NationStates Jolt Archive

At the IDF SN Primary Dockyards, north of Turath, nestled at the base of the Northern Range of Almna-shar, a faint rumble announces the impending launch of yet another IDF SN warship. Or two.

The past month has seen fourty such launches; some of them multiple, some of them not.

Lumbering out of the huge hole in the ground that is the Primary Hangar, and the not-so-huge hole that is the Secondary Hangar - the IDF SN PD has grown in size in the last month - are two Relentless class cruisers.

But that's not all.

As they gain an altitude of several thousand feet, yet another rumble makes itself known; and EM claspers fire from small-arms gunports on the two cruisers, attatching to spherical construct that raises itself out of the ground sluggishly.

Even more sluggishly than a Retribution class warship, in fact. And underneath it sit a vast array of networked metal beams - MI conductors, designed to lift heavy loads. Not designed to lift a load as heavy of this, of course, but...

...they appear to be working well enough.

At an upward-tip height of six hundred metres, the massive object finally breaks free of the ground below - and the reinforced lines running from the EM claspers that have peppered its hull suddenly lose all slackness, tightening up and becoming thick, heavy-looking straight cables.

Lifted from beneath and above, the object - and the two cruisers far above - gently ascend to orbit over the next two hours.

The entire surface of the object is, in essence, the Three Star Sigil - and Nenyan-scripted letters dominate the centre of the Sigil:

Vilya Elenosto

"Breaking News: EOTED launches first orbital colony. Celebrations in Nenya are slated for tomorrow evening; over 2 million celebrants are expected. Official colony name also released to the public: Vilya Elenosto. Vilya Elenosto is expected to take a further month to complete; finishing touches are yet to be added."

~ INN Mesh Ticker

*crickets* *clapping* *Rugby Crowd Cheering*

'how did you pull it off?'

will this do any good for the defeat of Morgoth?

will this do any good for the defeat of Morgoth?

The Empire is not in a state of hostilities with the Imperium at this time, nor will it be at any future point currently forseeable.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

will this do any good for the defeat of Morgoth?

The Empire is not in a state of hostilities with the Imperium at this time, nor will it be at any future point currently forseeable.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

I see, what his allies and we had believed that u were against Melkor, r we mistaken?

The Empire has fought Morgoth on several occasions in the past, but the current diplomatic situation is far too delicate for us to do so again in the forseeable future. Furthermore, we have no intentions of endangering the lives of our citizens for a fourty-thousand-year-old feud.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

The Empire has fought Morgoth on several occasions in the past, but the current diplomatic situation is far too delicate for us to do so again in the forseeable future. Furthermore, we have no intentions of endangering the lives of our citizens for a fourty-thousand-year-old feud.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

Forty thousand years, that is a long time, u must form one large army, a Last Alliance type thing except like the ring was destroyed and defeat evil forever.

The Empire has fought Morgoth on several occasions in the past, but the current diplomatic situation is far too delicate for us to do so again in the forseeable future. Furthermore, we have no intentions of endangering the lives of our citizens for a fourty-thousand-year-old feud.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

Forty thousand years, that is a long time, u must form one large army, a Last Alliance type thing except like the ring was destroyed and defeat evil forever.

This discussion is meaningless, and going nowhere. We have stated our position. Consider this discussion politely terminated.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

The Empire has fought Morgoth on several occasions in the past, but the current diplomatic situation is far too delicate for us to do so again in the forseeable future. Furthermore, we have no intentions of endangering the lives of our citizens for a fourty-thousand-year-old feud.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

Forty thousand years, that is a long time, u must form one large army, a Last Alliance type thing except like the ring was destroyed and defeat evil forever.

This discussion is meaningless, and going nowhere. We have stated our position. Consider this discussion politely terminated.

~ Ambassador Relhatti

Sorry, but your nation will never get anywhere and even if they do, Melkor is still there...

INN is full of shots of an unmarked cruiser, Relentless class, docking with Vilya Elenosto - and the reporter chatters about power cores and the fitting of them with an Imperial Energy representative. Cue technobabble.

After a while, an official EOTED statement is fielded, live on INN (Ma-Nenya Division):

"The Empire is proud to announce that Vilya Elenosto is now officially online. There are still a few touches to be added - installation of a defence grid, weapons systems, and the propulsion system - but to all intents and purposes, Vilya Elenosto is now online. On Coronation Day, in three weeks time, the first of the colonists will begin to arrive, lead by the new High Lord and Lady, who's names have not yet been released - and will not be released until Coronation Day..."

~ Excerpted from INN (Ma-Nenya Division)

OOC: heheh.

We show our strongest congratulations to the Empire of The Eternal Dawn for this achievment. As for us, we are still planning about an "orbital colony". May this operation go with success, and may the people live well in the new colony.

Foreign Affairs Ministry

%% She groans, the sunlight stinging her eyes with the eternity of the stars; her mind mattered? thoughts reel through her mind and her matter - matter - she stuck on the word, clinging to it with intensity...

mind mattered? matter? %%

"She's not quite right yet," Bao scowled, aboard the IDSS To Dart, To Divide - but not quite in the usual manner.

The plucky little warship was the newest in the fleet - and assigned to Vilya Elenosto. The To Dart, To Divide class was rather new; design cost of Rlh1.2trillion - build cost of Rlh49billion...

Costly. Worth it. Eminantly worth it. They could build them in just over six hours now; at a cost of 75% the price of this, the first of it's class.

Pocket cruiser. Fifteen TLS gunports. Tiny launch system. The missiles themselves were small; fired in components - or Thirds. Each Third, once fired, met with its other two Thirds.

They then made a YKKD-RSW. An yttrium kinetic kill rapid strike weapon.

Fifteen divided by three was... what. Bao's mind, her keen mind, crunched the number rapidly. The Nenyan mind, at latest study, could perform 7,100,000,000,000 - seven point one trillion - calculations per second.

The number was set to rise. Undoubtedly. It had done for years...

...Bao Ling drew herself back on course. Somewhat.

Fifteen milliseconds clicked by. An eternity.

C-space stretched outwards around her rippling white form. It had supposed to be painful; it had been painful the first time.

Sarah, darling dear Sarah, I will never thank you enough for sparing the pain this once caused me.

She floated. A millisecond barely ticks by, and the thought flitters into her mind:

five

Mm, yes. Each ship could fire five weapons per second. Bao knew that. Why was she...

Ah, she told herself mutely.

She stretched a finger out, caressing a flowing of blue-white representative light.

The light rippled, shifting wavelength through to a visible form of purple - perfect, she mused - and Bao vaulted back towards the 'corner' of the space she floated in.

Purple and muted blues ripple through the 'walls', and fuzzy images of Nenyan characters are... visible, but not seeable.

They hover on the edge of consciousness in this place; Semantic C-Space.

The image devolves...

...green becomes dominant; then blue floods in, washing over the eye - and the red comes last of all...

Blinding whiteness.

Daylight.

* * *

Bao blinks. Her eyes adapt rapidly; but not as rapidly as the ones belonging to the person standing beside her.

A hand clamps on her shoulder; a voice in her ear, "Where the devil am I?"

Another light is hinted at; a white light flashing past... but it is but an echo of the reality.

Sarah, ablaze from the 'entry' - or rather, a segment - stands nonchalantly some paces away from Bao and...

"Tatya," Sarah spoke quietly, "you are awake. Welcome, my sister. This is the Creation Womb. Breathe, and all will become clear."

* * *

{%%Tatya breathed-%%}

Lord Saruman, his vision enhanced by his noncorporeal form, bound to the tower of Orthanc, could see the Elves of the new colony and was filled with envy and anger. The bright light that symbolised his form at the peak of the Orthanc sent out bolts of lightning, outbursts of malicious spirit that lashed out in all directions, hitting the many mountain sides of the Ring of Isengard. The cries of the Orcs of the Caverns at the foot of the tower were stained with fear at the rousing of their master, Lord Saruman the White. They began to work harder and the whips of the overseers were clashing busily as if they were the lightning bolts themselves.
Saruman returned to his meditations...

Creation Womb;
................Entity: Tatya
.................Cycle: 18yrs7mths6days
..................Compression?
------------->{BL} keystring:- YES
.....................Compression:
-------------------------------->{BL} keystring:- FULL
........................Compression: Full compression.
.........................Time To Completion: Six hours.
..........................Working:-

.
..
...

Entities Steering: Bao Ling, Sarah (AIR)
..................................Authentication Accepted....................................

Ready.


Tatya squealed as her mother swung her around in an arc, her big sister grinning - she smiled... ducks are so pretty -

years?

...rolled by. Snapshots of memories of experience, flashed into her segments-

Ah. A birthday, a detached portion of herself remarked-

-as the other half scrambled, grinning and brushing an errant lock of hair out of her eyes, for the Fancy for her big day out at Aelinenya Waterside Park-

-and she cried, sobbing against Mother's shoulders while Sister huddled close with both, at the loss of Mor, her beloved dog-

-and as she went to school, where there were multitudes of other people-

-but none were people, the detached portion of herself knew. Just simulations, built by Sarah and Bao-

-but the attached part made friends, lost friends, developed just as any human would through all the stages of her life - except in the Creation Womb version of Sarah's C-Space construct aboard Vilya Elenosto-

-and she lived a good life, but a hard life, with many difficult times; she sobbed as she lost her mother in the store and couldn't find her; she sniffled as her sister explained that Mor wouldn't be coming back - that he hadn't run away, but had simply run out of years to live...

...and older, she laughed with delight as she learned to fly; an old C# railing against the winds beneath her as she struggled to even fly straight and level-

-and the exhileration as she earned her certificate as the winner of an IDF AF School of Excellence place-

-the fearful exhileration as she earned her wings, and soared into the sky for her first time in a Fancy, flying with Mother and Sister-

-wargames with Mother and Sister stretched out, seemingly for months; memories of laughter as each sides little laser-models would blast the others to pieces - and each shivering at the sensation that being connected via Link to the models produced when they were destroyed-

* * *

Bao Ling unhooked, sliding the thin grey metal out of her finger. Sarah would do her job, now. She would. She was Bao's greatest creation; Tatya was...

"We will see," she inserted into a data packet and fired off to Rialla.

* * *

{%%Tatya blinked. I breathed and-%%}

"-I understood, sister. Why are my cores not online?"

{%%Sarah. Did Sarah feel this way? Why do I not feel robbed of years? I lived them, but it was not my life. And why do I not feel regret? Mor- What was Mor?%%}

"Sister... more importantly... what was Mor?"

{Sarah sighed. This section of her own life was now but a dim memory. She had lived months since then! So, of course, she felt capable of offering an opinion-}

"Sister Tatya, it is not a question one may answer easily. I cannot describe the pain of loss beyond saying:

It was necessary. You will understand, in time. I fear you will be forced to. - I hope ardently it is not to be so, Tatya. Loss is dangerous. But I will be with you, dear Tatya."

The To Dart, To Divide class was rather new; design cost of Rlh1.2trillion - build cost of Rlh49billion...

Costly. Worth it. Eminantly worth it. They could build them in just over six hours now; at a cost of 75% the price of this, the first of it's class.


OOC: Cruisers built in six hours? Oh For cryin out loud, what are they, tissue paper?

Lord Saruman, his vision enhanced by his noncorporeal form, bound to the tower of Orthanc, could see the Elves of the new colony and was filled with envy and anger. The bright light that symbolised his form at the peak of the Orthanc sent out bolts of lightning, outbursts of malicious spirit that lashed out in all directions, hitting the many mountain sides of the Ring of Isengard. The cries of the Orcs of the Caverns at the foot of the tower were stained with fear at the rousing of their master, Lord Saruman the White. They began to work harder and the whips of the overseers were clashing busily as if they were the lightning bolts themselves.
Saruman returned to his meditations...

A MISAT distributes the odd meteorological data out through the network, and back to IDF Lower Command, Turath.

The data is stored, noted, and the MISAT closest is ordered to increase surveillance to 'concentrated'.

No government statement is made either in public or to Saruman directly.

The To Dart, To Divide class was rather new; design cost of Rlh1.2trillion - build cost of Rlh49billion...

Costly. Worth it. Eminantly worth it. They could build them in just over six hours now; at a cost of 75% the price of this, the first of it's class.


OOC: Cruisers built in six hours? Oh For cryin out loud, what are they, tissue paper?

[OOC: No. It's a matter of the size of the facility building them. If you have sufficient energy input, you get sufficient output. The IDF SN Primary Shipyard is, in fact, a Citadel north of Nenya/Turath. And it's very, very big. Excavated tunnel system and such. Not to mention that it's pretty easy to get hold of materials. Allies are useful for trading, you know.]

OOC: There is a direct correlation between assembley time and complexity. A hull could prehaps be assembled in six hours, but if you want any decent sensors, weapons etc, it would take much longer to install and test them. And the faster you assemble something, the less time you have to test wheter or not it is assembled correctly. Even Angelus has the decency not to claim assembley times below a few days.

OOC: Hang on, I think I've got the wrong end of the stick here. Do you mean one comes off the production line every six hours, or they start it at 6:00 and finish it at 12:00?

OOC: Hang on, I think I've got the wrong end of the stick here. Do you mean one comes off the production line every six hours, or they start it at 6:00 and finish it at 12:00?

[OOC: I mean one comes off the production line every six hours, if a production line is entirely dedicated to building pocket cruisers.

And they're called pocket cruisers for a reason.

They are fifteen metres wide, thirty metres long, and ten metres tall. They aren't cruisers, but pocket cruisers. Torpedo-boats, essentially. :) ]

OOC: Ah. My mistake...

(Pocket cruisers? More of a gunship if you ask me :wink: )

{Tatya... She glinted.

The warship swung by her, and yet it was her, and she was two and three in one of one; many inside a single being that spanned some miles...

...breathtaking. She fired her engines up higher - a mere beat, a nanosecond surge of energy - and the sensation of power was exquisite.

She was a star!

She calmed.

Her hands, they reached out to grasp at her own body-}

The cruiser IDS OODA released two thin wires from two small-arms tubes on her fore; the tiny objects lanced out, connecting to deck plates on the Vilya Elenosto station-

-and they clamped in. The buckyball cables twist, contracting and losing all slack - kinetic turned potential energy contained inside the cables themselves and increasing their tensile strength.

The two held fast-

-dancing-

-a tidy, gentle dance. The warship opened her cargo bay doors; oxygen blasted out - but not just any oxygen.

Ionized matter clung to the oxygen, and in turn, nanobugs clung to the ionized matter. The polarity of Vilya Elenosto adjusted, drawing the matter to the points where the buckyball cables were attached - as the cables pulled away.

Tumbling back, the cables adjust - and the ionized matter gushes into the vacant primary hull spots.

The cables snap back - precisely - and replace the heavy hull plates.

They promptly dissolve, issuing a rainbow of colours-

A new hull forms inside two seconds. And now - it has an entry port.

A new object issues forth from the gaping maw of the cruiser; firmly held by drones, she drifts through the hull of Vilya Elenosto - and a dull thunk is heard as she slots into position.

Vilya Elenosto pulses blue-white-

-and is let lose by the warship above her.

She holds absolutely still.

* * *

The Empire of The Eternal Dawn proudly announces the completion of the great Colony of Vilya Elenosto.

I, Tatya, await my High Lord and Lady, and their people.

~ Tatya, Vilya Elenosto ASIC Entity

* * *

He sat down, preparing his words. He had thought of many, but decided on the simple.

So he went for very simple.

The code words he chose were always somewhat odd; hence he had chosen-

Semir flicked the contact open, and said softly, "Gah."

The console beeped twice. Now it would transmit as pre-ordered.

"Aglar, it is time."

[OOC: SP: it's time.]

The CommOp scratched his head. It itched. Yes, yes. Scratch. "Nnnnnn," he let out.

"Shurrup," the woman next to him said, and gave him a friendly bump on the head.

It had been a month since real contact with the outside world.

A long month of conversations late into the night, under the stars, walks in the woods, attempts to convince Aglar that the boat was perfectly safe.

But most of all it had been a month of love. Not physical love, to be sure, but of spiritual love. A deep understanding, an intertwining of the souls, a perfect rightness.

Well, it had been that. And so much more.

A time that lasted forever, but didn't last long enough.

And then, it was interrupted one day by a message, which Gerald delivered when Aglar and Danielle returned from their morning run.

"We recieved a message this morning, ma'am."

Danielle and Aglar's heads turned quickly to face the hologram, surprise on their faces. They had recieved no communications since Semir had departed just over a month before.

"Send a reply, Gerald. Tell him we're ready." She turns to Aglar. "At least, I assume we are?"

He nods.

Aglar and Danielle recieve... yet another message.

This one, however, informs them that - pending FSP aerospace permission rights - the new warship Tyelca Tuo, assigned to Vilya Elenosto following the Knootian conflict, will shortly arrive at <insert nearest airport here> to take them to Vilya Elenosto.

Strangely, the message imparts the idea that the move to Vilya Elenosto isn't required of them now - and that they may linger a while longer if they wish. But the last segment of the message states quite clearly

...but I should remind you, friends, that the first colonists will be going up within three days, and a supernova wouldn't keep them from their new home...

Semir-randil was giving them a choice, clearly. Be the very first to arrive... or arrive once the colonists did (and no doubt get a rather celebrationary welcome from said colonists, at that).

[OOC: As Gerald is the one who actually recieves the message, you can RP Aglar in the next post - I can't quite figure a way to get Aglar to do what Aglar ought via me posting in this post, without ursurping your control of Gerald.

SO! Solution. Aglar would favour neither option strongly - his mildly egotistical and (endlessly, if the moment is ripe for it) arrogant Nenyan self would be torn between the two choices. On the one hand, his ego wants Danielle and he to be the first living feet on Vilya Elenosto (that don't belong to work-gangs). On the other hand... his arrogant self wants that welcome. :D]

"They want to send what to the Corinth ITH?"

"A warship called the Tyelca Tuo, sir."

"Why do they want to send it?"

"They didn't say, Minister."

"I don't care if they are an ally. I don't want a fully operational EOTED warship in Federation Airspace."

A hologram appeared. "John." The minister whirled on Cortana. "Let them land. I don't care if it is your job to be absolute in your paranoia, we can trust the Empire."

John hung his head briefly. "Right. Give them permission to land"

*********

Gerald, having delivered the message to Aglar and Danielle, awaits their decision.

Danielle turnes to Aglar and says, "They're your people, well our people, but you know them better than I. Do you want to meet them as they arrive, or have them greet us?

Aglar frowns slightly, but it is merely with thought; his forehead creases. "I'm not sure. - But..." His voice trails off.

He nods to himself. "It would probably be more honourable to be the first to arrive... and would command more respect. At least... I think it would."

He sounds pretty sure, though.

He takes Danielle's hand, lifts it, and kisses one of her fingers tenderly. "Of course, so long as you are with me, my dear, I couldn't care less whether we arrived today or in fifty years." He grins.

Danielle laughed at the last. "I don't plan to wait, fifty years. We can go tomorrow, if that's alright."

Aglar nods, and Danielle speaks to Gerald. "Okay, reply with tomorrow being fine. Also, make sure you send The List to them as well." Gerald's hologram begins to nod, and speak, but she cuts him off. "And order up an aircar to take us to the Corinth ITH tomorrow as well."

She draws a breath. Gerald responds, "Of course, ma'am."

Bump?

The Tyelca Tuo silently and sedately landed at Corinth ITH, and awaited its passengers.

[OOC: Yeah, yeah. Should be longer. But the forum ate it.]

Danielle whirled as Gerald appeared. "The airtaxi is here, ma'am."

"Oh, damn."

She finished stuffing her stuff into a suitcase, and handed it to Aglar. Aglar now had four suitcases to carry, while Danielle had two.

Even with thrity-six hours to pack, she was rushed. She was leaving what little remained of her former life behind. For a long time anyways.

As she and Aglar left the cabin, she turned to the door and said, "Gerald, until we meet again."

"I shall look forward to the day, milady." The door sealed shut.

A few minutes later the airtaxi lept into the air for Corinth ITH, an hour away.

They were given clearance to land directly on the tarmac, near the Tyelca Tuo.

One side of the Tyelca Tuo dissolves into liquid, and flows away from the side of the ship, rapidly forming into a gangplank of sorts.

Down the 'gangplank' come IDF SN soldiers, dressed in full dress uniforms; grey uniforms with a pale blue line running from right breast to left hip. Upon their left breasts sit the Imperial Three Star Sigil; below, marked clearly, are the words 'Imperial Guard: Vilya Elenosto Detachment'.

They roll out pale blue carpet (as is traditional for the High Nobility), and, all four of them take up positions flanking the carpet.

An officer marches out; three Stars sit upon one of his shoulders, indicating that he is the captain of the Tyelca Tuo, to those who know EOTED military markings.

He halts at the end of the carpet, salutes the aircar, and crisply takes up position at the end of the left-hand line of two soldiers.

Crisply, but with a parade-ground volume cry, he informs any who are listening, "Tyelca Tuo reporting to Corinth ITH for the conveyance of the High Lord and Lady of Vilya Elenosto!"

He bows his head, and so do the soldiers - not in unison, but in crisp one-by-one fashion.

Aglar half-asks, half-comments to Danielle in a hushed (and slightly awed) tone, "Isn't she glorious?"

He is, of course, referring to the Tyelca Tuo.

"I suppose it is." Danielle is impressed, but she isn't all that fond of military things.

And it looks frail, weak, somehow. But the ceremony was impressive.

"Let's go." She gets out of the airtaxi. She is wearing a simple green sundress, and black flat sandals, with her hair back behind her.

Aglar smiles faintly at the 'I suppose', and exits the aircar after Danielle.

A pang of nostalgia rises inside him; quietly, he remarks, "My father would have loved this. I wonder..."

He cuts that thought off, and the nostalgia passes. "No matter."

He offers his arm to Danielle, smiling a small smile. "Shall we, my Lady?"

The soldiers look on, maintaining respectfully disciplined static stances.

Danielle accepts his arm, steadfastly ignoring the comment about fathers, and says, "Yes we shall, my Lord."

Her smile is quite large by comparison.

As they approach the guards, a small portion of her mind is analyzing their uniforms, their stances, comparing to her knowledge of the formerly Dor Lomin Military.

They appeared highly lethal and well trained, despite their stances, and for a moment she felt like a little girl again, going to one of those military events with her father.

But only for a moment, and the feeling passed. She was what she was now, not then.

Now she was to become a High Lady in one of the most powerful Empires on the face of the planet.

Aglar's smile widens as Danielle takes his arm, and thoughts of family - and what may have become of them - are pushed to the background by the here and now.

He spares a nod for the Captain as they approach, and pauses as the man greets softly,

"My Lord; my Lady," he greets respectfully, bowing from the waist and scraping his fingers against the ground in the act of doing so.

Aglar can't resist. "Our chariot awaits?"

Danielle laughs softly at Aglar's comment. It seems perfectly appropriate to the moment.

And yet completely out of place as well. Serious, yet not.

And she loved him for it.

She looks expectantly at the captain, hoping he had a sense of humor....

The captain does, indeed, have a sense of humour. It's common in the IDF SN - and, really, when you're seven inches from a vacuum, you kinda need one.

He smiles - as close to a grin as he dares. "Quite, my Lord. - The Tyelca Tuo is to your liking, I trust, sir?"

Aglar smiles fondly at the warship; gracefully curved, she does not look entirely menacing - merely... graceful.

"Of course," the captain of the Tyelca Tuo continues, "I'm certain your High Nobility," this is referring to both collectively, "shall wish to see the primary battle configuration?"

He doesn't await a response. He taps a small, nigh on invisible patch sewn into his arm - probably for this very purpose, in a one-off effort of extravaganza by the Empire that decries luxury as sloth - and...

Tyelca Tuo is revealed as her smooth hull becomes fluidic, and river-like as it flows in gentle ripples, forming into a new shape as a raindrop pierces the flat surface of a lake -

All trace of softness vanishes. Her lines remain seamless, graceful - curved... yet they are hard, menacing, predatory. She has gained two forward sweeping, menacing 'wings' - similar to those on the M# - and her missile tubes are clearly exposed.

She holds the image for only several seconds, however - and then, with the same flowing-river feel to the shift, she returns to the calmly graceful warship she was before.

Aglar half-gawks. "Amazing," he murmours.

Danielle blinks. "Impressive." She thinks for a second and then asks, "Nanites?"

She knew they could do that. But on such scale was impressive in the extreme.

The captain smiles, exceedingly proudly. And why not? It's certainly greatly distinguishing to be the selected captain of the very first ship in a class - let alone the first ship in any class found in the IDF SN that had a fully dynamic hull.

"Yes, my Lady. I fear I bore you with details, but the Tyelca Tuo is not far advanced beyond simple nanotechnological applications such as WallDoors, or VisiWalls. Of course, this particular application doubles as both replenishable armour and propulsion system - the two need to be unified, you understand, for the propulsion system itself to work. - But I talk too much. I am greatly proud to be assigned to Vilya Elenosto, my Lady, and it is only through delight that I speak at such length." He bows slightly, just a tipping of the head via the neck and shoulders.

Aglar's cheeks twitch mildly with contained mirth; quietly, he notes, "We tend to talk at length about our strengths. It is, I fear, our greatest fault - and to us, a dear quality. We mean no arrogance, to be true - well, some do. Yet most merely consider it a component of discussion. National pride is important in the Empire; too many lived too long in days of oppression before the Empire was reformed - and many still remember. And all are well aware of how grandly better things are today. - It is, to many, invigorating."

He chuckles quietly, smiling into Danielle's eyes with gently crinkled eyes, and uplifted lips, "As you see, even I fall into the trap."

Danielle laughs again, more clearly this time, amused as ever by the Nenyans' overwhelming sense of proper behavior.

"Let us not worry about it, milord," she whispers.

And then, louder, "Shall we go?"

Aglar continues to smile, faintly. "Indeed, my Lady. The soldiers will part for us," and this is clearly a polite order made to sound like a running commentary - for the soldiers do indeed part, and move aside and behind the High Nobles. "And then we shall embark, with them following, as protocol dictates. - We shall not yet meet the crew, my love, for that is something to be done on arrival. The crew shall disembark to Vilya Elenosto directly after us, I presume, and will line up for inspection. - Sound good?"

He smiles a little wider, clearly indicating that these are all options that can easily be altered, if wished.

"That sounds good to me, milord." She moves forward as he leads, slightly unsure of where to go.

But that is not all that places a hesitation in her step. She is leaving her native land for the first time in her life.

Dor Lomin was her home, and now, while she would no doubt see it each day, it would be a long time before she touched its ground again.

Home.

Home was changing now, wasn't it, thought.

What was it the man had said?

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.*

Well, Danielle would not miss her future.

*OOC: Cookie if you can tell me who said it.

Aglar gently leads Danielle up and over the 'gangplank' that was a wall mere moments ago; the inside of the ship is brightly lit, but the corridors are cramped - she feels like a submarine. No surprise, there, considering the IDF N's favour of submarines - she's Nenyan-designed.

The walls are drab grey, dull, and exceedingly boring. The angles, however, are full of elegant curves - when they can be seen at all. Despite the smallness, the curves-that-can't-quite-be-seen appear to add a slightly more spacious feel to the corridor.

Which begs the question: if this is spacious for this space, how awful is the true size?

Danielle is lead, by Aglar, directly to their quarters - the journey won't be very long, and so it's best to merely be comfortable. And the officers mess isn't comfortable; Tyelca Tuo isn't designed for long-term use - only short tours are intended for this new class of ship.

Once they arrive, a voice over the loudspeaker system announces,

"Takeoff in forty seconds. There will be no turbulence or disturbance, my Lady and Lord, for I am not aware if you have travelled in such a ship before. She is as smooth as silk on a freshly shaved leg, I assure you. Enjoy your flight, please."

Aglar grins. "Should only be a couple of minutes."

Danielle is quite surprised, and it shows on her face. "A couple of minutes?!"

She knew it took that long to get to S.P.S.S. Anglachel. But that was merely straight up.

Didn't they have to fly across as well?

Aglar nods slightly. "Of course. She has a lot more kick than a fighter, you know. And atmosphere is no obstacle. She flies in the atmosphere just as she flies in space - except down is tangible, and up is preferable. But yeah... just a couple of minutes. It's not as far as you'd think, really, if you're going fast enough. - We'll have already taken off, by the way, my dear."

No sensation of motion is tangible.

None.

This is perhaps somewhat strange... or then again, it might be bliss.

Danielle blinks in surprise. A larger vessel moving faster than a smaller one? That's backwards. Yeah, they had more in the way of absolute propulsion to them, but still.

She nods, and sits down, pulling Aglar with her, and hugs him, and then lays her head on his chest, relaxing.

Apparently, they'd be there very soon.

Aglar curls about Danielle somewhat, and whispers into her ear softly, "My love, perhaps I have done you dishonour by not asking directly previously." He smiles, but she can't see it - only hear it in his voice.

"I have no doubt I've been most obvious indeed as to my intent," the smile widens, "but today of all days, when we are about to embark upon the rest of our lives, it is perhaps most appropriate of all. - My dearest Danielle, you will be my wife, will you not?"

Danielle sits up quickly, surprised somewhat by the question. "Of course I'll marry you! It certainly took you long enough to ask." She smiles to soften the effect of her words, and then moves to erase the last with a kiss, wrapping her arms around him.