use a small form than wriggle in or out of tight spaces." shrugged the otter.
"The lower weight probably helps as much as the smaller size."
"Makes it much easier to scramble around. Yes."
I took a few moments to check the team's status again. Michelle had apparently started to run short of formed munitions and was mining the various accesses with explosive wards. Behind the holowindows I could see the fern-like tracery of burns up my left arm slowly being obscured as my barrier jacket rebuilt itself. There were no traces of more hostiles on anyone's scans but I did notice that the armoured compartment appeared to be scry-warded sufficiently to hold off anyone we had with us. Perhaps Eden or Anja might have better luck, or skills, but I rather suspected that the Academician was their match for historic systems.
With more than a little reluctance I levered myself up from the nice comfortable deckplating and after offering my right arm to Amati to run up, I headed over to see what Fan had found out.
"Pity we didn't get here before the last time it fired up it's erzatz Omega Key. There is a nice array of QEMs as part of it, but they are discharged and we don't have time for their entropy to regenerate." At least it wasn't me that our engineer was unhappy with. She waved at the heavy armoured hatch.
"The Assembler appears to have broken the outer twelve encryption layers. I can deal with the physical locks given a day or so, three triple ring kilomatrix Anthryn pin levers." That would stop me or most automated systems dead but between [Bak-ti's Appraisal] and [Tin-Hau's Spanner] it sounded more like a matter of tedious periods of close concentration for Fan. "Which leaves another thirteen ward layers to deal with if we want to know what is in there. I'm pretty sure the secondary datanet reports to the inside."
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Leading Hand Sienna Kato
1-21 The Strength of the Pack is the Wolf
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
CLASSIFIED // HOLOCAUST-FOXFIRE / PAPERCLIP / WORLDBREAKER-ECLIPSE / BLACKBOOK-INFINITE / WORLDBREAKER-SUNSTORM / INFINITE DESIRE // HORIZON-BLACK
1-21 The Strength of the Pack is the Wolf
- - -As a surgeon, you have to have a controlled arrogance. If it's uncontrolled, you kill people, but you have to be pretty arrogant to saw through a person's chest, take out their heart and believe you can fix it.
- - -
Maelstrom Sargasso, Isomorphic to an unknown location in the Orion Arm, Dimensional Sea layer Sigil ᛋ (Estimated)
Sparrow watch 05 June 0065
- - -
Tida Lanster
- - -
The flight back to Tabris was noisier than strict protocol suggests but we all, even the veterans, needed to decompress. Needless to say some did this by trying to be funny. Since Mercedes was distracted fiddling with her new murder drone I may have encouraged them, since so long as the troops remember their sense of humour morale is still decent.
"Should we be concerned you fight better unconscious?" Michelle asked me to general amusement.
"I would be more worried that the Assimilator took multiple anti-shipping attacks." Fan pointed out unhelpfully, " We may have to face more."
"I can't think of anyone I'd want to ship with a murderous giant ant robot." Devendra put in.
Trio frowned, "That implies you can think of someone you'd set up on a date with either a less genocidal giant ant robot or a murderer who wasn't a giant robot ant."
"You mean you don't want me to set you up on a blind date?"
"You could talk to Liz, She's a resham adept so probably better at therapy than the chaplain." Fan's smile was a little too tired to be a smirk. "Unless you're possessed?"
"I think you'd notice if he's possessed, there'd be ectoplasm gumming up your fur."
At that, I decided that I could use a quiet sit down and headed forward towards the cubby space aft of the cockpit that was optimistically described as a command and control space.
"You've got her scent on you." Leading Hand Rena Takami mentioned as I came alongside where she was sprawled. I turned to look directly at her and saw that Fan had quietly followed me.
"You can tell through my Barrier Jacket?" Which conceded that there was an undertone of mint mixed with the cloud berry of my cologne, if she was just fishing.
"When I'm tired, there is a synaesthetic bleed on my empathic sense."
I quirked an eyebrow at that.
"Usually it is opening up and sharing the emotions of people in arms reach." Rena explained waving her hand lazily. "When I'm 'tired' Some of it is being able to smell what people are like. Who they like, what their personality is like, that sort of thing." She smiled mischievously. "You smell comfortable, like you give good hugs."
"He's very snuggly" Fan 'helpfully' confirmed.
Rena flashed me the bent thumb and splayed fingers that the regulators used to sign QX. "I'd ask to borrow him, but I've got that covered." Fan's eyebrows and ears encouraged her to explain. "The Twins"
Even I knew that the Justus and Cassius den Pokiha, a pair of able spacers in Emil's EVA crew were the only twins on board Tabris.
They'd been among the first crew I'd met when coming on board and weren't above pretending to be each other to pull practical jokes.
"That's one way to avoid needing to tell them apart." I mock commiserated. "Assuming there are actually two of them, though you'd presumably have better evidence for that than I do."
Passing forward through the airtight hatch at the front of the shuttle's main bay I dropped into the system operator's chair, back to the console and injured side towards the bulkhead. Fan took the command station and with a mana ribbon glittered wave persuaded the station chairs to move together facing the tiny kitchen and head on the other side of the accessway before curling herself onto the chair and leaning gently on my shoulder. I angled slightly towards her and her head slid down my chest to rest in my lap.
We stayed like that for the flight back to Tabris, letting quiet companionship bleed the stress and adrenaline from our systems.
- - -
Main Medical, Patrol Cruiser Tabris, Maelstrom Sargasso, Isomorphic to an unknown location in the Orion Arm, Dimensional Sea layer Sigil ᛋ (Estimated)
- - -
This time after we got out of decontamination it appeared I wasn't medbay's designated entertainment. Lieutenant Tsao smoothly whisked Fan and I off into one of the treatment berths and sealed the hatch. As we made ourselves comfortable on the bunks to the smell of chocolate biscuits cooking, she sagged slightly, her tail and ears drooping before with a deep breath she encaged Fan in an array of spell ribbons. "Try to hold still, the scans finish faster that way."
"Michelle and Gisel are both running higher temperatures than I'd expect for their injuries, so I'm going to put a monitor on you two since your barrier jackets were also breached. Akata and Kolha's conditions are within expectations though so it might just be Tida. We haven't spotted any evidence of a decontamination excursion on any of you and believe me we've looked but haven't spotted anything. Doctor den Ihoka has the two of them in quarantine for the moment."
The sensor ribbons Liz draped around me were less numerous than those she'd dropped on Fan, presumably since I couldn't suffer Kumiho Syndrome. Over the next few minutes the hard light healing fields that she wrapped up the feathery burns down my left arm meant that I was still emitting more golden light even allowing for my greater surface area.
With a sigh Liz sat on the edge of the bunk. "The rest of your away team are scuffed but they should be better in a day or two.
Liz slumped against me, her white furred ears brushing against my cheek.
"Can we turn this around?" she asked quietly, her professional mask slipping. So I wrapped her in a hug to add physical support to my reply. Almost certainly the lockdown on her empathic senses was gone with the loss of her calm demeanour.
"Yes." My voice was quiet and firm and beneath that I crushed my doubts beneath iron certainty, she would doubtless pick them up if I let them have any sway. She needed the support that knowing I understood the issues and calmly believed that we could meet this trial. With a gentle ping the scan ribbons on Fan dissolved and she slid from her bunk and slipping her arms around Liz wiggled into to my lap to join the hug.
I deliberately considered our advantages; the veteran officers and crew, Niko guiding us through the collapsing gravity bore, Fan examining the engineering spaces of the HAUs, Sarika's solid competence, the medical team's calm care, the practised teamwork of Scorpion team as they shadowjumped into the fight in the hanger, Amati's as she lectured us on what we found, the quirky camaraderie of Sword team, and layered those over my doubts and insecurities so she wouldn't feel them. The natural responses of a young man with a pair of cute intelligent young women in his lap may have kept me from the meditative focus that would enable me to cloak my emotions, but they would do as well here. To be honest it was probably a better mask for my various aches and pains than I could manage with biofeedback mantras.
Fan added a small mana array lighter yellow than Liz's golden workings. Aiming it at Liz it was obviously one of the ones that I hadn't been subjected to. It says something for my career that despite the little Engsvanyali I could recognise I could read the cursive glyphs for soul integrity and damage on the spell ribbon. After a moment it beeped quietly and with a sigh of relief, Fan let the array dissolve.
I might not have my mother's combat skills or the experience to match Tabris' crack crew but growing up the first born of a pair of senior petty officers included more than a few lessons about command as they adapted their training junior officer skills to dealing with children.
"I have a have professional development question for the ship's therapist. One of the medical officers has been working for days without a break. What is a suitable prescription?"
Liz was quiet for a long moment her breathing slow and synchronised with mine.
"Well, obviously she needs to take a break. She's probably dopamine inhibited and needs to clear her system. I think a course of good, firm hugs, and perhaps a quiet time with friends, and the opportunity to recentre herself."
I felt that I was coming out ahead on this hug, what with the pair of long fluffy tails caressing my back. The girls had to make do with someone who hadn't spent the time to be able to deploy a prehensile extendable tail capable of massage.
"She should spend more time plantigrade. Foot rubs are what that form is for."
Silly me, I'd assumed it was to achieve ergonomic compatibility with gear and equipment or avoid prejudice.
"She's been active for over a hundred hours. Her performance is probably beginning to suffer from fatigue. She may be too tired or worried to sleep or eat properly. My friends should get me to do something about this before I hurt myself."
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Notes 7
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
Notes 7
Cutiscurier
A perfumer who specialises in the permanent adaption of their clients skin biota to change the scent and taste of their sweat.This can range from producing a so called neutral scent to highly artistic balances of the cutaneous microbiome to produce a varying scent profile depending on degree of exertion.
The Huli-Jing Alchemist Brown subclade has instinctive access to both skills to aid in designing the scent profiles and magic to change. Black clade Huli-Jing have a neutral scent by default.
Familiars and Guardian Beasts
Creation of a familiar involves taking an animal and infusing it with the mage's mana. Creating a familiar does not automatically provide any long term effect, though, so a familiar should normally be bound to a symbioneural resonance bond by an oath with its master within a month of creation. On the reverse side, after forming the bond the mage and his/her familiar begin to share some powers, including knowledge of magical spells. This includes providing the familiar a virtualised linker core cloned from the mages linker coreIn general, familiars are fiercely loyal to their masters but have the liberty to question their motives. They apparently retain some instincts of their past animal lives and greater familiars possess the ability to shapeshift into a human form. In their humanoid form, they will normally have the ears and tail of the animals they are based on but, if necessary, they are capable of hiding these features.
Symbioneural resonance bonds provide an empathic link between the familiar and master and dependent on their magical power. The more lifelike and complex the familiar is, the greater the necessary power upkeep. It follows, then, that a familiar will perish in short order should their master die. A familiar can, however, significantly reduce mana expenditure required for their upkeep by reducing their body size.
The use of familiars is typically seen as an identifying feature of Magical systems based on the Midchildan methodologies. Belkan and Nahua magics have as a parallel technology Guardian Beasts, the main distinction of which is they have full non-virtualised linker cores while requiring greater power and skill to create. Belkan knights and mages usually create Guardian Beasts from genetically engineered members of any of the same types that Midchildans can use to create Familars. Nahua are more restricted since the ability to ritually transform an animal into a Guardian Beast is generally linked to certain Natal magics each of which are restricted to a single type. e.g. 10-Ocelot is limited to Jaguars, 5-Tochtli to varieties of Lepus including Al-Mi'raj and Jackalopes. Etc.
Flames and Wisdoms has no equivalent. Some Fienn styles have rituals for serpentine lesser familiars and guardian beasts,
Familiars who have lost their master have a limited time before their personnality and memories evaporate, if they can find a mage who knows a familiar or guardian beast creation ritual in that time they can be bonded to that mage regardless of which types the mage can create. As of 0065 there is no known way to transform a familiar into a guardian beast.
TSAB Navy Uniforms
Ceremonial Dress
This is authorised only for a few senior Officers (Admirals and Admirals of the Fleet, Star Lords, the Sankt-Kaiser and her Paladin and a few other more obscure titles). It consists of a navy blue double-breasted tailcoat with standing collar faced white with gold edging, worn with gold shoulder boards, gold laced blue trousers, an optional full dress sword belt and a tricorn or peaked cap as relevant.No. 1 dress
This is the formal uniform worn on ceremonial occasions. Female personnel may wear skirts.No. 2 dress
This mess dress is worn in the evenings for formal dining.No. 3 dress
General duty dress. For officers no 3 dress includes a long-sleeved shirt and tie. Berets may be worn with this dress only on certain occasions or organisations (for example, regulators).No. 4 dress
Number 4 Action Working Dress is the preferred uniform for combat action stations and other crisis situations. Number for uniforms har enhanced fire, electricity and kinetic impact resistance.No. 5 dress
No. 5 refers to the wide range of job-specific working kit worn by different personnel (e.g. medical, flight deck, small craft crew, chefs, rigger undersuits, etc.) for particular tasks. Barrier Jackets, August Panoplies, Mist Cloaks and the like when not configured to match one of the other classes of uniform are considered No. 5 dress, and are frequently jokingly referred to as No. 6 dress.Ye Song Scaled Matrix Armour
Lost logia armour forged on Kunlun in the pre-Belkan era, a precursor to Barrier Jackets and varients, it's scales are spellcards networked together to provide a wide spectrum of defences.
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1-22 The Strength of the Wolf is the Pack
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
CLASSIFIED // HOLOCAUST-FOXFIRE / PAPERCLIP / WORLDBREAKER-ECLIPSE / BLACKBOOK-INFINITE / WORLDBREAKER-SUNSTORM / INFINITE DESIRE// HORIZON-BLACK
1-22 The Strength of the Wolf is the Pack
- - -"There are friends, there is family, and then there are friends that become family."
- - -
TSAB Patrol Cruiser Tabris, Maelstrom Sargasso, Isomorphic to an unknown location in the Orion Arm, Dimensional Sea layer Sigil ᛋ (Estimated)
Dog watch 05 June 0065
- - -
Tida Lanster
- - -
While I did my best to radiate comfort and confidence, Phantom Mirage quietly filled in the prescription and sent it to Dr den Ihoka who digitally signed it within moments. It was long enough for me to be thoroughly marked with two different mint scents before I had Phantom Mirage trigger the nearby printer.
"Hmmph." Came from the vicinity of my left pectoral.
"Turn about is fair play." I could hear Fan's grin,
"It is a basic rule of command that one should avoid orders you know won't be obeyed."
"Precisely, the wardroom should be serving food soon. And I know well enough that you don't like the imperative."
Fan and Lis giggled. "It isn't a matter of not liking."
"Classified?"
"Could say that. But we do appreciate you avoiding it and not making a fuss."
I managed to get them to their feet and heading for officer country without them discovering all of my ticklish spots.
"Tida" Liz's voice had brittle undertones beneath the cheer. I was keeping her upright and moving forward by alternating rubbing my thumbs in curves up the back of her neck and polishing the back of her shoulders.
"Yeah"
"You haven't had your skin biome tailored, have you?" Her tail was rubbing up and down my left leg, leaving my right for Fan.
Cautiously I answered "No." My chest was still slightly damp where Liz had licked her tears off it.
"What do you think, Fan-Fan, cloudberry like his cologne or chocolate and orange?"
"Either, Both?"
"Both could work. It'll have to wait till we get out of here, we don't have a good cutiscurier on board. I could retune his sweat for a neutral scent but best get a specialist to blend anything beyond that."
- - -
Dinner found us among a cluster of junior officers around the table in the wardroom. Liz had taken the officer's steward, Lt Commander Kato's tiger familiar, Sienna, to one side as we came in and given her firm instructions as to what we were to eat. The two of them it turned out had a deep belief in the healing powers of seared meat. Plates laden with skewers of stegosaurus, chevon, and turkey with side bowls of dipping sauces were dished out among us along with a supernacular spiced apple cider.
Sarika flicked out her tail and dragged over an additional chair to the table. "You join us, No value in eating alone." Now we were off duty she'd discarded the concept of definite and indefinite articles. Clarissa slipped out from the galley and added a full plate in front of Sienna.
"We are all russet?" I hazarded. Fan and Liz glanced at me and then each other, nodded and with smiles firmly chorused "We are all russet." Aklavu, our arachne supply officer, and Niko joined in and tapped their tankards together before taking quick drink. Possibly I'd triggered some tradition peculiar to the ship.
Sarika tapped her chest with a closed fist and a "Soglasiye."
"I shouldn't .." The only person in the room not in uniform, or at least I was pretty sure frilly Galean maid dresses weren't uniform even for stewards, tried to object. That being said none of us were in anything more formal than class 3 uniforms.
"There is no rank in the mess." I think that was me repeating myself and as the senior officer present I could ironically insist it applied. Certainly none fo the three officers that outranked me aboard would contradict me.
"See, even boyars agree." Sarika said with a smile, wrapping one of Sienna's hands around the handle of a skewer, "Politruk says so, so must be true."
"I'm not sure I'm a commissar." I replied
"You are legal officer, you make sure every one is cheerful and well fed, and you lead from front inspiring troops." Sarika smirked. "Not sure what else describes you. Is good thing, good commissar is as important to unit as good captain"
"To the russet commissar!" Chorused the rest of the table.
If they were going to call me that I might as well live up to it. Sienna was picking at her food, her ears drooping and her tail down. "What troubles you, Miss Kato?"
"I'm worried about Merak. He hasn't woken up,"
"I'm sorry, I haven't had the time to talk to you about his condition. We're holding him in a medical coma for the next week or so." Liz put her skewer down. She was propping herself up on her elbows to keep herself upright but she managed to keep her voice calm and reassuring. "If we had the spare time in the chrysalis tanks he be up and on light duty in a day or so, but we been prioritising the people who were less likely to survive without. Both Ah Ni and I expect him to make a full recovery over the next month."
"Should I go to low power mode or stasis?"
"That isn't necessary, his linker core wasn't affected and the bond isn't straining him."
"Doesn't your link tell you this sort of thing?" Sarika's tail had wrapped Sienna in a hug.
"I don't really have the the skills to interpret what I'm seeing beyond the basics." Sienna mumbled into her stegosaurus.
Liz tilted her head down to catch Sienna's eyes. "When everything stops being exciting we should sit down and see if we can work on that. It isn't one of my specialities but I'm sure we can work something out if we rope in Devendra."
"Thank you, it's just that I worry you know?"
"We understand." From the mana array at her feet Liz was silently casting something. "I'd be nervous if I was reliant on Merak to continue being sapient."
"I've got reservations about creating a familiar, but I do know the necessary ritual to form a bond if you ever need it. " I knew the [Ritual of Baudelaire] and obviously Merak had a familiar creation ritual but I didn't think there were many other people on board who'd be able to take over if something happened to him. As far as I knew none of the Nauha had an appropriate birthday, other than Devendra I didn't think any of the foxes knew enough Midchildean magic to be able to, Sarika couldn't, and of the rest the only people I could think of with the skill and possible inclination were Sofia and Chief Petty Officer Opel. "Whatever my thoughts on the ethics, I can't see letting you die when I can help."
"My bond should transfer to his sister, but." Sienna wasn't looking sure that would work. Being this deep into the Dimensional Sea might mess it up.
"If it becomes necessary I can hold it till we get back and pass it to her or whoever else you want it to go to. The bosun should know who else can if I'm not available." When in doubt pass the problem off to an NCO.
"I don't like bothering her. She's always busy."
"Making sure crew problems get sorted out is her job." Liz put in firmly. " She's not going to bite when you are making sure you don't suffer an avoidable medical condition. If she does tell me or Doctor den Ihoka. Either way come round to sick bay tomorrow and we'll write you a prescription. It would be a good precaution to talk to everyone who could take up your bond, because you might want someone who isn't heroically leading from the front and talking to them in advance will make things easier."
"I don't want to be a bother. It isn't like I'm very helpful, I can't fight or help fix the ship."
"This isn't a bother." Liz declaimed, flourishing her skewer towards the deckhead. "This is helping me get round the tyranny that says I have to rest."
Fan made a show of holding her hand to her mouth and in a not so sotto voice said "Tida had her boss tell her she wasn't allowed to keep going till she started hallucinating. She hasn't slept since before we hit the gravity bore."
"More importantly," I waved my empty skewer at Sienna. "you are helpful and anyway you've got the right to be a bit of a bother. I wouldn't like who I was if I let you get hurt just for my convenience, I don't think any of us would."
1-23 Fluffy Tails and the Middle Strategy
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
CLASSIFIED // HOLOCAUST-FOXFIRE / PAPERCLIP / WORLDBREAKER-ECLIPSE / BLACKBOOK-INFINITE / WORLDBREAKER-SUNSTORM / INFINITE DESIRE// HORIZON-BLACK
1-23 Fluffy Tails and the Middle Strategy
"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."- - -
TSAB Patrol Cruiser Tabris, Maelstrom Sargasso, Isomorphic to an unknown location in the Orion Arm, Dimensional Sea layer Sigil ᛋ (Estimated)
Falcon watch 06 June 0065
- - -
Tida Lanster
- - -
I awoke to warmth and fluffyness. Also a damp mint scented pectoral. For some one who usually had a pixel perfect professional demeanour, Liz was a messy sleeper, sprawling n top of me me with limbs all over the place.
Fan stretched and with the tones of someone who was announcing the end of civilisation pointed out. "I don't think all three of us will fit in the shower at one time."
"There might be a shortage of space for water, yes." The two of us had barely fitted in together. "You two should go first."
"Mmrph." Today at least Liz wasn't a morning person. Fan and I got her into the shower despite her going limp and trying to use her tail to tickle us.
- - -
"Did my prescription include bodily fluid?" Liz was lounged across my bed as if she'd decided against having bones today "I can think of one that's good for depression."
I was saved from having to answer by the door chiming. Fan waved a spell at it from where she was fluffing herself dry and it unlocked.
Tozi, one of the ships laundry staff, popped her head around the door "The Surgeon had me bring uniforms for Miss Tsao and Miss Linhua along with your returns L.C."
Impressively she didn't even twitch so much as an eyebrow at the sight of us as she racked our clothes. "I'll leave the rest of your returns next door, Miss Tsao."
A few moments after our helpful aquamancer had left, Fan opened the door to let one of the vaguely cancrine maintenance drones in. The hopper on it's back that usually carried parts popped open to reveal three covered trays and a jug of fruit juice.
"Breakfast." she said quickly, as if she wanted to avoid explanations."Tida's is the one with the least liver."
- - -
Given that almost a quarter of the crew were still convalescing or restricted to light duty, all the casualties that didn't need constant oversight had been shifted from the medical facilities back to their quarter as fast as possible. This meant that my rounds of the halt and lame took me over most of the berthing space on the ship. Sword Team had understandably long since spread out across one of the three platoon berths Tabris was equipped with so as to claim individual cabins each. The archaeologists and their ranger team were spread across the quarters intended for the second and third platoons and the headquarters section of the company of troops Tabris was designed to be able to carry.
Academician Scrya was in the absent Executive Officer's quarters adjacent to the Combat Information Centre, and Miss Scarlet was in one of the junior officers' quarters intended for a Commodore's staff. The Regulators, having proven like Fan and me to be unaffected by the fever symptoms that still had Michelle and Gisel in quarantine, bunked down in divisional berthing spaces almost as far apart from each other as the habitable spaces of the ship allowed. All in I was crisscrossing the ship and so to avoid taking all watch, I was in PT gear and jogging. Being obvious about exercising should avoid the usual reaction to an officer running somewhere.
When I'd left Fan and Liz had set up camp in my quarters since neither wished to trek back to their own, despite Liz's berth being the adjacent cabin with Lieutenant Zarooq. Fan whose quarters were five decks away adjacent to the containment for main engineering, was planning to spend the morning doing paperwork and overseeing maintenance drones neither of which required her to stop being curled up with Liz, who had dozed off.
Veyron was of course nowhere near any of those, the embarked troops' officer quarters being tucked away adjacent to the ventral shuttle bay.
I found Vey, sitting zazen in the middle of the common area at the centre of the block of quarters. Since he was the only person bunked in that area, no one would usually see what a mess he was making of his biofeedback meditation. While much could be due to being injured his posture showed that he should alternate which foot to bring up if he was going to continue using the half lotus.
I dropped one of the crescent-shaped cushions a meter and a bit in front of him and sat facing him, Leuven style with both ankles on the ground and my hands in my lap. Sabat, his device, helpfully fed Phantom Mirage his vital signs, but his breathing didn't match his heartbeat.
"Lieutenant, listen and follow my timing. Breath In … and out, in … and out." Over the next few minutes, I used the routine to help him start hypnotising himself to bring his breathing and heartbeat into tune. "Carry on that pattern and starting from your lower back and working up and down, let your muscles go soft."
While his base timing was faster than I preferred his brainwaves were dropping through alpha towards the high theta range I'd dropped into. My worries faded and drifted off as I let myself just be.
We sat like that breathing in sync for what Phantom Mirage would later tell me was almost twenty minutes before Vey slumped backwards and splayed out across the floor. "About my limit, Commander. My thighs are beginning to complain."
"Thank you. I probably needed that after the last few days." I could almost hear mum suggesting that I should keep up my internal alchemy training. "How's the headache?"
" Down to a dull ache." he said shortly. "Doctor den Ihoka says I should be fit for duty in another day or two."
I nodded, moving to lounge across the couch opposite the display wall showing an external view. For a moment, we both watched the ethereal patterns of the dimensional sea in silence.
"You weren't sitting angel with us on the Gerechtigkeitsstift," I observed or possibly sneezed.
Veyron's jaw tightened. "No, I wasn't. Apparently, I'm not considered... reliable enough for such roles at present."
There was a bitterness in his voice that I couldn't ignore. I turned to face him fully.
"Veyron, I'll be blunt. There have been concerns about how you're fitting in with the rest of the crew. Is there something we need to discuss?"
He let out a harsh laugh. "Fitting in? Is that what we're calling it now? These people don't respect the chain of command, Commander. They act like this is some kind of pleasure cruise rather than a military vessel."
"We're in an extraordinary situation," I reminded him gently. "Flexibility and adaptability are essential right now."
"Flexibility is one thing. But there needs to be order and discipline. Without it, we're just... adrift."
I could see the genuine distress behind his rigid posture. This wasn't just about pride or stubbornness - Veyron was truly struggling to find his footing.
"Look," I said, choosing my words carefully, "I understand this isn't what you expected when you were assigned to Tabris. But right now, our primary mission is survival and finding a way home. That requires us to work together, to utilize everyone's strengths. And that requires you to adapt to the ship's culture. We're operating under Daiji's rules of etiquette so try to use the imperative less outside emergencies."
Vey's expression softened slightly. "I... I want to help. I want to do my duty. But I feel like I'm constantly being sidelined, like my training and skill don't matter here."
"They do matter, Veyron. But you need to be willing to adapt, to learn from those around you." I placed a hand on his shoulder. I could hardly tell him that reading between the lines he shouldn't have been assigned to Tabris straight from officer training, without wider experience than he seemed to have. "Some of us may not fit the mould of what you expect from TSAB personnel, but they have skills and knowledge that are invaluable in our current situation. It doesn't help that neither of us aren't read on to certain things everyone else in the crew is."
He nodded slowly, seeming to consider my words.
"I'll try," he said finally. "I can't promise I'll agree with everything, but... I'll try to be more open-minded."
"That's all I ask. You'll have an opportunity to show what you can do on the next sortie. Unless there is something the Doc hasn't noticed you are leading a team over to get on with stripping the Ascendency ship. I've been sentenced to a bridge position by the medics, so Sarika will leading the team heading back to the Haslati one to check for more killer robots." I replied with a small smile. "And Veyron? If you're having trouble, don't hesitate to talk to me or Mercedes. We're all in this together."
As I turned to leave, I saw a flicker of something - maybe hope, maybe just resignation - cross Vey's face. It wasn't much, but it was a start. In our current situation, we needed every member of our crew working together. Hopefully, this conversation would be a step in helping him avoid wrecking his career on the rocks of whoever's mistake put him on board.