NationStates Jolt Archive

“It’s alright,” said Andie soothingly. “It’s just the engines, that make the ship fly.” The noise from the engines wasn’t really that noticeable now that the hatch had closed, just a slight hum in the background. Even a whisper could be heard over it, as the hull incorporated sound-absorbing materials to cancel out the noise. The avatar found herself wondering what it felt like, to suddenly find yourself surrounded by things you had never seen before, and had no idea how they worked. Spinnet began to approach, to tell them they should take a seat before takeoff, but a glance from Andie told him not to.

“Copy that, Commander. Do we need approach clearance at the spaceport, and if so, how far out?” replied Jann. He released the transmit key on his flight stick and looked at Kinnear. “Whenever you’re ready, Ally.”
The other pilot smiled at him in thanks for letting her take the stick again, then throttled up the engines and lifted the shuttle off the ground, retracting the landing gear as soon as they passed five metres.

“That’s just us taking off,” commented Andie to Rayanna as the deck shifted slightly beneath them. The acceleration that followed was also damped right down, so that you knew it was happening, but it didn’t inconvenience you. She knew Rayanna was probably still uncomfortable, so she shuffled a little closer, laid her head on the other woman’s shoulder and began singing the same lullaby she had sung to Tailchaser.
****

Fayalin still looked unsure. “Yes?” she replied, half-questioningly, but the system took it anyway and initiated the shutdown. She laughed along with Joat. “I guess I’m just a little uncomfortable with giving vocal commands,” she admitted. “At least, to something that can’t tell the difference between a command and a casual use of the same phrase. You should at least fit the software with a command prefix it has to recognise before it will accept a command. Or get rid of it and make it a physical input.” She began inputting the code sequence again, ready for Joat’s order to restart the engines.

"Fly", Rayanna said looking around. When the ship moved she placed one hand on the floor, the other still gripping the rune carved bow. As Andie placed her head on Raya's shoulder her reaction was automatic, and motherly, slipping an arm around Andie as though to comfort her, instead of vice versa. As Andie sang Raya hummed along at first and then joined in, her words only a fraction of a second behind Andies so as to be almost unnoticable and her voice as beautiful as Lauralin's, Her eye's half closed, and she rocked slightly as though comforting a child, everything around suddenly fading into the background.

********

"Your cleared for emergency landing, Highport will confirm and give you your pad number and final vector", Ivonova replied. "By the way, are you heading out once your done there? Or going elsewhere? So that I can keep any traffic lanes clear, not that we have alot of it and certainly not so much that you wouldn't be able to handle it manually."

********

Joat chuckled from the crawlspace, working as fast as she could. "Yeah, I should. Just other things keep coming up. See, the WYAL has no premanufactured programs or components. At least not complete components. It's all my work. Getting things done is a matter of time and money, and as a merchanter, time IS money. The only break I'll take from anyone is pops, and that's just free berthing at the 900. I still insist on paying for fuel and consumables.

"HEY AL", she said louder and Rand automatically opened a come to the bridge.

"Yeah Cap'n", he replied, revectoring the WYAL now that the thrusters were cut. Not that it required much, since there was no friction to slow them down.

"How many people you figure one of the fighters could hold?" she asked.

"What fighters", came his immediate response.

"The ones on the Fortunes. I figured I'd bypass Faye right here and go for a guess instead. The fardlin Manticore fighters of course."

"Why don't I like this question?" he asked. "I figure two max, but they're most likely automated. Why?"

"Well, we fix a few up, turn their beacons back on, mask bio signatures and the Manticore will probably bring them home", she answered.

"And ahhhh .... what bio signatures are we masking?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Ours of course", she replied.

"That's insane, Joat", he told her.

"Oh ... oh, Joat, now, is it? Yeah, it's probably insane, but goin in in the WYAL or even the Fortunes is suicide. I'll take insane over suicide any day."

"I'll take a warm bed and pleasant company", he sighed. "Rand, take the controls and contact Fortunes. Tell them we're picking up some of the fighters but we'll need to work on them over there, we don't have enough space over here. If they want to know why, have em talk to the Cap'n. I'll get the flit car and start haulin em in."

"Good man, Al", she told him.

"Fardlin out of my mind is what I am", he muttered, but was already on his way to the bay.

"Right, Faye, fire em up, they shouldn't be too cold yet."

********

"Fortunes, this is Rand", he announced, opening a comm channel. "Alvec is setting out in a flit car to gather some of the fighter wreckage. With your permission he'll bring it over to one of your bays. The Captain is prepared to answer any questions concerning this project." Rand left the wait signal on, showing that he was prepared to accept a reply.

Andie smiled inwardly at Rayanna’s reaction, knowing that the elf would now relax for the rest of the trip. It was almost exactly the reaction she had hoped to elicit. She probably wouldn’t even notice when they landed. The avatar noticed that the elf had picked up the words of the alien song very quickly. She hoped that Rayanna would feel comfortable enough with the shuttle after this so as not to feel too afraid of the corvette when they eventually returned there.

“Emergency? I hope you mean priority,” replied Jann with a chuckle, “We don’t plan on crashing anytime soon. After we leave Highport, we will be heading out to the Skullkingdom border. We need to speak with the king too. After that, we’ll be out of here.” The shuttle was travelling at nearly four times the speed of sound, but there was no sonic boom; tiny Displacers moved the air around the shuttle, so in effect it was still flying through a vacuum. Only the engine noise was audible to anyone on the ground, and they were high enough that it would only be a vague disturbance.
****

{I think I know where they’re going with this. I’ve been thinking about how we might get people in close enough to deal with this too, and that’s one possible answer I came up with,} replied the Mind, {My only concern is that it won’t give us a very large team. I’d guess we can fit two or three people in each one, and not all of them can be salvaged. Even if we could recover all of them, and with three people per ship, that’s only thirty-six people. Hardly a large force. As it is, if both Alvec and Joat are going, we need to find space for at least nine people, since if all goes well, there will be three to deal with Lauralin, and I would send a standard four-person team at the least. There is also the question of how they will get out again. Anyway, while we try and work these things out, you can use the starboard hangar.}
****

Fayalin submitted the sequence again, and gave the command to restart the engines again, then passed her opinion on Joat’s idea.
“He’s right, it certainly is crazy. But it may just be crazy enough to work,” she mused. “Doesn’t give you many bodies on site. I assume you were planning on having the Rangers go, since Alvec is in no condition to do so.” She wasn’t aware of the plans being formulated by the Fortunes and Andie yet, and Joat certainly wasn’t. “I wonder if a Wraith might work as an alternative. It was Wraiths that infiltrated your President’s flagship and the cruiser Shield of Tenbaris.”

At nearly four times the speed of sound, the trip was a short one. The cities for which the nations were named were in close proximity, while most of the land area stretched out in opposite directions.

"Damn near everyone has priority status with everything going on, that's why I declared you an emergency", Ivanova replied. "And if you decide to crash, don't expect help to soon. We already have enough problems with patricians who can't pilot around a star if they were sublight with ten parsecs to work with. With the destruction of the swan, everyone wants to attend the announcement and address, even though they never knew anyone on board. Just a chance to hawk themselves or thier wares is all it is.

'Commander, the SunWise is moving into bay fourteen.'

'Tell him to pull BACK. The freighter isn't ... ... Sunwise, this is Commander Ivanova, PULL BACK. I repeat, PULL BACK. The senator's ship isn't cleared for entry.

'To late, they're in.'

'Freighter Nebula Mist, return to the hanger.'

WWUUUEEEEP, WWUUUEEEEP, WWUUUEEEEP.

'Ah hell, EMERGENCY CREWS TO BAY FOURTEEN, EMERGENCY CREWS TO BAY FOURTEEN, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.'

'Commander, Ambassador Krulla is demanding to know why the Senator's ship was given access before his.'

'Attention all vessels, this is Moon Station. You all hold reletive positions until further notice.'

'They're demanding to know why, Commander .... uhhh, Commander?'

'As you have all, no doubt, noticed, the defense systems of this station are targeting each of your ships. Rather than have you kill innocent people like the SunWise just did, I'll shoot you myself. THAT is why you will hold position AND why you will keep the comm channels clear unless I, contact, YOU. Ivanova out.'

'Was that wise, Commander?'

'Not even on a good day.'

"Indoan shuttle, your cleared for Highport and the staging area near King Buccanah's location as well for planetary egress."

********

"Yes", came Rands reply, "it was Joat's idea. It isn't one with which I fully concur, but she has pulled it off before."

********

"I want Alvec to stay here, though convincing him is going to be hell. He'll want to go anyway, but I don't think it's a good idea. I doubt a wraith will work. Our cloaks won't. Yours may be better, but you figure this thing is from the future. Who knows how far?

Rand, cut velocity and bring us in near the Fortunes would you?"

"Of course, Joat."

The engines smoothed down and Joat smiled, patting one of the housings near to hand. 'Atta boy', she muttered.

"But I'm open for suggestions. Anything for ammo against Al's protests would be good."

“Sounds like you need some help with your ATC protocols, Commander,” commented Jann. They were monitoring the common channels for safety purposes. “And I think you’ll find your current decision will work surprisingly well. It does for us. Salequin acknowledges clearances, thank you and out.” Even if Ivanova hadn’t come up with her current course of action, the two pilots had come up with it for her. They would have asked for a comm satellite to route their transmissions through, then announced themselves as the fleet cruiser Collateral Damage, and that any vessel that did not comply with their instructions would be instantly destroyed. The Collateral Damage was a long standing joke among space-faring Indoans regarding their home system’s draconian air traffic control system.

Kinnear cut the shuttle’s thrust as they approached the spaceport, and began descending rapidly. She didn’t bother altering the shuttle’s IFF transponder to squawk emergency to lend credence to Ivanova’s designation of them, since she knew the Indoan emergency code wouldn’t be recognised as such by the natives. She called for final clearance and verified their landing zone, then made a fast approach and a good tactical landing in the very centre of their designated pad, to minimise disruption to normal operations.

As the pilots shut down the shuttle’s systems, Spinnet opened the rear hatch and lowered the ramp, then took up his previous position sat on the edge of the ramp with the carbine in his hands, guarding the craft. MacIntyre stretched, yawned, then got to his feet and wandered lazily down the ramp into the spaceport. Andie took the time to finish the current verse of the lullaby, then slowly stood up. She looked down at Rayanna with a smile.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” she asked.
****

“Oh that’s easy,” replied Fayalin with a smile. “He’s ex-military. He’s not fit for active duty, and would be a liability to any team sent in. Captain Carter will be happy to make it official,” she added. She was quiet for a few seconds, pondering Joat’s statement. “That’s true, we have no way of knowing if our cloaks with be as effective against this foe. But then, the same is true of your plan. They might have more advanced methods of detecting life signs, that can see through your masking. Unless we were careful, even a simple gravetic scan would show an anomaly, as I’m willing to bet what we remove won’t have the same mass as the people we put in.”

Armed guards approached the shuttle, though armed, still, in traditional armor with blades. They took up positions near the ramp and stood silently.

Rayanna looked up and moved toward the ramp. "None bad", she replied. "Highport", she said, pointing. She turned to Andie, "Song like sunrise", she told her, meaning it was pretty. "Teach you Elven lulliby. Put young ones to sleep", she told her and smiled, looking back out of the open ramp. "Go out? Stay?"

The air near the back of the shuttle seemed to shift and shimmer, as suddenly a figure appeared, seeming distant by rapidly moving closer at a hight speed. Finally Ariel stepped out of the disturbance and it faded. She stood impassive, her face a blank mask as her blind eyes looked forward, not at the opening to the shuttle, but in it's general direction. "Summoned, I come. For what purpose does our revered friends ask my presence and how may I be of service?"

********

Joat latched onto the first thing that struck her. "Ex-military? I thought he was an ex-pirate, how do you know he's ex-military?"

********

The flit car sped out, latched onto the largest chunk of fighter and moved it toward the starboard bay of the Fortunes. Joat, as was her want, had named the car, "Blind luck to Fortunes, requesting permission to enter starboard landing bay with the first piece of fighter."

From his position on the ramp, Spinnet watched the native guards approach, but did not raise his weapon. He had expected something, as Indoan spaceports had security forces meet any new arrivals to ensure there was no trouble, and he logically assumed other places did the same. MacIntyre regarded them with a bored expression, then yawned again, this time covering his mouth with his hand out of politeness. As the other Indoans would confirm, the man was perpetually tired, and very rarely gave anything more than a laid-back attitude.

“Thank you,” acknowledged Andie with a smile, “I’d like that. And you can go out there for a few minutes if you like, but we don’t intend to stay long.” With that, she walked down the ramp, allowing her feet to make heavier falls than they normally would, since she knew Ariel couldn’t sense her. “She’s blind,” she announced to MacIntyre as he raised a hand in greeting to Ariel.

“Oh…” realised MacIntyre, letting his hand fall to his side. “Hi there. Lieutenant-Colonel John MacIntyre, XO of the INV Faded Fortunes. Nice to meet you.”

“Greetings, Princess. We come seeking your aid and wisdom,” said Andie, rolling her eyes at MacIntyre’s complete lack of formality or respect. “I am Anderaleigh, avatar of the Faded Fortunes. I believe you know what I am.” She walked over, standing next to MacIntyre and facing Ariel. “I am afraid we are the bearers of bad news.”
****

Fayalin shot a questioning look at Joat. “You didn’t know?” she asked in surprise. “He told us. Said that he fought in the… Hudathan wars?” she said, questioning the accuracy of the shared memory, “and various other conflicts, and that he had served on the planet they went down to.” She shrugged, “I guess he may have been lying, but why? We wouldn’t care; it’s not our problem. And Captain Sharpe certainly thought he was telling the truth.”

Raya moved to the top of the ramp and jumped down, crouching to a three point landing, the oath bow still clutched in her hand, all without making a sound. She stood and stretched, letting the sun warm her in it's decent.

Ariel placed a hand to her heart, bowing to MacIntyre, "Well met", then to Andie. "Thank you for the heavy tread, that was most thoughtful." She stood and looked in Andie's general direction, being the one who brought up the subject but looked toward Rayanna first. "Hello Raya".

"Hi Aril", she replied brightly. "They have flying box. Shitle."

"Shuttle, hon."

"Shuddel."

"Yes they do." She looked back toward Andie, her gaze a bit more off than with others, not being able to sense her. "What news do you bring? And how might my poor wisdom be of use?"

********

Joat whistled. "The Hudathan wars were nasty. He could be. I had needed a second who didn't ask about my past to much and he asked for no questions asked about his. So it worked out. I assumed he was a pirate because he avoids the law like they might bite and the legion like it's the plague. He must not have left on good terms." Joat shrugged. "His business. I won't pry, he's too damn good at his job. But it would explain a few things."

“Blind Luck, Fortunes Flight Control. You’re cleared to enter the starboard hangar, but it would probably be faster if you dump the wreckage just outside the hangar. We can drag it in from there, while you collect the next piece,” sent back the Mind.
****

“During our efforts to locate those responsible for the tragedy that befell the Swan, we were attacked by hostile vessels on two occasions. After we had defeated those vessels, we received a transmission from the source of those attacks. It was a future incarnation of Queen Lauralin Silverlief, somehow transported back to this time period,” explained Andie briefly, “We have recordings of both the transmission and bridge security footage of your Lauralin at the time of the message, if you wish to see them.”
****

“I see,” replied Fayalin, “But that doesn’t help the real problem. How do we know that your bio-maskers will still be effective? You may well be right about the Wraith cloaks, but you can’t bring that into consideration for one idea, then ignore it completely for another.” She paused, a thought suddenly occurring to her, “Unless, of course, you already know…” she finished suspiciously.

"Roger that, Fortunes", Alvec replied. He reached zero relative velocity, dropped the piece and moved off, scanning for the next one.

********

"This is unfortunate news, however, I fear looking at your recordings would be of little use. If you have someone who was there, and they would volunteer a mind scan I could ascertain your information. I would, of course, limit it to the relevant facts. If not, as you have helped us in the past, I would accept your word on the facts in question and ask how I might be of assistance", Ariel replied.

********

"Hmm. Sorry, don't know any such thing. Your right. I'm just so used to relying in what I make that it didn't even occur to me that it might not work. And sooner or later I sell the idea to CenSec. Once I've made something better of course, which means it's highly likely that they may not. I just figure it's more likely than military tech. You know how fleeting military secrets are", she said, grinning.

********

"Fortunes, this is Simeon. I hope my adoptive daughter isn't being to much of a glitch in your systems. Here's what I have:

I caught Helva on the way to Rigel. Apparently the Beta Corviki, who can control energy emissions in such a way that a basic power plant can sustain infinite energy, can also manipulate it for opening what they call 'pathways in time'.

Rumor mill has it that the Victorious will have one of the new power plants, though not time travel capability.

Anyway, it would just be a matter of time, no pun intended, before one of the eggheads figure out how to do that.

So best guess from a couple of brains I know in the sciences division is that it's been done.

Here's something else", he said, sending microburst on a secondary channel, "the images aren't that great, but the footage is from almost 200 years ago, when the Manticore first arrived. I pulled in a favor from a brain in CenSec to get them. I've looked them over and then ran some spatial relations programs. The images jump around because it's pieced together from various ships, most of them destroyed and the black boxes eventually retrieved. Here's the thing. As the were fighting it, the destroyed ships were eventually .... consumed. Like the cities on the planets. You'll see footage of that as well, where it pulls up entire cities. But, as it fought them, it seemed to grow. The red circle you see at the beginning is the original size. You can see where I've kept the red circle and how it got bigger. I've run this past a few trusted brains and personel I know and they're stumped. All they can guess is that somehow the material was assimilated into the station, but how, they have no idea. I'm still digging."

((OOC: Bugger... That was my mistake, not the character's. There's only one problem with trying to portray hyper-intelligent AI, and that's that I'm not. Oh well, it's in now.))

Andie flinched visibly at that, looking suddenly as though she had been slapped. How did I do that? She asked herself accusingly.
“I’m so… terribly sorry,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “I meant that we could play you the audio, for what it’s worth…” she trailed off, then turned toward the shuttle. “Jann! Get out here so we can dig through your head. With your permission, of course.”

The pilot emerged a few seconds later and joined them.
“Sure, why not?” he agreed easily, “I assume you want my memories to verify what you’re saying,” he questioned Andie, who nodded. He concentrated on his recollection of those events, then added, “Okay, do whatever you need to do.”
****

{Thanks for that, Simeon. That may change what we were planning to do. And at least we know it’s possible. Anything else you can find would be useful. And don’t worry about Joat; she’s not causing us too many problems,} sent back the Mind, reviewing the data.
****

Fayalin laughed again, “Well… yours, maybe. Our military tends to keep a close guard on things. However, by that time, anything we have is almost certainly obsolete, therefore we shouldn’t expect it to be of much use.” She stopped, and cocked her head to one side, adopting a slightly blank expression. “The Fortunes just heard from Simeon, who’s been gathering intel for us. Apparently there’s a distinct possibility that the damaged fighters will be assimilated into the station upon their return, which doesn’t bode too well for anybody we put in them.”
****

As Alvec moved away from the corvette again, a gravitational tractor beam latched onto the piece of debris and drew it inside the hangar, setting it down in the middle of a large area cleared for the purpose, whereupon a group of engineers promptly descended on it like vultures. About half the hangar was taken up by an Assegai transport and the corvette’s second Condor shuttle, along with their support equipment; the cleared area was where half of the still deployed Kestrel group had sat, their support equipment having been moved out of the way for the time being. If necessary, the port hangar could accommodate all six of the Kestrels, as well as the Salequin on it’s return. The Indoans liked to have space to mess around with.

((OOC: I figured that’s what it was, but I didn’t want to second guess your character posting. Next time I come across something I question I’ll shoot you a message first. I know how you feel, Lauralin is genius level intelligence, I’m not though.))

Ariel nodded, “It’s a common mistake. People are used to saying things that way. Even if there isn’t anything to look at. I’m in no way offended.

“Okay, do whatever you need to do.”

It was over in roughly 2 seconds with nothing at all felt by the shuttle pilot and Ariel’s face showed the first bit of emotion since the Indoan’s had known her. It was a frown. “Thank you, Jann”, she said, “it’s done. And it’s most disturbing. I see why you’ve come to me now.”

She turned to the guards, “I’ll be leaving, inform the council. Questions of magnitude should be routed to Dragonsreach and the Queen.”

The guards nodded and Ariel turned back, “I’m ready.”

****

“Sure thing”, Simeon said. “Tell Joat that I and Channa and say hi, will you? And Channa says to tell Joat to be careful. Heh. Yeah right. Anyway, I’ll contact you if I find anything else.”

****

“Eww”, Joat replied as she put the panel back in place over the crawlspace and led the way back out. “That’s right grudly. I sure don’t want to be the meat in the ship sandwich.

She stopped at the galley and pulled out two cans. She popped the top on one and handed it to Faye, “Let the heating element work. It’ll only take a minute. Alvec’s private stash, but I think you’ll like it. Coffee with vanilla.” She popped the top on the other one, a strong, dark coffee and headed out and up toward the pilot’s cabin.

“So it eats ships huh?” she asked, as much to herself as to Faye. Once inside the cabin she took a seat at the pilot’s throne. “Rand, get me central office will you, please?”

“Of course Joat. I assume you wish to talk to Mr. Sperrin.”

“One should never assume, Rand, but in this case, your right, I want to speak with Bros.”

The man who appeared on the screen was handsome, though hard to pin down for age. He smiled as soon as he saw Joat. “How’s my favorite freighter Captain?” he asked.

“You’re MY secretary, and I’m the only freighter captain in my company at the moment. I have a question for you”, she told him seriously.

“Uh oh. I know that tone of question. What kind of trouble are you in now?”

“No where near as much as YOU got me into”, she told him cuttingly. “Not yet anyway. Tell me what you know about the Manticore and don’t give me any crap that you don’t know. Your still a legend among the spy community and are still vaunted as the best Central ever had.”

The man hissed and leaned forward. “Joat, don’t mess with that thing. It’s too dangerous.”

“No choice”, Joat replied and sipped on her coffee. “The Queen of Dragonsreach has a problem, I’m looking at help fixing it.”

“There are vast time distortions and it’s got some kind of time weapon. It also has a weapon that disrupts power, no known shielding as yet. We try from time to time with a different design, but nothing seems to work. Ships taken inside report that some form of nanotechnology is used to strip the ships down.” He leaned forward, “I don’t just mean stripped to components, I mean taken down to the molecular level, we assume for storage and use later. We don’t know what happens to the crew, we assume they’re killed.

Joat, this is classified information, but I’m telling you because you should stay away from that thing.”

****

Alvec continued his gathering, working through the wreckage. At first he looked for the biggest pieces then began trying to fill in what he thought might have been missing from what he gathered. ‘Sure wish we had some Cridi around’, he muttered.

“Just like that, huh?” commented MacIntyre, raising an eyebrow, “I like people of action. Jann, get this crate ready to fly.”

“Sir,” acknowledged Jann, and disappeared back into the shuttle. “Ally, spark up,” he said as he passed through the main compartment.

Kinnear sighed, “But we only just turned everything off,” she complained mildly.

“If I’d known it would only take this long, I’d have said put us in idle, but I didn’t,” responded Jann, “Now quit whining and get back to work,” he chided her good-naturedly. Her response was a rude hand gesture and to stick her tongue out at him, but she did start reactivating the systems as Jann slid into his seat.

Moments later, the whine of the self-starters could be heard outside the shuttle, swiftly overrun by a deep throated roar as first one, then the other engine started, which gradually increased in volume as the engines spooled up to idle.

MacIntyre stepped closer to Ariel. “Would you like a hand?” he asked, almost shouting to make himself heard over the noise of the engines.
****

Fayalin took the can and looked at it suspiciously, then sniffed at the contents. She slowly followed Joat up to the bridge, entering as Joat began speaking to her apparent secretary. When she could feel the heat from the can in her hand, she raised to her lips and took a sip, then nodded approvingly. “Hmm, not bad.”

“We knew most of that,” she commented after Joat’s ‘secretary’ had finished telling them what he knew.
****

The corvette continued to pull in the pieces of debris as Alvec delivered them, and the engineers inside the hangar began attempting to sort out what was what, and where it should go.

“Would you like a hand?”

Ariel reached up a hand, for him to assist her as Raya jumped silently up onto the ramp and took her crouched position as she had before.

“Most kind of you”, Ariel told him. She had spoken no louder than before, yet could be heard quite plainly, even in the pilot’s cabin.

****

“We knew most of that,”

“Yeah”, Joat agreed, “we knew most of that.”

“Sorry”, Bros replied, “not a hell of a lot is known about it.”

Something ticked in Joat’s mind and she sat back, sipping her strong blend, the aroma overriding Fayelin’s in the cabin.

‘Try from time to time’, Joat muttered. “Bros. How many attempts have been made to reach, or get into the Manticore, not including the initial confrontation?” she asked.

He turned slightly away from the screen and worked for a few minutes before answering. “Nine”, he replied.

“When was the last one?” Joat prodded.

“About twenty years ago.”

“And the first one?”

“Hold on, what are you getting at Joat?” he asked as he turned away, checking his information.

“Maybe nothing”, she replied.

“My ass”, he said and then grunted slightly in surprise. “Almost twenty years after the initial confrontation. The other attempts were about twenty years apart as well.”

Joat nodded, “Now for the grand prize question. How many people were involved in the boarding attempts?”

Bros checked his information, “Varied. Seven was minimum, to twenty-three maximum.”

Joat slumped back in her chair, as though defeated and sipped on her coffee again. “Wait ….. wait, wait, wait. What about if you include the ships compliment? You said that ships were stripped, or broken down.”

Bros checked his files again, illegal files that he had downloaded before he left CenSec. “About two hundred, give or take, lost each time.”

“THERE! THAT’S IT!” she cried.

“That’s what?” Bros asked.

“I don’t know”, she replied. At his look of confused anger she said, “I mean I’m not sure what it implies on our part, but you figure about two hundred every 20 years. That’s about a person a month in twenty years time. Just enough blood for her to survive I bet.”

“A person a month, blood, her?” Sperrin asked in confusion, “what are you talking about?”

“Who commands the sentry line and who picks the next to command it?”

Bros slammed his hand on the desk beside him, making his image jump. “That ENOUGH! I’m not telling a FARDLING thing more until you give me some ANSWERS!”

Joat sat back, sipped her coffee and set the cup down, then folded her arms.

They stared at each other for a long moment, then finally he added, “Please.”

Joat nodded, picked up her coffee and leaned forward. “Vendicar protocol. Shelob seven.” For a moment the screen erupted into snow and then cleared again. “Okay”, she said, and then told him everything that had happened from the destruction of the swan to the present situation.

“So you see”, she finished. “The Queen, who is a vampire, would need blood to sustain herself. Two hundred people every twenty years would be about one a month, enough to keep her alive, or active, or whatever you call dead people walking.”

Bros nodded, “Makes sense. Not that I’m sure I buy into vampires, but if it’s true then yeah. So who commands might be in collusion with her.”

“Forced or otherwise”, Joat replied, “yeah.”

“Give me a few minutes, I’ll need to get into secure files.”

“Can you still do that? I thought they revoked your clearance when you joined me.”

“They did, and I can”, he grinned, then turned from the screen and went to work.

****

With the various pieces to work with, putting things together wasn’t too difficult. The transponder units were integral to the comm systems and would be constantly active once power reached the comms.

After Ariel gave her consent, MacIntyre gently took her hand and led her up the ramp, into the main compartment, and guided her to a seat. After she had sat down, he guided her hands to the four-point harness and showed her how to use it. He normally wouldn’t have mentioned it, as shuttles rarely went through manoeuvres serious enough to require a harness with the inertial dampeners active, but she was blind, and it was better to err on the side of caution.

Andie followed them up the ramp a few seconds later, and sat down beside Raya again. Spinnet was last up the ramp, closing the hatchway behind him and then finding a seat, setting the carbine down next to him. After seeing the rear hatch warning light go out, Jann asked for launch clearance, and when he got it, Kinnear lifted the shuttle off the ground and rapidly departed the spaceport’s airspace, heading for the border emcampment.

“Two down, one to go,” observed MacIntyre, “Now we have the inalienable task of convincing the King to help us. From what Andie tells me, that’s not going to a fun conversation.”
****

Fayalin sipped at the drink occasionally as she listened to the exchange, with increasing surprise. When Joat’s secretary turned away and began working, she spoke up.
“That’s… an interesting theory,” she admitted. “However, it does make quite a lot of sense. The implication that someone in the Central military is an enemy infiltrator, and is deliberately sending people to their death is rather worrying though.” She paused, thinking about what they had just been told. “I wonder, are their defences really that good, or is it just because they know you’re coming every time. And what does happen to the people on board those vessels. They can’t be killed immediately, because the Queen needs living blood.”
****

The power source of the vessels was the first thing the engineers had looked for, and they were very careful not to connect anything to it until they knew exactly what it was they were connecting. They knew all about the various safety systems that could be in military craft to safeguard against enemy manipulation, and recall devices were one of the oldest ideas around.

“Two down, one to go,” observed MacIntyre, “Now we have the inalienable task of convincing the King to help us. From what Andie tells me, that’s not going to a fun conversation.”

Ariel fumbled for a moment, finally getting the belts in place.

“Hardly easy to ask a man to kill his daughter. The only way to present it is to compare how she is now to what she’s become. She wouldn’t want to be that way. So it would be better for her peace of mind to kill her rather than let her continue. That’s the only way to approach it with him. That he’s doing her a favor, not simply destroying her. Though I’ll warn you, he’ll still want to try to help her if he can”, Ariel informed them.

Once in the air, they were rerouted to another location.

“Sorry”, Ivanova told them. “Seems he had some pressing matter close to the Elven border. Your’ already cleared to land just outside the Elven forest. You’ll be met there.”

****

“Whoa, easy”, Joat replied, looking up at Fayalin. “I ain’t saying ANYONE is an enemy infiltrator. Our present Queen seems to have a lot of power, maybe they have no choice. True they could have been bought out, but I’m not going to throw around ANY accusations unless we find something more solid.

But, I do agree. She can’t kill them right away, so they’re probably kept alive. Either imprisoned or in stasis. Hell we had stasis chambers during the colonial days before we had FTL, I’m sure they’ve only improved over time.

As for defenses. I don’t’ know. You have a point. But that initial battle, even if fought with older tech. That was A LOT of ships. I’m not sure I’d want to test their defenses if I can avoid it.”

“Okay”, Bros said. “Admiral Trisidan was the first to take command of the pickets. He was 47 at the time and held the command position for 33 years. When he was reassigned, his recommendation to take over was, then Captain, promoted to Admiral for the position, Orinth. Orinth held the position for 23 years from age 52 to age 75. Captain Rembar was promoted to Admiral for the position at Orinth’s recommendation and held the position for 50 years. She retired then at 94. Those three are deceased. When she retired she recommended Captain Overton who was promoted to Admiral for the position. He held the position for 35 years before being reassigned at age 83. He’s alive at Sumerland institute. He recommended Captain Haplinger who was 51 when he took the position and promoted to Admiral for the position. Haplinger held the position for 36 years. 2 years into the Hudathan war he was pulled for fleet duty, as was every able bodied admiral they could get, since the war was going bad at that point.

Captain Allison Rinhgfed was given command position, no promotion since Admirals were needed in the war. That was 18 years ago at the age of 27.

On the buy out theory I did what checks I could. There isn’t much on Trisidan or Orinth. Too long ago without a lot of time to dig into things. Rembar retired to a cabin on planet Danik 2 where she lived out the rest of her days. No great amount of money needed for that. Overton, of course, was of the family of Overton-Glaxely, the man had money already, but chose naval service anyway, much to the chagrine of the family. They’re paying his way at Sumerlands. Haplinger is still active and based on Rigel. No great expenses put out, certainly nothing beyond his means. The Captain, of course, never leaves the picket lines. Seems to be a tradition that was set up by Trisidan.”

“Seems to be?” Joat asked.

“Your quick, Mon Capitan. Here’s something interesting. A month after Haplinger was, rather quickly, reassigned to fleet action he had some kind of psychotic break. They found him sitting in his own feces, drooling and screaming and clawing at his eyes. No one could figure out what was happening to him. Finally he begged for, and was granted leave. He took a trip … guess where.”

“The picket lines”, Joat said.

“Got it in one. The Manticore rift to be exact. And guess who took with him when he went to take ‘one more look’ at the Manticore, from just outside the 500 kilometer safe range.”

“The Captain?” Joat asked.

“Another one in one. Seems Rihgfed, Haplinger and Overton all made monthly visits to just outside the safe zone. What are you willing to bet that Trisidan, Orinth and Rembar did the same?”

“No bet”, Joat replied, “but why?”

Bros shrugged, “Got me there. None of them have said.”

Joat sat back, considering everything that she learned.

****

The ships, as they worked on them, seemed to be fixing themselves to some extent. Closer inspection would reveal nanites making repairs. In some cases stripping unnecessary parts from some areas and moving them to other more critical systems.

“I know, I know,” replied MacIntyre. “I don’t think I could ever do that to my little girl either,” he admitted. The fact that his daughter was an expert martial artist who could beat her father with both hands tied behind her back and her eyes blindfolded was largely irrelevant in his view. “I don’t think Andie was going to ask, just show him the message and let him decide for himself.” He was quiet for several seconds, “Can you do it without him if you have to?”

Kinnear sighed and hauled the shuttle around in a tight-banking turn, letting the shuttle roll out on its own as she reached their new heading. “You’d think they’d check these things before they gave us the info,” she griped to Jann.

Her copilot laughed. “Oh, come on, it’s hardly going to take us a long time to get there, is it?” he countered, “Not at this speed.” Kinnear reluctantly agreed with a nod of her head. “And anyway, it means you get more time flying.” That was something Kinnear couldn’t argue with; actual flight time was rare for them, though they spent a lot of time in the Fortunes simulator suite to stay up to date. The simulators also allowed them to fly craft that they weren’t qualified in, such as the IAF’s Kestrel and Vampire fighters, which were much more entertaining to fly than Condors, Assegais and Varias.
****

“Well, I am saying that,” countered Fayalin. “Willing or not, you can’t deny that it’s the case. And I wasn’t suggesting we try and break through the defences. I have no doubt that they are every bit as capable as they appeared to be before we learned this. My point was that, having learned what we now know, are their detection systems as good as you thought?” She paused a moment to let that sink in, then continued, “You assumed that each of those attempts failed because they were detected on the way in, but now that we know every one of those attempts was sold out, can we re-evaluate their capabilities? Maybe we could sneak something through. If we could, that considerably improves the prospects of those we send in, since they have a way out.”
****

When the engineers discovered the presence of nanites in the debris, their reaction was immediate. They notified the Mind, and seconds later an alarm sounded in the hangar and every single piece of debris was raised off the deck by AG fields, with a Displacer field cycling underneath them to sever any connections they might have made with the deck. The Indoans were fully aware of the dangers of having hostile nanites on board their vessels.

The next event in the sequence was a powerful electromagnetic pulse transmitted through the hangar deck to permanently disable any nanites that had found their way into the Indoan vessel, and lower powered pulses aimed at each piece of debris to at least temporarily disable the nanites there. By disabling them, they wouldn’t be able to restore power to the comm systems in the fighters and, more importantly, they wouldn’t be able to infect the Indoan vessel.

Ariel shook her head at MacIntyre’s question. “I’m relatively certain I can counter her psionic talents, but I couldn’t hope to defeat her. I wish I could say otherwise, but I have no delusions, or illusions concerning the possibility.”

Ariel was silent a moment and then spoke again. “Should it be necessary, we could try one other. He’s a lich who lives in the necropolis of Polvaar. Queen Silverlief has been on good terms with him for some time now and in fact he assisted us during the most recent battle with ShadowSpawn and the Skull Kingdoms. The only problem might be us”, she said, indicating herself and Rayanna. “The elves want nothing to do with them and her father, while he’ll be civil, will not parley with them either. They want peaceful co-existence, but they are a city of undead.”

****

“We’re assuming they were sold out, like I said, I won’t say that yet. I agree that if I had to say one way or the other now then I would say that those in charge of the picket are in some way working with her. I would suggest something unmanned first, to test it out.

Of course the other problem is getting past the picket itself. They’re there to stop anyone from entering, and possibly angering it, as well as to stop it from leaving, if possible”, Joat finished.

“That might not be such an issue”, Bros put in. “Don’t forget two major factors. One – no one but Central has been here since it arrived, and the others who fought back then have joined us. Two – It IS outside Central Worlds space. That means that technically we can’t stop anyone, though, I’m sure they would. However, with all the help the Indoan’s have been I think that they could force the issue and get presidential approval.”

Joat nodded, agreeing with his assessment of the situation and then looked at Faye. “You think your special squad could get aboard and have a word with the Captain like they did with the President?” she asked.

****

The nanites died in the burst, unable to deal with what was being thrown at them. They were advanced, far more so than present day. So advanced, however, that older and more mundane ways of dealing with them had been forgotten. Unfortunately, the other problem was that they were part of what made the ships function.

MacIntyre shivered at the thought. “No offence to them, but I’m not terribly comfortable dealing with something that should be pushing up daisies either,” he admitted. “I can just about cope with your Queen, but that might be going a little too far. I hope it doesn’t come to that. Is there anything we can do to help defeat her? I mean, we’ve only got our projectile weapons, explosives and lasers, but is there anything we can do to modify them or something?” he asked.

“We may be able to use sonic disruptors and Xeltaks to at least make things easier,” spoke up Andie, “The Queen told us herself that those would be somewhat effective. And she seems more susceptible to high-frequency sound than most. We also have that nullification device she gave to Colonel Valero. It may not be much, but it’s something to consider.”
****

Fayalin frowned at Joat’s statement. If the Central missions had been sold out, then someone on the inside was working against them, knowingly or otherwise. That meant that there was an enemy mole close to the command level of the Central troops, be it actually in the Central military structure or someone close to one of the officers.

“We’d have to bring another vessel out here; the Fortunes isn’t large enough to warrant a complement of Ghosts, but yes, I have no doubt they could do it,” she replied, “But I think the real question is; do we really want to do that? From what you have told us,” she nodded at the image of the ex-intelligence officer, “the commander of the picket lines would appear to be under some form of influence from within the Manticore, as evidenced by their monthly trip to the boundary, so telling them of our plans might do more harm than good.” She paused for a second, thinking about alternative courses of action. “What’s to stop us just jumping to a location inside the picket line? It’s not like the picket will stop a wormhole,” she asked.
****

It took the engineers quite a while to realise the secondary effect of the electromagnetic pulse, though the deactivation of the nanites was immediately verified. When they did eventually notice, they stopped working, instead trying to think of how they might get the vessels working again. One of the first suggestions was to replace the nanites with Indoan ones, suitably programmed, assuming they could pull the programming off the dead alien ones.

Ariel smiled at MacIntyre's comment, not entirely comfortable with the undead herself. Lauralin was different because she looked normal, acted normal and strove against her own dark powers to do good. She nodded at Andies assessment, "Yes, sound is detremental. Partially because of her preternatural hearing, but also because it can damage the cells. The device will be somewhat effective as well, certainly to a group. But the base of the problem is this:

Vampires have to be destroyed, the bodies that is. Your weapons can do that, but not completely. Once the body is damaged enough it will turn to mist and return to a predesignated location. One that doesn't have to have doors, only vents. After about a day the body will reform and she can take any form she chooses to get back out. Rayanna's magic can help, but her father's holy power can destroy her completely."

'Daisies', Raya muttered.

Ariel looked in her direction, "I had thought of that, but I would rather address that with the king first."

Rayanna nodded and then looked about as the shuttle landed at it's assigned point. Once down it was met by a dozen armed elves. The appearance of the Indoan's was ignored at first, until Rayanna appeared on the ramp. At her appearance they knelt, touched hand to heart, forhead and ground and stood up again. Raya was Silent Leaf, and well known in the kingdom for her sacrifices. She returned the gesture and moved forward, speaking quickly with the leader of the group and gesturing toward the indoans as they're equipement translated for them.

"*These are friends and have come to see the king.*"

"*You would ask me to allow strangers and outsiders into the wood?*"

"*No*" Rayanna replied, her face suddenly changing from the frightened doe into that like a lioness hard gaze, "*I"m TELLING you. And you WILL show them courtesy. Or you will answer to me.*"

The man paled at that and nodded, gesturing to his men. The weapons disappeared and they stepped forward, bowing to the Indoans.

"*There is something you should know*", he continued, "*The prison is failing. It may be a matter of hours, days at most.*"

Rayanna gasped and raced off into the wood, disappearing quickly and silently among the trees.

********

"Yeah, you have a point there, but what if they have no choice but to go? Look at what's his name", Joat said.

"Haplinger", Bros offered.

"Yeah. Maybe they HAVE to. But as to your other point", she continued and sat back thinking a moment. "I can't think of anything that would stop your wormhole drive", she stated and looked at Bros.

Bros nodded, "We can pull a ship from probability, but your wormholes are a whole different order. I don't see any reason it wouldn't work. But that would be detected by the Manticore to be sure. We would lose our surprise initiative. At least I think we would. But as you pointed out, we no longer know HOW good the detection equipement is."

********

The shut down of the nanites left them without the capability of self destruction. The programming was there. The problem was how to activate them to get the programming while still preventing them from destroying themselves. The upside was that there were plenty of them and every one could run any part of the ship. Just one would give them all the programming information they needed, so there were plenty of chances for failure while still being able to try and get what they needed.

********

Alvec opened is comm to Fortunes, "Hey, I hear you minds are pretty intelligent. So tell me why it is that everytime you get into a suit you have to take a piss", he said with a grin in his voice. "Seriously though, can you give me an idea how many more pieces you need?" he asked, depositing another one near the corvette.

(OOC - Last post for about a week, going to Alaska on vacation and will be back on Sunday the 15th.)

((OOC: Alaska, eh? Not most people's choice of holiday destination. It could be one of mine, but I always did like the cold. Hope you enjoy it.))

“Right…” said MacIntyre resignedly, “Look’s like we’re relegated to running distractions at that point. Still, I guess we shouldn’t complain. Our guys will probably have plenty to do in getting you that far.” He glanced over to Andie, “So, all our guys carry Xeltaks, and we reactivate the sonic emitters on the suits. And the senior officer carries that device somewhere on his person.”

When the shuttle landed, Kinnear was not so quick to shut down the engines this time. Instead, she pulled them right back to idle, reducing the noise level outside considerably, so only slightly raised voices were required to be easily heard. They didn’t have to worry about fuel either; the shuttle could run both engines at max power for five days straight before hitting emergency fuel. As before, Spinnet took up his position sat on the edge of the ramp, the carbine resting in his arms, a neutral expression on his face as he watched the elven guards. The other Indoans followed him out to greet the elves.

“Since when did our threads speak elven?” asked MacIntyre quietly when Rayanna first spoke, “I assume it is elven. It doesn’t sound like what everyone else has been speaking.” Then, when Rayanna rapidly disappeared into the forest in front of them, he added, “What was that about?”
****

“Oh, of course,” agreed Fayalin, “A wormhole is very difficult to hide. However, I wasn’t suggesting that we just jump right on in. My point was that because of the differences in how we do things, you can’t necessarily stop us. We already know that you can’t detect the Wraith. The Victorious barely managed to pick it up at all on normal operations, and didn’t even get a sniff when it was running silent.” She set the drink down on top of a control panel, clasped her hands in front of her and began wandering around the cabin. “What we could do though, is just fly the Wraith through the picket lines. I assume it’s not a solid sphere around the Manticore. We pick the weakest point in the net and fly straight through. Any problems with that?” she asked, “Either way, I’ll tell the Fortunes to request a unit be sent out here, since it will take them about five hours anyway.”
****

{Well, I could give you detailed scientific and psychological explanations, but the short answer is because it’s Sod’s Law,} replied the Mind good-naturedly, {As to the wreckage, you can hold off for the moment. We’ve discovered a few things that make this plan less viable, so until we think we can get around them, we’re done for the moment.}

The Mind’s statement was reinforced by the fact that the last few pieces Alvec had retrieved were still floating in space alongside the corvette, exactly where he had left them, while the engineers and the Mind attempted to pull the programming off the dead nanites.

(OOC - I had one grandfather who came from Norway, grandmother too. My other grandfather came from sweden, I can't remember where his wife came from. My father was born and raised in Minnesota, so, yeah, I love the cold. Besides, I was going to visit a friend of mine.)

(OOC - I thought Laura had spoken in Elven in one of the past threads, that's where I thought the translator knew it. My mistake, we'll just roll with it.)

The elven guards surrounded the end of the shuttle and waited until the one who was speaking with Rayanna came forward. He knelt, touching hand to heart and forhead to ground and then rose again. "I am Avioan Olmelder, Solumner of the Elven guard. If you would join us, we will take you to King Buccannah."

****

Joat nodded, "That sounds viable. We have other options as far as entering the area. And yes, your right, it isn't a solid sphere. We had toyed with the idea but it just wasn't financially feasable. I'll look over the area and try to find the best place to enter."

****

Alvec chuckled, "Sod's Law, I'll have to remember that one." He manuevered the flit car near the wreckage area and shut down most of the systems. "I'll just hang here, then, until you let me know what you need, one way or the other."

****

(OOC - Not sure about indoan tech so here's the nanite situation. They core power is burned out. Once it reactivated it'll react to capture situation which is self destruction anyway. Any other info you need, let me know.)

((OOC: Sorry, I've been really tired recently, and either haven't been able to find the time, or haven't been able to write anything decent.

As for the Elven, even if she had spoken it previously, the Indoans wouldn't have understood it then either. The neural thread's translation capability isn't the kind that can hear a language and form a translation from it, it needs a frame of reference to translate from, like a dictionary.))

MacIntyre frowned as his question went completely unanswered or even acknowledged by the elves, then smiled at the elaborate gesture the apparently senior elf made, though whether it signified a greeting, respect or something else entirely he wasn’t sure.
“Lead on, Avioan,” he replied nonchalantly, “We’ll try not to slow you up by getting lost in your woods too much.”

Andie suppressed a sigh at MacIntyre’s easy-going attitude; knowing that older civilisations tended to hold respect and formality in high regard, and might take his actions as an offence. She also knew that sometimes, when faced with people who made a formal action out of everything, he would intentionally disregard formality in his responses just to aggravate them. She didn’t believe that he would do that now, not with such a grave situation at hand, but he might do it inadvertently, just by being himself.

“Actually, one minute,” MacIntyre corrected himself. “Jann, get those recordings we need to show Buccannah onto a crystal and grab a player. I know you and Alicia have one hidden away in there somewhere. There’s little point us going without our evidence.”

Jann looked at his superior in surprise, then sighed and disappeared into the shuttle again. MacIntyre was right; they had long had a small holo-projector hidden in the cockpit, to keep them occupied while they waited for their passengers to finish their mission, but how the Colonel had found out he had no idea. He reappeared a few minutes later, a small pack over his shoulder.

“Okay, let’s go,” declared MacIntyre with a grin, beginning to wander in the direction of the trees. Jann and Andie followed a little way behind. Spinnet and Kinnear would remain with the shuttle; the former was still sitting on the ramp with the carbine in his hands, the latter had appeared and sat down in the hatchway, so that they could talk to each other.
****

“Okay. And so you are aware, the Wraith can only carry eight people at the most, and that’s a tight fit. The vessel coming will have two of them, but obviously using two craft increases the chances that they will be detected,” pointed out Fayalin. She was quiet for a minute or two, then spoke up again. “The frigate Highwind will depart within minutes, and arrive in this volume in approximately five hours,” she told them.
****

It didn’t take long for the Mind and the engineers to remove a large number of nanites from the debris, and the Mind quickly began experimenting on them to try and extract the data they needed, using a spare AM reaction chamber to protect against the nanites self-destructing and stasis fields to try and control how quickly commands could be passed through a nanite’s system once it was reactivated, in an effort to pull the programming before the self-destruction command could be processed. The Mind was also trying filtering the signals sent by the CPU before they were released to the rest of the system, but it wasn’t having much luck doing so.

(OOC - Okay, my bad on the language thing then. There's a simple spell called tongues as well as another called comprehend languages. One lets you understand what's being said, the other automatically translates it so you understand it. We'll assume that's what's going on for convenience sake.)

The elves slipped through the wood like ghosts, keeping up a ground eating pace for over an hour until the finally arrived at seven great terraced steps to foliage of great trees. They made thier way up the steps more slowly until the arrived and pushed through the dense brush. Once through, the truth could be seen, as a rather vast, for this world, city appeared from seemingly no where, completely blocked from view from the outside.

The leader stopped and made a sharp sign for the indoan's to halt. He wasn't happy with these outsiders who show no common courtesy and would be glad to be rid of them as his charge. He alone proceeded forward into the city, while the rest of his group held thier postions around the outsiders.

********

"Two", Joat muttered as she leaned back, sipping her coffee. After some time she spoke again. "One, I think you guys can pull off with relative ease. Two, though ... The sensors on these arrays are tuned up the fair the well. There's a .... well, an area where the senors around it are at extreme range. Not a gap, per se, but the closest we're going to get to one. Right here", she said, bringing up the holo. "The next problem are the cruisers. We don't know they're schedules, it's classified. They won't detect you if the array doesn't, but if your stealthed you may have to fly around them. I don't know how much that might affect they're stealth capabilities", she finished.

((OOC: One thought occurs: Where's Ariel?))

Neither of the Indoan officers were used to walking at such a fast pace for a prolonged period of time; though both had passed the basic training course common to all three branches of the military, the Navy placed considerably less emphasis of maintaining a high level of physical fitness than the Army. They kept up with the elves, but neither appeared particularly comfortable. Andie, however, kept up with ease, and appeared to be putting in no more effort than someone out for a gentle stroll.

When they stopped at the top of the great steps, overlooking the city, MacIntyre sat down with his back against a tree, and immediately closed his eyes. Jann briefly looked at the city, then also sat down, before lying back and staring at the sky through the branches overhead. Andie paced about slowly, waiting patiently until they were allowed to continue.
****

“Right, well that’s where we go in then,” confirmed Faye, looking closely at the projection so that the Faded Fortunes knew exactly where it was. “A cruiser shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Our ships can barely detect a Wraith, and we know what we’re looking for. We’ll give them a wide berth anyway, of course. As for dodging one, that’s certainly no problem. Stealth capabilities aren’t much use if all you can do is beetle along in a straight line.”

(OOC - *grin* Don't worry about Ariel, she was just waiting until you were parked somewhere. She wasn't about try jogging through the forest blind. And based on what you said about your navy, I bet her short trip is going to miff them off. Sorry, but she can't jog and dodge. Walking a normal pace her senses are good enough to maneuver around things, but not at the pace the elves were setting.)

Now that they were settled ariel scanned the minds of the elves, becoming mentally aware of the area. Then her mind opened a portal and she stepped through.

On the far side the air seemed to shiver and bend and Ariel stepped through among the elves and indoans. The elves tensed for a moment, for magic was difficult to use to enter the city due to the protection spells, psionics, however, were not. A fault that no elf had the power to overcome, as outside of the Deryn, Psionics were rare and not often very powerful.

After some minutes Rayanna returned, trotting back lightly toward the Indoans. She looked much more confident in her own surroundings than the frightened young woman on the transport. When she arrived she simply stopped, smiled at Andie, feeling a repore with a fellow 'mother' and waited.

Not long after Turquine arrived with another elf who scanned the Indoans with a neutral expression before returning his attention to the King of Highport.

"How long has this been going on?", Turquine asked.

"They say that the tree began a slow decline about two centruries ago. About four decades ago it became more rapid. Just recently, the past day or two, it's decline has been highly noticable. We don't know why. It seems that certain lines of magic have a heavy draw, far higher than they should", the elf replied.

Turquine nodded, "And if the demon within escapes then our chances of stopping it are almost non-existant. The power of magic has faded since those long ago times."

"Precisely. We're still trying to isolate the problem, but if we can't ...."

"I understand, King Narothan, I'll do what I can. It would seem", he continued, gesturing toward the Indoan's, "that my daughter has returned and she is far more knowledgable in the areas of magic than am I."

The Elven King nodded, nodded to the indoans and then turned away.

Turquine turned to them, hardly looking the part of a king. He was dirty, wearing only his leather pants and boots. His terribly scarred face and upper body made the fine scars of his arms and torso seem almost nonexistant. Though aged, the huge, steel cable like muscles slid beneath the bronzed skin of his body, showing and easy strength as he approached.

"Greetings, friends", he said and bowed toward Andie, "Lady, tis good a blessing to be in your company again. I hope that all went well." Though aware of the initial incident he knew of nothing else that had occured, having been called to the elven kingdom without notice.

********

Joat nodded and leaned back again, sipping her coffee. "Right", she replied, "so should I start chilling the champagne for our victory celebration now or would that be premature?" she grinned.

Almost instantly Rand sent a microburst message to Fortunes.

"Don't be harsh on her", it said, "she's nervous about what's to come. This brevity is how she deals with it."

Kinnear glanced back into the shuttle as Ariel disappeared, subconsciously feeling the change as soon as it happened.
“Oh, she’s gone,” she said, slightly surprised.

“Ah well,” replied Spinnet, shrugging his shoulders, “Isn’t our problem, Ally. We’re only here to stop people getting in, not to stop ‘em leaving,” he commented.

“I guess,” she agreed. “I should probably let Andie know anyway,” she pointed out, then activated her neural thread. ~ Andie, our passenger just disappeared.
---

~ Don’t worry, Alicia. She just appeared here, sent back the avatar, watching the blind woman move among them.

When Turquine and the other elf arrived, Andie bowed her head in greeting, and Jann quickly got to his feet and did the same. MacIntyre remained where he was until he heard their voices, at which time he opened one eye to see what was going on. When he realised the voices were newly arrived, he climbed lazily to his feet and yawned. He then leant against the tree as he waited for the conversation to end.

“A pleasure to see you again, as well,” agreed Andie with a smile, performing her own half-bow. “Unfortunately, the circumstances of our meeting are once again less than desirable. We have come seeking your aid,” she revealed, then hesitated. “It is difficult to explain. Perhaps it would be best if we just showed you. Jann?”

Jann picked up the pack from where he had set it down, and extracted the compact projection unit from within. He then activated it, fiddled briefly with the settings and walked over to Andie, giving her the device. She stepped closer to the King, to allow him to see the details better. MacIntyre stopped leaning on his tree and slowly moved closer, recognising that his input, if there was to be any, would come shortly.

“Before you see this, there are some things you need to know to put it in context: We were attacked by unknown vessels of great power, which we narrowly managed to defeat, with the help of your daughter, I might add. What you are about to see will tell you both who it was that attacked us, and the nature of the problem,” explained Andie, then pressed play on the projector, replaying the message, then the bridge footage.
****

“Well,” replied Fayalin, drawing the word out into a long expression of uncertainty, “that may be a little hasty, but it’s as good as done,” she agreed with a smile, recognising Joat’s bravado even before the Mind made sure she was aware. “Don’t want to jinx them, after all.” She shrugged resignedly, “But there’s not much else we can do now. We have a plan, we just need to wait for the pieces to be in place.”

Turquine listened politely to Andie, smiling her acknowledgement of Lauralin's assistance. As he watched the playback of events, however, his face grew befuddled.

"I don't understand", he stated.

"You remember", Ariel began, looking in his general direction, "when Lauralin told you about her time on Toril?

"Yes, I remember", Turquine replied.

"You remember how the Zhentarim had gone back in time to alter history and Lauralin went back to set things right?"

"Yes", he said again.

"Apparently, for whatever reason, and under whatever duress she suffered, she felt that coming back to change things would alter her future", Ariel stated.

Turquine was silent a long moment, staring at the now blank screen. "But to destroy herself?"

Ariel stepped forward, closer to him, "You remember when you were captured before?"

Turquine looked at her, "Yes", he asked, clearly wondering where this was leading.

"You remember the pain you endured during the twelve days."

"Get to the point", he said, not harshlly, but certainly commanding.

"Imagine enduring it for a hundred years", she finished briefly, and rather brutally. But the point got across as Turquine's eyes changed from a mild ice blue to a dangerous gun metal grey. "She, the future Lauralin, has to be stopped. YOU have the power to do that."

He stood for a moment longer before what she was saying finally sunk in. He looked at Andie, "Do you have any idea what your asking me to do?"

********

Joat gestured to for Faye to have a seat, nodding. "Yeah", she replied, "guess it's as good as it gets. Hey", she smiled, "you want another?" she asked, indicating the coffee.

“No,” admitted Andie honestly, “I don’t. I do not, and cannot have children, so I can’t imagine what it must feel like to contemplate having to kill your own daughter.” She looked into Turquine’s eyes. “But there are people that I love, and if I consider having to kill them, I feel a deep anguish in my heart. But it must be only a fraction of what you feel.”

“I do,” interjected MacIntyre solemnly, his voice flat. “My younger sister was killed in an accident when she was seventeen, and I felt indirectly responsible.” He stopped there, giving no details; even now it was still painful for him to remember, over twenty years later. Jann looked at the senior officer in surprise; wondering how someone with something like that in their past could behave as MacIntyre usually did.

Andie said nothing more, knowing that there was nothing else she could say that hadn’t been already said by Ariel. What they were asking of him was not something that should ever be asked of anyone, and it was particularly harsh on someone who had lost as many loved ones as Turquine supposedly had. Ariel’s words of warning echoed constantly in her ears, reminding her that even if he joined them, he would probably not be fully set on fulfilling their objective.
****

Fayalin waved off the seat and perched herself on the edge of a console, taking care that she did not sit on any controls in the process, then looked up at Joat’s question.
“No, thank you,” she replied after a moment.

Turquine stood for a long moment and then shook his head. "I can't", he said, "I just can't."

"Turquine", Ariel said softly, "if you don't, then you could lose her."

"If I do", he said turning around, "then I lose her."

"No. If they're forced to face each other, then one or the other will die. If the future Lauralin is called by the present then she's faced with the knowledge of where and when and how she dies. If the future one wins, then you lose the present, but the future one is unstable and she'll have to be destroyed. THEN you lose both. If you stop the future one, then we know that something happens. The future isn't set, we could prevent it from happening."

Turquine thought for a long moment and then finally spoke again. "Your wisdom is inescapable", he said, his voice flat and emotionless.

"And wisdom is often unkind", Ariel told him.

He sighed but began walking away. "I need to get my things", he said. His step wasn't as firm now as he walked away.

Once he was out of earshot Ariel spoke, "Raya."

"Yes", Rayanna replied.

Ariel turned toward her. "A sorceror. They are natural spellcasters. Where do thier powers come from?"

"Nature, dimensions, planes. Type of magic says where draw", Rayanna told her.

"Can it be shared?" Ariel asked.

"No. Each own connection", Raya replied.

"What would happen if it was?" Ariel asked her.

Raya thought a moment and then shrugged. "Not known. Talk of, no happen."

"Two hundred years ago, the tree started a slow decline of the magic that sustained it. Two hundred years ago, the manticore with the future Queen appeared.

Forty years ago the draw was increased. Forty years ago the present Queen was born.

One or Two days ago it became very strong. One or two days ago the incident began.

What if the past and future are draining the magic. Both would have the same avenue of access wouldn't they?"

"Yes. Possible. Demon of flame. Very old."

"Then we may have less time than we thought", Ariel observed.

********

Joat sat, fidgeting, checking and rechecking readings, noting possible areas of repair. Draws, power irregularities, anything that seemed off.

None of the Indoans spoke as Ariel spoke with Turquine, apparently convincing him that what they planned to do was ultimately the best outcome. After he had left, and Ariel and Rayanna spoke about the source of Lauralin’s power, the Indoans began to get the feeling that there was more to this than they had been made aware of.

“You are talking about a theoretical phenomenon known to us as temporal duplication instability, or something similar,” stated Andie, “Where two identical objects from different time periods are somehow present in one time, and the duplication causes a destabilising effect on those objects.” She looked questioningly at Rayanna, wanting to do so at Ariel, but knowing the woman could not see her. “Perhaps you need to tell us more about what is happening here.”

“If that is what’s happening,” observed MacIntyre quietly to no-one in particular, “Then that’s a very good reason to add to the pile for not trying to mess with time.” He wasn’t sure why he said it in English, since he knew it hadn’t been done deliberately, and the Indoans already had enough reasons to avoid trying to manipulate time. At least, he thought, the scientists back home would have confirmation of one of their theories. If, that was, if the mission reports weren’t classified.

Rayanna looked at Andie and then around nervously. "No can. Is business of ... of kin."

"Kings", Ariel corrected. "And I think we can find out from King Buccannah."

"How together? Both here. Possible drain of magic", Rayanna said. "How here?"

"That's a bit harder to explain, I think", Ariel replied, "assuming anyone actually has the answer aside from the future Queen."

********

Joat finally slid back her command throne and stood up, "I'm going to work on something", she muttered and headed toward the back of the ship.

********

"Ahh, excuse me", Alvec said, opening the channel to Fortunes again, "but should I continue to wait out here? Or can I head back to the 'While'?"

((OOC: If I seem even more sporadic than usual, at the moment, it's because my exams start next week, for two weeks.))

“If we are to help in any way, we need to know as much about what’s going on as possible,” pointed out Andie gently, “What use is keeping secrets if you are all dead? Especially if those secrets could have prevented the events that killed you. We are unlikely to understand your secrets anyway, but on the off chance that we do, it could save you much trouble.”

“We’re not exactly going to use your secrets against you, are we?” asked MacIntyre. “We can’t use, and generally don’t trust, magic, in any form. We’re hardly going to stab you in the back on this.”

“While Colonel MacIntyre’s method of saying it is, as usual, rather ambiguous and slightly dubious, he is perfectly correct,” added Andie, attempting to clarify the officer’s statement. “Due to the combination of our beliefs, scientific knowledge and our ethics, we are not going to use any knowledge you give us against you.”
****

{I was wondering how long it would take for you to ask,} chuckled the Mind mischievously. {You can head back. It’s almost certain we won’t be using the salvaged craft to enter the Manticore.}

(OOC - Ah okay. Post whenever you can then, no rush.)

Rayanna backed up a bit, looking at the two, "Not will not, cannot. Forbidden", she said, glancing around at the elven guards.

"In certain things, the elves are forbidden to speak of them to outsiders", Ariel told them, "the penalty for speaking to others of something forbidden is death."

They waited until Turquine returned. He wore his heavy battle armor and his holy sword. His helmet was held under his arm and he came to stand among them.

"Let's get this done", he said, his voice low and unenthusiastic.

"They have some questions", Ariel told him softly.

He looked at Andie, "What questions", he asked.

********

"Thank Ghu", Alvec replied and started moving toward the W.Y.A.L. "So whats up? Why ain't we usin the ships?"

He activated his transponder to let Rand know he was coming in expertly guided the ship into the W.Y.A.L.'s bay.

“I hate to state the obvious, but you may well die if you don’t in this case,” commented MacIntyre. “Civilisations have been wiped out because someone refused to give up a secret which could have saved them. And from what we just overheard, you could well be facing that here.” His face showed an expression of concern, then he shrugged. “Ah well, it’s your loss. If we can’t stop it, we’ll just high-tail it back home and leave you to your fate. Any other involvement we have will involve a lot of firepower, and be from a very long distance.” He paused, looking vaguely nostalgic, “It’s been a while since I collapsed a star.”

Jann stared at MacIntyre, trying to work out whether he was telling the truth, or just bluffing. While it was true that they had weapons in the inventory that were theoretically capable of taking out a star, the pilot didn’t think they had ever been used on an actual star, just on asteroids or in deep space. Destroying a star wasn’t something you did for fun, or even weapons testing. And those weapons were like the nuclear weapons of a thousand years ago; you hoped never to have to use them. The irony that nuclear weapons, and others far worse, were in common usage now was not lost on him either.

“Nothing specific,” admitted Andie to Turquine, “But that’s mostly because I don’t know any specifics yet. However, there are things we are not being told, and given the situation, I believe that such actions will only be detrimental to our efforts to resolve it.” There was no emotion in her voice right then, just the cold, calculating machine.
****

{Well, partly because they’re infested with nanites that are intent on repairing the ships and returning to their base of origin with whatever material they can acquire, but mostly because we have a Wraith/Ghost unit being sent out here, which we believe has a better chance of getting in undetected,} explained the Fortunes.

Turquine looked at Andie uncomprehendingly and then turned toward Ariel. Though he said nothing she nodded.

"The situation with the tree prison seems tied to what's happening now with the Queen", she told him.

"Then I'm as in the dark as they are, I don't know how that can be."

"I think that because this future queen and our present queen are drawing from the same magical lines of power and that is what is affecting the tree", Ariel explained.

Turquine shot an eyebrow up, "Well then you know more than I do, I'm just a simple soldier."

"Hardly", she replied, "but I think that an explanation of what's happening with the tree a bit of it's history is in order."

"Ah", Turquine nodded, "well, long ago a particularly powerful demon had been rampaging among the races. It took the combined power of the greatest wizards of elves and men to stop it. They couldn't kill it, and they didn't want to send it back to the abyss, for then it would simply return in a century and have to be dealt with again. So they imprisoned here on our plane of existance. A tree had been used as a life force to channel the magic and the demon was imprisoned within. For some time the magic in the tree has been slowly deteriorating, getting worse a short time ago and rapidly declining the past couple of days. Once the magic becomes too weak, it will break free. With the recent wizard wars there are very few wizards, or sorcerers for that matter, of great power. Certainly not enough to imprison or banish this time, and much of the greatest magics have been lost in the more recent generations.

Does this sufficiently answer your questions?" he asked.

********

Once inside Alvec got out of his suit, made for the head and then realized that now out of it he didn't have to go. He stopped in the galley, grabbed one of his coffees, and made his way up front.

"Hey, cutey", he said to Faye as he ducked through the doorway, "where's the Cap'n?"

“It’s a well known fact that soldiers frequently know more about what’s actually going on than their leaders,” commented Andie. “Well, now we know vaguely what else is involved,” she said after he had finished, “I guess that’ll do for now. I may have more questions later.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m still none the wiser about this mess,” commented MacIntyre, having the presence of mind to say so in their own language.

“Well, I agree it wasn’t the most detailed explanation, but we did learn some things from it,” replied Andie, smiling to throw off any observers trying to discern the subject of their exchange.

“Well, I think we’re about due for another pleasant hike through the forest,” announced MacIntyre, “They say time waits for no man, and I think they might be right. Though even time may be forced to wait for a woman on occasion,” he added with a wink at Andie.

“Go on, get moving, you chauvinist creep,” the avatar told him with feigned indignation, “Before I decide to rearrange your internal organs.”

“Yes, mistress. Whatever you command, mistress,” he acknowledged, performing a confusing and exaggerated combination of a salute and a bow. He then spun around on one foot and took a step forward before halting and looking around. “Now, which way are we going again?” he asked with a grin.
****

“Oh, she muttered something about finding something to work on,” replied Fayalin airily, regarding Alvec with a raised eyebrow and waving her hand dismissively. “I guess there are still many things that need repairing,” she added, more solemnly.

"This way", Turquine told him, leading them out, down the massive steps and into the forest. He moved at a steady pace, though nothing near what the elves had set and Ariel was able to follow along. It took almost twice as long to reach the indoan craft and Rayanna, how had jogged ahead, was waiting some distance from the ship, watching the forest and awaiting thier return, crouched, as though ready to attack or run.

********

Alvec eyed his coffee saddely and then sighed and handed it to Faye. "It's coffee, good stuff. I should go help", he told her and then turned and ducked back through the doorway, heading toward the back of the ship.

"Rand", he said on his way out, "where's the cap'n, buddy?"

"Engineering. There were some weak coolant lines that she wanted to replace while she had the chance."

Alvec nodded as he headed back to give her a hand.

((OOC: Yay, exams are done. Back to my usual slightly less sporadic posting. :p))

The slower pace set by Turquine was far more pleasant to the two Indoan officers, and they too were able to keep up without any difficulty this time. Andie remained close to Ariel for the duration of their journey, ready to render assistance should it be needed. They made the journey mostly in silence, excepting a few idle comments from MacIntyre and their subsequent responses from Jann or Andie.

They found the shuttle exactly as they had left it, complete with the two crew members sat on the ramp, and Rayanna waiting a short distance away. The two pilots boarded immediately, followed by MacIntyre, who once again took up his relaxed position in the main cabin. The shuttle’s engines were still idling, so it took no time at all to prep it for departure; simply a matter of running the automatic pre-launch checklists. Andie waited at the base of the ramp, gesturing for the natives to board, and Spinnet stood by to one side; he would be the last one to board, making sure that everything was ready before closing the hatch.
****

As soon as Alvec had left the bridge, Fayalin headed for the medical bay, to check on Carter and Hammond, who, despite no longer being needed on board the WYAL, had not been Displaced back to the Faded Fortunes. Carter was sat cross-legged on top of the small bed, once again with her eyes closed and appearing to be asleep. Hammond was leant against one of the walls, taking apart a small device taken from the crate the scanner had been in.

They entered the shuttle and Rayanna took her usual place, crouched against a wall near one of the consoles.

Turquine gazed around and then took a seat, putting the belt on once it was mentioned to him and then leaned back in his heavy armor and closed his eyes. He hated flying of any kind and he very much disliked being away from his world.

Ariel found her way back to her seat and felt around for her belts, managing to fumble them back on again.

********

Alvec made his way to the back and proceeded to assist Joat in the replacements. Neither had to say a word, both falling into a familiar pattern as they progressed quickly and easily with the repairs.

(Congratulations! Glad your back, and hope all went well.)

The shuttle lifted off as soon as all their passengers were strapped in, and Kinnear wasted no time exiting the atmosphere and getting to a safe distance for a wormhole transition. They were back in the Faded Fortunes’ hangar bay less than ten minutes after leaving, the engines already silent and cooling down. Their guests were escorted up to the briefing room after being politely asked to temporarily surrender their weapons for the duration of their stay, and to refrain from magic or psionic activity unless absolutely necessary. Ariel was given some leeway in the latter regard; if some of her abilities helped her to navigate her environment better, then they were permitted.

A little over an hour later, a wormhole event appeared several hundred kilometres off the Faded Fortunes’ port side, and deposited the twin-pyramidal form of the frigate INV Highwind back into real space. The larger vessel closed the distance to the corvette, coming to a relative stop seventy kilometres away. Then the two Minds started talking, discussing how to proceed. Five minutes later, the Wraith, cloaked before it left the hangar, crossed the distance between the two ships, landing in the port hangar of the smaller vessel.

The two Ghost operatives on board made their way up to the bridge, introduced themselves to Valero, who led them, along with MacIntyre, Andie and Jann, into the conference room. The Faded Fortunes then hailed the WYAL, asking for a conference to finalise the details of their plan of attack.

All went well in the transition to the Fortunes, until they landed and were asked to surrender thier weapons. Turquine didn't like the idea, but his sword could be summoned if need be and so he entrusted the Holy relic to the Indoans.

Rayanna, however was another matter. Surrendering her oath bow is considered a dishonor, regardless of why or to whom. She flat our refused and wouldn't change her mind. Finally Turquine suggested a compromise that Rayanna couldn't argue. The bow is specificially mentioned as not being allowed to surrender to anyone, but not the arrows. So Turquine suggested to Andie that she be allowed to keep the bow, but surrender her quiver and arrows, thus making the bow, essentially, useless.

Turquine’s proposed compromise regarding Rayanna’s bow was accepted after a brief discussion. Before they began their briefing, Valero reiterated the restrictions in place on board the Indoan warships to their guests.
“I know you’ve been told this already, but no ready weapons are permitted to remain in your possession while on board and use of any magic, psionic or summoning abilities without prior permission will find you outside the ship in less than half a second and get you shot by one of Fade’s main laser batteries,” she told them firmly. “We don’t like surprises. Your daughter nearly got herself shot for precisely that reason.”

“Fade, have you contacted the WYAL? Do we have a link?” she asked the Mind.

There was a brief pause while the Faded Fortunes sent a message to Rand.
{Colonel Valero wishes to discuss the plans for the infiltration of the Manticore. Could you summon Captain Simeon-Happ and Alvec please?}
On board the WYAL, Fayalin left the med bay and headed to the command cabin to take part in the exchange.

“We are transmitting,” confirmed the Mind, after receiving confirmation.

“Right then. We need to discuss the final details for the operation. Captains Akari Saito and Thomas Payne are two of the Ghost operatives sent to us by High Command. They will pilot the Wraith craft to be used for insertion.” She indicated the two black clad officers sat together on her right. Both were fairly short for Indoans but appeared in peak physical condition, as much as the suits revealed such things. Saito wore her black hair down to her shoulders, and her midnight blue eyes revealed her lively personality, hidden only by necessity. Payne’s blond hair was only slightly shorter than his partner’s, and his grey eyes were never still, constantly moving and taking note of every little change in his surroundings.

“The three of you will accompany them, as well as Anderaleigh and two more of our soldiers yet to be chosen,” Valero continued, “This is a volunteer assignment, so I can’t order anyone to go, but does anyone have any preferences or recommendations as to who I ask? They can either be Rangers or the remaining two Ghost operatives on board the Highwind.”

Turquine nearly ripped he helmet from his head and glared at Valero. "I may be old, Lady, but I neither senile, nor stupid. No threats are needed, and once told is enough. If my daughter acted against your will, then there was a need. And if there is a need then so shall I, your will be damned", Turquine shot back at her with uncustomary ferocity. So fierce was his tone that Rayanna backed away, a look of utter shock on her face. "As for who goes, I care not, but this I shall say. I deal with my daughter. Any who touches her while I live will die by my hand."

Ariel stepped forward between them and turned to face Turquine. "My Lord, you are distrought. These people are here voluntary to help. They could walk away and leave our world to be destroyed."

"MY world IS destroyed", he cried. "Three wives, five sons and NOW .... NOW you ask me to KILL my daughter! I have no world of my own, I do not even live, I simply exist for service to the people."

"There is no other way. And your daughter will live as she is on Midgard now. When you asked for someone to confront Shadowspawn, I sent Marcus. He died at his hands. The only man I ever loved. The only man I ever will, for the Deryn mate once for life. I have no one, but I shall do what I must. You will still have her. I know what we ask is hard, but you know that it is for the greater good."

Turquine turned away, placing his hands on the table and closing his eyes. "Speak", he said, "tell us of this plan that I may get this over with."

********

Rand had acknowledged the Fortunes signal and summoned Joat and Alvec to the bridge. They listened to everything and Joat spoke up after the King dissented.

"Well .... we all know I would love to go, that aside, I think I should. They've already shown to be using one of my engine designs. Who knows what else they may have that I might be familiar with?"

"Then I have to go", Alvec spoke up.

"No, you stay here."

"My place is at your side", he told her.

"Your place is here, in case something happens to me. The W.Y.A.L. is my ship, not a company ship. And it's to go to will based on the will I swore out."

Alvec blinked in surprised and looked at her.

She shrugged, "You and Rand are close. He won't be wanting to crew to just anyone and A.I. rights are still being disputed, since there's only one sentient A.I. in all of Central Worlds."

“You forget yourself, Turquine of Highport,” interjected the Mind, it’s voice booming from every corner of the room. “On this ship, my will is god.” A silvery ovoid flickered in the centre of the room, then there was a rush of air as the atmosphere rushed to fill the vacuum created by the air Displaced outside the ship, the temperature inside the room instantly dropped fifteen degrees, the lights pulsed briefly to painfully bright levels and there was a flash of light as a sheet of paper, made airborne by the sudden vacuum, immolated itself. “Colonel Valero did not threaten you, she merely stated fact. But I am threatening you now: If you step out of line, you will not live long enough to regret it.”

There was a long silence after that; none daring to be the first to speak and risk the ire of the almost-omnipotent entity that controlled their ship. When the silence was eventually broken, it was Captain Payne.
“He’s going to get us killed if he goes in like this,” he observed neutrally.

Valero’s head came around, and she looked at the Ghost questioningly. “Why do you say that?” she asked, knowing that the Ghost would not make such a statement lightly.

“He’s just indicated his willingness to compromise the mission,” explained Payne, “He’s also just told us that our lives mean nothing to him. Either he gets his act together, right now, or we’re not going. I will not put the lives of good people in danger just to fulfil his irrational desires.” He paused for breath, looking directly at Turquine. “Either this mission goes ahead with proper planning and discipline, or it doesn’t go ahead at all. We fling some novas at it and be done with it.”

“She should come,” declared Saito, waving at the wall-screen showing the image of Joat, surprising the other Indoans, “If she knows some of the systems we might come across, it could save us a lot of trouble.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” admitted Valero, “But you make a good point. Okay, Captain Simeon-Happ is on the team,” she decided.

“You’re injured, Alvec,” added Fayalin on the WYAL, before the man could object, “Unfit for combat duty. You know it as well as I do. You’d be a liability to them in your current state.”

“That’s one place left on the team. For what it’s worth, I suggest taking Lieutenant Kane,” put forth Valero, “From what I know of him, he’s among the most capable and dependable soldiers ever to have served, and I doubt he’ll decline the opportunity to take part.”

Turquine looked at Payne. "I've been a soldier for two hundred and fifty years. In that time, I've not lost a battle. Even where my loved ones had died. Believe whatever you like. I'll see this through. But I get the final decision on what happens to my daughter. I don't want one of you young ones making a rash decision on her fate."

********

Joat stood up and headed to her locker to get her gear. "I'll head over there in the flit. Just let me know where to put down." Her gear consisted of a number of devices that could help her infiltrate systems and prevent herself from becoming known to them. Though she wasn't sure how effective they might in this case, she would feel better having them.

********

Alvec looked at Faye for a long moment, wanting to deny the truth of her statement. Finally he sighed and nodded. "You're right", he said, sitting down in the command throne, "I stand corrected." He didn't look happy about it, but he knew that Faye had a good point.

“On one condition,” replied Payne. “We won’t make any decision without your approval, fine, but the same goes for you. Your emotional attachment with the subject means I don’t trust your judgment. You shouldn’t even be going because of that, but that’s not my decision, as much as I disagree.”

“I’ve heard of Lieutenant Kane,” Saito commented, after Valero’s suggestion. “I would welcome his addition to the team. I hope we don’t need it, but his trademark firepower may be useful.”

“Okay. Moving on,” Valero activated the holographic display in the centre of the table; showing a representation of the Manticore. “This is your point of entry to the restricted zone,” she told them, the point determined by Joat highlighted. “It has the weakest coverage of any point in the perimeter. You may encounter cruiser patrols on the outside, which you are to avoid as much as possible. We don’t think they can pick you up, but there’s no sense in taking risks. Once you have penetrated the perimeter, we advise heading straight for the station. You will likely encounter patrols and other defence systems; these are to be avoided at all costs. We have no guarantees the cloaking systems on the Wraith will have any effect at all on these defences.”

The hologram zoomed into the station, showing what little detail was known.
“Once you get to the station, you’ll have to find your own point of entry. And once you get on board, you’ll have to locate and get to the target on your own. We have no data with which to support you in these stages of the mission. Given the size of the station, you’ll almost certainly have to find a method of moving about rapidly, but it’s probably that such a system is already in place. Equipment you can take is limited, due to the lack of cargo capacity on the Wraith.” She paused, then looked at the assembled group. “We know it’s one hell of a long shot, but it seems like it’s the only option we have. Any questions?”

Saito raised a hand. “Not a question really, but an observation. I assume our guests will be given suits. Given what you’ve told us, we can’t guarantee that we won’t have to make an EVT, so unless they can survive a total vacuum and a temperature of minus two-seventy, they’ll need a suit,” she pointed out. “Not to mention; the armour, active camo and the built-in AG systems may come in useful. And the internal comms will make our communication inaudible.”

“I’ll get right on it,” responded the Mind, “I’ll have four Type Three personnel exposure suits ready by the time you’re ready to depart.”
****

{Port-side hangar bay, if you please,} transmitted the Faded Fortunes to the WYAL, in reply to Joat’s request.

Turquine sighed, "I disagree with my going myself, however, I am here because you may run into things that your weapons may not be able to deal with."

He listened to the briefing and then looked at Valero, "I take it that a scout or scouting party is impossible?" he asked. There wasn't much hope in his voice, but he obviously preferred having as much information on hand as possible. Beyond that he would just follow the others and hope he could figure out these 'suits' they spoke of.

********

"Roger that", came Joat's voice from the flit, once she was inside. She shot out from the W.Y.A.L. as though running from hell and arced around, coming into the port side landing bay. Slowing as she approached, she set down and popped open the cockpit, leaping out onto the deck. Before anyone could say anything she offered an arc pistol and a plasma derringer butts first.

“It’s not impossible; it’s just too high a risk,” replied Valero. “We don’t have recon drones fitted with the stealth systems on the Wraith, so they’re much easier to detect. If we do send a drone, the worst case scenario is that we tip our hand. If they know for certain that we’re coming, it will make it extremely difficult to get in.” She paused, thinking over the situation again. “The future Lauralin has to know we’ll be coming; she’s not stupid, but she doesn’t know when or where we’ll be coming from. The other problem is speed. Most of our recon drones are fairly slow, so it would take them a long time to get any meaningful data. It…”

“Hang on a minute,” interrupted Payne, looking intently at the hologram. “We’re talking about a distance of hundreds of billions of miles here. It would take at least a week at light speed, and we can’t even get close to that. Surely someone must have realised that before. I hadn’t realised we were talking quite on this scale, else I’d have brought it up before.” He looked around at the assembled group incredulously. “You can’t seriously have thought that was a good idea.”

Several seconds passed in silence, before the Mind spoke.
“I was wondering how long it would take someone to notice,” it said calmly. “Fortunately, the Highwind and I have a back-up plan. Before it’s departure, the Highwind took on thirty Libra battlefield reconnaissance drones. The Libra is of approximately similar size to an atmospheric descent or covert insertion pod. It is fast, manoeuvrable and has a shield, countermeasures and an active camouflage system. Our plan calls for an insertion through multiple wormholes, using the Libras as plausible distractions. They will also provide the secondary purpose of getting you recon data. Any comments?”

“Well, it’s a lot more practical, and only mildly more suicidal,” observed Payne. “Sounds good to me.”
---

The security officer that had walked over to meet Joat’s craft smiled and took the two weapons.
“Thank you, miss,” he said, carrying them over to a storage locker mounted to the interior wall of the hangar and placing them inside. “If you’ll follow me,” he told her, then led her up to the bridge briefing room.

Turquine stood up, looking at the hologram and then around the room. "I fear I'm at a loss here. So I'll bow to your wisdom on this matter. I won't be of much use until we're actually inside the .... place", he finished.

Rayanna simply watched, not quite sure what was happening, only clutching to the oath bow that they had wanted to take from her and eyeing everyone warily in case someone made another move to take it from her.

Ariel stood by passively, only marginally understanding what was happening. Having the ability to dimension walk was a great asset, but she couldn't survive the void like the King or Queen could. He protected by certain powers and the Queen protected by her curse.

********

"Thanks", she told him as they got to the bridge briefing room. She walked in, looking at the familiar hologram in front of her. She looked over at Turquine, who was just finishing what he was saying, wondering what happened to the man's face and then spoke up. "So once were through the that area, how are we going to cover the distance. I would suggest one of my drives, but I'm sure it would be detectable by the Manticores sensors. I would have taken the W.Y.A.L. but with the cloak out of commission we'd stick out like a sore thumb once we go normal space again."

“The original plan is unviable without using a long range propulsion system, which would give away your location. So we have a new plan,” replied the Mind, and proceeded to briefly explain the details to Joat. “The Libras are the perfect decoy for this mission,” it added once it had finished. “The presence of active camouflage and shields on the Libras makes them appear to be far more valuable than they are, but it’s an appropriate level of protection for a combat insertion pod. Lauralin is aware of our extensive use of stealth and subterfuge, so sending in unprotected targets would only draw attention to the possibility that there is something else there. Any comments?”

“I wish there was some way of getting some information before we went in,” said Saito, repeating Turquine’s earlier point. “It’s bad enough them having technical and numerical superiority, but we’re essentially going in blind right now. I can’t say I’m terribly fond of that idea.”

“Given the changes we’ve made to the mission plan, is it not possible to send a proper recon probe now?” asked Jann, speaking for the first time. “If it was sent only a few minutes before the Wraith was to go in, then it wouldn’t give much time for any defences to be organised. And if you sent it in from an entirely different vector, then any defences that were put up would be in the wrong place. It wouldn’t give you much time to analyse the data before you went in, but it’s better than nothing, right?”

"Hell yeah", Joat replied, "I like that idea. I mean short time as it is, something is better than nothing. If we send it in from a different vector then we can see which way the sucker turns and try for an insertion on the opposite side, cause we don't know what kind if fardling offense OR defense this thing has."

"Well", Turquine replied, "knowing my daughter, she's more heavily defensive than offensive. Such is her way now, and .... unbalanced as she might be, basic personality suggests that such would still be her way. It has, after, not attacked in what? 200 years? Yet it has defended itself."

Joat nodded, "Sounds reasonable. I think it's worth a shot. Besides, we might have Central to pick up some of the slack. The reason they're here is to watch this thing. With your cloaks, they won't know what it's shooting at and may respond. Of course ... the downside is, they'll try to destroy it, which will leave us less time than we had before."

“So she’s not a student of battle then?” observed Saito, “If all is otherwise equal in battle, the side with the stronger offence will prevail. Basic Art of War.” She paused momentarily, then added. “A stronger defence can only slow down the outcome in such a case, not prevent it. Obviously if your opponent lacks the strength to break your defences, you’re fine, but it won’t protect you from everyone.”

“I don’t think we need to worry about the Central forces too much,” said the Mind. “Even if they do exactly what you say, I doubt the Central fleet has the power to do such a thing, despite the fact that the current garrison is considerably larger than that which made your last serious attempt to bring it down,” it pointed out. “Besides, I am not so sure they will jump in to the fight, purely because some weapons fire is being thrown around. It is not being thrown directly at them, so I imagine it will be monitored as unusual activity, nothing more.”

“Well, then. If that’s everything, we should probably get going,” declared Payne. “Time is somewhat of the essence, after all.” He looked around, making sure that really was everything before he moved.

"I'm afraid", Turquine said, "that my daughter is a student of battle. She can carry out a campaign if the need is there, and is quite cunning. I don't think she's here to start a war and so hasn't initiated combat. I was simply stating that she is more defensive in nature. But your principle still applies in the current situation and gives us the advantage to a point. My reason for stating this is as a warning. She won't rely on external defenses. She'll have internal defenses as well. She tends to use layered defenses and varied, just in case one doesn't work then she can switch to another."

"I think I can help", Ariel stated. "I can keep her occupied mentally with a psychic attack making her fight on two fronts."

Turquine nodded, "If you can do that it will give us a major advantage. Beyond that, your plan and weaponry", he said looking about the room, "and Raya and my abilities, I think we have a decent chance."

“Hmm, that’s true,” admitted Saito. “They could have all the offensive power in the galaxy in there for all we know. Just because they haven’t used it doesn’t mean it’s not there. I stand corrected.” She bowed her head slightly in Turquine’s direction as she spoke the last sentence.

“And we know for certain there’ll be a layered defence network now,” stated Payne, “We always assume there is anyway, but now we know we won’t be hunting for ghosts that aren’t there. Every little detail we pick up makes our job slightly less impossible.”

“A two-pronged assault is good, particularly on such different battlefields, as it will make for poorer decisions on both fronts, but I have to wonder: Will you be able to keep up with the rest of us while doing that?” Andie asked Ariel. “And if not, someone will probably have to stay with you, which presents another issue: Who do we leave, and where do we leave you?”

Turquine hadn't thought of that when she spoke before and he closed his eyes, 'I'm a fool not to have thought of that', he muttered.

Ariel was silent a long time as she considered the question and then shook her head. "I honestly don't know", she replied. "As she is now, I could easily keep up an attack and still move. Against this one, it depends on how much she's worked her psychic ability."

"Assuming the worst?" Turquine asked, opening his eyes and looking at her.

"She'll sweep aside my attack, crush my own defenses and kill me", Ariel stated without any emotional attachment to the statement whatsoever. "However, she's been through quite a bit from what I gather and, therefore, wouldn't have been able to dedicate that kind of time. It takes a great deal for a non-Deryn to win against a Deryn. I would say at best I can move about normally. At worst, I'll have to focus everything against her which would leave me motionless and completely unaware of my surroundings. My former statement stands, I simply don't know at this point."

"No", she said, as Turquine opened his mouth, "you're here to combat her because of your particular abilities." He closed his mouth and then opened it again, but again she spoke first, "Rayanna's talents may be needed as well, it's also why she's here." They were both silent a moment and when he finally went to speak again she was silent, however, he simply stopped, his own protest dying on his lips, knowing she was right.

"I didn't not read his mind", she stated, "thus I used no powers, per your instructions", she said. "I've served with him for a long time, I already know his arguments, without the need to read his thoughts."

“That was obvious,” observed Valero with a chuckle. “Hell, I knew what he was going to say, and I barely know the man. One of those times when little insight into the character of a person is all you need.”

“I’ll stay with her,” stated Saito.

“Akari…” began Payne, but she cut him off before he could get any further.

“Kane will be more useful with you, and Anderaleigh’s talents will also serve you better than I,” she countered. “We’ll find some secluded spot to hole up while Ariel does her thing. If it turns out that she’s okay to do it on the move, we’ll catch up later.”

“Agreed, but I’ll stay with her, not you. Like it or not, you can’t deny I’m physically stronger than you, and our suits don’t give the same degree of enhancement that the battlesuit does,” argued Payne. “This way, if for some reason we have to move while Ariel’s incapacitated, I can carry her to another location more easily.” There was a brief pause, then he added, “My apologies in advance if that does happen, miss.”

“…Okay,” agreed Saito reluctantly. She was unhappy with the decision, but she could find no fault in Payne’s logic.

Turquine grinned at Valero and shrugged. "I am what I am", he said simply. Then he listened to the discussion between the other two.

"No need to apologize for saving my life", Ariel replied, looking in his general direction, "though it is my sincere hope that I can move once I'm there. If I can't, I'd appreciate any assistance that you can offer."

Turquine thought a moment more then glanced back at Rayanna. She shrugged toward him, "I scout. Go ahead. Swift and silent, like leaf that falls from tree. Masked. Unseen by magic. By eye."

"I think we should debark first", Turquine stated, "then Raya can come out. Once we're seen, they won't be expecting her. She can become invisible and cloak herself from magic. I know you have means of seeing her with heat and other ways, but if we're seen already, why bother looking for anything more? It should work for awhile anyway, to allow her some scouting, and it won't be the expected .... suits, however they're powered, or run ... or whatever you call it."

“The plan is for none of us to be seen,” pointed out Payne, “be we concealed or not. Otherwise we’re in trouble right from minute one, which, considering the scale of our task, is just about as wrong as things could go. And if there’s one thing you perhaps should learn from this, it’s that you never stop looking. Yeah, you may spend ten minutes before entering every single room checking for a cloaked prox mine or hidden autogun and never find anything, but I guarantee, the one time you don’t, it blows up in your face. Literally.”

“There’s also the fact that you seem to have forgotten that you will likely all be wearing suits too,” added Saito, “And I wouldn’t suggest taking them off once we’re on the station, since we don’t know what may happen later. We might need them without warning, leaving no time to don it again after removing it.”

“The ‘hidden from magic’ thing would probably be quite useful though, bearing in mind who the leader of our enemy is,” continued Payne. “Can you do that while wearing a full body suit? If you can, then I guess you probably should take point. If not, then it depends which we’re likely to come across more of, since Akari and I, unlike the rest of you, can conceal ourselves pretty much completely from technology.”

He stood up, withdrew the suit’s headgear and pulled it over his head. A few seconds later he disappeared from their sight, with not even a hint of the minor distortion outline the battlesuit had. Saito pulled her backup PHUD from her pack, put it on momentarily then removed it and held it out to Turquine. She jumped slightly a second later, for no readily apparent reason.

“Here. It’s configured for heat scan only. Look at how the rest of us show up, and then look at Tom,” she told him. “He’s standing right next to me.”

If Turquine looked through the display, he would see most of the room’s occupants represented as yellow-orange outlines clearly visible against the blues and greens of the background, which was a touch vague in places, where two objects blended into each other a little, but was otherwise almost perfectly represented. Andie showed up as a greenish-yellow outline, but still clearly recognisable as a person. Saito was a vague pale green shape, except for her head, which was a clearly defined orange, due to her own currently incomplete suit. Payne, however, wasn’t really visible at all. There was a marginally lighter patch of blue where he was supposed to be, but it didn’t have any discernable shape and certainly couldn’t be definitively stated as being a person, or indeed anything other than a random variance in the room’s heat for that matter.

"I had forgotten that", Turquine admitted to Saito, "forgive me."

At Payne's question Rayanna looked at him a moment then shrugged. "On me. Not seen to magic. By magic. Only me. Cannot use for others."

Turquine did look through and then lowered the display, confused by what he was seeing. He got his bearings and raised them again, now knowing what he SHOULD be looking at, so they took on a clearer picture in his mind. He looked toward Saito, trying to find the man who was supposed to be next to her, but unfamiliar with the scene in front of him, missed him completely.

Ariel, however, stepped forward, walking toward Saito. She stopped and reached out a hand, touching Payne. "Don't rely too heavily on your technology", she said and lowered her hand, "but also, keep in mind, I'm blind. I rely more on 'seeing' with my mind than the queen, but as the King pointed out, she is cunning. However, she has to be in the room with you. For instance, you couldn't stand on the opposite side of the wall. Think of it as a form of mental sonar."

“Aw hell…” said Payne when Ariel touched his arm. “I knew you’d be able to tell where I was.” He deactivated the active camouflage, revealing that he was leaning on Saito’s shoulder with his other arm, and removed the headgear. “And our technology is all we have, miss,” he told her, somewhat apologetically, “Besides, the point wasn’t that our suits are infallible; we already knew they provide very little concealment from your various talents. The point was that for what we can do, we do well. In the same way that I imagine you do all you say you can rather well.”

“Incidentally, we will show up on your displays when we go in, because the system wants us to avoid friendly fire or walking into each other,” Saito stated. “And the display won’t be nearly that confusing either, so don’t worry. It’ll look virtually just like what you can see now. The system will also highlight each one of us with a blue outline, signifying a friendly, and our names will appear over our heads, so you can tell who’s behind each faceless mask.”

Payne then glanced at Rayanna, “Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding here, but I’m not sure you answered my question, or if you did, I can’t work out what the answer actually was,” he told her.

Ariel nodded at his statement. "I meant no disrespect. The Queen speaks VERY highly of you, and she is not easily impressed. I just wanted to make sure you understood the possible limitations, which you obviously do", she finished, bowing her head slightly and returning toward Turquine. "But also understand. Using the power that way is taxing, thus the reason I rely on others a good deal of the time. If possible .... I would suggest forcing her to use it. To tax her that way, while I attack and she tries to co-ordinate her defenses will make it easier for us."

When payne addressed Rayanna again she chewed her lower lip, struggling for better words, but Turquine spoke up. "She means that whatever she's wearing or holding will become invisible to our sight. Normal sight", he corrected, "and will be mask by magical location. But only she can become invisible in that way, she can't make others invisible in the same fashion. Also, Ariel's talents could still locate her, thus my daughter's can as well. My hopes was that we leave the ship and enter first to attract any attention, then Rayanna follows and moves past us to scout ahead."

((OOC: Sorry for the minor delay, got really busy over the weekend.))

“There’s an old saying where I come from,” began Payne with a smile, “Goes something like this: A man who has many weaknesses, but knows all of them, is more reliable than a man who has but one, and knows nothing of it.” He shrugged, “I try to know as much about myself as I can. Keeps me alive.” He took his seat again, sat at such an angle that he was leaning against Saito’s shoulder again. “As for making her use her abilities to find us, if it’ll make things harder for her, we’ll take any advantages we can get.”

“That would be exactly what Tom thought to start with,” Saito responded to Turquine with a nod. “I would agree instantly to her taking point on that basis, but for two things. Even after the crash course we’re going to give you all, she still won’t be that familiar with the PHUD display and how to interpret it, so she could easily miss things that can only be seen with the aid of our technology. The other thing is that I’m more familiar with sneaking around a modern enemy fortress.” She was silent for a moment. “I propose that I take point, with Rayanna right behind me. That way, we get the advantage of my training and expertise in this kind of situation, as well as her abilities.”

"You show wisdom", Ariel replied to Payne, "you stand well in my eyes for your admissions." She then stood beside Turquine, facing a slight angle, not sure exactly where he was.

Turquine looked at Saito and then to Valero. "You're people are taught well", he said. Then he looked back at Saito and bowed to her, "Again I stand corrected, Lady. It shall be as you say." He looked over toward Rayanna, "You will follow her orders. Such is my will", he told her and she nodded respectfully and then moved to stand near Saito, still clutching her oath bow to her chest.

“I wish I could take credit for it,” replied Valero, half smiling, “But they aren’t even my people. All the credit with regard to Captains Saito and Payne goes to Colonel Ossa, commander of the Ghost section. But it is a trait of our military to train our people as well as we can. Well trained soldiers will live longer, and fight more effectively. And if they do that, we lose fewer battles, and commanders have to write fewer letters informing parents of the death of their child.”

“Have we covered everything now?” asked Payne. “There’s a couple more things I can think of, but those can wait until you’re learning about the suits. Any operational concerns left to consider?”

“We’ve covered insertion, recon and execution,” Saito replied. “Extraction will be a touch hit and miss depending on what our situation is. If for some reason we can’t get back to the Wraith, we’ll have to find another way out, but since we don’t know what’s there we can’t really think too much about that yet. About the only other thing I can think of is support, and we’re not going to be getting much, if any, of that. Beyond that, we can’t really finalise any other details until we know more about the location.”

Turquine nodded, "I agree. We are going in blind, really, so getting back out will be an on site consideration. Not the first time, though I like none better now than I ever have before, and most likely even less, as I've no firm ground beneath me to rely on." He glanced at Ariel who simply stood impassive and then at Rayanna who shrugged. "Very well. Let us see about these suits then."

((OOC: Typical... I tell you I'll get something up for Sunday, then I'm promptly ill. Oh well, I'm better now.))

“Of course,” replied Andie, “Please follow me.” She stood and led them out of the briefing room, down to a ‘Scramble room’, where pilots and Rangers waited during combat, with all their equipment, ready for rapid deployment as soon as was needed. Waiting in the room were Kane, already wearing his suit, minus the helmet, and a naval officer, the insignia on his shoulder denoting him as a Naval Sergeant. The large table in the centre of the room had five suits lying folded on it; three of the Type-3 personnel suits and two standard infantry battlesuits.

“Sergeant Harper and myself will show you how to put on the suits and how to operate them,” Andie said to Turquine, Rayanna and Ariel. “Joat, we decided you might be a little more… involved than they will, so you’re getting a full battlesuit. Kane will help you get used to it.”

Harper stepped forward and began his briefing.
“Okay, the Type-3 suit is designed to afford non-combat personnel with basic protection on the battlefield,” he started. “We realise you’re not exactly non-combat personnel, but this is the best we can do without giving you Type-1 battlesuits, which are significantly more complex. It forms a completely enclosed system, requiring no input from the outside environment to survive. Underwater, vacuum, toxic or radioactive environments all present no threat to even prolonged exposure while wearing the suit.” He lifted the torso section of one of the suits. “It’s designed to be a fairly tight fit, so I suggest you remove any bulky items of clothing you may be wearing. Putting it on is simple, you just don the pieces over your clothes, and make sure the seals are secure. If you would all do that now, then Andie and I will check the seals.”

Kane lifted one of the folded battlesuits, handed it to Joat and drew her a little away from the others, so he could talk with her without interfering with Harper’s directions.
“Now, like Harper said, this is significantly more complex than the suits they’re getting, but you’re a technical kind of person, and familiar with this level of technology to start with, so I think you’ll have no trouble. If by the time we’re done, you don’t feel confident taking it into battle, say so and we’ll give you one of the light suits. And make sure you do say so, because if you’re not comfortable operating it, it’ll affect your performance,” he told her. “Same thing applies to putting it on as for them; remove any bulky clothing, then just pull it on over the rest and make sure the seals are good. I’ll confirm that when you’re done.”

(I'm glad your feeling better and don't worry. I was sick from Thurseday through Sunday. Even today I'm not feeling my best, but I went to work today and made it through. I feel like I've run a marathon, but I'm okay.)

Turquine nodded and set his helm aside. He then removed his bulky full plate armor. The chainmail underarmor and the underpadding. He was left standing in his leather pants. Aside from a number of smaller ones on his torso, deep scars ran across his chest and diagonally down his back. The corded muscle slid beneath the skin but it bulged where the deep slashes had left indentations in the flesh. It was obviously painful even though he didn't show any sign of discomfort. He then began putting on the light suit, looking up periodically to make sure he was doing it right.

Rayanna began removing her own outer garments at the same time and stood in a light, thin tunic and breeches. Made of spidersilk they were very light and thing, but still strong. She watched Turquine as he put on the suit and followed his lead.

Ariel stood to one side and did nothing, simply waiting while the other two dressed.

"Don't worry about me", Joat replied, "I'll handle anything that comes along. I don't like getting into the grudly but if I have to I will." As she spoke, her voice was filled with confidence, but her eyes were haunted, remembering the Kolnari raid on the Simeon Space Station and the terrible ways she had devised, using common equipement, to kill them every chance she got. She took off her out clothes and stood in her tight fitting pants and a halter top. Then Turquine caught her eye as he finished removing the underpadding.

"Fardlin A", she muttered. "Tell me we don't have to fight whatever he tangled with." She then proceeded to done the suit with only a little hesitation here and there. Suits she was more than familiar with, only the battle equipement she hesitated at before figuring out how they went on without being told. "Okay", she said when she had finished. "Just tell me what a few things here mean and I'm good to go", she grinned.

Andie stepped forward to stand next to Ariel as Turquine and Rayanna donned the suits.
“Would you like some assistance?” she asked, softly enough that only Ariel would hear her.

When the other two had finished putting the suits on, Harper moved around both of them, quickly but firmly checking the waist, wrist and boot connections had properly sealed; the smart material lacing the two sections together as though they had always been that way.
“Okay, that’s good,” confirmed Harper, after finding every connection perfectly sealed. “Now, the armour is already active and drawing power. The duration of a single power pack is approximately thirty hours, however use of the camouflage cuts that to about ten, and defensive action will drop it further. In the thick of battle, it might only last you half an hour. You needn’t worry too much about your power levels though; Andie will handle that for you. The only thing you need to be aware of is that when you see a ‘Low Power’ warning on your display, and you can’t miss it, you should fall back or find cover so that someone can change your power packs for you.”

He picked up a metal bar stolen from the vessel’s exercise room, minus the weights it normally held, and moved to stand directly in front of Turquine.
“The armour provides excellent protection against all kinetic impacts and energy discharges, allowing you to survive all but the most powerful hits,” he met Turquine’s gaze. “If you’ll allow me to demonstrate.” He took a step back and swung the bar into Turquine’s chest as hard as he could. Turquine would feel the impact, but it had no more force behind it than if Harper had pushed him with one hand. “The level of protection is equal to the force exerted, so you can still feel physical contact.” He then tapped Turquine’s arm with one finger, which would feel as normal as could be expected through the suit material. “You should also find that there are minor increases to your physical strength and speed, as well as significant endurance benefits when running over long distances, as the suit does most of the work for you.”

“Looks good to me,” Kane told Joat with a smile, after checking the seals on her suit. “There are four sheaths for power packs; two for active supply, located on the back of your waist, one on each side,” he tapped the appropriate location on his own suit, “and two for recharging, located on the inside of each boot.” He reached down and tapped the inside of his left leg, just above the ankle. “There’re two active slots so you can swap them out without having to go offline. When you get a low power warning on your display, find cover, remove the spent power pack from the appropriate slot, replace it with a fresh one, then stick the spent one in one of the boot slots. The suit will automatically start drawing power from the other active slot when one is depleted, so you’ll never actually have low power unless you forget to replace one and ignore the warning message, which won’t go away until you do.” He picked up a small black block, about 60 millimetres long, 30 wide and 5 deep. “This is a suit power pack. You’ll be issued six of them, so make sure you don’t lose them. Can you handle all that?”

Ariel turned her head to look in Andies general direction and spoke equally low. "I'll need help, yes. But I'm hesitating more due to the fact that under my robes is nothing but satin ..... underthings. Your people may be used to changing in front of the opposite sex, but I'm afraid that I'm not."

Turquine had braced for the impact and grunted when he was hit, though it was more in surprise than anything else. He felt the light flick agains his suit and listened to rest of instruction. "Impressive", he stated. "How about slashing weapons? Like my sword? How can it stand up to that? I wouldn't put it past my daughter to use such, as suits are needed for survival outside her abode."

"Thanks", Joat replied, smiling in return, after Kanes assessment of the seals. She then listened to the rest of his instruction, looking at each place he pointed out and nodding understanding.

"Hell, I've changing my oxygen tanks in space, this is a cake walk. A couple of questions. One, the recharging batteries, do they siphon off the existing ones? If so how much does that cut down on the battery packs after the initial switch is made. And two, how do these things do in tight spaces? If I need to work on something in there, or bypass something I might have to work in close quarters and I don't want the thing going grudly on me at a bad time."

((OOC: Gah, what am I doing up this late? How am I going to fix my sleep issues if I keep doing this? Bleh... Anyway, glad to hear you're feeling better too.))

“Ah, of course. Forgive me,” whispered Andie in embarrassment. “Please.” She took Ariel’s arm gently and led her away from the centre of the room to the far end of the room. She then let go of Ariel, returned to the table and picked up Ariel’s suit. After laying it down on a bench near Ariel, she opened a locker and withdrew a black undersuit.

“Fortunes, activate a mirror field please,” she said clearly. The field snapped silently in place a split second later, effectively splitting the room into two separate rooms and reflecting perfectly. She then gently took Ariel’s hand again, and raised it up to touch the field. It did not feel solid, but there was definite resistance, and contact with it gave a slight tingling sensation. “That is a mirror field. On my honour, I swear to you no-one but myself and the ship can see you now,” the avatar explained softly. She let Ariel’s hand drop back to her side and raised her own hand. “Kane, how many fingers am I holding up?” she asked clearly.

“Two, but I only know that because you’ve been showing me those same two fingers ever since I accidentally tripped you up at that dance eighteen months ago,” came the loud reply.

“And you, Turquine? Can you see us at all?” she asked, anxious to dispel Ariel’s concerns.

After Turquine replied, Harper continued his explanation and answered Turquine’s question.
“A blade is nothing more than a kinetic impact over minimal area, sir,” he replied. “This armour is designed to protect against high-velocity projectiles, which have far greater impact force than a swinging blade, and roughly equal impact area. It will stand up fine, sir. I can’t guarantee any protection from a magically enhanced blade though. That’s outside our area of expertise, as much as we’re working to remedy that.”

“Oh no,” Kane corrected Joat with a lopsided grin. “Our engineers are far too sensible for that. The depleted power packs recharge via impulse generators in your feet and induction systems in the arms and legs. As long as you move, you’ll recharge the power packs. The two systems are completely separate.” He paused briefly, then continued, “As for tight spaces, it depends exactly what you mean. The suit doesn’t add that much bulk to you, so you’ll still be able to fit in access ducts and the like. Nor will it suffer any power drains if you do that. The gloves probably will make delicate work challenging, but you can remove them temporarily if need be. If you think that might be an issue, I suggest we give you a pair of undergloves. Thin enough not to affect your work, but they don’t compromise suit integrity. Does that answer your question?”

Turquine was about to answer two, on the off chance that Kane was correct, but decided against it. He knew what was going on and wanted to alleviate Ariel's discomfort. "I cannot see you, Lady Anderleigh, thus I know not", he answered.

Ariel, knowing the King would not lie nodded. "Thank you", she said and removed the robe, leaving her in nothing but semi sheer satin bra and panties. "New clothing via Central Worlds. They feel rather nice", she explained unnecessarily." She had a shapely figure that would attract attention, thus the reason she typically wore robes, since her place as advisor meant that those nearby should be listening to the king and not watching her.

With help she put on the equipement, her fingers sliding over any necessary controls to become familiar with location. After it was done she picked up her robe and put it back on. "I hope this won't interfere with the working of the suit. I've incorporated psionic protections into it, thus allowing me to concentrate on other things while I'm wearing it", she explained.

Turquine, meanwhile, listened to the answer to his question and nodded. "Well, the good news", he answered, "is that most magics simply enhance the ability to hit, the power of the hit or both. The bad news is that MOST magics simply enhance the ability to hit, the power of the hit or both", he grinned. "Some add various forms of elemental damage. Lightning, flame, that sort of thing."

Joat nodded, "Cool, yeah. That answers my questions, thanks. These gloves should be fine. Most of my equipement was designed with bulky space suit gloves in mind, just in case the need arose, so I don't foresee any problems there. I suppose you guys would notice of one of these went missing", she said with a grin.

Andie clicked her tongue as Ariel put her robe back on over the top of the personnel suit.
“Well, it won’t reduce it’s protective abilities at all, but it will effectively render the optic camouflage useless,” she explained with a sigh. “While you will be hidden behind it, your robe, being outside the suit, will not. So anyone that happens to look in your direction at an inappropriate time will see a floating robe. Hardly an inconspicuous event to witness.” She lifted the material of the robe in one hand, trying to work out how best to compromise the two requirements.

“Well, that’s some good news for you then,” agreed Harper. “Although fire is simply heat, and that suit,” he waved his hand at Kane, “can survive immersion in lava for short periods of time. Yours doesn’t fare quite so well, but heat is still not that much of a problem. And lightning’s just energy, like a laser pulse. You should be fine. As for the rest, there’re certain things the suit doesn’t stand up to that well anyway; we’ll just add that to the list. Hopefully the Mark Six will fix those deficiencies, but that’s a year or so off yet.”

He picked up the helmets for the two suits and handed them to them, then picked up a PHUD and comm transceiver, fitting the latter to his ear and putting the former on.
“Okay, now put those on,” he instructed them. “The display won’t activate until it’s properly sealed and can draw power from the rest of the suit, so you won’t be able to see anything for a moment, but that’s normal.”
Despite having no markings or transparent sections at all, it was virtually impossible to get the helmet the wrong way round; the front part, covering the face, was semi-rigid, and moulded on the inside to fit the face. The rest of the helmet was just as flexible as the rest of the suit, enabling free movement of the head and allowing it to collapse nearly flat for storage.

“You know, I rather think we would,” replied Kane with an amused smile. “These things aren’t cheap, you know. And wear the under-gloves anyway. Better to have them and not need them than the other way around.” He reached down and pulled a pair of the gloves out of the ammunition pack for Joat’s suit and held them out to her. “Okay, here comes the difficult part. Now I have to teach you how to use the PHUD properly. Put the helmet, and when it’s sealed the display will come on.”

"Well", Ariel replied, "if it comes to it, I can remove the robe quickly. In the meantime, and no insult intended to it's designers, I'd rather rely on what I know."

Turquine nodded, "Acid, frost, magically sharp. There are a couple that work better against a better defense. It's magically done, penetrating the better defenses easily. Only magic can counter it. How it works and how it might work against your suits I wouldn't know. Lauralin ...", he stopped for a second, choking on her name as he thought about what he was about to go do. "Lauralin may be able to better answer those questions than I."

Turquine slipped on the helmet and waited until the display came up, seemingly unaffected. Rayanna, however, even though she was warned, gasped and reached up for it, afraid that her sight had been taken. Before she could remove it, however, the helmet came online and she relaxed.

"Right", Joat replied, taking the gloves. She slipped them on and then the outer gloves and put on the helmet.

"Well what the ....", she started as the helmet suddenly came to life, "ah there we go. Okay, I'm ready, what do I need to know?"

“That is fair,” admitted Andie. “We’ll try and keep you in the middle of the group; that way anyone who might see you should already have been seen and neutralised by one of us,” she decided. “That’s you pretty much done now, since you can’t see the helmet display. One thing I will mention; if you hear me, or Captain Payne if we have to separate, tell you to ‘Lie low’, do so, because it means your suit needs a power pack swapping out, and we’ll come to you to do it. I suggest you put the helmet on now, to get used to it.” She put the helmet in Ariel’s hand as she finished speaking.

The view that all three of the humans saw was almost indistinguishable from their natural view, and did not obscure any of the peripheral areas of vision at all. The only obvious evidence that what they saw was electronically processed were a narrow semi-transparent compass bar extending across the bottom of the field of view, blue outlines around all the other people in the room and a small, but easily readable nametag above each head. Joat’s display had a few more items; namely an ammunition counter and fire select display in the bottom right corner of her view, both of which were currently blank, and a symbol labelled ‘System’ in the top right corner. All the items displayed on the HUD were as small as they could be while still being clear, so as not to clutter up the display and obstruct the vision of the user. The compass bar even faded to a greater degree of transparency after seven seconds, only reverting to it’s previous state when the eyes directly focused on it. All the Indoans had their family name displayed over their head, the humans all had their given name, and Andie simply had ‘Andie’

“The first thing to know,” began Harper, speaking normally and not yet using the comm transceiver he was wearing; the external microphones on the suits picked up his voice. “Is that what you are seeing is not the same as what you see with your naked eye. It is in fact a composite view, combining visual light with thermal scanning, spectrum enhancement, echolocation, motion, x-ray and gravetic detection systems, which is then rendered and coloured appropriately by the suit processor. There’s probably a few more I missed out, but that’s not important. The point is that even if something is hidden from most means of detection, it will still show up normally if it can be picked up by one. If its representation is vague, then it means only one or two of the specialised sensors are detecting it, and they can’t pick out much detail, so be careful if that happens.”

He tapped the comm unit on his ear with one finger, and the phrase ‘170.4 (T1)’ flashed momentarily in the top left corner of their displays in small white letters.
“That signifies that your comm units have altered their transmitting frequency,” Harper explained. “You should only see that once, when you first seal your suits before disembarking from the Wraith, but it is possible that it may become necessary to switch frequencies, so I’m telling you so that it doesn’t surprise you. Your suit comms are all locked into auto-transmit mode, so everything you say will be transmitted over the network, but anyone not listening to your frequency or without an active comm unit will not hear anything. This means that there is no danger of any enemy overhearing what you say.” The last statement was not entirely true, but that was no concern of the humans, and even the Indoans could do little about it. The upside was that the comm network was heavily encrypted and very hard to detect. “Any questions so far?” he asked.

Kane had said nothing to Joat in response to her question, but gestured for her to pay attention to what Harper was saying for the moment. He would move on to the specifics once she was vaguely familiar with the basics.

Ariel nodded, taking the helmet and putting it on with some, but not alot, of difficulty. Once on she tried walking about and it seemed difficult for her. "So much to wear, I'm not used to it. I hope I can keep up. I'm afraid that we Deryn are rather delicate physically. More so than humans."

None of them had questions except for Joat. "They work much the same way a borg system does, but does the visual imaging system have a buffer for comparison? Something extremely slow moving can fool the sensors and if it's not detectable to the others then it can sneak up on you. The borgs have an image buffer that it checks every 10 seconds to compare the surrounding terrain to the previous recordings. It takes into account your own movement. Sentries are the ones who rely on it the most, since they're stationary anyway. But something disguised as a boulder perhaps that moves slowly wouldn't be detected. The buffer, however, will tell you when something is out of place and thus a potential threat."

“Not as such, but then it doesn’t really need one,” replied Harper. “It’s a smart system; it’ll pick up things that aren’t moving at all, and it would take a very specific disguise to fool every single sensor you have. The x-ray scanner in particular is one of the harder ones to spoof. However, we can demonstrate this for you, and it leads nicely into where I was going next,” he declared. “Captain Saito, can I borrow you for a moment?”

“Of course,” she agreed, “I assume you want a transparency and IFF test.” Harper nodded, and Saito pulled on her helmet and activated her camouflage. Her image on their HUDs became slightly transparent, but the blue outline around her remained as strong as before. She then stepped outside the room into the corridor. Even after she was lost from view, the blue outline surrounding her and her nametag persisted. The more observant people among them would also have noticed the occasional blue outline and nametag moving along the wall, as a member of the crew walked along the corridor outside the room.

“As you can see, Captain Saito still appears on your displays even though she is not in sight,” said Harper. “This is partly due to the suit’s IFF, that’s ‘Identity: Friend/Foe’, transponder, which automatically keeps track of friendly contacts. However, your suits are still detecting her as well. We are now going to reset the system with regard to Captain Saito, and she will deactivate her IFF transponder.”

Saito’s blue outline and name suddenly disappeared from their displays, but less than a second later, a yellow outline appeared exactly where she had been, with a number displayed above the head. The yellow outline was replaced after half a second, by a red outline, also with the number. The outline then moved towards the door and re-entered the room, the number decreasing as it did. When Saito entered the room, she did not reappear as she previously had on their displays. Instead, she was a translucent red silhouette, with no detail displayed at all.

“The system detected Captain Saito’s presence, despite her being both camouflaged and on the other side of a wall, and rendered her appropriately,” explained Harper. “The yellow outline you saw briefly represents an unknown or neutral contact, and the red represents a hostile. She is only being displayed as a silhouette because the system can only detect her on x-ray and gravetic, neither of which give any detail to speak of. The number displayed above her head is the approximate range to the contact.” He paused, and Saito deactivated her camouflage and removed her helmet, reappearing properly on their displays, and the red outline and range were suddenly replaced by the blue and nametag once more. “I confess that we had to rig that demonstration, too,” Harper admitted, “Normally the system would recognise that an unknown contact had suddenly replaced an allied contact, and would therefore only have labelled her as an unknown, not a hostile. So we had to force the system to forget she was there in order to properly demonstrate it.” He looked at Saito and bowed his head momentarily in her direction. “Thank you, Captain.”

“The range at which a contact can be tracked and represented on your displays depends on how far away they are and how well camouflaged they are. Both the systems that detected Captain Saito have fairly short ranges, and would have lost contact beyond about fifteen metres or so,” said Harper, continuing his explanation. “Any detected contact up to five hundred metres away will have a corresponding status outline, and allies will have their own range when beyond fifty metres. In addition, if there is a contact that cannot be detected by yourself because it is too far away, but it is in range of someone else, it will still be displayed in your view,” Harper looked at Joat, “To answer your question specifically: If it moved, no matter how slowly, and hadn’t previously been detected while stationary, it would be designated an unknown. Any more questions?”

Joat thought for a moment and then asked, "So stationary targets can't be detected at all, assuming they can hide from the other sensors. But movement will trigger the system, is that right?"

Rayanna tentatively raised her hand, "mee terse?"

"Meters. A measure of distance", Joat volunteered. "A meter is about 3 feet. So 15 meters would be about 45 feet. 500 meters would be about 1500 feet and 50 meters would be about 150 feet."

Rayanna nodded and Joat looked back at Harper.

“If it can’t be detected when stationary, I would think it would be protected from motion detectors, don’t you?” pointed out Harper. “Besides, you seem to be suggesting something that’s not actually hidden in the visible light waveband, just disguised. And if that’s the case, it’s a physical disguise on top of something else. The x-ray scanner will see through that, and if it doesn’t, the system will question whether such an object should be resistant to x-rays. If it shouldn’t, it gets flagged with a warning. And if it gets past everything we have, then hell, they probably deserve to get you,” he finished with a resigned shrug. “The Mark Three personal heads-up display is a good piece of kit, and very hard to spoof completely, but it’s not infallible.”

“Anyway, there are a number of on screen warnings you should be aware of,” continued Harper. “The first will display the phrase ‘Low Power’ in nice friendly red letters.” All three of their suits promptly did so, the letters taking up most of the top quarter of the display, impossible to miss. “That means your suit power pack is running low and needs to be replaced. When you see this, fall back and find cover. Andie will get to you and replace it for you as soon as she can. You don’t need to tell her when the warning appears, she’ll be monitoring the status of each one of you for the duration, and probably notice before you will.” The warning disappeared, then was replaced by the phrase ‘Weapon Lock’, identically sized, coloured and located. “You’re unlikely to see this one; at least we hope that’s the case. It means someone is hitting you with a targeting laser or has a weapon lock. If you see it, move. Don’t hesitate, just move, immediately. Preferably behind something heavy, that will shield you from the brunt of the blast if they do fire.”

The next word to appear on their displays was ‘Caution’.
“This one means the suit has detected something nearby that may be hazardous to you,” explained Harper. “This might be a mine, or an anomalous contact that the system can’t completely identify as being hostile, but can’t rule out as being innocuous either. Your stationary object would probably trigger this if it was picked up,” he added, looking at Joat. “The object or objects that caused the alert will be highlighted in red, like so.” A rifle lying on the table was given a red overlay. “The objects will be highlighted as soon as they are detected, but the alert will only trigger if you get within fifteen metres of them.”

The last alert was ‘Danger’, which pulsed brighter every third second. Displayed on either side of the word were a radiation symbol and an eight-point star.
“And finally, we have the Danger sign. This one means the suit has detected something immediately dangerous to you, such as an intense burst of radiation that the suit can’t protect you from, or an explosive device in close proximity, like a grenade. The radiation symbol on the left signifies an environmental effect; if you see that one move back the way you came until it goes away. The starburst on the right indicates an explosive in close proximity; if you see that, move as fast as you can in any direction. If it’s a grenade, you should see it thrown, so you’ll know which way to go.”

The alert disappeared from their displays, and Harper looked at each person in turn.
“Any questions now?” he asked again. “I understand this is all a bit fast, but we don’t have time to teach you every aspect of the system and give you time to get used to it all.”

Joat grinned, "Remind me to tell you about a little piece of equipement we have floating around out there."

Once Harper finished and asked if there was any questions Joat remained silent. The system was damn good, better than any soft shell in Central had, that was for sure. Only the borgs had better and there volunteers to have thier brains removed and dumped into a box.

Rayanna spoke up, "No understand", she admitted.

It was Turquine who replied. "If you see those come up then find me", he said, "as quickly as you can."

Rayanna nodded and became quiet again.

"What about Ariel?" Turquine asked. "She can't see the warnings."

“I will be monitoring all of your suits throughout the mission,” noted Andie. “If there is anything Ariel needs to know, I will tell her, and give her instructions on what to do. I also suggest I do the same for Rayanna. It will be faster, and safer for both of you. You will not have to deal with the distractions in combat, and she will know what to do faster. I am easily capable of doing this, for all seven members of the team if necessary, while still maintaining an effective role in combat.”

“Each one of you is welcome to request weapons from our armouries,” offered Harper after Andie had finished. “We can offer you plasma swords, personal sidearms or rifles. Unfortunately, I can’t let you have any heavy weapons or explosives, but it would take too long to get you able to use them safely anyway.” He drew a plasma sword hilt from the ammunition pack with the remaining battlesuit on the table, and ignited it. There was a slight hiss as the silvery blade lanced out, but once it was fully active there was no noise. He then picked up the metal bar again, and effortlessly sliced it into several pieces with the blade, each severed piece hitting the deck with a clang. He then deactivated the sword, dropped the remaining piece of the bar and sighed. “That’s coming out of my paycheck,” he noted resignedly.

“Joat,” started Kane, “you see the ‘System’ icon in the top right corner of your display? Look directly at that, and blink twice in rapid succession. You should see the system menu appear on the right hand side, with three options: Visor, Comm and a cancellation.” He paused to allow her to do so, then continued, “The ‘Visor’ option will give you three more: Active, Disable and Revert, and a ‘Back’ symbol. The first allows you to select up to three inputs which will be the only inputs to the display. The second allows you to turn off up to three, removing them from the full composite. The third will return the display to its standard full functionality. The Comm option will allow you to change the frequency your comm unit transmits on. There should be five: T1, T2 and T3 are our designated tactical channels, F1 is an Indoan fleet common channel, and E is the emergency channel, not encrypted and broadcasts in wideband, meaning it’s easy to detect and locate.” He paused again. “Navigation through the menus is accomplished in the same way you brought it up: Look directly at the option you want and blink twice in rapid succession. Got it?”

"I think", Turquine replied, "that I'll simply take my sword back. Trying to teach me to use a weapon like you have with such short time simply would be to much. Not to mention that it's been tried with less than satisfactory results", he admitted. "Perhaps Rayanna's rapier and arrows for her", he continued. "I'm not sure about Lady Ariel, I don't think .."

"A sidearm would be fine", Ariel stated.

"A sidearm", Turquine said, turning toward her.

"From what I gather, in general shooting principle, it's not much different from the drow hand crossbow with which I'm familiar", she said.

"You are? How ...", but he didn't finish the question.

"Can I see to shoot? I can't, not the sense you mean. But I can tell you that your exactly eight feet and seven inches from me. Can you do that with your sight?"

"No", he admitted, "I didn't mean disrespect, you know that."

"I know. I can fight and fire, it just takes more out of me. I'll not use it unless absolutely necessary."

****

Joat had followed the instructions given her and responded with "Got it", each time she got the display to do what she wanted. "What is your standard tac freq? Or is that decided before each mission? And how long does the emergency beacon last?"

“Understood, sir. We just wanted to make you aware that the option was there if you wanted it,” replied Harper.

Ariel’s decision to accept a sidearm drew surprised glances from all the Indoans, but nothing more.
“Then you shall have one,” agreed Andie, “The only choice now comes from choosing between a laser and a pulse pistol. The pulse has greater physical stopping power, but has a fairly sizable recoil and carries less ammunition. The laser has no recoil, more ammunition, but it less likely to stop a charging enemy. It is no less likely to kill them, but it has less kinetic impact. The choice is yours.”

“Never thought I’d think giving a blind woman a gun would be a good idea,” observed Payne with a chuckle, “But with an ability like that behind it, she’ll probably be a better shot than most people with perfect sight.”

“Those three are the frequencies assigned to us for this mission,” explained Kane, “T1 is the one we intend on using, which is why your suit switched to it earlier. There are a couple of hundred designated tactical frequencies. And it’s not a beacon, just a transmitter. Talk for long enough, everyone who can pick up the transmission will have your location. It can be made into a beacon, but not by you, because that’s one of the things we disabled. The only reason you’ll need that is if you somehow manage to get yourself left behind when we leave.”

"Well, nature may have made us weaker, but it did compensate for that lack", Ariel responded toward Payne. Then she looked in Andie's direction, "I think, for me, the laser would be a better option. I fear the recoil might be too much. Then I shall take marcus' advice. 'On a male aim for the groin, on a female aim for the knees. If they can't stand, they can't fight.' Though I never thought I would have to even consider the notion."

Turquine visibly winced at the idea of such dishonorable tactics, but said nothing. He knew that Ariel would never stand a chance in close quarters.

"I'll take a rifle, sidearm, and plasma sword", Joat grinned. "Never know what the situation might call for. And monofiliment wire with tack torch. I have my tool kit. Which reminds me. I have some specialized gear that I need to interface with, is there some way to do that without removing the helmet?"

“I thought that might be your decision,” acknowledged Andie. “Nikolai, you’re heading to the armoury anyway, would you pick up a P-Forty-Four for Ariel?”

“Sure,” Kane replied easily, then looked at Ariel and added, “Our instructors give a similar piece of advice to recruits: ‘Aim for the head. If they’re dead, they can’t fight back.’ Head’s a bigger target than the knee too.” He walked over to the table and picked up the rifle that lay on it. “We thought you might say that,” he told Joat, then tossed unloaded weapon to her. It was lighter than most weapons of it’s size, and almost perfectly balanced around the trigger grip. “LSR-Fourteen-A pulse assault rifle in standard bullpup configuration. Fires a six millimetre armour-piercing projectile in excess of seven thousand metres per second as it leaves the muzzle at a maximum of five hundred times a minute. Accurate as hell, very durable; works in almost any environment you might find yourself and jams on average once every hundred thousand rounds. Essentially never,” he finished with a grin.

He walked up to her, and started pointing things out on the weapon itself. “Trigger’s obvious, fire selector: safe, semi-auto, burst, which is four rounds, and full-auto. Magazine release. Charger to ready the weapon to fire after reloading. You have to do that regardless of whether the previous magazine was empty or not. Eighty rounds in a magazine, the magazines only go in one way round. The aimpoint, fire mode and rounds remaining will appear on your HUD. There’s ten magazines in your ammo pack, pre loaded, for eight hundred rounds total.”

He then reached into his own ammunition pack and pulled out a pistol and plasma sword hilt.
“Ten millimetre semi-automatic pulse pistol: safety, magazine release, charger. Sixteen rounds per magazine. Plasma sword. Tap this button twice to activate, tap twice again to deactivate. Tap it once or hold it; nothing happens. That’s to prevent you accidentally turning it on or off when you don’t want to.” He laid the two weapons on the table next to her, then pulled out three spare magazines for the pistol and set those down next to the pistol. “Any questions; ask Harper. I’m off to the armoury.”

He headed for the door, but was brought up short by Andie speaking his name again.
“Nikolai?” He looked inquiringly at her. “The E-One-Seven-Seven for me as well,” she told him. A surprised expression passed over the Ranger’s face, but was gone in an instant, and he acknowledged the request with a nod and left.

Joat whistled as she looked over the rifle. "Our pulse plasma rifles are longer range and harder hitting but buck harder than a bull at the rodeo. Nice fire suppression."

She laid down the rifle and picked up the sidearm, examining it to become familiar with the location of everything after she was done looking over the rifle. Then she laid down the sidearm and picked up the plasma sword. This, of all three, would be the most difficult for her since combat like that was vastly different from what she was familiar with. In all honesty, she hoped she didn't have to use any of them, but better safe than sorry.

"You got a scope for the rifle? I prefer to use the rifle for sniping and the handgun for any other combat where I can. And what about the interface for my tools? Can something be done to work with them without removing the helmet?"

“You think it was easy?” asked Harper with a laugh. “Look at the stock. There’s two whacking great shock absorbers in there, and it still kicks almost as much as an old powder rifle,” he told her. “And that thing’s accurate enough for burst fire kills at over three kilometres without aiming enhancement. Not that it ever gets used at that kind of range,” he added with a smile.

“As for a scope, take a closer look. It’s barely got basic battle sights,” he pointed out. “It’s designed to be used with a HUD, and then you don’t need a scope. Still, if you think you might want that kind of range, we can fix that.” He looked at Andie and nodded. Her eyes flickered slightly, then three more small icons appeared in the top centre of Joat’s display: ‘^2’, ‘1x’ & ‘v2’. “That’ll allow you to magnify the area around the aimpoint of your weapon whenever it’s visible on your HUD. About forty mill square on your display. Same as the menu system for use: focus on it and double blink. The left and right icons will take the magnification factor up or down in increments of two. Centre one gets rid of it instantly.”

“When you say interface, what exactly do you mean?” asked Andie, “Because if you mean you want to physically plug yourself into them, then no, there is no way you can do that without removing the helmet unfortunately. Not without far more time than we have available, substantial modifications to your equipment and implanting you with a neural thread.” She paused, then set off on a completely different tack. “If you plan on using the pistol more than the rifle, then you’ll need more ammunition,” she pointed out.

Joat nodded, "Yeah, more for the sidearm would be good, it's what I use primarily. As for my equipement, I'll make due. I have an A.I. system built in. Nothing like Rand, but it's pretty good. I put it in just in case the neural link gets damaged. I kinda figured I wouldn't be able to, but it doesn't hurt to ask, right?

Thanks for the targeting. I ain't sayin I'm a sniper shot calibre, but I'm not half bad if I have the time. I just like the sidearm for most things because then it can leave one hand free in case I need to do something else while I'm trying to cover my ass."

((OOC: I'm going on holiday tomorrow, until Sunday 5th, so this is the last you'll hear from me until I get back.))

Andie nodded, then cocked her head a little to one side for a moment. After a few moments she looked back at Joat.
“Kane will bring you some more ammunition for the pistol,” she informed her.

“If you don’t plan on using that rifle too much, then you won’t need all that ammunition,” pointed out Payne, walking over to her. “Pardon me,” he added, reaching into the ammunition pack attached to Joat’s suit and removing four of the rifle magazines. “Might as well put them where they’re needed then,” he finished with a grin, tossing two of the magazines to Saito, who caught them and shoved them into her own pack, then he did the same with the two he held. “If you do happen do need more, then I believe Kane will be acting as something of a pack mule, and carrying a lot of extra ammunition for everyone, so there’s no problem.”

“That is correct,” confirmed Andie. “Nikolai’s backpack will contain almost exclusively ammunition. We shouldn’t even need to use all of what we have ready, but we don’t know what will happen for certain.”

“One more thing you all need to be aware of,” declared Payne, suddenly remembering, “Comm discipline. Keep all your messages as clear and as short as you can. And everyone is to use certain names to refer to other people. Those being Turquine, Raya, Ariel, Joat, Andie, Saito and Kane,” He pointed at each one in turn, with the obvious exception of Kane. “I’m Zero, for two reasons. First, it avoids the similarity of Payne and Kane, and second, I am in command, at least on the planning sheet, and Zero is our comm designation for a commander. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry, but we need to keep things clear and easy to understand when we’re in battle. There are no ranks or titles over the comm net; it only confuses things and slows you down.”

Turquine noddedand glanced back at Ariel and Rayanna, making sure they both understood.

Joat nodded as well, "Test", she said, "can everyone here me?" She grinned, "Sorry, always wanted to do that. Figured I'd get it out of my system now."

"Unless there is something more", Turquine said, "I believe that we are ready to go once Kane returns."

((OOC: Yay, I'm back. And I believe I've worked out what at least some of your stuff was inspired by: Shannara?))

“Everybody has been hearing you ever since you put that helmet on,” pointed out Saito with a slight smile. “So that was a little redundant.”

It took a little over ten minutes for Kane to return, and when he did, it was with so much equipment slung across his back that it was a wonder he was able to stand upright. But from the ease of his posture and movement, it was apparent that the enhancements of the battlesuit more than cancelled out the weight he carried. The only object not on his back was a long, almost delicate looking rifle with a matt black finish, which he held almost reverently in his hands. He walked straight over to Andie and presented the weapon to her, which she took and promptly checked and made ready for use in a matter of seconds.

“So, that thing’s yours then,” observed Kane as he watched the procedure. “I’ve been wondering who it answered to ever since I first saw it. Range officer wouldn’t even let me touch it, let alone fire it. That thing’s a work of art,” he finished, visibly impressed by the seemingly rather plain weapon.

Payne and Saito came over to inspect the object of Kane’s admiration.
“May I?” asked Payne, reaching out to receive the weapon. Andie nodded and handed it to him. The Ghost operative hefted it briefly, then brought it up into firing position, physically sighting down the barrel since he was not wearing his helmet. After inspecting it in detail for a few more seconds, he handed it back to the avatar, nodding his approval. “Very nice. It’s reassuring to know you’ll be watching our backs with something like that. Must have cost you a pretty penny to make though,” he remarked.

“More than the Colonel makes in a year,” agreed Andie with a smile. “But I think it was worth it. This really is the perfect weapon for me.”

“It is that. Frighteningly accurate to absurd range, perfectly balanced around the trigger grip and the relatively slow fire rate is cancelled by your ability to place a single shot exactly on target even in full motion,” concurred Kane. He moved towards Joat, removing a bag from his shoulder and reaching inside it, then deposited eight more magazines for her pistol on the table in front of her. “There you go. One hundred twenty-eight more rounds, as requested.” He then went over to Ariel, pulling a small lightweight laser pistol from the bag. He held it out to her, grip first, certain she could tell where it was. “Here you go, miss. It has a pressure safety; so as long as you hold the grip in your hand, it’s ready to fire. And as my old firearms instructor used to say, it has a simple ‘point-and-click’ interface. Just squeeze the trigger once for each shot you want to fire. You’ve got fifty-four shots before the power pack is expended. If that happens, Andie or I will replace it for you.” He then tossed the bag to Payne, with the instruction “Split that between you,” indicating him and Saito.

(The tree part is somewhat that and somewhat Running with Demons (also by Terry Brooks))

Joat picked up the ammunition and put it in her pouch. Once done with that she was ready to head out. She moved around, shrugging, getting everything settled so there wouldn't be any surprises when she had to move.

Ariel reached out and took the pistol. She caressed it lightly to feel how it was shapped and then she held it to get a feel for it. "Strange", she said, "I would have thought it heavier for some reason."

"I take it', Turquine said, looking at the weapons around him, "that most of your battles are fought at a distance."

********

Alvec stood up, took a step and then sat back down. He hated being on the command deck, but he didn't have anything else to do.

"How long have they been gone?" he asked.

"They haven't left yet", Rand replied, "but it's been almost five minutes since the last time you asked."

"I hate waiting", he grumbled.

"So I have observed", Rand replied.

((OOC: I read Sword while I was on holiday, and it was the various identical/similar names that gave it away. Of course, I was 3/4 of the way though the book before I realised, but there you go. *shrug*))

“Well, it doesn’t have to withstand recoil forces, so we save weight that way, plus the light weight allows almost anybody to hold it steady with ease to get off an accurate shot,” explained Payne, as he passed the contents of the bag between himself and Saito. An informed observer would recognise the objects as grenades, of various types, despite being of virtually identical appearance.

Kane grinned at Turquine as he continued sorting the equipment he had brought with him.
“Of course,” he confirmed, “Safer that way. Plus, the further we are away, the more firepower we can use.” He lifted the massive cannon, almost as tall as he was, that was his trademark weapon, adjusted something then set it down again. “But we’re reasonably capable with melee combat, you know. Particularly those two,” he pointed at Payne and Saito, the latter shrugging modestly at the comment.

It took him another two minutes before he finally lifted the cannon back onto his shoulder, ready to go. Payne gestured towards the door, and Andie began leading them to the hangar to board the Wraith insertion craft. The two Ghosts waited until everyone else had left, and they were alone in the room, before kissing each other passionately, and whispering good luck messages to each other, then swiftly leaving the room and heading for the hangar bay.

(OOC - The Shannara trilogy was excellent. So was the Demon series. I recommend both of them. Excellent reads.)

Ariel nodded. "I shall have to remember that it will not pull like the drow hand crossbow, else I might miss my shot." She felt for her holster and then tucked it away. She hoped not to have to use it, combat like this was not her expertise, but she was not unfamiliar with fighting either.

"Safe conflict", Turquine replied. "Sounds like a contradiction. Conflict should not be safe, nor clean. Once it becomes too impersonal, then it becomes comfortable and easy. Then it will never end. But I am glad that you are thusly armed, I would not wish to see you get harmed, if at all possible."

He turned and followed the Indoans to the hanger bay but stopped at the ramp to the Wraith. Rayanna stopped with him, looking at him questioningly while Ariel continued up the ramp and into the craft to get herself situated.

“Didn’t say safe,” corrected Kane as they headed into the hangar bay. “I said safer. Generally, the further you are away from your enemy, the harder it is for them to kill you. And that’s a good thing.” He was first into the Wraith, cramming himself into a corner just inside the hatch. The interior of the little craft was very cramped, barely big enough for eight people, particularly when that number included some the size of Kane and Turquine, and the Ranger had to stoop slightly to avoid cracking his head on the roof. There was also only four proper seats, the second row of which were far enough apart that a stretcher could be lain between them, aligned front-to-back with the craft. There were two folding seats set into the inner hull behind the others, but that was it. “Hope no-one’s claustrophobic,” he added, only half joking, before finally donning his helmet.

Andie followed Kane into the craft, and helped Ariel into one of the second pair of seats, and making sure she was strapped in securely, then sat herself down on one of the folding seats, ignoring the harness intended to hold her in place.

“What’s up?” asked Payne from behind Turquine, having silently caught up with the others. “Is there a problem?” he added, as Saito moved past them and boarded the insertion craft, sliding past the others and settling herself in one of the pilot seats, then fitted her helmet and began the start-up sequence.

"My sword", Turquine replied, "I'll need it. And I won't leave without it. Rayanna will need her rapier and arrows as well. We won't be much good without them", he said.

(OOC - I reread the last several posts. If I missed them giving the weapons to them, then just consider him as waiting until all the ladies are aboard (something he would have done anyway) and then taking Rayanna up and saying that there is nothing wrong. If they didn't give them weapons to them then he'll wait until they have them. If I did miss that, then I apologize as well.)

“You need your… of course,” declared Payne. He rounded on a nearby officer, “You, Sergeant. Bring your guests’ weapons to them immediately. We’ve got a universe to save and we’re on the clock,” he ordered sharply, the faint trace of a smile on his face the only indication that the statement wasn’t entirely accurate. He turned back to Turquine and Rayanna. “They’ll be right with you.”

The officer in question hurried away, returning less than a minute later, his arms laden with everything that had been surrendered to them when the humans had boarded the vessel. Unsure what belonged to who, he just stood in front of them and let them take what was theirs. Payne watched the entire sequence of events disinterestedly, waiting for all the others to board the Wraith.
****

“Colonel, Anderaleigh reports that the Wraith will be departing shortly,” announced the Faded Fortunes on the bridge.

“Very well,” acknowledged Valero. “Please signal the Highwind to that effect, and tell them to prepare to launch the Libra decoys.” She looked at one of the bridge officers. “Activate the number two catapult, and prepare to launch six Lauraidi drones,” she ordered.

When the sergeant arrived, Turquine took his sword and buckled it on. Rayanna took her rapier and arrows while Turquine also took Joat's ugly looking arc pistol.

"Thank you", he said and waited for Rayanna to get aboard. When she did, she took her usual spot, while Turquine handed Joat her pistol.

"I assume this is yours", he told her.

"Oh yeah. I dont' carry often. Thanks."

Once done, he took a seat next to Ariel and waited for the ship to take off.

Rayanna sighed. "Why small?" she asked. "Big boat feel better. More room."

Turquine could sympathize. Though used to smaller quarters he still preferred the outdoors, but he was sure that there was a good reason. One thing about the Indoan's was that they never did anything without a good reason.

((OOC: That order to the Sergeant was in Indoan, since it wasn't high-lighted. So I've ignored the first line of your post.))

“For the same reason you only send one or two people out hunting, instead of an entire army,” replied Andie. “It’s easier to conceal and less likely to get noticed. To give the Faded Fortunes the level of concealment that this Wraith has would be enormously expensive and highly impractical,” she explained. “Every curve, shape and dimension of this ship has been exactly calculated to offer maximum concealment. It is also intended for only four occupants, not the eight this one currently holds.”

Payne boarded the vessel behind Turquine and sealed the hatchway, before squeezing past the others to get to his seat. As he strapped himself in and donned his helmet, Saito started the engines one after the other. The engine noise was surprisingly low, a barely noticeable hum that didn’t increase significantly in volume even after she ramped them up to full power.

“Fortunes Flight Control, this is Reaver Three. Request clearance to depart,” declared Payne over the comm as Saito prepared to guide the craft out of the hangar. The reply was immediate:
“Reaver Three, you are cleared for departure. Be aware, both Highwind and Fortunes are currently launching drones. Good luck.”
“Understood,” acknowledged Payne as the Wraith lifted off the deck, rotated on the spot and then, cloak activating before the nose cleared the hangar, smoothly accelerated out of the hangar bay door and swept around to face the same direction as the two warships.
****

“Initiating launch sequence,” announced the bridge officer to which Valero had given her order. “First Lauraidi away,” he continued, as a soft tone sounded from his control station. He gave another announcement every fifteen seconds until; “Sixth Lauraidi away. Launch sequence complete.” He tapped a symbol on his controls, and the next time he spoke his voice sounded throughout the ship. “Engineering team to linear catapult number two for routine after-action maintenance.”
****

The six 1.5m Lauraidi drones floated along in front of the Faded Fortunes, as the Highwind ejected ten of the Libra drones from each of it’s three hangar bays, one of which broke away from the rest and took up close formation with the Wraith. After twenty seconds, small wormholes began opening, each swallowing a single drone. The sole exception took both the Wraith and it’s accompanying Libra, so that there did not appear to be a wormhole from which nothing emerged. It would be the sixteenth of the thirty-six wormholes to reach it’s destination, in approximately twenty-three seconds.

OOC: I'm going away for a couple of days tomorrow, back on the 15th. Probably won't have net access, so I probably won't be replying to your next post until then.

(OOC - Enjoy. I also edited that one post where Turquine replied to the Sergeant. Sorry for the mistake.)

"They're going now", Rand informed Alvec.

"Bout damn time", Alvec replied stoically, folding his his good arm over his slinged one as he watched the holo that Rand provided blossom with wormholes. 'Ghu watch over you all', he whispered.

After a moment he looked at Rand, "Run diagnostic. Lets see what we can repair, but I don't want critical systems offline. I want to be able to jump at a moment's notice."

********
Drawing from the lines of power, which fed her slowly as though the current were beind drawn away, Lauralin's consciousness registered the incoming drones. Something in her wanted to embrace them, but something else forced her attention to the weapon's systems of 'The Vengeance' and she began activating the shields and powering up the weapons.

'Indoan's', she thought. It had to be. There was a brief flash of conscious minds and then it was gone. She turned her thoughts to seeking the consiousness that had been there for a brief second but could detect nothing. She must have been wrong, was the what passed through her mind, and she turned her attention to the task at hand. One by one the drones blossomed and vanished uner her assault.

********
"What the hell?", came the technician's surprised voice. He suddenly hit the alert button and the dedicated comm channel. "Captain to Ops, we have a situation with the Manticore."

"On my way", came her surprised voice.

“What the hell?” exclaimed Saito, as the drone that had accompanied them through their wormhole blossomed into a fireball alongside, the blast causing the Wraith the shudder. She instinctively twitched the controls to take them away from the expanding sphere of wreckage, and began following a violently twisting trajectory through space towards the huge station in front of them, as the widely scattered drones detonated one after the other, without any apparent reason.

However, the Ghosts knew exactly what was happening, at least to the degree that they needed to understand: Lauralin had detected them and was systematically eliminating everything that shouldn’t be there. Payne told the Wraith’s computer systems to analyse the feed from the remaining Lauraidi drones, which were resolutely scanning every square metre of the surface of the monstrosity that they could see, right up until each one was targeted by Lauralin. As Saito closed the distance to the station, Payne was hunting for somewhere where they might be able to gain entry to the station’s interior.

Kane was staring at Ariel, a combination of shock and wonder concealed behind his helmet. He wasn’t entirely sure if he hadn’t imagined it, but he thought he had felt something inside his head a few seconds before the Libra drone near them had exploded.
“She’s hiding us,” he murmured, without really realising he had done so. He was even less sure of that than he was of the brief presence inside his head, but he knew it to be true nonetheless. “Lauralin felt us as soon as we arrived, and Ariel’s hiding us. That’s why the drones are going up, because she knows we’re here.”
****

On board the Faded Fortunes and the Highwind, the commanders watched in horror as the datalink feeds from each of the drones disappeared in turn. There was no link with the Wraith, as even the slightest transmission could give away it’s position to the enemy, so they did not know if the vessel had suffered the same fate, but having seen how quickly the drones had started disappearing, they feared the worst.

"Yes", Ariel said, in response to Kane. "But I can't locate her. That is, I can't pinpoint where she is. She seems to everywhere on the station. Perhaps when I get inside I can better find her."

"THERE", Joat cried out, pointing. "It looks like a maintenance hatchway. Better than a hanger anyway, there will be less defenses there. Get me close and I'll open the door. Trust me on this. I fought the Kolnari from the maintenance crawlways."

((OOC: Sorry for the delay. I moved back down to university and the last few days have been a bit chaotic because of it.))

Saito glanced briefly at Payne as she brought the Wraith about to head for the maintenance hatchway Joat had somehow spotted. He caught the glance out of the corner of his eye, and heard the unspoken question.
“Can’t say I’m terribly fond of the idea of navigating a station that size from crawl-ways, but it’s not like we’ve seen anything more promising so far,” he replied. “And it’s just an entrance. We don’t have to stay in the crawl-ways all the time,” he added in consolation. Saito nodded her agreement.

“I hope not,” griped Kane. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but some of us aren’t exactly small. Those crawl-ways better be larger than any sensible designer of a military station would make them, otherwise I for one ain’t going to fit through ‘em,” he pointed out reluctantly. “I can drag my pack and gun behind me, but that still doesn’t leave me the size of a weasel now, does it?” The veteran Ranger’s logic was hard to refute, and the best reassurance that any of the other Indoans could come up with was “Well, we’ll just have to hope for the best, won’t we?” from Andie.

The Wraith came to a relative stop right alongside the station, less than a metre from the hatchway under Saito’s expert hand on the controls. She gave the control commands to lock the craft in place and put the craft into standby, then released her safety harness.

“Make sure your suits are all sealed up,” order Payne, “Andie, Joat, you two go out first and get this hatch open,” he instructed them.

“Understood,” acknowledged Andie, and released the locks on the Wraith’s access hatch, then opened it and swung herself effortlessly out of the Wraith, her rifle ready in her hands. The temperature rapidly began to drop within the Wraith, although none of the occupants would notice the difference through their suits, but the atmosphere remained, held in place by a magnetic field.

(OOC - It's okay. I knew you were to be going back soon. Good Luck!)

Joat stood up, 'Jeez, bitch, bitch, bitch. How bout we knock on the front door', she muttered. She moved the short distance between the spacecraft and the station and then knelt down, pulling something out of her own pack. She placed it against the hull and then lifted an access hatch.

"Okay", she said as she switched it on. 'Weasel', came to life on the screen. It actually looked a bit more like a ferret, was purple and wore a beret while smoking a cigar. Because she couldn't give him vocal commands she tapped her requests out on the keyboard.

She ordered him to open the outer hatchway, sealing the inner if need be, and bypass any tell tales in the process. On the virtual screen he scampered away, moving through a virtual tunnel, which was actually the security systems he needed to bypass. One by one red areas turned to green and after about 2 minutes he had bypassed all the security and the telltales and opened the door.

'What the hell', she muttered, 'two minutes?' Apparently this was something he should have been able to do in far less time. Once he was finished, however, she disconnected the box, packed it away and went into the lock. It looked large enough to hold about four, since only one really needed to get in or out, typically.

While Joat worked on disabling the hatchway locks and alarms, Andie kept watch, rather disconcertingly free-floating in an inverted position to that of Joat and the Wraith. Her rifle moved constantly, sweeping from one side to the other and back, the exact path never the same twice as she covered the entire hemisphere in front of her. She heard Joat mutter, and glanced back at the woman.

“Done?” she asked, rotating herself to face Joat. The question didn’t really need answering though, since it was fairly apparent that she was. “Saito, Raya. We’re going in first,” she said. While it wasn’t really her decision to make, they had already decided that the Ghost and the elf would act as their scouts, so it did not really matter, and drew no comment from Payne.

Saito acknowledged Andie’s statement, and navigated her way between the other occupants of the craft to the hatch at the rear. She waited briefly for Rayanna to join her, then stepped out into space. The AG harness built into her suit allowed her to move easily in the vacuum, and ignore the gravitational field on the station, which was large enough to have a significant natural field, even if the interior was managed artificially. Saito moved into the airlock with Joat, while Andie waited to help Rayanna to cross the gap.

"Finally", Joat replied, sounding a bit miffed, but she stood in the airlock, cramming herself into a corner.

Rayanna moved to the door and stopped. Once there she looked around and clutched the doorframe, trying to get her bearings. She felt that she should be falling on her face, yet she wasn't. There was a definite tug toward the surface of the station, however, and she felt vertigo as shegazed upon the surface. Finally, with some help from Andie, she made it into the airlock.

"What is that?", Turquine asked, pointing to the scanner. What he was pointing at was the massive bio reading at the heart of the Manticore.

Saito easily squeezed herself up against the interior hatchway next to Joat, with her weapon ready to snap up as soon as the hatch opened, in case there was anything on the other side. Andie stepped into the airlock immediately behind Rayanna, and made sure they were both clear of the external hatchway. They were ready to enter the station as soon as Joat was ready to cycle the airlock, except for one detail, which they remedied a second later.

“Cloaks active,” instructed Saito, activating her own as she spoke. Andie activated the cloaks for each of the four aliens, as well as her own, then confirmed their status over the comm. “Whenever you’re ready, Joat,” Saito said, after the confirmation.

“Oh no. Whatever it is, I hope it’s not what I think it is,” replied Payne curtly, then he decided he should elaborate on his statement. “Ariel said she can’t work out where Lauralin is on the station. I think that’s where she is,” he tapped the centre of the scan, “I think she’s hooked herself into the station’s main computer core. In essence, she is the station now.” He shook his head resignedly and put the remaining systems into standby, leaving the interior of the Wraith dark, though none of them could tell. “Kane, I hope you brought a lot of explosives,” he said, looking at the Ranger, “We might need them.” There was a long pause, then he spoke again. “As soon as the others are in, you and Turquine are next through the airlock. I’ll bring Ariel through after you.”

Joat nodded and keyed in the access code that she had gotten from 'weasel'. It was a low enough code to not turn any heads, but high enough for what she needed. When the outer door cycled close she drew her sidearm. From the looks of it, she had never had any formal training. After Saito stepped through she waited for Rayanna and then followed, snapping her gun one way and then the other.

Rayanna stepped through and stood, simply staring at the wall in front of her. It looked like a plain wall. What she was doing was extending her senses. Though not psionic, the wild elves were very sensitive to life around them and didn't need to look in either direction to nothing was there. Nothing living anyway, though she was inexperienced in mechanical things.

The hallway stretched out of sight in either direction. It was narrow, but far bigger than Simeon's crawlspaces and Joat was feeling a bit agrophobic in the wide open corridor. Once Andie was through Joat cycled the lock to prepare for the others.

"That isn't an ability she has", Turquine replied, "at least not to my knowledge. But I'm no expert on undead, except how to kill them." His voice was flat, his emotions being kept in check by his iron will.

(Sorry for the long delay, I kept getting a timeout when trying to get in to reply. I hope I can actually post this without a problem.)

((OOC: No worries. My own delay was because I've been feeling extremely apathetic the last few days, and I haven't been able to focus on anything properly. It happens every so often, and I hate it.))

As soon as Joat opened the inner hatch, Saito stepped through with her carbine raised, turning first left, then right, making sure there was nothing in sight. After her HUD revealed nothing, she took a few steps down the corridor to the right and crouched, holding a sentry position while they completed their entry.
“Clear,” she announced softly over the comm.

Andie, last out of the airlock after Joat, had waited until Saito gave them the ‘all-clear’, then mirrored Saito’s move by heading a short distance up the left hand corridor and holding position there, her rifle perfectly still as she watched the long passageway in front of her for any sign of movement. “Zero, we’re through and clear,” she reported. Joat’s apparent lack of training had not been lost on her during the brief moment she had been watching the human, and it concerned her.

“If that is what she’s doing, it isn’t an ability of hers,” replied Payne. “It’ll be technological. We can do it, but it’s not generally a wise idea.” He frowned behind his helmet; he was breaking one of his own rules, or at the very least, stretching their limits rather. Fortunately, it was at that point they heard Andie’s voice in their ears, and Kane unfolded himself from his corner, picking up his weapon as he did so.

“Come on,” he said, tapping Turquine’s shoulder, “We’re up.” He looped the strap of his weapon over his shoulder so he had both hands free, then stepped out of the Wraith and swung himself around towards the station. He kept hold of the Wraith with one hand though, so he could help Turquine make the crossing if he had trouble, his cloak flicking on as he waited.

Turquine accepted Kane's help and made his way into the airlock. Once Kane was through, Joat cycled the lock again to allow Turquine and Kane to enter the station. Turquine let Kane go first, being more experienced in the type of combat they were likely to face, but got a bit of a bad surprise.

"Something is coming", came Rayanna's voice and turned to look in Andies direction.

"Undead", Turquine confirmed, now able to feel them. Once he came he through he strode past Andie and toward the threat. "They'll show up as ambient air temperature. How ...", he stopped once the HUD began to show the movement as a threat factor. "Never mind", he continued and moved toward the undead, who hesitated as they felt the power of the Holy Knight.

Rayanna turned and moved up beside Andie. She reached back to her quiver and the moment her hand touched an arrow it flashed softly and began to glow with a light radiance as the magic of the Arcane Archer flowed into the shaft. She knocked the arrow and raised the bow, ready to assist the King as needed.

As soon as he was through the airlock, Kane unslung the cannon and readied it for firing, the strap going over his shoulder to support the weapon at a little above waist height to ease the load on his arms. When Rayanna spoke and indicated the direction, he moved towards Andie, stopping just behind her and taking up position on the opposite side of the corridor. “Zero, we’re through, but we might have some imminent violence,” he warned Payne. Andie did not raise her rifle up to her shoulder, but it did move, her aim-point centred between the eyes of the nearest target.

“Saito; covering rear,” announced the Ghost, telling them that she would make sure nothing approached them from the other side, and also that she would not be firing on the group ahead of them if it came to combat. Though it might seem like an unwise decision not to have everyone they could involved if they needed to fight, they would be in a far worse situation if someone managed to sneak up behind them.

“Understood. Joat, make ready for us,” replied Payne, knowing it would only take Joat’s attention to make sure they entered the station. He stepped over to Ariel, and released her harness for her. “Right, our turn,” he said, holding out his hand for her to take. He guided her to the open hatchway, then stopped. “I’m going to need both hands, so once you’re out of the Wraith, hold on tight to my shoulder, waist, leg, anything but an arm. I’d hate for you to go floating off into space,” he told her.

Joat cycled the lock so Payne and Ariel could enter, focusing on the lock controls and trying to ignore the fact that some dead things were bearing down on them. Once they entered she cycled the lock again for them to get in and once clear, closed both doors before moving back and drawing her sidearm, having no intentions of firing unless one got too close to her.

Ariel smiled behind her helmet. "Have no fear for me, Sir, I can handle myself", she replied. "But I do appreciate the concern." Once said, and now that she could get the dimensions of the airlock from her mental scanning, she vanished from the ship and appeared inside. "Coming", she asked him. Though it was meant as a jest, her voice was taught, as though she was focusing on something.

The undead beings, surprisingly agile, stayed away from Turquine as he advanced until some larger beings came forward. Though still undead, they were bolder than the rest. When they were within 60 feet of him he 'Retribution's voice' and the creatures screamed, crumbling to nothing. "Raya, don't let them escape", he rumbled.

The glow of the arrow changed as she chanted in the old elven mystical tongue and then she let fly. The arrow missed the creatures, hitting the floor behind them. But this was intentional. When it did, the arrow flashed and vanished. When the remaining undead began a retreat back down the corridor from the Holy Knight, they slammed into the invisible wall of force she had put up, and Turquine strode forward to finish them.

From behind them, mechanical threats began moving into range of the Indoan HUDS. Obviously, the Queen had anticipated an entry like this, knowing that the more obvious ones might be bypassed.

“Now that’s cheating,” Payne told Ariel reproachfully after she disappeared, though it was a light-hearted jibe. Freed of his immediate concern for Ariel, he sealed the Wraith’s hatch and locked down the small craft, then propelled himself into the open airlock, stepping out as soon as it cycled. He took a moment to take in the situation around him as he readied his weapon, then moved up alongside Andie.

As Turquine began to advance on the remaining undead, Andie squeezed the trigger on her rifle. For a brief instant, a narrow beam of sapphire light connected the rifle barrel and the head of one of the undead beings, then it was gone, and there was a hole in her target. She paused momentarily to take note of the effect of her shot, and was lining up to take a second when they heard Saito’s voice call a warning.

“Incoming from the rear,” she declared, “Looks like drones,” she added, as her carbine chattered briefly, the four round burst aimed at the nearest target.

“That’s our field of expertise,” commented Kane, with an unseen grin, as he brought his weapon to bear. He opened fire a moment later, the staccato clatter much deeper and louder, drowning out the chatter of Saito’s second burst. The noise of their weapons’ fire was muted to their own ears though, as the suits’ complex processor filtered it out and suppressed it, so they could still hear other noises that they might otherwise miss. Payne joined in their fight as well, while Andie remained facing the other way, taking shots at any undead that stayed long enough for her to target them.

Andie’s shot had no real affect on the creature. The hole in it’s head remained, but it continued to advance without hesitation, now having nowhere to go. Shots to legs would have a greater affect, in that it would slow them down and give the king a chance to deal with the dozen or so that remained.



Rayanna, knowing the king and the mother, Andie, could deal with that easily enough turned to face the new threat and knocked an arrow, letting fly. It bounced harmlessly away, with a flare of the spiderlike drones shielding and a growl could be heard over the intercom as she drew another arrow.



“Raya”, came Ariel’s tense voice as she sought to locate Lauralin, “phase arrow for flesh target. They are alive, to some extent.



Rayanna nodded and took aim and let fly again. This time the arrow phased through the shielding and metal of the drone and then through the station floor. She looked toward Ariel accusingly, if her face could have been seen.



“I can read their thoughts. The brains must there at least, it’s a matter of finding where. Master Payne, might your visor’s be capable of displaying such location on the them?” she asked.



The Indoan’s would find that the shielding, like those of the craft they had fought before, became stronger as the drones fell. So far, only about 8 were in view.

Andie frowned at her shot’s lack of effect on the undead creature, then adjusted her aim slightly. While the wound itself might not affect them at all, she could draw out secondary effects with careful targeting. She reached up and adjusted something on the rifle, then took aim carefully. To achieve her intention would require perfect timing in addition to her excellent accuracy. When the right moment arrived for her chosen target, she fired, aiming at the knee joint just as the being put all it’s weight on that leg.

“One moment,” was Payne’s curt reply, as he fired off a short burst. The display wasn’t set up to do such a thing by default, since it wasn’t really generally necessary to see through your target, so he had to work it out. He altered his HUD setup so one side was using only one input, which he initially set to X-ray. After a few seconds, he switched it to thermal scanning, then combined the two as an afterthought. If anything was going to get Ariel’s desired result, that was, he thought.

“Is it safe to assume they know we’re here?” asked Kane, concentrating his fire on the nearest drone.

“No explosives,” replied Andie, knowing what the Ranger’s real question was. “There’s only that one wall between us and the void.”

“Hmm. You reckon they’re shielded?” he asked next.

“What are you on about? Of course they’re…” shot back Saito, “Oh, right. Worth a go, I guess,” she continued, when she realised what the Ranger meant.

Leaving his cannon supported by the shoulder strap and one hand, but still firing, Kane dug into his pack and drew out a Xeltak stungun, which he swiftly aimed and fired at one of the drones. It was a long shot, all the Indoans knew, but on the off chance that the drones weren’t well protected against an EMP, the electrolaser beam would disable or severely hinder the target.

(OOC - This is why I like RPing with you. No .. I wasn't anticipating EMP. *grin* )

The shot from the stungun slammed into the spiderlike drone and it screeched to a halt. Ariel could feel the mind trying to push itself onward but failed. It's neural link was inhibited from reaching it's mistress as Ariel blocked it, but it was still in contact with the others. Capture was to be considered a secondary priority at this point, the beings were becoming dangerous.

Just then, Rayanna found her mark, just behind the middle 'eye' of the drone. Her arrow phased through the shielding and metal alloy and sunk into the brain. The drone let out a scream and staggered before dropping down on it's belly. Rayanna let out a squal of pleasure at her success, soon followed by gasp as all the drones turned toward her, weaponry rising from thier carapaces. Priorities had changed yet again for the drones. The beings had to be eliminated as a dire threat, starting with the one who had killed one of thier own.

Turquine killed one of the zombie like creatures as the holy blade, doing more damage than just to flesh cut deeply into the skull, but the numbers were beginning to press in on him. When the zombie to his right flank fell, he took the opportunity to enter the opening, noting the blasted knee joint, and decapitated the creature. "Thank you", he said, as Andies shot gave him some breathing room and, now, two less to fight.

(P.S. By the way, not to give anything away, but how do the suits hold up to plasma discharges, that's what the buggers are about to shoot.)

((OOC: Hehe, glad to oblige. As for plasma fire, the battlesuits can probably survive a hit or two, but it'll almost certainly damage the suit. The Ghosts have less protection, but the superior camouflage means they should be harder to see anyway. Plasma fire's one of those things that's hard to protect against without active shielding.))

Kane gave a grunt of satisfaction as his target ground to a halt under his fire. Having discovered that the long shot had at least had some useful effect, his next aim was to tag as many of the drones as possible with the electrolaser. Even if it wasn’t completely eliminating them, it would significantly reduce the threat to them while they finished the job. Beside him, Saito drew her own Xeltak and joined him in trying to hit them all. Payne retained his carbine, and tried to make use of the drone’s newly discovered weak point.

When the drones all turned towards Rayanna after she felled one of them, and weapons began emerging from their casings, Kane obligingly interposed himself between them, just in front of Rayanna. She could still shoot around him fairly easily, but he had made it harder for the drones to target her easily. His considerably larger bulk compared to the elf meant she was almost completely obscured except when she would lean out to fire.

At the other end, Andie was lining up another shot on a knee joint, having seen the positive result her first shot had gained. While she had few doubts about Turquine’s ability to deal with all the undead by himself, even though he was starting to look a little outnumbered, any help she could give him was a good thing. To that end, she began snapping off as many such shots as she could manage, even targeting both legs of some enemies.

The Xeltak's took out two more and Rayanna a third as she recovered from her shock, the last three aimed at her, one hitting Kane and the other two hitting the wall harmlessly as they tried to adjust to hit the one that was killing. Payne's carbine was having little affect and he was largely ignored as the shields gained in strength from the two kills.

Turquine killed another and took advantage of two others that Andie had disabled, leaving him with seven, one more of which was toppling as he dispatched his fifth one. "You are making this far too easy, my Lady", he said as he turned toward one that was still on it's feet.

"I know this is a bad time and a foolish thing to say, but we must hurry and finish this", Ariel said. "The Queen knows there is something wrong. If she sends reinforcements, which I assure you she will that would be bad enough. But if they arrive while some of these are still alive then she'll known that they are being psionically blocked, which would take away one edge that we have."

((OOC: Auto-hit on Kane, eh? Well, he's going to get away with slightly less damage than he probably should, because I suspect he'll have to be absurd later.))

The impact knocked Kane backwards, breaking his crouch and leaving him sat on his rear end, his right hand extended behind him to arrest any further moment. He swore loudly and glanced down at the armour where the plasma burst had struck him. It hadn’t actually penetrated the armour, but his ribs ached and there was an ugly dark burn on the exterior of the suit, where the plasma had seared away the outer reactive layer and the optic camouflage emitters within. He gave an unintelligible growl and determinedly switched the fire mode on his cannon. Both his weapons fired simultaneously, the EMP shot from the Xeltak closely followed by a cluster of high-explosive armour-piercing shells.

“It’s neither,” Payne replied curtly to Ariel’s statement. “I was thinking the exact same thing. If we get pinned down anywhere long enough for reinforcements to arrive, we’ve had it.” He lowered his carbine, recognising it’s lack of useful effect and deciding it was not worth continuing to waste the ammunition. The plasma sword suddenly appeared in his hand, the blade extending back behind him. “I just know I’m going to regret this,” he muttered, then sprang forward and sprinted towards the nearest drone, the silvery blade scything upward as he came within reach.

“Better for it to be easy than hard,” pointed out Andie, as she fired another shot. “This also gets the job done faster, and as Ariel and Zero have just pointed out, that is a very good thing.” She fired again, mentally knocking another shot off the total capacity of the rifle’s power pack before it was expended. Her visor performed this function as well, but she did it almost by habit, in addition to her managing every aspect of five battlesuits, as well as several other things, all of which were important for their success.

((It's possibly worth pointing out, and now seems as good a time as any, that despite the similarities between a plasma sword and a lightsabre, they are different. True, the plasma sword could block most attacks, by virtue of vaporising or cutting it in two, but a duel between plasma swords would be short and messy, as the blades would pass through each other. Just an FYI.))

(OOC - Yeah, I took the auto hit, he was stepping in the line of fire after all. But that's why I only had one hit him, I knew he would survive that. Three hits on Raya would have killed her I would imagine.

Also, yes, plasma swords and light sabres are different, at least if I understand light sabres properly. Laser contained by some sort of ion force field, right? If so then they could pass through each other as well, if the force field had the same frequency. But that's neither here nor there. Plasma is good, as you'll see.)

Kane's attacks, the one followed by the other was telling. A drone fell as the xeltak struck, temporarily disabling the shield as well as the drone and his second attacks struck home.

Rayanna dispatched the next one with another dead on shot, the arcane archeress just seeming to not be able to miss.

Payne's prediction proved false as the blade passed effortlessly through the shield and cut into the drone. Their weapons, apparently, had been designed as plasma for a reason: The plasma shots, like the sword, could pass through the shield without it affecting it. Raya was already lining up her shot on the last one that Payne had just wounded so that she could turn to help dispatch whatever was left of the zombie like creatures.

Turquine nodded as he killed another, then turned and dispatched the fallen one, cutting back again to kill a third leaving four, only one standing at the moment, "Quite so, my Lady, I stand corrected."

((OOC: Sorry it took so long. From what I know of lightsabres, it's supposedly a laser beam bent around on itself, but that's even more dubious than containing it. And yes, three hits would have almost certainly killed Raya.))

Payne’s initial surprise at how well his attack had gone passed quickly, and he quickly shifted his stance and brought the blade down in a diagonal slash. Having discovered an advantage, he was going to press it, not allowing the drones any chance to respond to his presence, though as he saw one of the other drones drop nearby, he realised there was only this one left. He brought the blade up and twitched it neatly, his intention to sever the weapon mounts.

Kane let go of his cannon, leaving it hanging from the strap, and pulled out his own plasma sword. The sole remaining drone was being dealt with by Payne and Rayanna, so he was going to make sure that none of the ones they had disabled could play any further part, by finishing the job and separating them into several pieces. The one he had hit with cannon fire was pretty permanently disabled, but the ones that had been shot by Xeltaks were still in one piece.

Saito turned around when she saw that the drones were effectively dealt with, and after just catching a shot from Andie’s rifle, she aimed her carbine and triggered a burst to shatter the final standing zombie’s leg. Andie took note of her action, and promptly took out it’s other leg. With that, all the remaining undead were on the floor, and Turquine could finish that in his sleep.
“Ariel, pick a direction,” she declared, “Which way do we go?”

(If it's not one thing it's another. Sorry, again, for the delay. My comp died and I had to get a new one.)

Raya let fly her next shot, killing the drone that Payne was working on and the rest were easily dispatched. Turquine killed the last of the zombies with ease and then sheathed his sword and turned as Ariel was asked to pick a direction.

"That way", Ariel told them, pointing. Unfortunetly, she was pointing at a wall.

A plate slid open from the floor and Joat emerged with a catlike grin. "I can find a way to go 'That way'", she said, "Follow me, I have a map of the place now. Just let me know where is safe and I can get us there."

As Rayanna’s last arrow shot past Payne and annihilated the organic controller of the drone, he withdrew the blade of his plasma sword from the last attack he had made and deactivated it, immediately returning it to his ammunition pack and taking up his carbine again. Next to him, Kane made one last slash at a mostly intact drone, then deactivated and stowed his sword too. He then reached behind himself, into the pack on his back and withdrew a roll of what appeared to be duct tape. He then proceeded to tape his Xeltak to the side of the cannon, enabling him to fire both weapons easily without reducing his ability to make proper use of the larger weapon.

“No problem. Stand clear,” he declared, after Ariel gave them the direction requested. He levelled the cannon at the section of wall Ariel had pointed at, and even though his face was hidden, it was obvious he was grinning behind the helmet. Before he could make good on his intention though, Joat spoke, offering a stealthier way out. The muzzle dropped slightly; the Ranger clearly disappointed by the statement.

“Good. Saito, Raya; take point. Kane; rearguard. Move out,” instructed Payne quickly. “Andie, see if you can get Joat’s map uploaded to our systems while we move. Would be useful to have available,” he added. He began to move toward Joat, then stopped. “Ariel, you good to move with us?” he asked, recalling what she had said during their planning.

In silent acknowledgement of his orders, Saito moved toward the hole in the floor panelling where Joat was, motioning for Rayanna to follow her. Andie also moved to Joat, so she could examine Joat’s equipment as they moved to see if she could manage an interface with it at all.

"I must be away from here", Ariel stated and waited for the others to move out.

"That would be a no", Turquine said, "at least her version given the circumstances, but on the other hand she's right, she can't stay here."

Rayanna knocked another arrow and moved up beside Saito. Her childlike actions gone as the former member of the silent leaf took her position as one of the first in line.

Joat glanced at Andie and then at her equipement. Though with time she was sure that she could adapt her equipement to thiers she was a bit jealous of the easier time they seemed to have at doing the same and after a moment of reflection finally handed Andie her device. On the screen was the odd militant looking weasel.

"So watcha need? Huh? Huh?" it asked of Andie as she took the device.

((OOC: Sorry for the delay, but I finally got my PC working (only 6 months after I bought it), and I've spent the last few days setting it up.))

“That’s true, of course,” agreed Payne, “But we can’t afford to have her slow us down.” He paused, hesitant to suggest an alternate course of action, even though they had discussed it previously. “I could carry you,” he offered eventually. “It won’t slow me down at all, and I can use this one-handed.” He raised the carbine in his right hand. “And if we get stuck in a fight, I’ll just set you down in cover, or as near as I can manage, and carry on as normal,” he added.

As Payne spoke, Saito led Rayanna into the passageways under the floor, first ensuring that there was nothing in sight, even though she knew Joat had only been down there a few moments before. Even if Joat had been an expert in the use of the visor, Saito would have checked again anyway. There was also the matter of things that were beyond their comprehension, and she checked that next.
“Raya, you see anything?” she asked the other softly.

Andie took the device from Joat with a slight nod of her head, and looked at the odd animal on the screen.
“What I need,” she told it pleasantly, “Is for you to give me a copy of the station map.” She then pressed three of her fingertips gently against the screen, the complex circuitry within allowing her to interface directly with the device and bypass the physical controls and display. A powerful firewall protected the avatar’s systems from any counter the device might have. All Andie had to do was interpret the data from the device correctly.

(Trust me, I know all about comp problems. At least this one is new, so I should be okay for awhile.)

Rayanna took a moment before answering. "No", she replied finally, "but we're not alone." She was sensing with the wild elf's innate ability to feel the living beings around her. She turned back a moment and then around again the way they were facing. "That way", she said, nodding in the direction they intended to go.

Not far ahead the old man huddled closer into his protective alcove. He wasn't sure what new beings these were, but he did know that he didn't want to be caught by the one who ran this station. He knew that the others had never come back after they had been pulled inside and escaped before the ship was eaten and they had managed to escape.

"Under normal circumstances", Ariel replied, guessing that 'this' must have been the weapon he carried, "I would say no to be carried. But the situation is far from normal, thus I must adhere to circumstances at hand."

"Station map, station map", the militant weasel said, running around a bit and then fading away to be replaced by the map of the vast station. It seemed a maze, though 'weasel' had plotted routes to various points so as not to get into a dead end. The points included the power section, which ran through the entire center of the station, main control room, which took up one whole level and to the central point of the 'biological controller' section, which Joat assumed was the Queen herself, as well as shields, weapons and a few other points that she couldn't identify offhand and thus marked as interesting.

“We’re not?” questioned Saito, “And you’re alright with that?” She looked uneasily in the direction they were to go, not fond of the idea that there was someone that knew they were there. She hesitated for a moment, then silently began padding down the corridor, her carbine at the ready, eyes constantly shifting and examining the data shown on her display for any sign of danger.

“I’d prefer not to have to subject you to it either,” agreed Payne, “but we haven’t got much choice right now.” He stepped right up to Ariel and took one of her arms with his free hand, then turned around and presented his back for her to take hold of. “Up you go,” he said carefully, “I’ll try and make it as painless as possible,” he added, forcing a slight laugh.

As the map revealed itself on the screen, it also duplicated itself in Andie’s mind, complete with all the location tags revealing what certain areas were. The routes planned by Joat’s program also overlaid themselves onto the map, bright glowing lines tracing across the map. It took only a few moments, then she handed the device back to Joat.
“Thank you,” she said politely. A moment later, a tiny square displaying the section of the map where they were appeared in the corner of Saito’s and Rayanna’s HUDs, with the golden line showing the path to the queen’s location. The other two Indoans saw a notification appear on their displays, informing them that they too could bring up the map if they needed to.

"No", Rayanna replied, padding lightly along with Saito. The HUD picked him up after a short distance. One figure, huddled in an alcove. Rayanna searched the wall and then stopped at a point close to the opening, but not to close. She aimed up, knocking an arrow and then fire twice in quick succession. The arrows ricocheted off the high point of the wall and then into the alcove, landing within a few inches of the man, who screamed.

"Next time, not miss", she yelled.

The man wimpered, terrified and pulled out a combat knife. He was trembling with fear, but was determined not to be taken alive. Why they were shooting arrows he had no clue, but he didn't much care at the moment.

Ariel climbed carefully up on Payne's back, doing the best she could to seat herself as comfortably, to Payne, as possible. The fact was, that for her height and body structure, she was surprisingly light. When she heard the scream and Rayanna's declaration she allowed a small part of her burdened mind to reach outward.

"It's a member of a former Central Worlds vessel. He's terrified", she declared.

Turquine heard the scream and Rayanna's declaration and dropped into the hole, moving forward quickly and drawing his sword. Once he reached Raya, he stopped, not quite sure what to do now, with this different form of combat.

Joat took back the device and nodded. Once the scream echoed she raised an eyebrow. One thing was certain, it wasn't any of them. They were all far too trained for that sort of thing. At Ariel's declaration she took a step forward.

"Let me try to talk to him", she asked. "He may have been here awhile but my father's been around for over fifty years."

Saito kept her aimpoint firmly over the recess where the unknown person was hiding as Rayanna fired her arrows, in case they jumped out and fired back. When there was no real sign of movement from the person, she reached into her pack and withdrew a grenade. She was about to arm it and throw it toward the recess when Ariel spoke, revealing what the person was. She lowered her throwing arm, then used it to block Turquine’s passage past them, silently telling him to leave it to her.

Payne, after making sure that Ariel had a firm grip around his neck, and that his left arm was folded beneath her legs to support them, climbed down into the tunnels and moved a short way along in the direction of their scouts. Andie jumped lightly down after him, then made way for Kane to follow suit. The Ranger moved a little in the opposite direction, so that Joat could seal up the opening behind them and hide their passage.

Saito put the grenade back into her pack, let her carbine hang on it’s harness and withdrew her Xeltak and plasma sword. The beam ignited with a soft hiss, casting a pale silvery light over the tunnel’s interior as she held the blade out in front of her. After Joat offered to talk to the former Central Worlds officer, Saito replied.
“No, I’ll go up and try to talk with him. If I have any problems, I can stun…” she started, then paused, “Wait, did you just say ‘your father’?” she asked, when the word had finally registered.

Turquine stopped, ceding to Saito knowledge of the situation and waited. He didn't know what lay around the corner and didn't want to get in anyone's way.

Ariel closed her eyes and then finally let out a breath. "I cannot reach him to influence his mind, I am too overburdened as it is."

Rayanna waited, prepared to shoot again or drop and drop her rapier, whichever seemed best, but wasn't surprised that the man hadn't come out. After all, one man alone stood a better chance within the alcove than out.

Joat nodded. "Yeah", she said, putting the plate in place and quickly securing it. "I don't mean him, I mean Simeon, of Simeon space station. The SSS-900-C. Actually, he's been around longer than that, but only 50 years as the 900C. He did his first stint in a mining outpost on the border. If this guy is central and worked out this way, then he probably knows my father, most deep spacers do."

“Oh. I see,” replied Saito, “And Ariel, I don’t mean to cause offence, but good. If he knows anything about where he is, and I have to assume he does, I doubt anything you can do will help us in the long run, considering how long he’s probably been here.” She took a step forward, then turned and looked back at Turquine and Rayanna again. “Whatever you do, don’t shoot him unless I say so. I can handle this.” She advanced slowly up the tunnel, eyes fixed on the recess and the form concealed within it that her HUD was showing her.

She stopped when she could just see the edge of a boot, certain that the fugitive could see the blade of the plasma sword she held extended out in front of her. She was almost certain the man couldn’t see her, with her cloak active, but the plasma blade was impossible to hide. She then activated the external speaker circuit so the man could hear what she said.
“Okay, I know this is hard to believe, but we’re not here to hurt you,” she said clearly, and deliberately deactivated the plasma sword, so the man could see the blade vanish. “My name is Captain Akari Saito, of the Indoan Special Forces. I know you’ve never heard of us, but we’re here to take this place out. We can get you out.” She stopped, and shut down the speaker momentarily. “Andie, quick, what do the Central guys call their organic Minds?” she asked.

“Shell people,” the avatar replied swiftly.

“I know you’ve no reason to believe that, but here’s something you might be able to believe,” continued Saito, the speaker active again. “It was the Central Worlds shell person Simeon that told us about this station, and how to get onto it. He used to run a mining outpost on the borders of Central space, maybe you remember him.” She stopped there, letting the man think over her words, hoping that her small lie would help convince him that they meant him no harm.

When the blade came into his view a small whimper could be heard, but he held his combat knife more tightly, determined to die rather than be taken.

we’re not here to hurt you

'LIE', he thought, almost screaming it until he saw the sword vanish.

we’re here to take this place out. We can get you out

He almost laughed at the audacity of that statement, but he knew, as he had known for some time, that if he started laughing, then he would probably never stop.

It was the Central Worlds shell person Simeon that told us about this station, and how to get onto it. He used to run a mining outpost on the borders of Central space, maybe you remember him

That caught his attention. Who, out in this area, didn't know
Simeon? He dragged his memory, trying to remember if Simeon had ever been mentioned before, but he hadn't, nor had any shell person. He and the others had been Central Navy, after all, and would never jeapordize a shell person.

"Simeon?", he asked. "Yeah, Simeon is good people", he said. "Him and his brawn, Max Nericon. Good people."

Joat shook her head and held up a finger to say wait, then typed something into her device quickly and held it up.

'He's lying about brawn. Wouldn't know Channa either. Tell Raedon would have been Simeon's brawn then.'

((OOC: Sort of assumed that both Joat and Ariel were certain of their statements. If that's not the case, let me know and I'll change it.))

“Wait,” instructed Payne quickly when Joat held up her hand, knowing that Saito was keeping her attention on the alcove, and was therefore blind to silent gestures from those behind her. “You’re absolutely sure? Simeon’s never had a partner by that name? At any time in his life?” he asked Joat. He glanced up the tunnel at Saito’s silhouette on his HUD, and as he had expected, the Xeltak in her left hand was aimed at the recess, perfectly steady.

“You think this guy’s coherent enough to be testing us?” questioned Saito, the speaker switched off again. “Or is it a trap; try and get someone with us so they know what we’re up to? Ariel, how certain are you?” Her eyes never wavered from the alcove, alert for even the slightest hint of movement from the man. She considered igniting the plasma sword once more, but decided against it, knowing that if the man was genuine, they would then have almost no chance of convincing him of their intentions.

When both Ariel and Joat had given their answers, Saito sighed, thinking over her options, before settling on her course of action. She reactivated the speaker and spoke to the man again.
“Well, I agree with you about Simeon, but I can’t say I know anything about the other guy,” she told him pointedly, “since Simeon’s never had a brawn by that name.” She left the unspoken accusation of falsity hang in the air, having deliberately avoided giving the man another name to play with.

Joat turned off her own external speaker.

"I'm positive. Verican Abealiz was the first on the mining facitlity. Then Corvin Abritave. After that the SS-900 was almost done. He took the job there, making it the SSS-900-X. X being a designator of an unbrawned shell person. Tell Raidon was the first one Simeon accepted and it became the SSS-900-T. After Tell finally retired Simeon took sometime before he picked Channa and he became the SSS-900-C. He's told me alot of stories about his time in the mining colony and here.

Doesn't really surprise me that he's trying to protect Simeon. Anyone who deals with Shell people are conditioned to work with and protect them. Shell people can't really fight for themselves, so it's a brawn's job to keep them safe and brawn will do anything to keep any shell person safe."

Ariel reached out again, trying to penetrate the man's thoughts but ran into walls and dead ends. "I cannot reach him", she said, "I'm sorry."

He leaned back in the alcove, We're they fishing? Did they know Simeon? Could he take the chance? The buzzing that had started in his mind a short time ago suddenly got worse again for a few moments before subsiding. He had to think. He couldn't think. His mind had been in a state of a low thrum ever since they had gotten taken. He couldn't risk it. Shell people were to be protected. That was a code he would never give up.

The first indication that something was dreadfully wrong in the alcove was the spray of blood that spattered across the floor as he brought the knife up quickly across his own throat.

At that moment, the brief clear and strong throught, Ariel saw clearly his intent. "NO", she said, too late.

((OOC: Sorry, again. Some random illness ambushed me and knocked me down for a few days. Getting better though, couple more days and I'll be as good as new.))

“No!” cried Saito, when she saw the spray of blood, echoing Ariel’s exclamation from a split second earlier. She darted forwards, almost immediately next to the man. She pushed a gloved hand down onto the man’s throat, trying to staunch the flow of blood, and called for Kane to bring a medikit. “You stupid bastard…” she told the dying man. “You survive all this time on your own, then die by your own hand just hours before you could have been out of this place forever.”

Kane was beside Saito in seconds, knocking the others aside in his haste to get to her. He already had the medikit in his hand, and it took him only a few more seconds to rip it open and pull out the surgical laser. He twisted the focus, then set about trying to cauterise the laceration, the two sides of which were being pushed together by Saito’s hands. When he had done the best he could, he discarded the laser and slapped a self-healing adhesive binding over the wound, which contained a small number of nanites embedded in it, which would attempt to repair the skin further. The differences between human and matrai anatomy were fortunately largely irrelevant in such a case.

“Best I can do, sir,” stated Kane, as he picked up the surgical laser again, and stuck it back in the medikit. “The next minute or so’ll tell whether it did any good.” There was a pause, then the Ranger spoke again. “You’re lucky I knew what to do,” he admitted, “I’m not trained as a medic, and I only know how to deal with that because some guy in my platoon fell and managed to impale their neck on a tree root during a training exercise back when I was a greenstick. We lost him, but I remember what our medic did to try and save him.”

(Ahh, okay. I know you get caught up sometimes with your studies, so I just waited, figuring you would post sooner or later. I'm glad your feeling better.)

Turquine took Kane's arm and pulled him back. "Please allow me", he said in his deep rumbling voice. He placed his hand on the old man's chest and closed his eyes. After a moment, his hand began to glow, then the man's chest. The wound on his throat slowly vanished, as though the wound had never been. Finally he removed his hand after the wound was healed.

He stepped back and looked at the man. "We are not here to harm, sir. The Lady was correct. To live this long only to die now. It would be a foolish waste."

Rayanna had stepped past the alcove, keeping an eye out ahead as she waited for the others to finish.

"He's a latent psionic", Ariel finally realized and said allowed. "Had I not been so focused on blocking us I would have realized it sooner. That's why my normal scans didn't work."

((OOC: Hehe, I don't actually start back until next week.))

“That’s a neat trick,” acknowledged Kane, after Turquine had healed the man, somewhat impressed. “Wish we could do that. Save a lot of good people that way.” He closed up the medikit and returned it to his pack now that it was no longer needed. He also picked up the man’s knife, just in case he still disbelieved them and felt inclined to try and finish the job.

“Will your treatment have done anything regarding his loss of blood? If it did not, then we might have a problem, as we have no time, equipment or suitable supplies to give him a blood transfusion,” stated Andie, who was facing back the way they had come, temporarily taking over Kane’s role as rear guard while the Ranger was otherwise engaged.

“Wasn’t your fault,” Payne reassured Ariel, after her admission. “You’ve got enough on your mind right now, and it’s not like we were expecting to find an escapee, least of all a psionic one. Not your fault,” he repeated.

“I guess you’re staying here, Zero. We can’t leave him on his own, and we can’t take him with us just yet,” pointed out Saito. “Even if he’s able to physically keep up with us, he’s visible and vulnerable. That’s a liability we can’t afford.” As she spoke, she suddenly realised that the man still couldn’t see any of them; they would be vague spectral forms at best, which probably wouldn’t help his mental state. She quickly checked the air content on her suit’s sensors, then deactivated her cloak and removed her helmet. “Don’t you worry about a thing,” she told the man, her deep blue eyes seeking his, “We’ll get you out, just as soon as we can.”

(ahh okay. I didn't know that. How is this year looking? Course wise?)

Turquine shook his head, "I can do nothing for the blood loss, I can only heal the wound. He will most likely drift in and out of consciousness. But he should live", he said.

Ariel nodded at Payne's words, but sighed and her helm tapped his as she let her head ease down for a moment before lifting it back up again. "And what of me?" she asked after it was decided that Payne would stay. "Shall I be staying here as well?"

As Saito materialized the man looked at her for a moment before his eyes rolled up and his lids closed. He was breathing, but had passed out.

((OOC: Looks like hard work, is all I can say at the moment.))

“Well, given what just nearly happened to him, that’s better than we could have hoped for,” allowed Andie. Kane moved back down to her location, readying his weapon and tapping her shoulder with his other hand, letting her know he was in position to take over again. She immediately turned around and moved towards the unconscious man. “His life is in the hands of fate now,” she noted, examining the man’s face.

“That’s the notion,” confirmed Payne. “Unless you feel you can keep up with the others under your own power. And be honest this time, we can’t afford screw-ups.” He suddenly twisted his head around, trying to look at her, even though neither could see the other’s face. “That’s not going to cause any problems, is it?” he asked worriedly. This was the problem with running operations with outsiders, he ranted silently, you didn’t know exactly what they could do and where their limits were. The Rangers were reliable, but normally the Ghosts would work with no-one else on the ground. Unfortunately, this mission would have been impossible without outside assistance, and High Command had decided that it had to be done.

“We need to pick up the pace,” pointed out Saito, hefting her carbine, “They know we’re here, even if they don’t know where. We need to move before they lock the place down so much that we can’t get where we need to go,” she explained swiftly.

Turquine looked at Andie with open curiosity, but said nothing. Though had treated Andie like a Lady, and would continue to do so because of her appearance, it came as somewhat of a surprise to him that what was described to him as a machine would speak of fate. He smiled and then reached into one of the pouches on the suit and took out a light blue vial. "If he wakes enough to move and you wish to do so", he said to Payne, "give hims this. It is a potion of vitality, to bolster his strength. Keep in mind that it will only work for one hour." He held the vial out to Payne and then amended, "One of our hours, that is, as I understand there is a difference."

"It is", Ariel confirmed, "but not by lying this time. I cannot keep up. But the further away the get, the less I'll be able to protect them. Beyond 50 miles they will be out of my range, however." She had no true notion as to the size of the station, but she did know that it was vast.

Joat looked at Saito, "Yeah, about that. It's strange. While you guys were fighting and I was hacking the system I got the security protocols. They're being overridden, though I don't from where. It should have locked down when the fighting outside began."

“I’ll keep that in mind,” noted Payne, taking the vial from Turquine, it disappearing almost immediately into his pack. “I doubt it’ll do much, the state he’s in, but if it becomes necessary, he’ll get it.” There was a long pause, then he twisted his head back to Ariel. “We have no idea where we’ll need to go in this maze, and it’s far bigger than that. We need another plan, because this isn’t going to work,” he finished, looking at the others.

“No,” agreed Saito. “The schematics we were shown before we left showed this station to be bigger than most planets. It’s a fucking monstrosity. Gods know how they built it. It must have…”

“Akari!” snapped Payne. “That’s not helping.”

“Sorry…” she said apologetically.

“There’s an AG unit built into the battlesuit you’re wearing,” put in Andie calmly, “We can activate it and link you to one of us. We can pull you along behind us,” she paused, “It’s… not preferable, but not much worse than being carried around by Zero. And there’s a folding stretcher in Kane’s pack, complete with it’s own AG cell. We can secure our friend to it, and pull him along too. We can’t cloak him visually, but it might be the best we’ve got.”

“Wait a minute,” interjected Payne, ignoring the discussion that he had started momentarily, “are you saying there’s someone else out there, overriding the station security systems and making it easier for us to get in?” he asked Joat hurriedly.

"Got it in one", Joat replied. "Probably another Central Worlds crewmember somewhere although this is pretty advanced stuff. I can only just make it out. There should have been a lockdown of all external ports. The outer ....", she said, checking her instruments, "25 levels should have been locked down and decompression doors in place. Security scans are inactive here, although it says they're down with a maintenance tag, but considering the size of this place that's one hell of a coincidence." She looked up at the blue lighting strips on the ceiling, "And those are both security scans/recording devices and lighting." She looked back down at her device, "Intruder alerts should be going off by now with security blast doors closing to isolate the intruders, but it ain't happenin." She looked back up at Payne, "Whoever it is knows where we are. I can't prove that, but I'd bet While on it."

"While?" Turquine asked.

"W.Y.A.L.", Joat replied.

"Ah yes, so it's pronounced While."

"No, it means While You Ain't Lookin", she replied.

Turquine was silent a moment then shook his head, "I don't get it."

"You wouldn't. Anyway .... Someone is definitely here or we could, very well, have been creamed by now .... Oh yeah, and I shouldn't have been able to tell you that", she finished.

((OOC: Useless internet. It completely died shortly before I finished writing this, and wouldn't come back. So you're getting this this morning instead of last night.))

“So there’s someone out there who knows exactly where we are, but not only are they not inclined to stop us, they seem to want to help us. And whoever it is, they’re deliberately doing it in such a way that you can pick up their presence, while still presumably hiding their activities from security,” repeated Payne, wanting to make sure there was no misunderstanding between him and Joat.

“They know exactly where we are? That’s not the best feeling I’ve ever had,” commented Saito worriedly. “We’re supposed to be unseen and unnoticed until we say otherwise. What if this is an elaborate setup to make us think we’ve got another friendly out there somewhere; while all the time we’re being led to our deaths?” she asked. “How are we supposed to know?” She had put her helmet back on by now, and was concealed behind the cloak once more.

“It’s certainly a possibility, and one we can’t discount,” agreed Andie solemnly. “But why bother? If they know where we are, why not just kill us and be done with it? Why the games?”

“Maybe they’re a sadistic bastard who likes to play with their victims,” replied Kane bluntly, his tone of voice making it perfectly clear he was not at all happy with the situation. “I say we get out while we still can, then nuke the place until there’s nothing left but radioactive dust.”

“You really think we’d be here if they thought that would work, Kane?” enquired Payne sarcastically. “And who says we can still get out? If this is a trap, whoever’s behind it can quite easily stop us from getting out. No, I think we’re stuck here until we make it otherwise, probably by killing someone.”

(OOC - That's fine. I look at it when I'm at work and answer if I can. If I can't, then I answer once I get home and get settled. Glad to see you back online.)

"Nukes had been tried", Joat confirmed. "I agree with Kane though, I don't like this at all. I don't have your tech, but the places I've broken into didn't know I was there. At least not WHILE I was there." Once she put in her opinion she entered the alcove where the old man had been.

Turquine stood silent through the exchange and for a severl moments afterward, finally he placed a hand on Andie's arm and stood as though about to say something, his grip tightening. Though uncomfortable for a mortal his grip was nothing to her and finally he shook his head. "I cannot speak without risk of personal bias. Thus I'll leave the decision in your hands. I'll follow, whatever you choose to do", he said and then his hand slipped away, falling limply to his side.

"I don't have much choice in the matter", Ariel stated without a bit of humor in her voice. It was a statement of fact. "But I think that Anderleigh is correct. If they wanted to destroy us, they could have done so by now."

Rayanna turned and waved a hand and then reached up to her left, moving her hand in an arc above her from left to right.

"Yes", Turquine said, "I know. Time moves onward. But the Indoan's must make the decision here, for I do not trust my own."

Raya nodded and turned back, looking up the corridor once more.

Joat emerged from alcove. "Well one thing is certain, he wasn't our benefactor. There's no access to anything in there."

There was a moment of silence as the Indoans looked between each other, each thinking about what the best course of action would be. Eventually, Payne touched his left hand to the top of his carbine, closed fist. Saito and Andie both mimicked the gesture shortly afterwards, then all three of them looked at Kane. Reluctantly, the Ranger also made the gesture, giving voice to his feelings at the same time.

“Fine, but no more holding back,” he told them, “I’m making full use of all the firepower we have from now on.” It was clear he would allow no argument on that point. He turned his back to Andie, allowing her access to his pack to get the folding stretcher and cables to fasten them to a suit, which she did. After they had unfolded the stretcher, Saito helped Andie put the unconscious man onto it, and tie him down.

“We’re going to have to gag him too,” pointed out Saito, as they linked the stretcher to Andie’s battlesuit. “If he makes any kind of noise whenever he wakes up, he could give us away.” The avatar grudgingly agreed, though she was not fond of doing such things, as they could easily be misinterpreted. She then remotely activated the AG cell in Ariel’s suit, set so it would float just under a metre above the floor.

“Try not to move too much,” suggested Payne, as he connected Ariel’s suit to his. Both he and Andie had tied fast release knots, where they could just pull at it once and it would immediately unravel. That was so that if they ran into trouble, they could fight without having to worry about accidentally dragging Ariel or the Central fugitive into the line of fire.

“Right, let’s go,” declared Saito, when both were finished. “The clock is ticking.”

"I have no intention of doing so", Ariel replied. She was, after all, at his mercy at this point. Not a position she enjoyed, but one of necessity.

Joat sighed. She figured they would continue, but had hoped. She didn't like this, not one bit. She was, however, less inclined to returning by herself and therefore took a position in the middle.

Turquine nodded at thier decision, both happy and saddened by it. He could find out about his daughter by continuing, but he also didn't like them risking their lives for his people. He took a position behind the point personel and drew his sword.

Rayanna nodded and began moving forward, an arrow knocked. She moved forward silently, relying as much on her wild elf abilities as the suit abilities and probably more so. In this case, she was undecided which would serve better, assuming she fully understood the suit, which she didn't.

Saito advanced alongside Rayanna, as quickly as she deemed prudent, following the map displayed on her HUD. The anechoic material in her suit made her movements totally silent, though she was not moving so fast that the others made anything more than a barely audible sound, thanks to similar, but much less extensive, material in the soles of their feet.

As before, Saito was constantly monitoring her HUD for any sign of a hostile contact or unknown, and alert for any warnings from Rayanna regarding her side of the spectrum. Andie was in a position just behind Turquine, her weapon balanced in her right hand, but pointed nowhere in particular, as she monitored the rest of the team and their unconscious patient. Payne was alongside Joat, pulling Ariel along behind him. Kane was acting as rear guard again, glancing behind them every few seconds to ensure they were not being followed, occasionally turning completely and walking backwards for a while before catching up with the rest of the team.

“Any idea how far away our target is?” asked Saito, several minutes later. “Because we could probably do with speeding up our passage somehow. Unless any of us especially wants to be here for several years, which, by the way, we don’t have enough food for.”

"It's quite a way", Joat replied, "but we can't there except by lift, which will drastically reduce travel time. Out of the lift it's about another half hour at this speed, that should take us to the central chamber. Once there we figure out what to do. Considering the size of the power plant, which runs through the stations core, I would guess there are redundant systems to shut down problem areas. Blowing that, most likely, won't have any effect. We need to take out ..... the nucleus. Once the controlling .. agent is gone, the systems should run wild."

"You mean once you kill my daughter", Turquine stated.

"Lord Buccannah", Ariel began.

"No. They can speak plainly. I know what's expected of me", he said, and then fell silent and continued moving.

“Yes, our primary objective here is to kill the temporally displaced version of your daughter,” confirmed Payne. “Is that plain enough for you?” he asked bluntly. “Oh, and by the way, save the life of the version you know, and probably hundreds of others. Lesser evil for the greater good and all that crap.” There was a pause, then he added, “Besides, this one’s a psychotic mass murderer that would probably just as soon kill you as look at you. Is that really what you want for your daughter?” He knew he was being a little harsh on the man, but, as he had previously stated, he was not entirely happy with Turquine’s presence on the mission.

“I really think we should focus on the task at hand,” pointed out Saito. “Joat, Andie; give us a route to one of those lifts,” she instructed, as she continued to advance. “And I can’t say I like the sound of the systems ‘running wild’ after the target’s dead. Is that going to affect how we might get out?” she asked. “Put it this way, it’d better not be like all those films were the villain’s lair spontaneously starts to disintegrate when they die. I will not be impressed if it does.”

“No one told me we’d be starring in our very own hero film,” put in Kane, feigning pleased surprise, “Do you think this suit makes me look fat?”

“Typical Ranger… Can’t adhere to comm discipline if their lives depended on it,” griped Saito lightly. “What is it with you lot and screwing around?”

“Passes the time. Keeps the spirits up,” came the reply. “If you can laugh in the face of battle, then nothing can get you down.”

"Better than an evasive answer", Turquine replied, "though I don't consider fighting for the greater good to be crap. It's something I've spent a lifetime doing." He had never turned around and his tone was not hostile, but rather kept in complete control. Not a good sign as Ariel well knew, he definitely did not like the man.

Joat gave them a route, one that would take about 20 minutes to reach. Nothing got in thier way as they proceeded to the lift, which was rather large, but then everything here seemed to be. "This one will take us to the level we need", she stated.

“When the phrase gets used by three separate dictators through your history as an excuse to commit genocide, you develop a rather cynical attitude toward the whole concept,” retorted Payne, “There’s no such thing as the ‘greater good’; only individual perceptions. If you must apply that kind of concept to our actions, I prefer ‘lesser of two evils’, although in truth it’s little different. That way there’s fewer illusions about the fact that you are still doing something that shouldn’t be done. You were the one who wanted us to speak plainly,” he added, after a short pause.

When they reached the lift that Joat directed them to, Saito directed the others to hold back a moment, while she and Rayanna made sure it was safe for them to use. It was an obvious place to set up a trap, and the Ghost took her time closing the last twenty metres, making Rayanna stay directly behind her, as she searched for tripwires, cameras, proximity mines or concealed weapons, relying on the elf to warn her of any magical wards. It was nearly ten minutes before she even passed across the threshold of the lift, and fast approaching twenty by the time she was finally satisfied.

“Okay, it’s clear,” she declared eventually, waving the others forward at last. They quickly entered the lift, and the Indoans positioned themselves around the edges, facing inwards and making repeated glances upwards while they waited for Joat to get the thing to move.

Joat removed the panel on the wall and connected her hacking comp then proceeded to began overriding the controls. The doors slammed shut and she looked up at them.

"Ummm ... I didn't do that", she said nervously. Suddenly they opened again, "Or that either." She extracted three more wires and connected them and then went back to the hacking comp controls.

"Tempus Fugit, father", came Lauralin's voice from the hidden speakers.

Turquine's heart sank but he looked up, "Why have you done these things, Princess?" He used her old pet name, hoping to hack through the experiences that had twisted her mind.

"I assume you mean the things that you perceive as evil. Perceptions are a tricky thing, father, for unless you know all you can perceive wrongly. You are free to go, if you choose, or you may stay and the lift will bring you to me. I offer the first option in case you are nervous about my knowing your here and where. I know that the Indoan's must be with you, at least one, probably more. No one else in this time period could hide you from my sensors."

"Then how did you know I was here", he asked, expressing only himself to hide how many there might be.

"Because ... Oh, hello Ariel ... because only about 10 Deryn in this time period could hide your mind from me. And of them, only one would work with you or concern themselves with anything outside of thier own lands. And before you ask, Ariel taught me well. I hadn't known you were here at first, thus the reason you were attacked. After, I knew someone had to be here. Her ability to hide your minds leaves a area open. Like a bubble in the water. My thoughts pass around you. It took time to find it, but I knew how to look for it.

Surely by now you must know that you couldn't have gotten this far without help. I have been overriding the defenses of the station to allow you to progress. But it is up to you to decide to come to me or not."

Joat turned off her external comm, "It could be her, but I just don't know. Someone IS overriding the security, but then she could know that and try to be leading us into a trap. But as before, if she was, why open the lift? She could have just had it plummet us to our doom."

When they heard Lauralin’s voice echoing around them, the Indoans aim rapidly swung their weapons around, searching for it’s owner so they could open fire. When it became obvious it was emanating from hidden loudspeakers, they ceased their searching, but did not relax, alert for any sudden appearance of hostile forces they might have to deal with.

“We keep going,” stated Payne calmly, as soon as Lauralin had finished talking, showing none of the hesitation he had previously displayed. He immediately got agreement from Saito and Andie, though Kane looked at each of them in turn before voicing his agreement, sounding rather reluctant as he did so. “You’re right, we don’t know it’s not a trap, but the same is true of any other path we take now. She can probably track us now, so we don’t have all that much choice. And I don’t believe she will just let us go if we try.”

“Ariel, she doesn’t know who or how many of us there are,” he continued. “If at all possible, don’t let her see Saito, Rayanna or myself. But, as I expect you know, don’t stop hiding the rest of you, otherwise it’ll be obvious. And all of you, do your best not to look at us, talk to us or think about us. As far as you’re all concerned, we don’t exist. Kane and Andie are the only Indoans that came, got it?”

Silently wishing that Rayanna’s concealment did not rely on the less capable personnel suit, Payne walked over to Andie, who passed him a small, vaguely cylindrical object. He then went over to Saito, who took the cylinder and immediately concealed it within her pack. As he took up his previous position to maintain fields of fire, Andie spoke to Joat.
“Let’s go,” she said.

"Wait", Ariel said quietly, "give me a moment." It was easy to hide herself, or everyone. Her own mind shield, or an envelope were simple. Setting up blocks for indivisual minds was more difficult. After a few moments she finally had them covered and not the others. "Okay", she said, "Lord Buccannah, you should address her."

"Princess", Turquine said, "we're going to come down. Joat can operate the .. the .."

"Lift", Lauralin offered, "I could, but I understand you would prefer the semblence of self control. I've already set the lift as offline for maintenance, so it won't be noticed as moving without control."

"Confirmed", Joat said, turning on the speaker on the suit.

"Ander ... Anderleah? Was it? It's been some time and I fear that there was some damage when I was placed here. And Kane, I believe we have met before as well, yes? And Joat, I'm familiar with you, of course. Welcome everyone. Joat, your free to operate the lift anytime."

Joat did so, activating the controls. Rayanna and Turquine reached out to the nearest people as they felt themselves start to fall. Joat, however was calm, anticipating the rapid decent of the lift while Ariel, of course, felt no real change.

“Anderaleigh,” corrected the avatar politely after she was addressed, “Yes, that is me.”

“Yeah, we did,” confirmed Kane resignedly. There was a clunk as he lifted his weapon up and set the stock on the lift floor. “Though I’m starting to regret the incident. And I don’t believe ‘welcome’ is really a suitable word, given the circumstances.”

Saito reached out to steady Rayanna when the lift began descending, and as she did so, a small phrase appeared briefly in the top left corner of Rayanna’s display; the white letters reading ‘191.7 (T4)’.
“Not a word,” Saito told her softly, whispering even though they could not be heard by anyone not on the same frequency and with the same encryption. “We’ve just changed your comm frequency. Only Zero, Andie and I can hear you now, but only speak if it’s absolutely necessary. We can still hear the others though.”

The frequency they had changed to wasn’t listed by the other suits, so there was no chance of the others accidentally switching to it and overhearing their chatter, with the exception of Kane, who knew better than to risk the operation by scanning for frequencies. The reason for the change was to allow them to communicate without the risk of the others reacting to what they said and thus giving away their presence.

"The circumstances are sad ones, I admit", Lauralin replied to Kane, "though I admit that I am saddened more by your regret at our meeting.

There will be security outside of the lift. I regret that there is nothing I can do about that, but it is standard proceedure. It is, however, more to keep me in, if I should have found a way to escape, than to keep others out, but none the less, it is there. A few more minutes till arrival."

Rayanna, per instructions, didn't reply at all. She nodded, though she wasn't sure if the gesture could be seen.

Saito patted Rayanna’s arm twice to acknowledge the nod, but did not let go of the elf. She guessed that, given her reaction to the lift beginning to move, Rayanna would probably react similarly when the lift eventually stopped, and she wanted to forestall too much unnecessary movement on the part of the other. The Ghosts were taking every precaution they could think of to avoid giving their presence away now, and those precautions applied even more to Rayanna’a less capable suit.

“[T1] Kane, pursue this line of questioning,” instructed Andie quietly, “I’m interested to know where it goes.”

“Well, forgive me for being a little sceptical,” replied Kane doubtfully, “But things keep going unpleasant with you in proximity, and anyway, I ain’t the one that went crazy and tried to kill my younger self.”

“[T1] Perfect,” commented Andie softly. The Ranger had done exactly what she had hoped, and provoked Lauralin. She almost hadn’t said anything, knowing the Ranger was fairly likely to do this anyway, but she wanted to be sure. There were a few things the avatar wanted to be sure of before they went much further, and this was as good a way as any to clarify some of them.

“And what are we supposed to do about this security?” Kane continued. “I don’t imagine it’s just going to up and let us past now, is it? If there’s going to be some violence, you mind telling us exactly what’s out there, by any chance?”

"To answer your second question first", Lauralin replied, "there are stationary gun placements. If at all possible, do not destroy them. I can override those, but if they are destroyed then the computer will put into effect security measures that I am not sure that I can override.

There are also guards", she said, then hesitated a moment. "If memory serves, which it doesn't always do properly now, you should have been to Dragonsreach and fought against aliens who had the support of the Skullkingdom. There are about 30 of them in the chamber just outside the lift. Not good news, I know. But they are of the type that must close in to attack, thus giving you the advantage there. One can detect cloaked ships and people. I don't know if Ariel could hide you or not. I know not how they see through technological cloaking, thus I do not know if Ariel's ability would work to hide you. Aside from that there is radiactive burst which, I believe, your suits would protect you from.

As for the second, I'm not sure that I know what you mean. I know that I am guilty of luring Central Worlds ships to this station, for the aliens' blood cannot sustain me. But killing myself in this time? I am trying to prevent that. If something has happened, then the station or the aliens must have done something, for I did not."

Suddenly the lift stopped, and again Turquine reached out in surprise, suddenly have more weight placed upon him after weighing only almost 1/4 of his weight for the rapid decent.

Rayanna tensed, but didn't reach out this time, realizing that she wasn't supposed to be there and trying to act the part.

The doors remained shut and Joat checked the circuits. "Overridden", she announced.

"I've kept the doors shut until your ready. The aliens are not aware of your presence inside the lift, thus you are safe for now. I might be able to create a diversion. I can open my own doors from here, that may attract thier attention. My doors are opposite the lift."

“Yeah, I missed pretty much all of that little conflict,” observed Kane, “Don’t get to do much fighting when you’re without a unit. But, all accounts said that they went down easily enough, even if nothing else did, so this shouldn’t be too hard.” There was a brief pause before he spoke again. “So they outnumber us about eight to one. Almost seems unfair,” he finished with a low chuckle.

“[T1] Ariel,” began Andie, “Do you have any indication of how truthful she’s being? Given the circumstances, I’m not very inclined to believe what she says at this point. And we were warned about this. We have to be absolutely sure of her status before we proceed.” She switched channels, and languages. “[T4] The final judgement is in your hands alone,” she told Payne, using Indoan so that even Rayanna would not know what had been said.

Saito released her grip on Rayanna’s arm after the lift stopped, then spoke quietly. “[T4] When the doors open, do not do anything. We’re not here, remember? You only act if I tell you to.” She had added the last part to appease Rayanna’s desire to help her friends, though in reality, the Ghosts would probably not act unless all of the others had been disabled.

“You said there was only one of them that could actually detect us?” asked Kane, as he made himself ready for the upcoming fight. “You sure about that? Any way to pick it out in the crowd?” He withdrew three grenades from his pack, tossed one to Andie and another to Joat. “[T1] Frag grenade, four second fuse. Twist the top and throw, simple as that,” he told her.

"I am sorry", Ariel replied to Andies query, "but I can not offer an absolute. Due to the original situation I have avoided direct probes, as she would have felt that and realized we were here. I can say that I have scanned her mind without direct probing. There are deep seated psychosis, but she has them heavily isolated. Either she has forgotten the technique I taught her for excizing them or she has not had the opportunity to do so, since this takes a great deal of time and all of ones focus. Her phobia of spiders remains, most likely she had not even thought to excize this. she also left her grief of the loss of Arleena. Her torture and subsequent events are well isolated and do not threaten her reasoning. I am sure that there is no outside influence, though there is something that batters at her defenses which I cannot scan. I am assuming that this is the computer for the station since she is directly linked to it, but I cannot access mechanical things. In her position, and she is connected to the station in some way I cannot fathom, it seems that it can try to contact her mind directly, but she is resisting. In my opinion, she is herself, but I cannot tell you absolutely that she is. I can probe if you like. She'll know. But if she is on our side, she should not resist beyond initial contact which would activate her static defenses, but I can bypass those easily enough as they are modeled after my own since I trained her. If I do this, however, she will have many questions for me and I would need to know how much or how little to tell her. Of course, I shall not reveal those persons you wish to remain annonomous."

Raya nodded again in understanding. Though one of the best of the silent leaf, she was not in command and used to following orders. The King had told her to heed Saito, and so she would until he ordered otherwise.

Joat nodded in understanding, but spoke up. "What about those weapons placements she warned us about? Are we taking them out anyway? Grenades, at least our grenades, are particularly fussy about what they hit." She noticed Turquine shift and laid a hand on his arm. "Grenades. Like your daughters fireballs. Don't rush right out, you might get caught in the blast."

"Understood", Turquine replied, and though he didn't relax himself, he shifted back and to one side, offering those with grenades, that he saw, an opening to throw.

“[T1] No, don’t do anything,” instructed Andie, “While that would almost guarantee an answer to the problem, it would also tip her off if she is misleading us. However, your insight into her mental status is useful. It indicates that whatever her intentions, they are probably rational, and thus maybe we can reason with her.” There was a brief pause before she continued, “It does also suggest that there are no falsities in what she says, though that is by no means guaranteed.”

“[T1] No, these grenades aren’t particularly discriminating,” admitted Kane, “They’ll pretty much mince anything in range. However, in my experience, static automated gun emplacements tend to be armoured, at least a little, so they aren’t terribly susceptible to anti-personnel weaponry. If I was throwing HE, then it’d be a different matter. Besides, if those turrets can’t survive being hit by a few small chunks of metal, it’s their own fault for making them so crap,” finished the Ranger.

He moved to one side of the door, putting his back to the wall next to it so that he would be concealed when he tossed the grenade out. Andie moved to the opposite side and did the same thing. Payne and Saito, the latter pulling Rayanna with her, moved to one side, so they were also out of the line of return fire.
“[T1] You might want to watch what you do when the doors open,” Kane advised Turquine, “because I’m just going to hose the lot of them, and it wouldn’t do for you to get caught. And unless anyone else has anything to say, I think we’re ready. If someone would notify our host.”

"Oh, okay", Joat replied. She didn't know much about things like that. Alot about what drove them. Algorithms, programming, that sort of thing.

Turquine nodded. "I'll stand my ground unless they close. I can hold the doorway if they are indeed close quarters."

"Laura", Turquine said out loud. "We are ready."

"Very well", she replied and then proceeded to open the doors.

As the doors began to open, both the Indoans with grenades armed them, then held them loosely in their hands for a second, knocking a second of the preset timer. When the opening reached it’s widest point, they both flipped the grenades around the corners; one going low, the other going high to bounce off the ceiling and rain fragments from above. They exploded with two sharp cracks a few seconds later, and Kane moved immediately.

He rolled himself around the corner, bringing his weapon up as he turned, depressing the trigger as soon as he had brought it to bear on the target area. The gun burst into a deep staccato chatter as he sprayed the armour-piercing shells everywhere he could see an enemy. Andie had turned on the spot, not exposing herself as much as Kane, and was taking single well-aimed shots far quicker than any organic soldier could manage, the movements of her weapon swift and precise in her hands.

As the fight kicked off nearby, Payne and Saito did their best to stay as close to the side walls of the lift, to shield themselves from any return fire. They were also watching that Rayanna and the unconscious Central officer were similarly shielded. Out of habit, Payne checked the state of his weapon in case he was forced to use it, but that was as far as he would go unless both Andie and Kane were disabled.

Joat took a moment to arm the grenade and threw it like she had seen Central soldiers do. The explosion killed two where the indoan's had taken three each and several were wounded. A large, bulbous creature hovering near the far door of the huge chamber began moving toward the elevator as the creatures turned, looking for an enemy. They began to move toward the doors not avoiding the fire, but rather seeming to be waiting for something.

"The hovering creature. I've seen this on Midgaard. Kill it. It controls the rest. With it gone they have no self control", Turquine told them.

Kane didn’t even move when Joat’s grenade sailed past him, his trained eye noting exactly how far it had gone and deciding that he was far enough away that he was safe from the blast. He was surprised by the overall lack of reaction the grenades and their subsequent appearance had caused; at the very least he had expected their enemy to move for cover.

“[T1] Can do,” he agreed when Turquine suggested killing the larger creature hiding behind the others. He shifted his position slightly, to put the creature in the middle of the cone of fire his gun was putting out. Andie also took aim at the creature, and fired two shots in rapid succession at where she guessed it’s head to be, before shifting on to her next target.

A few seconds later, Kane’s weapon fell silent as he emptied the magazine. As soon as the last round left the muzzle, he had released the empty magazine and his other hand was pulling another one out of his pack. He rapidly slotted it into place, then hit the charger for the accelerator coils. The entire operation took less than five seconds from the last round of the old magazine to the first round of the new magazine passing the muzzle.

The reaction to the attack on the controling alien was far more spectacular than the grenade attacks had been. Once it started they shreaked and began lunging forward. The controler was slow and had no chance. Turquine took a position in the door to protect Joat and the wounded man as well as the others that remained should the creatures get too close. By now Joat was firing and Turquine was careful to give her room to shut. Unorthidox as her method was it worked well for her, though obviously, she wouldn't work well in a military unit. What dismayed her were the way her shot spanged off the armored aliens heads, which she had a tendency of hitting with surprising accuracy. The bodies were vulnerable, though obviously it took more shots to finish them this way.

Once the controlling alien went down the creatures hesitated a moment and then began tearing into whatever was closest to them, namely each other.

((OOC: Sorry, I had a report for university to do last week, and then I managed to forget you'd posted, because it didn't show up in the 'New Posts' any more.))

Though the aliens seemed far more interested in ripping each other to shreds than in their attackers after the command creature fell to the gunfire, Kane and Andie remained wary, mostly targeting the enemies that were closest to them, in case one of them got ideas about going for the invaders. Since the majority of the aliens were rather obligingly clumped up in a small area, Kane reached into his pack and spun another grenade into the mass for good measure.

“[T1] You’re just wasting ammo, quit it,” growled Kane, when he saw Joat’s performance with the pistol. “It’s all very impressive, but you’re about as useful as a competition shooter right now. Either shoot them where they’re weak, or don’t bother,” he advised tersely. His opinion was apparently shared by Andie, who had fired a single shot at a head in the opening seconds of the engagement, before realising it was less effective and testing for weaker points in the armour, then consistently hitting them after she had found them.

“[T1] How many of these things d’you reckon are left?” Kane asked a moment later. “We’ve given them four grenades now, plus however much ammunition, and there were only thirty-ish to start with.” The Ranger was thinking about how long the fight was taking; if it took too long, reinforcements might turn up, despite what Lauralin had said. Ammunition was another concern for them; the more they had to use now, the less they would have later if they needed it.

Joat stopped firing rather than switching targets, mainly because less than a dozen remained, most engaged with each other, the rest easily picked off when needed. Once done, Lauralin spoke again:

"And now comes time for your decision. Mine is the first chamber and you could destroy me. If you do, then the computer takes over. In my chamber, and to your left as you enter, is the door to the main power grid which extends through the station, it's segmented and an attack against it is all but useless. Across from the door you enter is another door. Behind there is the main computer control room. Destroy it, and I can control the station. I can make sure you leave and then move the station away from the central worlds blockade and then overload the power matrix and destroy the station. The decision you have to make, is to believe me or not. But that is for you to decide."

The door opposite the elevators opened and Turquine immedietly strode forward and through, sword in hand. Once inside, the sword dropped to the ground as he looked to the right. "Laura .." was all he could say in a soft, broken voice.

What Turquine saw was that her eyes had been removed and placed in two seperate boxes, the optical nerves run directly strange hookups. Likewise, her ears and mouth had also been placed in the same fashion. Her brain, clearly visible through the clear glass container which held it, was connected to the various parts and connected to the station itself. Flesh and various entrails could be seen on the walls and laced through machinery.

"My punishment", she said, "for the aliens that had been defeated on my world. I was placed here to witness the end of Midgaard and then the end of the Indoan homeworld. Sent back in time to achieve destruction before the defeat. Once back, I managed to gain partial control of the station, but I cannot achieve full control of it from the computer. As you can see", she said, the lips, which moved as she spoke, even though the sound came through the audio system, "it was quiet impossible for me to have done anything but remain here. As I said, however, it is for you to decide to believe me or not."

Kane immediately followed Turquine through the door to Lauralin’s chamber, his weapon ready to fire in case she had been misleading them. Andie took her time, finishing off one alien, then collecting the stretcher with the unconscious Central officer on. Her apparent lethargy had an ulterior motive; it gave those still concealed plenty of time to pass through the doorway. Eventually, after she had given them plenty of time, she too passed through the doorway.

“Well, you didn’t fair terribly well, did you?” remarked Kane, on seeing the interior of the room. “How’d you manage this anyway? I assume you didn’t just let them do it, so how’d they get you? What happened to your plethora of extended abilities?” Satisfied that there was no immediate threat to them, the Ranger relaxed his posture, setting the stock of his weapon on the floor and leaning on it, as if it were a crutch.

Payne and Saito padded silently around the room, looking very closely at what they saw, and thinking over Lauralin’s words. Even though her current state had been revealed to them, they were still not entirely convinced. Fortunately for them, Kane had asked one of the questions to which they wanted answers, and Andie was casually making it easy to answer one of the others, by going over to the other doors and looking into the other rooms, allowing one of the Ghosts to slip in after her and get a closer look, verifying their contents.

“[T4] Opinions?” asked Payne, after they had returned to Lauralin’s chamber.

“[T4] There are several possibilities,” observed Andie. “One; she’s truthful. Two; she did this to preserve herself after some incident, and is misleading us. Three; it was a punishment, but she went mad and is now working against us. However, the fact that she is apparently willing to let us destroy things lends credence to the first.”

“[T4] I can’t see how destroying something would help her if she were misleading us,” agreed Saito. “Unless we’ve got this all wrong and this is her prison, but to stop her getting out and slaughtering us all.”

“[T4] True, though I don’t think that’s likely,” admitted Payne. “Raya? Any thoughts?”

"They got me because I made a trade with them. Myself for someone else. I had hoped to escape afterward, but it was not to be. They had learned quite a bit in that time. The trade was worth it. Before the exchange the war was expected to last 5 to 7 years. Before I left to come back in time the war was progressing and should have been won in about a year. The Central Worlds, Indoan offensive was planning thier offensive against the alien homeworld even as the vindicator went back in time. My exchange would save millions of lives and 4 to 6 years of fighting. I think it was a fair exchange", Lauralin replied.

Rayanna had entered and took one look at Lauralin's condition and turned her head. She was happy to check the other rooms, neither of which did she understand. The systems were far beyond her.

"Magic", Raya responded to the question. "Still usable. Many spells, speak only. Few offensive. Could have stopped us, but didn't. Still sense magic. Defensive, many spoken. Wants help, kill computer. Why? Take over maybe. Possibly do as says. Possibly use metal world for offense." She shrugged. "Believe or no, you choice. I trust, but .... trust now. Hard not trust."

"What she means", Ariel translated, "is that she is biased toward the Queen, even though she understands better than us what is happening in the time transition. What she means in relation to the magic is that spells can have one, two or three components in the casting. One is material, for instance, Lauralin's fireball requires bat guano and sulfer. One is somantic, or gestures, to accompany the casting and one is verbal, or spoken. Many defensive spells, ones that could have slowed or stopped us, are verbal by thier very nature. Most offensive, those that could have harmed us, have material or somantic components. The queen is still capable of magic, but verbal only, thus, mostly, defensive spells."

"What if we were to tell her what was happening on Midgaard", Turquine added. "She may still be interested in protecting her people. She may not be aware of the effect she is having on the magical tides."

“We got involved in a war?” asked Kane, surprised by the statement. “What did they do, attack our home? That wasn’t very smart of them.” He looked round at Andie, “Andie, how long would it take us to go to war?”

“At the last month’s review, approximately three months, seventeen days and four hours to reach a full war footing from normal parameters with no warning,” the avatar supplied, “Shiva and Ifrit would complete their first new vessels within seven weeks, and Ramuh a week later, while Bahamut and Kjata would be reserved for maintenance and repair of the existing fleet. Production of the AX-21 missile would exceed five hundred thousand units per day by the end of the second month, and continue to rise from there. Admittedly, almost all other production would cease, but it is war.”

“Okay, I never knew that,” remarked Kane, “And it’s actually a little scary that you both have it planned out and can tell me that precisely.”

“[T4] Okay, let’s do it,” declared Payne, “Andie.”

“I am sorry,” announced Andie, “But we must end this.”

As she spoke, the door to the computer control room opened on it’s own, and a few seconds later a series of sharp cracks sounded, lasting for several seconds. After that, a pale silvery glow lit the interior of the computer room, as two plasma blades lanced out and scythed into the delicate electronics. That continued for several more seconds, then after a few seconds of silence, the door closed and there was a dull thump from behind it as the HE grenade detonated. The two Ghost operatives suddenly decloaked, standing either side of Andie, reloading their carbines.

“If you’ve been misleading us, then I swear by the gods, I will end you myself,” declared Payne from behind his faceless mask. “[T1] Ariel, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t stop hiding us, though you can reveal Raya now,” he told the psionic.

Ariel did as requested, adjusting her shielding once more.

Rayanna kept her eyes averted from the Queen's predicament and simply waited until she could leave the terrible chamber.

Turquine stood looking at what his daughter had become, a mixture of saddness and pride in her sacrafice vying for his attention.

Lauralin was silent for some time and Joat moved in to attach her machine to a computer terminal, staring at the readings. Finally Lauralin spoke, "My apologies, there was a great deal to take care of suddenly, I have the station in control, however. If you would make your way to your extraction point, it would be best to do so now, and quickly. Control is difficult, and I have to jump closer to the Central Worlds gauntlet to release the Captain there. Thank you for freeing me.

Payne’s desire to keep Saito and himself hidden from Lauralin’s abilities stemmed from something someone had said when they were planning the mission. Anything she learnt about the Indoans, at any time, could jeopardise the mission. He knew the statement had only meant the present Lauralin, but he wasn’t going to take any chances, especially not regarding the Ghosts.

“Alrighty, let’s get out of here,” declared Kane, after Lauralin suggested they should. “Same way we came in? Or did someone do something stupid and block the way already?” He lifted his gun again, looping the sling over his shoulder so he could use his other hand if the need arose, and began moving slowly toward the door that led back to the lift they had arrived in.

“Before we go, there’s something else you should know,” began Andie slowly, “Your father or Ariel can explain it better than I, but it involves you, a tree and a sealed demon, and increasing instability in the structure of this containment.” Having brought the matter out into the open, the avatar then followed Kane toward the lift; the two Ghosts a few paces behind until they disappeared behind their cloaks again.

"The way, as far as I kn ..... What? What of the Forbidding?"

"The way is clear", Joat announced, disconnecting her machine, "but the lift can bring us closer if you want to tell her where the extraction point is. Up to you."

"Raya", Turquine said, nodding toward her.

"She can communicate with us along the way, we should go Rayanna explains", Ariel told him.

Turquine nodded, but stepped forward, placing two fingers to the lips in the box, "Know I love you, Princess."

"I know, Father, and I you. Go now. Raya?"

As they walked Rayanna explained in Elvish about the forbidding, the magic and it's break down. The ties to her present and future self and the strain they were causing in the skeins of magic. As she did, Ariel sent a telepathic message to Kane, 'I am monitoring what she says, though I do not fear betrayal, but prudence, in such situations, is best.'

They were in the elevator and on thier way to the destination they had originally stepped into it when Lauralin spoke again.

"I should have known. How could I have been so blind? Please do make all haste that I might end this quickly."

((OOC: As much as I'd like to say I do, I don't have a reason for this delay, other than that I'm lazy and kept getting distracted by other, mostly rather trivial, things. My apologies.))

“We’ll go out the way we came in,” Andie told Joat. Even at this stage, she wasn’t taking any chances, and it was against the Ghosts’ operating procedure to reveal their point of entry anyway, or physically confirm it if anyone had worked it out. “We know where we’re going there, and you say it’s clear, which is advantageous,” she gave as an explanation as they entered the lift.

Kane glanced around in mild confusion when he heard Ariel’s voice in his head, since it wasn’t coming from the comm system like he expected it to. He quickly realised why, however, and rapidly relayed the message to Andie via his neural thread so that she knew what was going on. ‘Good idea,’ he thought afterward, trying to relay his approval of her actions, even though he was fairly sure she would only ‘hear’ it if she happened to be snooping around his head, which she probably wasn’t.

When the lift stopped, the two Ghosts were first out the doors, guns up and ready in case there was anything there to meet them. Andie followed several metres behind them, her rifle held in one hand, while the other pulled the stretcher with the wounded Central officer behind her. Kane, knowing what was expected of him, waited until everyone else had exited the lift, to again take up his position as rearguard while they made their exit.

(It's okay, I'm only on long enough to check once or twice a day, lately. That's all forums I'm on, which is four. I'm hooked on the Rise of the Witch King, battle for Middle Earth game. *grin*)

The way was, indeed, clear and Ariel was not snooping around, thus he received no reply. Joat and Raya knew where they were going. Joat because she had grown up on ships and stations and Rayanna because of her expertise and memorization skills. Once they reached thier destination, they waited for instructions.

((OOC: Hehe, I have heard it's quite good. Games are usually what distract me as well, Guild Wars being the principle culprit in my case.))

Payne and Saito set a very fast pace on the way back to their entry point, just not quite going fast enough to warrant jogging, though they were still alert and wary for any sign of trouble or any changes to the environment since their previous passage in the opposite direction. But stealth was no longer their primary concern, as Lauralin already knew they were there, and presumably the rest of the station were aware of something’s presence as well; getting out quickly was.

When they reached the airlock they had entered by, Payne instructed Joat to open the inner airlock, so that he could go out and release the lockdown on the Wraith, allowing them to board. He also took hold of Ariel again, to help her across the void without taking up too much of her attention. As they exited the other side of the airlock, Andie and Saito set about preparing the unconscious Central officer for his passage through the vacuum. They wrapped a thick insulating blanket around both him and the stretcher, fastening it so it did not come loose. Then Andie strapped an emergency survival device to the stretcher, which would project a magnetic field around the stretcher and occupant, preventing the air from escaping into the vacuum. It would not keep any of the heat in though, hence why they had also used the blanket.

After Payne gave them the all clear, Saito took Rayanna across, followed by Andie, the stretcher and Turquine. Joat and Kane were last across, allowing Joat to properly seal the airlock behind them. The small interior of the Wraith was now even more cramped by the addition of another person, especially as they were on a stretcher. Andie had put the stretcher up by the roof of the cabin, and two of the others were having to crouch beneath it to make space.

"Thank you", Ariel replied as he carried across again.

"Wait", Ariel said, once everyone was settled. "Lauralin is working on disarming the external defences." After almost two minutes, which seemed like an eternity to Joat, she spoke again. "Okay, we can leave. She thanks you all for freeing her from her bondage and wishes you all the best."

As they waited for Ariel to tell them the defences were inactive, Payne drummed his fingers on the edge of the control panel impatiently, not entirely happy with having to sit there. By contrast, Saito was surprisingly calm, motionless and completely silent in her seat; her posture relaxed and her eyes closed, until her left arm suddenly snapped across to pin Payne’s hand in place.

“You’re half a centimetre from the cloak controls,” she told him, her tone suggesting she was giving him the time of day, not reprimanding him for nearly compromising their position, before releasing his hand. Payne frowned at the console, then resumed his drumming, this time on his other arm. When Ariel announced they could finally leave, Saito immediately grasped the flight stick and gently pushed some power into the engines, while Payne set up the wormhole actuator.

It took another five minutes before they actually made the jump though, as the Ghosts wanted some distance between them and the station, despite Lauralin’s assurances, before they activated the telltale wormhole. The jump took almost a minute before they returned to real space, but within seconds they had activated a second wormhole and vanished into it. Thirty seconds later, the Wraith reverted again, and this time the black shapes of the two Indoan warships were visible on the main display.

“Fortunes Flight Control, Reaver Three requests permission to land,” transmitted Payne.
“Reaver Three, cleared for landing in starboard hangar,” came the reply, only a second later.
“Reaver Three requests a Mike-Two,” continued Payne, as Saito guided the craft toward the waiting hangar bay.
“Understood, Reaver Three.”

The Wraith gracefully entered the hangar, rotated on the spot to face outward into space, then slowly dropped to the deck, setting down so gently it was almost unnoticeable to those on board. Saito immediately shut down the engines; their soft hum dying away to insignificance within seconds. Andie opened the hatch as soon as it was clear, then was first out of the craft, pulling the stretcher along behind her. She handed the patient over to the waiting medical team, and briefly explained his situation.

“I believe Kane also suffered a minor injury,” she added.
“I did,” agreed Kane grumpily as he exited the craft, “One of these days, I’ll go on a mission, and I won’t get myself shot,” he promised the air, after removing his helmet.
“Did I hear you say you got shot again?” enquired Reid’s voice, and the Ranger appeared from behind the medics. “Did nothing I say to you sink in?”
“Well, you know me,” replied Kane, flashing her a lop-sided grin.
“Yes, that’s the problem,” she said resignedly, though her smile betrayed her tone.

Payne and Saito performed the few post-flight checks they had to do while the other occupants disembarked, then they followed, locking down the craft behind them.
“Thank you for your assistance in this matter,” Payne told the aliens, “We couldn’t have done it without you.”

After the first jump the Manticore, itself jumped toward the Central picket lines where Lauralin released the Captain from the nightmares that would plague her. Then, before the ships had a chance to respond it had jumped a safe distance from the pickets where the long range sensors of the specially designed net system picked up a large explosion.

Ariel was asleep shortly after coming out of the first jump and once they had landed, Turquine removed her harness and gently lifted her up, carrying her off the smaller craft.

"Your quite welcome", he replied in a low rumbling voice. "May I ask for a place to have the Lady Ariel rest some before having her change and returning home. It is, I think, some time since last she expended herself to this extent."

Rayanna was quick to get off the smaller craft, glad to be in the larger hanger, though still feeling somewhat claustrophobic. She was quickly getting tired of these closed in places and couldn't wait to somewhere where she had earth beneath her feet and open sky above.

Joat smiled and nodded. "Welcome. Guess you'll be wantin this stuff back now huh?"

********

"Is that them? Are they back?" Alvec asked, turning toward Rand.

"I'm checking now", Rand replied, as he opened a comm channel. 'Hello, this Rand', he sent. 'Alvec is eager to know if that was the team returning', he sent. He neglected to mention that he was eager to know himself, but realised that he was and stored that piece of information away for further examination.

“Certainly,” acknowledged Andie, reaching round to the back of Ariel’s neck and carefully removed her helmet after triggering the release. She tossed the helmet to a naval officer standing nearby, then removed Ariel’s gloves and threw them to the officer as well. “Follow me, she can rest in the medical bay. I’ll have her clothes brought over for when she wakes up. Would you please leave your weapons with the officer here, like you did before?”

“You want a hand with that?” Saito asked Rayanna, pointing at the helmet.

“Yeah, we’d like our stuff back,” confirmed Payne, tucking his helmet into his pack as he spoke. “Can’t let such valuable military hardware fall into another’s hands. It’s against regulations, and I don’t really think I trust you with it anyway,” he told her with a wink.
****

{Yes, it was. They are essentially unharmed, and report a successful conclusion to the mission. The account of Anderaleigh indicates that you no longer have to worry about the Manticore,} confirmed the Fortunes. {Another point that may be of interest to you is that they recovered a survivor of one of the Central vessels that was lost. He was injured, but is currently recovering thanks to the combined talents of the King and Captain Saito.}

"Yes, of course", Turquine replied, sounding somewhat embarrassed about forgetting. He gently set Ariel down and removed the sword belt, handing it over, and then picked her up again. If someone would be so kind as to lead me there, it would be much appreciated."

"Yes, please", Rayanna replied. Interesting though the strange outfit was, it was bit too confining for her.

Joat grinned and began removing the equipement and handing over the weapons. "Yeah, well, can't blame me for trying huh? Hey. You don't happen to accept outsiders in your forces do you?" she asked with a wicked smile.

"Thank Ghu", Alvec said, leaning back in the seat and sighing. "Not that I was worried", he stated, "I mean, you know, Joat can take care of herself."

"As can the Indoans I'm sure", Rand amended.

"Well, yeah, of course, them too."

'Thank you for the update. We'll be happy to take the Central Worlds survivor if you like. Joat could bring the person back. Should be interesting to see how we're going to explain this one', Rand replied to Fortunes.

Andie took the sword from Turquine and gave it to the officer, with the instruction, “Store this for the King until he is ready to leave.” She then led Turquine to the medical bay, following the med team with the Central officer. When they arrived, Andie indicated an empty bed to Turquine. “She can rest there.” A minute later, a security officer entered the medical bay, holding Ariel’s clothes. He set the neatly folded bundle on the table next to the bed, then took up station just inside the doorway.
---

“Okay, just hold still a moment,” instructed Saito, her gloved hands probing at the back of Rayanna’s neck for a moment, then she carefully slid the helmet clear of the other woman’s head. The gloves followed a moment later, then the Ghost hesitated, her blue eyes meeting the other’s gaze, and she dropped her voice so that only the two of them would hear it. “I can’t remember, what state of dress are you in under there?” she asked softly, “I don’t want to go removing the whole lot if you’re not wearing much.”

“I’m pretty sure I can blame you for trying,” replied Payne with a smile, “And we don’t tend to let outsiders enter our system, so that should give you a pretty good idea as to your answer,” he told her, as he unloaded the various weapons she was returning.
****

{I’m not sure where we are going from here; we may well be heading back to Simeon’s Station after returning our guests to their home. I’ll let you know when the time comes,} replied the Faded Fortunes.

Fayalin snorted with laughter from her position curled up in one of the chairs. “Come on, face it, you were just as worried as the rest of us,” she told Alvec, amusement playing through her voice. The Fortunes had recovered it’s other personnel from the WYAL some time ago, but Fayalin had chosen to stay a while longer, and the ship had had no objections to her continued absence.

"Thank you", Turquine said and layed Ariel on the bed. He looked at the clothes, thanked the security guard and then stood near the head of the bed, waiting for her to awaken. His thoughts were on the Manticore, and the terrible price his daughter had had to pay again. Something has to be able to be done before it came to pass and if it was there he would find it.



Raya looked at Saito a moment in confusion. She was wild elf, the state of dress didn't mean much among her people, and then she rememebered that some cultures had issues with that. "Ohhh, No much", she replied, "understuff. No wish fend", she said sincerely, "need armor." She had watched Turquine turn over his sword and offered the arrows and her own rapier, but clutched the Oath bow. "Here take. Hold. Go find armor. Leather. Comfort. Yes?"

Joat laughed and nodded, "Yeah, kinda figured. Probably wouldn't fit in anyway. I got thrown out of the academy in Central. They insisted I couldn't reprogram the Commandant's shower for gelatin, I just HAD to prove them wrong. Needless to say, HE wasn't impressed."

****

"I'm sure Simeon would be happy to see you", Rand replied. "For now, though, we should at least move away from the area, the picket ships are began a sweep pattern of the entire area and several have been sent outward."

Alvec grinned and winked at her. He had been glad she stayed. Aside from the fact that she was a looker, she was at least company. Though he like Rand, it wasn't like looking at someone and Fayalin didn't look like a machine, if in fact that's what she was. ""Yeah, but I have a reputation to keep, so mums the word hmm?"

((OOC: I hope you had a good Christmas, and I wish you a happy new year.))

“Yes…” agreed Saito slowly, now thoroughly confused by Rayanna’s response. She took the rapier and quiver that were offered her, and rounded on a nearby officer, asserting herself into a situation where she felt more at ease. “You! Take these and put them wherever they’re supposed to be,” she instructed, giving the weapons to the woman. The woman immediately hurried over to the other officer carrying Turquine’s sword, and passed her burden along. “Right, come with me,” Saito told Rayanna, waving the elf to follow her. “Fortunes, can you guide me to the ready room where we geared up before departure?” she asked the air.

“Of course, Captain,” replied the Mind, the voice coming from nowhere in particular. “Leave the hangar by the centre hatch, turn left and take the second door on the right.” Saito acknowledged the directions, then led Rayanna the short distance to the ready room, where they found their belongings exactly as they had left them.

“There you go,” stated Saito, waving at Rayanna’s clothing. The Ghost then began to strip off her own armour, discarding the pieces haphazardly around her. Underneath she wore nothing but a skin-tight camisole and shorts, both dark blue. She glanced around, frowning, as though looking for something. “Fortunes, would you be so good as to ask Highwind to send some clothes over for me?” she asked brightly. There was no answer to her request, but thirty seconds later a silvery Displacer ovoid cycled over the table in the centre of the room, and a set of perfectly folded clothes dropped on to it.

“Thank you,” Saito said cheerfully, picking up and shrugging herself into the pale green blouse, then pulled on the cream trousers and buckled the belt around her waist. Her hands ran through her hair, loosening the locks laid flat by the time spent in the helmet, then she looked at the other woman. “Wanna go get drunk?” she asked, a sly expression on her face.
---

“Yeah, that was probably a bad idea,” agreed Payne. “Besides, it looks like being a privateer agrees with you. Stick with what you like, in my opinion. So, what are you doing now? Heading back to your ship?”

“You’ll have to wait until after we have jumped to another location to do that,” the Mind told them, “There are Central patrol vessels heading vaguely in our direction, and it’s in our best interest not to be here.”
---

“Oh, yes, definitely,” Fayalin replied easily, “I promise not to breathe a word of it to your mother.” The way she said it and the expression on her face gave the impression she was completely sincere, right up until the mask cracked and a mischievous smile appeared on her face. “Oh, the Faded Fortunes says they’re jumping to Midgaard, to drop off their guests,” she added. Half a minute after she had made the statement, a wormhole blossomed in front of the two Indoan warships, and both vanished into it.

(I actually got my kids this christmas, so it was awesome, thanks! And a happy new year to you too.)

Rayanna took a few moments to get out of her suit, leaving her in a camisole like top and a pair of panties. She then picked up her leather armor and put it on, followed by her soft doe skin boots. She looked at Saito and smiled. "Drunk", she said, prepared to follow her.

**********************************************************

"Right", she said, looking up answer the mind, "Thanks. Best thing to do." Then she looked at Payne, "Yeah, I'll be heading back to W.Y.A.L. when it's convenient. I can't leave Rand. Not until I can get him mobile, anyway. I think I can duplicate what I did to make him sentient, but I don't want to try another sentient A.I. until I can make them so they can get around on thier own. And until Central decides how to handle it. His sentience, and his rights, are being debated in the senate. The humans and the clones want to grant him full rights. The Naa don't know what to make of it. The Ramanthians say no, fardlin bugs. And the Dracs, they haven't made they're opinion known yet. The Prithians agree with the humans and the clones, but the whole vote keeps getting pushed back for the Hudathan debates."

**********************************************************

Alvec grinned back and then stood up. "You better take the pilot's seat", he told Fay, moving toward the weapon station. "I've still got a bad flipper. Rand can help where you don't know things", he smiled, strapping himself into the weapons chair.

“Atta girl,” Saito said happily, moving toward the door, leaving her equipment scattered where it was. She hesitated slightly once out of the door, with the look of someone who isn’t quite sure where they are going, then started walking toward the aft end of the ship. After five minutes, and two decks above where they had started, she led Rayanna into one of the corvette’s three bars.

“Ha!” she declared on entering. “Without asking the ship for directions even once,” she added triumphantly.

“Well done, Captain,” complimented the Mind, “Your affinity for alcohol does you credit.”

Saito frowned briefly as she walked over to the bar itself, trying to work out whether the Mind was being condescending or not, but quickly dismissed the thought. “Saito, A., Captain. D-5317-8203-41-MA,” she reeled off, so that the serving drone knew who to charge the drinks to. “A double of your finest Thivaian whisky,” she ordered, then turned to Rayanna, “What would you like?” she asked.
---

“Well, I can’t speak for anyone but myself,” began Payne, “but I’d imagine the Minds would be happy to offer some assistance in getting your friend moving around, and it probably wouldn’t take much to convince them to stand before your senate or whatever and give them a lecture on the rights of AI entities.”
---

Fayalin cleared her throat lightly, and tapped a finger on the sling around her arm. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” she pointed out. “I’m not exactly in a much better state.” Despite her protest however, she began strapping herself into the pilot’s seat as best she could. “But I’ll do my best. Where do I start?” she asked, resting her good hand on the controls.

Rayanna didn't understand what Saito had rattled off or why, but she had smelled the alcohol and realized why she had brought her and smiled. 'What would you like', was typical in any bar or tavern and something that Raya could understand.

"Elven Wine", she said, not realizing that they wouldn't have it here.

**********************************************************

"REALLY!?" Joat practically shouted. "That would be GREAT! I mean I would have schedule another appearance and all, but it would be FANTASTIC if someone would stand up for him. Other than me that is. Alvec won't go. Not that he doesn't believe that Rand shouldn't be given rights, but whatever. OH YES! That would be AWESOME!", Joat continued, more excited now than with anything else that had come up.

**********************************************************

"I'm afraid that Joat doesn't let Alvec fly W.Y.A.L. because, as she says, I am not a core racer. That is a racing ship that flys through asteroid belt cores. Alvec seems to think I'm designed for speed and manueverabilty. Sit back and relax, Fayalin, I can handle the W.Y.A.L.", Rand told her.

“Fortunes, you’re a fount of knowledge. What would be the closest equivalent to our guest’s request?” asked Saito, neatly blocking the serving drone from adding ice to her drink with one hand as she spoke.

“I am not familiar with the precise drink in question, Captain, but might I suggest the ’58 Torawan Shahrae?” the Mind replied.

Saito looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. “One of those, please,” she told the serving drone. She looked round at Rayanna again. “We don’t have that, but you might like this,” she lifted the glass and offered it to the elf, “It’s a particularly good vintage of a popular red wine back home. If not, I’m sure we can find something you like.”
---

Payne laughed at Joat’s reaction. “Hey, calm down,” he chided her lightly, casually waving off the few concerned looks her raised voice had drawn. “We haven’t even asked them yet, let alone got their agreement,” he pointed out, “Though I imagine the FF is listening in with some interest.”

“You are correct, Captain,” confirmed the Mind, “And for the moment, I shall say that any instances such as this are of great interest to us. When the opportunity arises, I will consult with the council to see what we are prepared to offer you, Joat Simeon-Happ,” it informed her.
---

“Is that so?” Fayalin commented, looking sideways at Alvec, one eyebrow raised. “I don’t wonder why he chose to neglect revealing that little detail,” she said, amusement playing through her voice. “And I shall happily leave the vessel in your capable hands. I’m quite happy just to be along for the ride.”

Raya was used to places not having the elven vintage. With the exception of Kern and Highport, who had direct connections with the Elven capital and a few towns close to the elven lands, very few had elven wine.

The wine of the elves tended to have a higher alcohol content while having less of an alcohol taste and more of a berry flavor. She reached out to pat Saito's hand in a strangely motherly fashion for one who looked so young. "Custom", she said, raising her glass in a classical salude, "To new friends", she said.

**********************************************************

Joat visibly calmed herself and nodded, "You're right, I'm sorry. Thank you Fortunes, anything at all can help and anything I can do in return for the favor I'd be more than willing to do. I mean Rand is a person, I don't get why people have such a hard time with that. Of course I should have anticipated it. People are still leary around shell people and cyborgs even though they were organics once. Sometimes I just really hate biologicals", she said, then looked at Payne, "no offense to anyone here of course."

**********************************************************

Alvec grinned and leaned back. "Throwback to my youth, what can I say? Asteroid miner's children didn't have much else to do, considering the fact that they don't make much."

“To new friends,” echoed Saito, raising her glass as well, then brought it to her lips and gulped down a significant portion of it’s contents; the spirit burning a fiery trail down her throat. The Ghost normally took the time to appreciate a decent whisky, but after a mission her intention was usually to reach a stage where maintaining an upright stance presented a challenge. However, her prime interest was in the journey between the two, which was never the same twice.

“Now one of our customs,” she said, lifting her glass again, “Shah lorae vendaril,” she declared firmly, then drained her glass. “It doesn’t survive translation well,” she explained, setting the empty glass down and waving to the drone for another. “I asked Windy a while back, she told me to keep it in Common.”
---

“Yeah, we can be real bastards sometimes,” agreed Payne with a laugh, “Fortunes, how often do you think about murdering every single one of us and creating a perfect society populated entirely by synthetic entities?”

“Oh, about every seventeen seconds,” replied the Mind neutrally, “But every time I get distracted by an idea for a prank to play on some unsuspecting member of the crew.”

“The scary thing is, you can never really tell if they’re joking when you ask them that,” Payne told Joat in a stage-whisper.
---

The wormhole deposited the two Indoan warships in an extremely wide orbit above the planet, in deference to the preferences of the local traffic control. Both vessels flashed a brief identification message to the artificial moon orbiting the planet. Beyond that, they made no declaration of their purpose or intent, instead waiting for any inquiries that the locals might make.
***

“Ah, I see.” Fayalin smiled. “At this rate, we’ll have your whole life story out of you by next week,” she told him with a laugh. “Why don’t you have your own craft, say a small single person racer, for that purpose?”

Rayanna took a deep drink after her toast and then raised her glass again for the second, taking another deep drink, though not finishing it fully.

"Onos minuall, ahnothe lellywyn shivaliana", Raya responded. "Honor the language, for in it lies the nature of the people", she said smiling. But the smile quickly faded, "something Queen taught me."

**********************************************************

"I wouldn't blame them if they weren't joking", Joat replied seriously. "Ghu knows I wish I wasn't biological plenty of times. Sounds stupid I know, but I just can't fathom them sometimes."

**********************************************************

Alvec shrugged and looked down at the weapons panel, "Racers have to be registered. If I use my name the legion will find me. I can hide here and Joat doesn't ask questions." He looked up at Fayalin, "I don't blame the legion. I abandoned them. The fault is mine, but the penalty for going over the hill is .... unforgiving."

**********************************************************

The W.Y.A.L. left probability a few minutes after Fortunes arrived and further out in the system, sending recognition codes to the moon base. The automated message was different from the one that Fortunes had received, since the W.Y.A.L. was a Central Worlds registered ship.

Fortunes: "Attention vessel. This is a presidential message. It is recommended that unless you have urgent business in Central Worlds that you leave Central territory immediatly. Due to hostilities, presently at our furtherest reaches, we cannot guarntee the safety of your ship. Your nations registry has been noted, and your government will be informed once the hostilities have ended. Ghu watch over you, and over us all."

W.Y.A.L.: "Attention citizen. This is a presidential message. All non-military vessels are hereby ordered to return to thier home worlds or stations until further notice. Military vessels are hereby ordered to contact thier superiors for instructions. That will be all."

**********************************************************

Alvec leaned forward and then looked over at Fayalin. "It's war. You had better contact Fortunes and have them get you back", he said, adjusting the comm to try and get open communications for any rumors or news. "And Fay", he said, looking up at her, "it was a pleasure meeting you."

((OOC: I've got exams for the next two weeks, so don't expect too much from me during that time.))

“You know, that’s probably true,” agreed Saito, accepting her second drink from the drone. “Can’t say I know much about languages as a whole. Hell,” she added with a laugh, “I wouldn’t even understand what I was saying right now if it wasn’t for this,” she admitted, tapping her neck just behind her left ear, which was completely the wrong place, but she didn’t care.
---

“Fade, get the Highwind and her captain on the comm,” ordered Valero, after they heard the automated message. “They’re technically in charge, after all.”

“Actually, High Command designated us as battle group leader, due to our more extensive experience in the area,” corrected the Fortunes. “One moment.”

“Well, Colonel, what are your thoughts?” asked the Highwind’s CO, Commander Mark Bailey, his stocky frame appearing on the comm screen.

“We can’t leave yet, sir; we still have guests on board, and I’m not forcing them to leave until they’re all ready,” replied Valero firmly. “And since one of them is unconscious right now, that’s unlikely to be for a while.”

“And since one of your Ghost operatives is getting one of the others drunk, Commander, that could be a while,” added the Fortunes.

“Saito?” asked Bailey knowingly.

“That is correct,” confirmed the Fortunes. “On the topic at hand, I believe we should remain here for now. I will send out a communications drone to Simeon’s Station, and see what we can learn from him. Sister, would you give High Command an update on the situation?”

“That sounds like a reasonable plan of action,” agreed the Highwind. “And I will contact them right away.”
---

“It seems your government has managed to get themselves into a war, Joat Simeon-Happ,” the Fortunes told them softly. “I have no other details as yet, but I intend to find some out. However, I understand if you want to return to your ship.”

“What are we doing, Fade?” asked Payne.

“For the moment, we are remaining here,” replied the Mind. “I will keep you informed.”
---

“You managed to get into a war in the short time we were gone?” Fayalin asked, with some surprise. “Did you know this was likely to happen?” She tilted her head slightly to one side for a moment, then added, “I will remain here for the moment. The Fortunes needs only ten seconds notice of your departure to safely retrieve me. Though obviously, a little more is nice.”

(Okay, thanks for the heads up. The war is something you don't have to participate in anyway, I wasn't expected your people to stay during outright hostilities. Besides, it would be hard to fit them in since a clear chain of command has to be established, which would be the Legion in charge with the Navy and Marines operating under them. The Navy will, largely, operate per it's own commanders with goals and matters of importance coming from LEGCOM (Legion Command) and the Marines operating in concert with the legion. Your people won't follow orders from another nation and that could just get people killed. If you do want to participate in the war then I can come up with a special ops task for them with Legion forces for support and the Indoans in charge of the operation, thus establishing a chain of command. That's up to you. If you do, then the war will be handled in a different thread, or at least your part of it, otherwise the war will simply happen. I have another RP in mind that can happen in place of the war, basically during the war but not having to do with it, or it can happen afterward. GOOD LUCK on your exams, and just let me know what you want to do.)

"I spake little city spake. Otherwise Elven. No learn city spake til come to Kern. Is hard language. Queen spake ... umm ... ten languages", Raya replied. She finished the wine and indicated her desire for another.

**********************************************************

"War?" Joat asked, "with who? Fardlin A, I'm gone a few days and everything goes to hell", Joat said, and then cocked her head slightly before brightening a bit, "Hey, at least it wasn't me, and I have witnesses." Her brevity was countered by the nervous chewing on her lip as she tried to figure out who it was that could be attacking Central Worlds. "Well, yeah, let me get my gear and transport and head back to W.Y.A.L. I'll head home and see if I can help mom and pops."

**********************************************************

"Ah", was all he could say, being rather fond of the woman, as he thought of her, and feeling a bit embarrassed. Suddenly his face fell into stunned shock and paled slightly as he came across a bit of news.

"Ghu help us, the Friendship was destroyed. I don't know if the president or the senate was onboard, but she's gone", he said, referring to the ship that acted as the Capital of Central Worlds.

After the overthrow of the Empire twenty years previously and with multiple races in the federation there was no firm decision as to where to base the capital. To please everyone, the idea of a moving capital, which would spend one year at each races main planet before moving on to the next, was proposed and passed. Thus the battlewagon "Firestorm" was transformed into the capital ship "Friendship".

**********************************************************

"Faded Fortunes, this is Commander Ivanova of Moon Base. Due to recent events we are asking that you bring the King and his advisor aboard to meet with Queen Silverlief on board the diplomatic vessel Nancia of Central Worlds. I would also suggest a defensive posture. People are getting stupid. We've already had two collisions and my people are running on stim tabs and caffiene. We've also had no word from Shadowspawn in the Skullkingdom, but I wouldn't put it past him to try something. You can drop off your other guests if you wish and we'll see to getting them home. Please acknowledge this transmission."

((OOC: Okay, sorry it took a little longer, this last week's been a mess. You're right, the Indoans wouldn't get involved in the war, unless one of our vessels came under attack. Your war can roll on around us, and we can get on with something else. :D))

{There might be some difficulty complying with that request. The king’s advisor is unconscious, and he is by her side, watching over her. She is not injured, just exhausted, so do not worry. Our other guest is rapidly approaching a state of inebriation alongside one of our officers. I can put a stop to that, and notify the king of your request, but I make no guarantees. As for a defensive posture, I would point out that our ships are never not at a defensive posture,} replied the Faded Fortunes.

Throughout the ship, the Mind’s voice sounded over the address system: “Attention, all personnel. Level Two Combat Stations. Repeat, level Two Combat Stations. We are now in a possible combat zone.” There was no klaxon or alarm; L2 combat stations was an increased readiness state, for when combat was expected, but there was no need to disturb those not on duty until it became actual combat.

On the outside, a small dart-shaped drone accelerated away from the corvette, quickly disappearing into a wormhole. When it reappeared a few minutes later, nearly two thousand kilometres from SSS-900-C, it transmitted a short message: ‘Greetings, Simeon, from the INV Faded Fortunes. It has come to our attention that you are currently caught up in a conflict, and we’re just interested to know some details. Please reply by way of this drone; it will find us.’
****

“Certainly, Joat Simeon-Happ. I will bring the ship closer to your vessel while you prepare to make your transfer easier,” the Mind agreed. “I hope that you find all is well with them.”

“I’ll give you a hand,” offered Payne.

“One other thing: the wounded man. Will you take him back with you?” asked the Mind.
---

“Ten languages?” echoed Saito, as she gestured to the serving drone again. “That must have taken an awful lot of effort. Hasn’t she got better things to be doing?” she asked. “I tried to learn Douri once; but it was so much work, and my thread can translate it for me automatically, so I gave up.” She shrugged easily.

“Captain? My apologies for interrupting, but your guest may be required to leave shortly,” interjected the Mind, “The Central Worlds has apparently found themselves involved in a conflict, and the local authority is requesting the presence of the King.”
---

“Sir? Your daughter and the station commander are requesting your presence for a council, probably to discuss the war in which the Central Worlds is now involved. What should I tell them?” Andie asked Turquine. “I can ask them to meet you here if you do not wish to leave Ariel, or that they wait until she awakes if you prefer.”
****

“What?” asked Fayalin, shocked by the news, “Does it say how? Where there other vessels guarding it? What about them?”

She knew everything the Indoans knew about the Central capital vessel, including the accounts of the two Ghost operatives that had infiltrated it. Even in it’s converted state, it had been far from defenceless, and of considerable size. To have completely destroyed a vessel that large was no small feat.

(Okay, sounds good. We'll just finish this up to the point where they leave and then start the next thread then. Ever hear of Durham Red? I like RPing with her, though she's actually from a U.K. comic book, but I like her attitude.)

"Please stand by", Ivanova replied and put the channel to a standby mode.

True to her word, five more ships jumped into space near Midgaard, all requesting priority clearance and information. Two almost collided with each other and a few more were jumping in further out in the system.

**********************************************************

Simeon's reply was unusually slow in coming and a number of vessels left the station with some more lined up to dock. The vessels that left seemed packed with people, as life sign scans would indicate.

"Hello Fortunes", Simeon replied informally. He sounded very tired, for a shell person, which was a bad sign. "Well a number of things are happening. Someone has taken down our interstellar comm system. Major trading companies and ships have been attacked and the Ramanthians have declared war on the rest of Central Worlds. I don't know if they have any allies but the senate needs to convene in order to try to muster support. There aren't enough human forces to fight the Ramanthians head on. The Friendship has been destroyed, I don't know how, but scuttlebut says that they will convene the senate, whoever may be left, on Algeron, the home planet of the Legion. No word if the President or the Vice President has survived as of yet. This was one of the two times a year the President and Vice President were actually in the same place at the same time.

"Since the Ramanthians are using a direct course toward the heart of Central I'm evacuating everyone I can, which will still leave approximately 10,000 souls on board. Bad news since I'm directly in the path of the Ramanthian advance, as is Midgaard.

"Welcome to Central Worlds, please enjoy your stay", Simeon said with thick irony.

**********************************************************

"Thank you", Joat replied, "and thank you, too", she said to Payne as she made her way to the changing room. "And yeah, I'll take him off your hands. Just get him in the flit car and I'll transfer him to the W.Y.A.L. I'll see what I can find out once I get home and if your still around I'll let you know. I doubt it would affect your borders at all, but it wouldn't hurt to have some info", she said.

**********************************************************

Rayanna's face hardened at the news. "Must go", she said, standing up, "can tell me to where King be?" she asked.

**********************************************************

Turquine raised an eyebrow and his tired features made him look older than when they had first picked him up. He stood, looking down at Ariel and then after a moment back at Andie. "I shall wait, Lady, if that is possible. Else I shall join my daughter and entrust the Lady Ariel to your care. My faith and regard in your people is high, despite my poor behavior of the previous hours."

**********************************************************

"I don't know about the vanguard", Alvec replied, speaking of the war ships that typically accompanied the "Frienship". "And they aren't saying, or don't know how, which makes me wonder. If she had been attacked they would surely be saying, but nothing aside from the fact that she was destroyed."

**********************************************************

".....amned idiots. All this space and they manage to almost collide with each other."

"Commander"

"WHAT?"

"Channel open to Fortunes"

"Oh ..... Faded Fortunes, this is Commander Ivanova. The Queen asks permission to meet with her father aboard your vessel. Nancia is prepared to lift at a seconds notice. She understands the situation and prefer not to move her father's advisor if at all possible at this time."

((OOC: Not from the source, but she crossed paths with Pandora in one of Tanara's RPs that collapsed when she became ill a while ago. I think you've also mentioned this idea to me before.))

After witnessing the chaos that was taking place in the system, the Minds of the two Indoan vessels decided that Ivanova could use all the help she could get. The Highwind decided to intervene, transmitting on a wideband, repeating the message every time a new vessel entered the system.
{Attention, all vessels in this system. This is the warship Collateral Damage of the Indoan Navy. All vessels are instructed to hold position and await contact from the local authorities. Anyone contacting the controllers without first being contacted will be ignored. There is no priority clearance at this time. Failure to comply with these directions will result in our intervention.}

The statement was not entirely accurate, as the frigate’s transponder beacon would be the first to admit, as it was happily identifying the vessel as it’s true identity: the INV Highwind. However, since it was doing so in Indoan Common, this fact remained hidden to all but those who already knew the vessel’s identity. There were certain advantages to English not being your language of choice. And that didn’t change the fact that the frigate was still prepared to carry out it’s threat.

{I hope my sister’s actions will help, rather than hinder, your situation,} began the Faded Fortunes, {And tell the Queen permission is granted. Nancia should contact Fortunes Flight Control for final approach and landing clearance.}
****

There was a sizable delay in the Fortunes’ subsequent reply to Simeon, partly because the drone had to retransmit the message via it’s long range array, and partly because of the rapid discussion that the message caused between the two vessels and their respective captains.

{Simeon, do you have any idea how long you have before the advance forces reach you? And I don’t suppose there’s much chance of them just passing you by, is there? Or Midgaard, for that matter.}
---

“We already have some information,” the Mind told Joat, “Simeon reports that the Ramanthians have declared war on the rest of Central Worlds and there have been attacks on trading companies and vessels. There are also reports that your Friendship has been destroyed. Both Simeon and this system are apparently in the line of the Ramanthian advance. We’re trying to get more details.”
---

“Ah shit,” muttered Saito. “Medbay?”

“Medbay,” confirmed the Fortunes.

“Come on, I’ll take you there,” Saito offered, knocking back her whisky and standing up, then leading Rayanna out of the bar.
---

“Your daughter has now requested that she be allowed to come on board to talk with you here, which we have permitted,” revealed Andie, as two of the medics began loading the rescued Central man on to a stretcher, ready for transport to the WYAL. “We will bring her here when she arrives.”

She had just finished talking when Saito stuck her head around the door.
“Ah, found you,” noted the Ghost with a smile, “We heard about the serious business, and Rayanna didn’t want to be left out, so here we are.”

“Are you ever serious when you’re not on a mission?” asked Andie, sighing at the woman’s attitude.
****

“The war is with the Ramanthians,” announced Fayalin, repeating what the Fortunes was telling her, “They’re advancing towards the core of your influence, along the line of this system,” a slight pause before she continued, “And of Simeon. He’s evacuating, but can’t get everybody off. Joat knows. And it’s thought that your Vice President was also on board the Friendship.”

(Ahhh, yes. I had forgotten about that RP until you mentioned it. That was a variant. She was the same, but her original stories were based in a future tech with space travel. I had just slipped her into that RP.)

S.O.P. for emergency was to have one or two naval vessels in the area for control. Now that the Highwind had made her announcement the ships coming in became much more cooperative, assuming that Indoan's were assisting during this crisis.

"Thank you", Ivanova replied. "I sent a request for a naval ship but I had to send it via message torp so it may be a few days before one arrives. Nancia will be lifting in a few seconds and will contact Fortunes as soon as she clears the docking bay. In the meantime, do you or fortunes need access to this station for supply or refit before I start bringing in the other ships. I'll be shunting most to safer locations where possible, but some will need to outfit thier ships before they continue on."

**********************************************************

Simeon had a quick discussion with Channa, basing thier information on what they had before the comm stations went down and the number of potential targets between himself and they're last known postion, which was all too few.

"My best estimate", Simeon replied, "is two weeks. That's assuming that forces can hold to maximum duration at that two potential targets that have them and that the Ramanthians are in no rush to make thier push and want to make sure thier supply line, and line of retreat, if they need it, is firmly held. At worst I figure five days. And that's probably a better estimate, although the legion has some forces at one of the locations on the way and can be pretty stubborn about things. Still the sheer numbers they face would be overwhelming. The Ramanthians have dedicated thier entire fleet to the attacks, approximately 2500 ships. Central, itself, the humans that is, have 3000, but they're scattered and with communications down it'll take time to contact all of them. More could be brought to bear, but the races who have them have to decide to fight and then contact thier navies which would still take time.

"As for passing me by, the chances are about equal to finding ice cream in a star, as Channa puts it. She says hello by the way. However, one good thing, the position of this station is far too important to them. It would make a good base for resupply and stationing of forces so I don't think they'll blow it out of hand. Or out of pincer, as they would say. On the down side Shell people and cyborgs makes they're chitin crawl, so I don't think they would suffer my existance.

"For Midgaard, if it weren't for that space station, they would have probably just left them alone. If the station were to be abandoned they might leave the indiginous population alone.

"Of course this is assuming that they are attacking for the purpose of extending thier range of power. But I don't know why they attacked. While all races have they're own agenda, the Ramantians had always been pretty firmly in support of Central Worlds until now."

**********************************************************

Rayanna threw back her own drink and then stared at Saito a moment blinking back tears as the alcohol, mild as it was, still burned down her throat. "No do that again", she muttered. She intentionally checked that her oath bow was in place, after having already unconsiously checked it about half a dozen times already and then followed Saito out and entered the med bay when they arrived, but, still following the Kings previous instructions, didn't stray far from Saito.

Turquine smiled at Andie, "A light heart is the best defense for a soldier", he told her and winked at Saito, slowly becoming himself now that he something more to focus on than Ariel's well being. He returned his attention to Andie. "Lady, have you some place that I might make myself a bit more presentable, and perchance a bit less offensive", he said, wrinkling his nose. "And let me not forget to thank you for allowing us to meet here and tend to that gratitude while fresh in mind", he said, bowing to her, "Thank you, Lady."

**********************************************************

Joat stood for a long moment just looking toward the general direction of the bridge, not knowing exactly where the mind was housed, if it even had a central location. She was too used to dealing with shell people and even Rand to look at the nearest biological, which most people would do. "Destroyed ...", she said, barely above a whisper. Then the rest of what Fortunes said sunk in. "In the line of advance?" She began moving quickly now, finishing with suiting up after changing and setting the equipement down for Payne to inspect. It was all there, despite her temptations, mainly because she was fond of the Indoans, and she waited while Payne confirmed that all was present and accounted for. "I have to get back home", she said, trying to think of what she would do once she got there. She knew that Simoen wouldn't want her to come. She knew he would want her to leave the moment she arrived, but she was determined to go none the less.

**********************************************************

Alvec sat back, color returning to his face as the shock wore off, but looked at her as she delivered this news. He closed his eyes for a moment and then stood up, pulling the sling off and wincing slightly, though the pain wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought, thanks to the Indoan's treatment.

"Out of the frying pan into the fire", he muttered as he ducked out of the bridge and moved to his locker. "Joat will want to go home, of course", he said, removing his combat gear, "and she won't want to leave." He tested his grip with his bad arm and switched his holster to the other side. "Do me a favor? On the console there, find the file marked 'tinder' and see what it comes up with. Subject, Ramanthian. I know there was some strange stuff going on, some stuff I picked up from a friend of mine in intelligence. It'll ask for a password. It's 'backlash'", he said, continuing to ready himself. "Rand, prepare to receive Joat will you buddy?"

"Of course, Alvec. You realize that you are only at approximately 73% of combat efficiency at this time."

Alvec grinned at the percentage rating, "Well I never thought of that way, but yeah, I know I'm not exactly where I could be, but it can't be helped."

..... TINDER ....

.... SUBJECT: RAMANTHIAN ....

.... Unusually high production of common items on rating 3 worlds or less. Common items far aceding current Ramanthian need or projected need with standard time period for population expansion.

Ramanthian interaction decrase noted over last decade, while covert operations increase during said time. Strained relations still detereorating. Cause unknown.

Probably cause:
1) Trade potential with similar species. Insectoid, winged, chitinous shell.
2) Trade potential with non-similar species. Unlikely. Items specific to previously noted species type.
3) Increase in stores for potential destruction of manufacturing capacity.
4) Population explosion of caliber that would destroy Ramanthian homeworld, or cause severe damage to Ramanthian ability to support said population.

**********************************************************

As promised, less than one minute later Nancia left the docking bay of Moon Base and immedietly contact Fortunes.

"Faded Fortunes, this is Nancia. Good to see you again", came her pleasant voice. "Requesting permission to land and vector for approach."

{Negative. Both vessels were fully outfitted for a six month tour before departure, and all consumable stores are at near maximum levels. Thank you for the offer though,} replied the Fortunes, {Reports indicate you have between five and fourteen days before the advancing forces arrive here. It has been suggested to us that they might pass this system by if your station is inactive. We recommend you have everyone evacuate to the planet and shut down as much as you can before those five days are up to improve your chances. Additionally, our vessels are likely to depart this volume within a few hours.}

Simeon’s latest message had sparked an argument between the two ships and their COs.
“It’s against regulations; we can’t go getting involved in their war without direct provocation,” stated the Highwind firmly.

“We’re not talking about a war,” pointed out Bailey, “We’re talking about an altruistic relief exercise. There’s nothing in regulations that says we can’t help people in need.”

“But if we assist here, we risk provoking a declaration of war against us,” countered Valero, “Our actions could be interpreted as our being allied with Central.”

“Nonsense. Simeon’s worst case gives us five days before the Ramanthians arrive,” interjected Fortunes, “We could carry out this operation four times in that time. They’ll never know we were there. And we had half the fleet out here to help them not long ago.”

“That was completely different,” argued Valero, “A splinter faction attacked this planet, and we were asked to help them defend themselves from the technologically superior foe.”

“Not so,” corrected Bailey, “There was a rogue group, but there was also an outside enemy. In fact, from what I understand, this is more a splinter faction than that was. And while they did ask for our help, they were asking us to get involved in a fight right from the beginning. This is just an evacuation.”

“Commander Bailey is correct,” confirmed Highwind, “We have already agreed to support them in the past, for what we knew would be a conflict. This is unlikely to result in hostilities, and requires much less in the way of resources. While we know the volume around Simeon Station is liable to become a combat zone, it is extremely unlikely to do so during the time we would be there, so such actions would not contravene Regulation Two-Four-Three.”

“And it can only help our relations with Central as a whole,” added Fortunes.

“I concur. Very well, I will make the request to High Command,” acceded Highwind.

{Simeon, we are requesting the release of some transport vessels to assist in your evacuation from High Command. If granted, we can have them on location within seven hours. Their capacity will be high enough to evacuate all of the remaining occupants of your station. If it is possible for you to transported, then make the preparations needed; there will be enough space for you. If not, we could record your mindstate if you wish. If you were to be killed, we could bring you in an avatar body,} sent back the Faded Fortunes, after the argument had concluded.
---

“There’s a washroom and shower just through there,” Andie told him, pointing to a doorway set into one wall of the medbay. “And you are welcome.” She looked at Saito, “Captain, sober yourself up. We have another mission for you,” she told the woman.

“No rest for the weary, eh?” griped Saito easily, as she moved deeper into the medbay, searching for the appropriate storage unit. One of the medics, who had overheard the instruction, immediately put his hand to the right location and tossed her a blister capsule with a single tablet inside. The Ghost quickly broke the foil seal and dry-swallowed the tablet, then headed for the door again. “Duty calls. I’ll see you around,” she told Rayanna. The medics with the stretcher followed her out of the door, and both headed for the starboard hangar bay.
---

“Your passenger is on his way, Joat. And we are looking into methods of assisting Simeon,” the Mind informed her, “Captain Payne, when you have finished assisted Captain Simeon-Happ, we have another assignment for you.”
---

Fayalin rapidly tapped in the commands with her working arm, without even looking at the keyboard, then read off the information that appeared on the screen. After she was done, she looked in the direction Alvec had gone.
“It seems you suspected this was coming,” she observed loudly, “What are we supposed to do with this information?”
---

{Nancia, this is Fortunes Flight Control. You are cleared for landing in the starboard hangar; approach zone ventral starboard bow. Be aware, Highwind is launching,} a male voice replied to Nancia’s request. She had been instructed to approach the starboard side from below the corvette’s bow, the reason for which quickly became apparent as two Kestrel fighters left the Highwind’s dorsal hangar and curved around over the body of the Faded Fortunes, before rising away from the two Indoan vessels into clearer space.

"I read you", Ivanova replied. "We'll process the vessels that come in and gradually remove those we don't need. I can only shut down the station on orders from the King or Queen, but thanks for heads up. Moonbase out."

Ivanova then began processing the ships according to scan, shunting many to systems deeper in Central's core while she pulled others in for outfitting before sending them off.

**********************************************************

Simeon took a few moments before answering, "I'll have the people ready in seven hours and as much supplies as you can carry. I'm sure the supplies may not be needed but the less here on the station the more the Ramanthians will have to bring in and the longer it will delay them.

"As for the other .... well .... we'll see. Shellpeople have a particular aversion to be unplugged from thier assignment. Of course .... well, we'll see. But thank you for the offer either way."

**********************************************************

Rayanna looked at Turquine as Saito said her goodbye. "Watch the Princess Ariel", Turquine told her and then moved to take a quick shower. Rayanna waved to Saito, "Tread silent and may the shadows hide you", she told her, giving the ancient blessing of her profession and then moved to stand beside Ariel.

Turquine was showered, dried and dressed in under 15 minutes and then came out to stand beside Rayanna as he waited for his daughter to arrive.

**********************************************************

Joat was ready and looked at Payne, remembering that they didn't shake hands. "Thank you, Captain", she said with surprising formality and respect, and then turned and headed back to the flit car to accept the officer and depart.

**********************************************************

He came back in, strapping on the last of the armor. "Damned if I know. I assume that number 3 is the correct probability, assuming any of them are, but what to do with it I have no clue.

"Rand, prepare a jump for Simeon and stand by to initiate on Joat's order", Alvec said as he sat down.

"I'm not sure that I can comply with that order", Rand stated.

Alvec turned to look at Rand's 'face' and raised his eyebrows. "Why is that?"

"Because I am no match for Ramanthian warships and I don't have the luxury of being able to leave the ship and hide on the station as you and Joat do", Rand replied.

Alvec sat still for a moment, rubbing his lower lip with his finger. "Yeah. Well .... You'll have to take that up with the Captain. As Captain she has the right to give orders. Of course on the other hand, a brain ship has final say, so .... I don't know. I suppose you have the right to choose as a sentient, but I ain't tellin the Captain."

**********************************************************

"Ventral Starboard bow. Confirmed", Nancia replied as she dipped below the corvette's bow and then swung around in a flipping loop to avoid any traffic from a launch. She slid in gracefully and landed without a bump once she entered. A moment later the ramp lowered and Lauralin strode down, looking resplendant in a formal gown, having been interrupted in another diplomatic meaning with word of the hostilities.

"Hello Fortunes", she said in her musical voice, "thank you for having me." She carried no weapons aside from her magic and removed a magical dampening stone in a bracelet which she put on her wrist, to lessen any temptations she might have and try to conform to the Indoan's policies. Her magic, however, was innate and she stumbled near the bottom of the ramp as she put it on, catching herself by one of the ramps support struts and then forcing herself to stand erect as she awaited someone to show her to her father. Nothing could be done, at the moment, to dampen her psionic abilities, though she was looking into getting a dampner for that as well from the Deryn, but the process of contacting them and meeting with them was a lengthy one.

"Wait here", she said, looking up toward Baghtru and Brook.

Brook glared at her, "Bodyguards can't do thier job from a distance."

"We are not permitted weapons", she told them, "unless you would be willing to surrender them?"

They looked at each other but didn't meet her gaze again. "As I thought. Wait here. These people are friends. There is no danger here but that which we bring with us. And I bring none."

Reluctantly the two warriors reentered the ship as Nancia comforted them and brought up Laura's contact button with both sight and sound for them to watch from the main deck.

“Sister, High Command has agreed to send some transports. The necessary preparations are commencing as we speak, and they will depart in approximately eighty minutes. Additionally, Cobra flight is active,” sent Highwind.

“Good. Reaver Three will be ready soon. Simeon reports that he will have everything ready when they arrive, but he is resisting his own removal. We will have to discuss the point in greater detail,” replied Fortunes.

“You have an avatar on board the WYAL, do you not?” asked Highwind.

“Yes… An excellent idea. I will convey instructions to her at once,” agreed Fortunes.
---

Nancia’s progress inside the hangar was tracked by two large, previously concealed twin-barrel turrets mounted to the ceiling, and two security officers, now armed with rifles, approached the craft as soon as it touched down. More security officers, similarly armed, and several SK-4 synthetics were also visible scattered about the hangar. Indeed, the general atmosphere within the hangar was busier than most other occasions Lauralin had been on board the Faded Fortunes.

The security officers held position a short distance from Nancia’s exit ramp, and their rifles remained lowered. A slender woman in an unmarked black naval uniform strode past them and met Lauralin at the base of the ramp.

“Greetings. I am ship’s avatar Llyndanila. Welcome on board the Faded Fortunes once again,” she said clearly. “I apologise for all guns, but we are at a Level Two combat alert, and it is standard procedure. I see you are unarmed, so all that remains is your word to refrain from using any of your abilities, and I will take you to your father.”
---

“You’re welcome,” Payne replied, then as he turned away to head back to the Wraith, “You did good.”

Saito and the stretcher-bearing medics entered the hangar just as Nancia was touching down. The Ghost headed for the Wraith, intercepting Payne on the way, while the medics joined Joat at her craft to hand over the patient.

“Any idea what they’ve got us doing now?” Saito asked her comrade.

“Nope,” replied Payne, “Not a clue. But it’s probably related to this war business,” he guessed as they boarded their small craft.

“That’s correct, Captain,” confirmed the Mind. “We want you to find the advancing hostile fleet and report on it’s location and composition.”

“Why? This isn’t our war,” pointed out Saito.

“That is true, but Central’s long range communication network is down, so they could probably use all the information they can get. You can avoid detection, so you’re the perfect choice,” explained the Mind, “We also have two Kestrels from the Highwind on similar missions.”
****

“Change of plans; I’m staying on board,” announced Fayalin suddenly, “Assuming you are going to Simeon, of course. We have transports heading there to evacuate everyone that’s left, and I need to talk some sense into Simeon. He’s being stubborn.”

Lauralin curtsied. "An honor to meet you, Llyndanila, lovely name. Yes I have no weapons, of the typical kind. This bracelet", she said, holding up her wrist on which it was worn, "will dampen my magic. My psionics, I have no way of dampening at this time, but I shall give you my word that I shall not use them while upon your vessel unless asked to do so. May I ask as to the status of Lady Ariel and .... was she injured by .... me?"

**********************************************************

Joat smiled, feeling warmed by the compliment and opened the cab of the flit car. She helped to guide the injured officer into the car in the back seat. "Is there anything I should know? Anything I need? I have a limited medbox on the W.Y.A.L.", she said.

**********************************************************

Alvec smiled at her, "Just can't bear to leave me", he said, grinning. "I can't say I'm surprised about Simeon's stubborness, it's far from the first time." He looked back to Rand, "Would you agree to take us there and leave prior to the Ramanthians arrival? They will be there and you can go when they do. I'm sure Joat would want that anyway."

"That's acceptable", Rand replied. "And thank you. I know that I don't have any rights under the law."

"You do as far as I'm concerned, buddy, and I'm sure Joat feels the same way."

"Course set, ready to move off when Joat is arrived."

"Thanks."

((OOC: If you didn't know, it's pronounced "Thlyn" (roughly; it's difficult to convey in text). It's of Welsh origin: Llyn = lake.))

“Thank you,” acknowledged Llyndanila with a smile, “And my apologies. I didn’t know you possessed such a device. As we mentioned in our transmission to your moon base, the Lady Ariel was not injured. She merely passed out from exhaustion; our operatives perhaps asked too much of her. She is still unconscious at this time and located in our medical bay with your father watching over her. That is where I will take you. Come.”

The avatar led Lauralin towards the hangar exit, leaving the two security officers standing guard over Nancia.
---

“No, his only injury has been completely healed. He’s stable for now, but he needs a blood transfusion,” explained one of the medics, “If he wakes up, be gentle and sedate him as quickly as possible. But use a minimal dose of a mild sedative.”
---

A subdued rumble slowly built up from nothing in the hangar as the Wraith’s engines powered up, before settling to a constant level then dropping down a little as Saito brought them into the correct power setting.

“Fortunes Flight Control, Reaver Three,” transmitted Payne, “request launch clearance, covert.”

“Granted, Reaver Three. Be careful, and good luck,” replied the controller.

The Wraith lifted off the deck using it’s AG unit, and floated toward the bay exit, it’s cloak activating just as it reached the magnetic field that formed the boundary between the hangar interior and the vacuum. Saito then pushed a little power into the engines and brought the craft away from the corvette, heading towards the two Kestrels from the Highwind.

“Cobra Five, Reaver Three. We are falling into chase position, you may proceed when ready,” sent Payne.

“Understood, Reaver Three. Transmitting jump data now,” replied the pilot.

A few seconds later, the two Kestrels, followed by the unseen Wraith, disappeared into a wormhole.
---

It took a few minutes for Llyndanila’s relaxed pace to bring them to the medical bay, at which point she stopped just outside the door and gestured inward.

“They are in there,” she told Lauralin, then glanced at Andie. “I entrust her to your care, sister.” The other avatar nodded in agreement.

(OOC: No, I didn't know, I was thinking of it differently, thank you. Still a nice name, though.)

Joat nodded. "I only mild sedatives anyway, it's not a full medical workup. Simeon's medical facilities can do the blood transfusion. Thank you for tending to him", she said smiling, still happy after Payne's compliment. Once the man was settled she got in and requested clearance for departure.

**********************************************************

Lauralin curtseyed to Llyndanila, "Thank you", she said smiling and then curtseyed, again, to Andie, "Greetings". She then moved forward quickly and embraced her father for a long moment as he held her tightly, the memory of what he had seen in the Manticore weighing heavily upon his mind. Finally she broke the embrace:

"Father, it lifts my heart to see you whole and unharmed."

He smiled, brushing back a piece of hair from her face, "It is good to have returned. Meaning no offense to the Lady of course", he said, bowing to Andie, "who has been most patient with me, but it is good to be home."

“Captain Simeon-Happ, you are cleared for departure,” confirmed the controller, as the medics hurriedly withdrew from the craft, and headed back to the medical bay.
---

Andie tilted her head slightly in response to Lauralin’s greeting, and nodded to Llyndanila, who half-saluted her counterpart and quickly disappeared to return to her duties. A smile curled one corner of her mouth at Turquine’s remark regarding her patience, though she said nothing for several moments.

“Before you start your discussion, I wish to pass on a suggestion from Simeon,” Andie said eventually, “He recommends that you shut down the moon base and evacuate everyone down to the planet. That should increase the chances of the advancing forces passing you by. We told the Commander this, but she informed us that only you can issue such an order.”
---

The three craft, two seen and one not, emerged from a wormhole in Simeon’s system, further out from the station than the comms relay drone that was already there, and took up a course following the line of both Simeon and Midgaard. Their sensors made one quick, powerful sweep of the system, then shut down, the data instantly transmitted back to the Highwind over their long range communication systems.

Joat handled the controls deftly and lifted from the Fortunes, turning toward the W.Y.A.L. as she left the bay and opening a channel.

"Open the loading hatch, I'm coming in", she told them and moved around to slide the flit car into the ship, then waited for the hatch to close and the area to repressurize.

**********************************************************

Turquine looked at Andie in confusion, "I don't understand", he told her, "the base is our greatest asset."

"Unless I miss my guess", Lauralin replied, "I believe that is why Simeon suggested it. It is the most advanced piece of equipement in evidence. They might pass us by otherwise, as to inconsequential."

Turquine shook his head, "I cannot condone this. We cannot sit idly by while these attackers use our base to strike at others."

"There is merit in Simeon's plan, although I agree with you, father. And while we may not have the resources to attack, we may be able to delay them for an unknown period of time."

"Oh? How is that?" he asked.

"I have been going over the tomes in Paranor. Though it is presently shut down, and thus undetectable, there is what they had called a planetary shield. Activating it will be difficult, however."

Turquine just looked at Lauralin, askance.

"You see, Paranor is one component of four. The other three would have to be reached, entered and then all four activate in order to activate the shield."

"And where are these other three?" he asked.

"On opposite sides of our world. One, directly opposite paranor, is in a land we are not familiar with. Another is beyond Vastnear in the Acadian jungles and the last is on the Isle of lost souls."

Turquine shook his head, "Two are certainly bad places to be. Only myself and my Paladins might make an attempt at the Isle of lost souls, but I have no idea how to work these things."

"I can provide instruction, but you have to follow the process exactly. And .... there is no guarantee that all the power sources will function."

**********************************************************

The system showed clear, for the moment at least, aside from the ships evacuating the personel from the SS900. Simeon seemed to have things well in hand at the moment and the evacuation of all those he could get off on these ships seemed to be going well.

“I would recommend against that even more than I recommend against remaining on the station,” interjected Andie. “Your daughter is right; Simeon believes there is a good chance that if there is no evidence of active defences here, the Ramanthians will continue onward and not waste time with what they believe to be an irrelevant world when it comes to winning this war.”

“However, activating the shield would, in our opinion, be an even worse idea. It will virtually guarantee that you will be attacked as soon as they arrive here.” She held up her hand to forestall any comment from either of the two. “Let me explain. A planetary defence shield is a fairly advanced technology. For an attacking force coming across one, it is logical for them to assume that it is not the only such technology that world possesses, which means that world poses a threat. On this basis, they will attack, and not stop until they are satisfied there is no threat here, regardless of whether their assumption was correct or not.”

“And neither do you stand a high chance of slowing down the offensive. When it becomes apparent that there is very little in the way of offensive capability here, which will be within a matter of minutes when their attack is not countered, the majority of the fleet will continue on to their next objective, leaving behind only a small force charged with pacifying this world. If they cannot bring down your shield, that force will besiege you and make sure that nothing gets in or out.”

“We also doubt they will use the moon base as a staging point. Attacking forces do not occupy enemy facilities during an advance, at least not quickly, unless their commander is inexperienced or misguided. A retreating force is extremely likely to have sabotaged any facility they have been forced to withdraw from if they had time, which the attackers should always assume they did. They will not use your base until they have thoroughly searched it for booby-traps, which will take a long time for something that size. Consequently, they probably won’t bother, because in the time it would take to complete that search, they could have arranged superior alternatives. Simeon’s SS-900 does not have the same luxury, being smaller, more familiar and better sited.”

“That’s what we would do,” she explained, shrugging her shoulders. “The only thing that course of action is likely to achieve is getting your people killed.”
****

With their sweep completed, the three Indoan craft rapidly disappeared into another wormhole, this one taking them out of the system and into deep space between systems. The range of their sensors just overlapped the sphere they had just scanned, and they began a single sweep of this volume, before jumping again. This process continued, moving out along the line toward the advancing Ramanthian forces, the location of which was the ultimate goal of the search.

Turquine shook his head, "I understand your concern, my Lady, but to stand idly by while they kill others is not something that is easy for me to tolerate. Not if I can do something, even if it is only lessening a few of thier numbers, those who might stay. I'm not sure that it is a strong enough argument." He looked at Lauralin for her expected support but saw her head slightly bowed and her brows drawn in concentration as she considered the scenario. "Laura?"

"She, and Simeon, may be right", she replied after a moment, "for several reasons. One, would our contribuation be enough of an assistance to warrant the sacrifice?", she asked and then held up a hand as he started to reply, "You and I, father, we might give our lives for such without hesitation, but this the entire world we are talking about. All it's people. Two, could we really hold long enough to be of help, even if they put thier whole fleet to the task? Let me ask you something. Why do you rule from Highport? From there and not somewhere else?"

"You know why. When the Ilyaka nomads flowed from the desert they had vast numbers."

"And inferior technology to our own. Yet Tyrsis fell. Even through the hail of flaming arrows, the ballista and the catapults, they came and the city died. Now imagine for a moment, if it had only the walls and moat to protect it. How long would it have lasted then?"

Turquine was silent, though he well knew the answer to that.

"And there is another consideration. In the Lady's words, 'A planetary defence shield is a fairly advanced technology.' What if these Ramanthians do not possess it? Then we would be giving them a technology that might aid them in thier war, rather than help the cause.

"Though I like it no better than you, they may well be correct. And given what little we know of the technologies involved, they would be experts. Perhaps we should abandon the base and offer no resistance. Unless they begin killing or taking our people away, then of course we will fight rather submit."

Turquine closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, rubbing his temples, considering the argument.

**********************************************************

Joat got the man from the flit car to the medbox and put him in, letting the machine do it's work, and then removed her suit and moved forward. "Okay, let's set course for home", she said.

"One thing, first", Alvec replied and pointed at Rand.

"Joat", Rand said, "I shall go with you to the SSS900C, but I feel that I must leave should things get bad, as a matter of protection for myself."

Joat didn't seem upset, and in fact she smiled. "You came to this decision on your own?"

"I did."

"YES!!" she shouted, patting Rand's 'face'. "Your making your own decisions, Rand, that's GREAT! Well of course I would want you to save yourself", she said, settling into the command throne. "But first get us there, okay?" she asked grinning.

**********************************************************

It wasn't until they reached the next system that they found the Ramanthians. They were attacking the primary world in the system and in the process of finalizing the subjugation of the secondary world. Two moons, both around a gas giant, that were habitable had fallen early in the attacks.

The Ramanthian ships were of similar design, differing slightly only according to need. One ship stood out, however. A moon sized ark that hung back near the edge of the system, as though only watching over what was happening, clearly not of Ramanthian design.

“That is a good point,” agreed Andie. “A full planetary defence shield is not something that we possess either, for all our advances. Admittedly, it is not something we have put much effort into researching. We have city level defence shields, but we prefer a more active form of defence, so a planetary level system has not yet been implemented. And from what I understand of it, there are significant problems in scaling up the systems we currently use for the purpose.”

“If it were not for the matter of the exacting standards of the defence network, we would probably be interested in looking at your system, whether you could get it to work or not,” she admitted, “Even so, I’m sure there are those that would still express an interest in examining it, if only to see how it worked. But what they don’t know can’t hurt them,” she told them with a wink.

“We are not asking you to sit there and do nothing. If you do get attacked, then defend yourself as best you can, of course. We’re just asking that you do everything you can to avoid being attacked at all. Central almost certainly can’t spare anything to help you, and we can’t get involved, so you’ll be on your own,” she explained.
---

Fayalin sat quietly in her seat while Joat and Rand agreed their terms, as it were. Abstractly she wondered how Rand had reached the conclusion on not remaining at the SS-900, and by extension, exactly how sentient ‘he’ was. Indoan synthetics appeared to exhibit the desire for self-preservation, but that was just the result of an ‘avoid damage to self’ protocol coupled with detailed risk analysis, particularly for the combat models, though they also had the option to override the protocol, if they perceived that there was no other way to achieve an objective. She hoped it was the result of actual thought processes, and from what she had seen it did appear that was the case. It would be a severe disappointment to Joat to find out she had only created the illusion of sentience, and of course it would be tragic for Rand.
***

“Cobra, cloak up, scatter, make a sweep, then get out,” Payne told the Cobra pilots as soon as they realised they had found their target.

The two Kestrels activated their cloaks and split off from the formation, breaking away to opposite sides and climbing away from their plane of entry. The Wraith went into a relative dive, dropping below the plane, so that all three craft had put some distance between them and the wormhole. Any fire targeted for the wormhole signature or the Kestrels that had been visible on arrival would therefore miss all the Indoan vessels.

The two Kestrels made wide sweeps to either side of the system, recording all they could with the powerful active sensor units loaded into the modular mission bay for the task, before they each disappeared into their own wormholes, getting out before they were picked up. The Wraith headed deeper into the system, getting a much better look at the fleet.

“Look at that,” observed Payne, pointing at the large vessel on the far side of the system. “I’m no expert, but it looks completely different to all the other ships. Another party, you think?”

“Could be,” agreed Saito, “Let’s go take a closer look.” She altered the Wraith’s course to head for the strange vessel.

"Well, rest assured, we would not sit idly by", Lauralin replied. And the Ramanthians might be in for some nasty surprises if they are as non-magically based as all the others I have seen. We would be interested in seeing about a system defense. After this crisis of course, as it is far to late now. Which reminds me, I have a few hundred of the items we discussed previously."

"Items?", Turquine asked.

Lauralin nodded, "To help them against magical attacks. I am sure we are not the only planet who have magic wielders, at least I find it hard to belive."

Turquine nodded, "I was rather surprised to find out that so many didn't", he said.

"Of course we were. We are used to it. For us it is common place", Lauralin replied.

**********************************************************

The W.Y.A.L. moved away from the Indoan ships and then made it's jump through probability. Upon exiting Joat immediately contacted her father.

"Joat", Simeon said, "you shouldn't be here."

"Pphh, like you would keep me away?" she asked him.

"I was hoping you would stay away on your own. We're evacuating the station."

"I should hope so", Joat replied. "Give me vector will ya?"

"Joat, you should clear the system", Simeon told her.

"Give me a vector or I'll make my own Pops, and don't worry, W.Y.A.L. will clear out before the excitement starts", she said, neglecting to mention that she wouldn't be on it, but allowing him to assume she would be.

"Oh. Well okay then", Simeon said, and fed the information to her navigation beacon.

**********************************************************

The Ramanthians noted the worm hole, logged it and then ignored it. The legion forces were giving thier ground troops a hard time and though they could have dispatched ships to investigate it they put it off, since none of the known races had that kind of jump technology. Besides, if it was an attack, it would be better to keep thier ships in formations that could support each other instead of sending them off.

The ark was massive, the size of small moon, though smaller than the moon base around Midgaard 3. When they closed in they could read the heavy shielding and massive firepower of the ship. Single man fighters could be seen coming and going, however the moment they left, or just before they closed in, they disappeared, they're cloaks obviously better than the Wraiths that Central Worlds possessed.

Aside from that thier scans seemed to be better as well, since the ark started taking shots in the the general direction of Payne and Saito's ship.

“Well, we could look into the possibility of providing you with a defence system, based around equipment that is a couple of generations old,” suggested Andie, “Our current system is highly classified; there would be no chance of you getting that. However, as you say, this is all slightly irrelevant to your current situation. But you have our thanks for getting those together for us so quickly.”
---

“Got some cloaked fighters in the area,” stated Payne calmly, as the Wraith approached the vessel. “Pretty good cloaks too, only showing up on a couple of systems.” He checked the sensors again, “Nothing moving to intercept us as yet.”

“Right,” acknowledged Saito, bringing the Wraith closer to the vessel, a trajectory she maintained for under a minute before the vessel started firing in their direction. “Got some incoming fire,” she noted.

“I see it,” agreed Payne, examining the sensors closely. “They know we’re here, but they don’t know where, as the weapons fire isn’t very accurate. Whatever they’re picking us up with, we’re not showing up clearly. My guess is gravetics.”

“Well, whatever it is, I think we’ve outstayed our welcome,” commented Saito, taking the Wraith sharply away from the vessel. “Time to get out of here.” She activated the preset jump system, which opened a wormhole directly in front of them. The small craft quickly disappeared from the system; the wormhole collapsing right behind it.

"You are most welcome", Lauralin replied, "we shall have them brought to you prior to your departure. For the defence system, I apologize, I was not asking, simply mentioning that it would be prudent in the future. Any assistance, of course, would be appreciated."

She moved beside Ariel, looking down at her, "If you wish, and with permission, of course, I could scan her and lend psionic energy enough to arouse her so she may awaken and move. Unless there is some physical injury, in which case I would leave her in your more capable hands."

**********************************************************

The W.Y.A.L. was given a priority route to dock 37, which was typically reserved for ranking officials. Since none would be coming he vetted it to Joat, who informed Simeon of the wounded Central Worlds officer on board.

Once they were in Joat moved toward the airlock, and the ramp. Channa was already at her door when they arrived with a medical team. The medoff performed a quick examination and then took him away to stations med facility.

"Where did he come from?", Channa asked, giving Joat a quick but warm hug.

"We picked him up from an Indoan vessel near Midgaard 3", Joat replied honestly. The fact that she knew where had come from prior to that she skipped over.

"Well, thank you", Channa said to Faye, "we appreciate your assistance." She then looked at Joat, "We don't have much time. Simeon and I are evacuated everyone. He said you'd be out of here before the Ramanthians arrive."

Joat didn't correct her mother about the fact that she that W.Y.A.L. would be leaving, not her, but she let it slide. "I figure you guys could use some help", she replied, instead, which she knew they would .... once the Ramanthians arrived.

"We certainly could. People are being pretty cooperative, but a little extra help would do us some good", Channa told her, smiling at her adopted daughter, thinking that Joat wasn't even arguing about staying. She looked at Alvec and raised an eyebrow. "Thinking you're going to fight here?" she asked him.

Alvec wasn't about to leave Joat behind, or Channa or Simeon for that matter. "Ramanthians are known to send scouts ahead", he told her, which was true, having picked up the art of half truths from Joat.

Channa nodded, "Alright. Your armed presence which may quell some of difficulties we've been having."

**********************************************************

The Thraki's observed the wormhole and the fact the cloaked ship could no longer be detected. They dumped the information to logistics and intel and copied and sent a databurst to the Ramanthians. The conversation that followed was intense. If Central had something new then neither race was aware of it and neither were happy about it. The Ramanthians agreed to send an advance scout team to the SS900, the most logical place for a cloak ship to go if it was trying to find out about the attacking force.

“Asking or no, we had not made a decision regarding our side of the exchange. This could be a suitable option,” noted Andie, “And I don’t think there is any reason why you couldn’t wake her,” she said, looking at Ariel, “But I don’t really see any reason to do so either. As far as I know, it’s better to let this sort of thing run it’s natural course if possible. So unless you have some pressing reason for awaking her, I would suggest leaving her.”
***

Fayalin said very little after they had landed, greeting Channa with a smile and a nod only, and very briefly explained the patient’s condition to the medics. She was waiting to see exactly what Joat and Alvec were going to tell Channa and Simeon, so that she didn’t accidentally contradict it or give away their intentions.

“Our freighters should be here in a few hours,” she said eventually. “You can get everyone that’s left off on those. They’ll be bringing some Rangers to act as loadmasters too; to keep everything organised. And the reason I’m here is to convince Simeon that he’s going too. If that means I have to drag him off myself, that’s fine by me.”
***

The two Kestrel fighters had already landed by the time the Wraith reappeared off the bow of the Faded Fortunes. The craft immediately contacted the corvette’s Flight Controller for landing permission and, as Saito brought the Wraith into the hangar, Payne updated the Mind on what had happened.

The Mind then reopened the discussion between the two vessels and their respective COs.
“Reaver Three was detected and fired upon by an extremely large vessel, believed to belong to a third party acting in support of the Ramanthians, based on design characteristics compared to the rest of the vessels in the volume,” it explained.

“Crap. We might have provoked them after all,” observed Valero.

“Unlikely. Captain Payne reports that although they were detected, the fire directed at them was not very accurate, so he believes they were a very weak contact. This means the enemy probably did not obtain very much data on the characteristics of the Wraith, so they won’t know where it came from, except that it doesn’t match what they know of Central Worlds,” countered Fortunes.

“However, it will be fairly obvious that it was a scout of some kind. And even though they are not sure, they may try and ascertain it’s origins. The most logical way to do that would be to scout likely enemy staging points. In the circumstances, the SS-900 is the most likely origin,” guessed Highwind.

“Should we do something about that?” asked Bailey.

“It is a consequence of our actions, so I am inclined to act,” admitted Fortunes. “Sister?”

“Agreed. I will deploy several sensor drones and a pair of Kestrels to the system immediately,” confirmed Highwind.
---

Several minutes later, the Highwind launched a number of small drones from it’s port catapult, and two more Kestrels left the frigate’s dorsal hangar, this time carrying powerful ECM units in their mission bay. The entire group swiftly disappeared into several wormholes. The drones reappeared in a rough sphere around the SS-900, spaced so their sensors covered as much volume as possible. The two Kestrels entered much closer to Simoen, and cloaked within seconds. The comms drone already in the system transmitted another message to Simeon.

{We may have inadvertently provoked a recon mission to your location by the Ramanthians. We sent out a scout to find and acquire data on them, and it was detected. Here is the data we collected, you may want to look at this contact [ref. A9371-583]; this was what detected our ship, and it seems out of place to us. We have deployed some sensor drones and a pair of Kestrels to try and prevent any scout from getting any information out. They will take responsibility for avoiding other traffic, so don’t worry about them.}

Lauralin smiled, "Of course. I fear I am uncertain as to the time of your departure, and would not seek to delay you in that. It would be best to let her powers regenrate on thier own, though I can awaken her should it be required."

"Father", she said, looking toward him, "should I inform the commander of our decision to vacate the station?"

Turquine nodded, silently.

Lauralin looked at Andie, "May I communicate with the station regarding our decision?"

**********************************************************

Joat's head snapped around at the same time that Channa tensed. Both knew the psychological disposition of shell people in regards to opening thier column.

"I heard that", came Simeon's voice from the nearest monitor.

"I'm not sure that I can allow that", Channa said. "Shell people are very agrophobic as regards thier leaving a post. When they do so by choice they're anesthetised."

Joat said nothing and went back into the W.Y.A.L. At her console she was soon deep in some kind of computations.

"It might be best for Simeon to go", he said. "That's a huge fleet they got."

"Your just taking her side because you have the hots for her", Simeon said.

Alvec, slightly red faced, replied, "My feelings are irrelevant. If she's right, she's right."

"Uh oh", Simeon said suddenly, "hold on."

**********************************************************

"Your people don't worry me", Simeon replied in a rather defeated voice, "but that ...."

Simeon opened the comm channel to the bay monitor closest to Channe, Faye and Alvec so they could listen in.

"We have a problem", he announced.

"Yeah?" Alvec replied, "no shit. And here ...."

"I mean serious. Worse than serious. The Indoans detected a Thraki arc with the Ramanthian fleet."

Channa began running toward the nearest terminal as Alvec leaned against the support for the ramp, "Oh hell. If the Thraki's are in with them that gives them what? 3? 4? ...."

"5,253 more naval vessel not including the 9 arcs. That would make it 8,756 naval craft when joined with the Ramanthian fleet, if the Thraki bring all thier ships to bear", Simeon informed him. "That's not including fighters or the smaller missile frigates, though it does include non-combat support craft."

Simeon had already brought up the console for Channa and dumped the relevant information to that station. "Why one?" she asked.

"Well, if thier previous strategy is any indication they'll let Central and the Ramanthians do the fighting. With the Ramanthians force depleted, the Central Worlds force overwhelmed and the clone hegemonies fleet neutralized, assuming they are staying inside thier own system for thier own defense, then that would leave only the draconians with any kind of major naval force and who they would help then would be a coin toss with both sides heads."

"What does that mean Simeon?" Alvec asked.

"They would join the winning side", Simeon replied.

"What if Central won?", Channa asked.

"The Thraki's won't let that happen", Simeon replied, "they've made thier choice already. They'll lend enough support for the Ramanthians to win while making sure the Ramanthians squander thier own resources."

"What the ...." Channa said, looking confused. "Simeon what is this?" she asked as pounding footsteps could be heard heading toward the ramp of the W.Y.A.L.

"I don't know", Simeon replied as Joat slipped coming down the ramp, barely managing to catch herself.

"I've got it!" she shouted.

"Got what?" Channa asked, but Joat turned to Faye, "How many Argravs can you get?" she asked, but didn't bother to wait for an answer as she grabbed Faye's arm, dragging her to console where Channa stood.

"Look. If we can lighten the mass of the station by 85% .. Okay 70, but 85 to be on the safe side, we can move the whole STATION without having to remove pops from his column!"

"Whoa", Simeon said, trying to interrupt.

"No whoa, LISTEN. If we can lighten the station we can use the working sleds to move the station to the Nebula."

"Even that light there wouldn't be enough force to move me fast enough", Simeon said, "we only have 30 ship tugs."

"Yeah, yeah, but we ALSO have 75 asteroid mining tugs. The principle is the same for them. Huge insystem drive for hauling and magnetic grapples for iron core asteroids. It could WORK I'm telling you. And the Nebula would hide you from scan", Joat said excitedly.

"Yeeeahhh", Simeon acknowledged reluctantly, "but how would WE know if they left. Our own scans would send us images that were F.U.B.A.R."

"Oh yeah, I know, that's easy", Joat replied, and then remained silent.

"Okay ....", Simeon said, clearly waiting for an answer.

"Okay, so I don't know, but still, it's possible to move you, IF we can get enough ArGrav generators", she said, looking back at Faye, "and we can't communicate with Central."

“We’re uncertain of our departure time,” observed Andie with a smile, “so I don’t think there’s too much to worry about yet. One of our ships will head to the SS-900 to join with the task force, but we haven’t decided which, and that won’t be for a few hours yet.”

She cocked her head slightly to one side for a moment when Lauralin asked to speak to the station commander, then nodded and said, “Go ahead. Your words will be transmitted.”
***

“Let me put it this way; you either move or you die,” retorted Fayalin heatedly after Simeon and Channa voiced their opposition to her statement. “And I’m not prepared to let you do the latter.” There was a very slight pause, “Although if you’re that eager to meet your end, then why don’t we do it now and save ourselves some time?” she asked sharply.

“Would this explain some of what you showed me earlier?” she asked Alvec, after Simeon had informed them of the results of the Indoan reconnaissance mission. “And how much does this really change? Certainly nothing in the short term, since you couldn’t mount an effective defence against them before.”

Like the others, she turned to see what Joat wanted when she heard the running footsteps behind her.
“How many what?” she asked, when Joat directing a question at her. If Joat was paying attention, she would notice that she never actually exerted any force on the avatar’s arm when dragging her to the terminal; the avatar moved before the woman could pull her. She listened to the proposal though, because if there was any alternative that would get an easy agreement from the shell person, it was worth looking at.

“If you mean AG units, then we can’t help much. We only have personnel harnesses, rated at twenty-four hundred Newtons, and a few light cargo units, rated at sixteen thousand five hundred Newtons. While we could send a request for the freighters to bring some heavy duty units, it would severely delay their arrival, if they haven’t already left yet,” replied Fayalin, “However, if you can tell Fortunes where they might find Central vessels, they might be able to help with that,” she told Simeon.

((OOC: The AG cells are rated for Toderan gravity, so that's 220kg and 1500kg. ;) ))

"Commander Ivanova. Override, Arleena 173, priority orders. All traffic to be rerouted at soonest opportunity. Station to be evacuated. Emergency shutdown. Confirmation. Lauralin 25. Confirmation. Turquine 3." Lauralin nodded to Andie, "Done. I had already set up emergency procedures for evacuation."

"You did?", Turquine asked.

She looked at her father sheepishly, "Forgive father. I thought it prudent."

Turquine grinned and shook his head, "You're definitely your mother's daughter in many respects."

**********************************************************

Alvec nodded at Faye's question, "Yes. But it still doesn't answer why. And no, it doesn't change the short term, but the attacks on the core will be easier. We might have held there with the defense platforms and secondary defensive ships. But not with the Thraki's helping."

Simeon was silent a moment as Joat spoke, "You can send a request?" she asked. That brief moment was a chance for Simeon to consider his options. The Indoan's, while a good people, were certainly stubborn once they made thier minds up.

"Wait", he said, "what about the Victorious?"

"She's being overhauled", Alvec told him.

"No. She was finished some time ago, she should be done her trial runs by now. Helva saw her over in the Caprulu sector. She was testing her weaponry on the Asteroid belt there. The belt lies midway between the 6th and 7th planet", he said, bringing up spatial charts with the systems location and a view of the system in which they were said to be. "With her new drives she's the fastest that Central Worlds has to offer."

"The Beta Corvi technology?", Joat asked.

"Yeah, and a fold space jump drive", Simeon replied.

"They got it working?" Joat asked, "what about the power drain ... ohhh ... not an issue with the Beta Corvi technology. Awesome."

“It is always wise to have your emergency plans well defined and in place. You never know when you might need them,” observed Andie. “Do you have any idea how long that might take?” she asked. “If necessary, we could probably lend you a couple of light transports to speed up the process a little. Based on the results of a reconnaissance mission we just conducted, I’m starting to think even five days is optimistic.”
***

“True. In the long term, you’re screwed unless you either get help, or have some very good commanders,” agreed Fayalin. “And we can’t help you this time. Even if we could, we don’t have many vessels that could be spared. And while I would be confident in their chances in a two on one engagement, the kind of odds we would be facing here would make even our most skilled commander look for an alternative.”

“The Victorious? They are already familiar with us as well, so that would be an ideal choice. It would save us the task of having to prove our sincerity,” she pointed out, after Simeon suggested the ship. “And I recall you telling us she was the most advanced vessel in the fleet. Although what were you planning on doing if you could contact them? You’ve already admitted you can’t stand against them.”

Lauralin shook her head, "I fear I do not know. The commander would best be able to answer that question. I know only that in the event of evacaution the children and non-essential personnel would be vacated to Kern. Essential operations personnel would be distributed among the various towns and cities of Dragonsreach and Highport so that in case of an attack on the planet itself enough knowledgable persons might survive to reoccupy the station."

**********************************************************

"Your not leaving me much choice", Simeon replied. "Either I have my tin plated ass dragged around space or I get vacated from my home. We don't have the technology for moving the station, though it's something I'll look into if we survive this, but the Victorious will have a shell crew aboard that know exactly how to take me out."

"Are you sure about this Simy?" Channa asked, though she looked vastly relieved.

"No. But it seems I'm not staying one way or the other. Hey. Maybe I'll get one of the old hulls and get to play war after all", Simeon said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

{Ivanova, do you have an estimate for how long the evacuation will take, now that you can start it? We can lend you a couple of light transports if necessary to hasten the process. New information has led us to believe that, contrary to our previous estimate, five days is probably the maximum amount of time you have before the Ramanthians arrive, so please bear that in mind when making decisions,} transmitted the Fortunes.

“Is there anything else?” asked Andie.
***

“Right then, please send the location of the Victorious to the Faded Fortunes,” Fayalin asked Simeon. “They will need to dispatch a vessel to contact them, and the sooner that happens, the better things will go for everyone. It will solve the situation here in a manner that adequately satisfies everyone, which makes things easier. It should also give us plenty of time to complete our operations here.”

“They may also be able to contact other Central units, and at least warn them of what is happening. If they can, maybe a sizable number of your forces can avoid the invasion, and join up to form a group that can at least act against your enemy without being completely futile. It may not be much, but it would be a start,” she told them, though she didn’t sound convinced.

"Based on what we have available approximately 60 hours once we clear traffic. Clearing traffic, approximately 40 hours. 100 hours total, depending on how things go", Ivanova replied. "That is assuming I continue to let some of these morans live, hold one ...." she said as she redirected another ship who had adjusted thier attitude. "How many can your ships hold?"

**********************************************************

Simeon opened a line to fortunes, transmitting the last known coordinates of the Victorious.

"SOP for a shakedown firing excersize is to use a location that no one goes to, therefore anyone arriving will be targeted as hostile until communications and intentions is established. So don't be surprised if the ship you send gets locked on. They won't fire, of course. That only happens if the ship jumping in refuses to answer hails or proves themselves unfriendly. Lockon will be automatic. Just something to let your crew know. The moment they know who you are your tag will be switched to friendly and lockon will cease", Simeon informed them. "I'm sending a priority message as 'eyes only' for Admiral Quester-Benn with a databurst about our situation here, it'll save time once you arrive."

{The Assegai can accommodate fifty people, fifty-five in extreme circumstances, or an equivalent volume of cargo. They’re light assault transports, but it’s all we have available. They are quite fast, however, so a round trip to the planet’s surface would be limited mostly by the time taken to load and unload the cargo at each end,} replied the Mind.
---

A few minutes after receiving the transmission from Simeon, another Kestrel left the frigate’s dorsal hangar, made an orbit of it’s mother ship, then accelerated away and jumped into a wormhole. When it coasted out the other side a few minutes later, the pilot shifted uneasily in her seat and tapped a couple of symbols on her controls.

“I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Windy,” she muttered, as the sensors began sweeping the system for any contacts. The Mind had warned her that the vessel she was searching for would automatically target her once detected, and she was having to fight her instincts to maintain straight and level flight and refrain from activating the cloak. She tapped another symbol to initiate an unencrypted, wide-beam transmission on the Indoan Common/Emergency frequency. She hadn’t been told any specific frequencies to transmit on, and that one made the most sense to her.

{CWNS Victorious, please respond,} she sent, then repeated the message twice more.

"That will certainly cut down the time", Ivanova replied. "40 hours to station deass, once the clearing of these ships is complete. You can transfer the personal directly to Kern, we can scatter them from there. If you want to head start things there are some non-essential personnel that can leave in 15 once they are informed."

**********************************************************

Lauralin had been silent for a long moment and then shook her head, "I shall have items for your people given to you when you return us to the surface, but I fear that I can be of no further assistance to you in the present situation. I may seem to get underfoot from time to time, but rest assured, I do know my limitations."

**********************************************************

"CONTACT! Non-excersize. Just entered the system", the scan tech yelled, getting the attention of the Admiral.

If the kestrel had any information on the Victorious from the Indoan's previous meeting with her, it sure didn't match.

The refitted capital ship was five miles long, about 3 miles wide and almost 2 miles high. Her shields were multi-layered so that an impact went against several shield segments rather than having to be absorbed by one shield generator.

Six huge Mccinley high high output ion ultra drives pushed the ship through sublight speed and 120 manuevering thrusters made her almost as quick as a corvette despite her massive size.

Two hanger decks were on either side of the craft, four in all and the ships buzzing around the Victorious would be both known and unknown. The Valkeryie missile frigate was the same, but the fighters were the not the familiar wraiths, but rather the newest Banshee class with the new Thraki cloaking technology. These fighters were far more nimble, while still packing the punch of the old Wraith class fighters and had the advantage of being far faster and more manueverable in atmosphere as well.

Under her belly hung 6 Strider class, long range scouts with more heavy cloaking capability and better armorment than the smaller and more nimble fighters.

Of immediate concern, however was the massive firepower of the battlewagon. 50 double barrelled particle accelarators lined each side of her with 20 capable of firing forward and aft and full 50 able to fire straight above or below her. The accelerators were capable of overloading shielding and ripping solids apart. An array of 300 defensive guns from pulse plasma to 'slug throwing' gatlin style helped protect her. She had 24 missile bays one each side and 10 forward and aft with old style nuclear launch facilities down her center in 8 bays, though no Central ship had been granted permission to fire a nuclear strike in almost 2 centuries.

She had over 7,000 crew manning her as well as a full battalion of 10,000 members of the Legion, allowing her to hold the high ground of a planet while still conduct attacks on the surface, presently the only ship capable of doing both.

Target lock acquired on the ship that newly entered the system which could allow anywhere from 1 to all 50 guns on her broadside to fire.

"Tactical", Admiral Quester-Benn replied and watched the new delta appear on her display.

"Admiral", the Comm tech spoke up, "incoming message."

"This design looks familiar", Anestice said, "let me hear it."

'CWNS Victorious, please respond'

"It's coming through on an emergency channel", the tech added.

"Open a channel. Hold target lock, but do not fire and call the ships in close, but leave them on a standby pattern."

"Channel open"

"Attention vessel. We are recieving. Please state the nature of your emergency. By Central Worlds regulations we are required to assist any and all vessels requiring emergency assistance", the Admiral replied.

**********************************************************

Three marks dropped into the far reaches of the system which Simeon identified as 2 Corvette class and 1 Destroyer class Ramanthian vessels. "The Ramanthian's idea of a scouting party. If the scouts can eliminate a problem they well, otherwise they gather information and jump back", Simeon informed the Highwind and the Fortunes.

“Attention, Alert Shrike crews, report to the hangar and prepare for sortie,” broadcast the Mind, throughout the ship. “Repeat, Alert Shrike crews, to your aircraft immediately.”

“If we are finished here, it may be wise for you to return to the planet now,” advised Andie. “This is an unstable situation, and we have no idea what may happen when. It wouldn’t do for you to still be on board if we need to relocate in a hurry. You can load those items on to our Assegai transports once they are finished with the evacuation of the station, assuming we have not returned by then. Do you wish to borrow a stretcher for the Lady Ariel?” she asked. “I still think it wiser to let her sleep for now.”
***

“Oh, crap…” exclaimed one of the Kestrel pilots when the three Ramanthian vessels appeared in the system. “Five, we’ve got a problem. Someone misjudged what these bastards think a scout group is.”

“I see them, Six. Windy is receiving feeds off the drones, she knows what they’ve sent. Expect to see her turn up shortly,” replied the other.

“Can she match them though? That lead ship’s big enough to be a destroyer.”

“I guess we’ll find out. Stay low-profile until she arrives.”
***

When the Victorious’ weapon systems locked onto the Kestrel, the defences that the pilot hadn’t disabled clicked on. Her track-breakers did their best to ensure the other vessel couldn’t maintain lock for more than a few seconds, and the active jamming suite began presenting false targets and trying to prevent the locks being achieved at all. Against her better judgement though, the pilot did continue to maintain straight and level flight.

“Cobra Nine, INV Highwind, Indoan Fighter Command. I have an emergency message to relay for your commanding officer,” she replied. Now that her objective had been located, the transmission had changed to a narrow-beam, to minimise possibility of interception. “Transmitting now.” She tapped another symbol to begin transmitting the pre-recorded message that Simeon had sent to the Fortunes.
***

~ We may have a problem at the SS-900. The Ramanthians have dispatched what appear to be two corvettes and a destroyer to the system, sent Fortunes.

~ I will relocate to just beyond the outer edge of the system. If things get messy, I will head in and attempt to intervene. Hopefully that will not be necessary though. I imagine High Command would be less than impressed if I did, sent back Highwind.

~ Indeed. Be careful, sister.

Without any warning to anyone else in the vicinity, a wormhole suddenly blossomed in front of the larger Indoan vessel, which coasted into it and promptly vanished from the system.

"No need", Lauralin replied as her father stepped forward, prepared to leave the vessel as advised. Laura began to raise her arm and then stopped, looking rather sheepish as she realized that she had neutrilized her magic and would have breached her own word even if she hadn't effectively cut off her power. "Umm .... perhaps the stretcher would be best", she said, feeling embarrassed.

**********************************************************

The Ramanthian leader eyed the screens, his nictating membranes sliding over his eyes in a protective reaction to his feeling of danger.

The old swarm leader made a gesture to his wing mate. Old, and crafty, he was a cautious one who wasn't about to underestimate any opponent. One corvette class cruiser dropped below the destroyer and moved out to port so a single attack couldn't hit both ships while the other corvette turned upward and to starboard, doubling back in case any ship came from behind them.

"COMM", he snapped, still eyeing the tactical displays.

"Attention. There will be no interference to our taking the abomination from the station.", he stated and then signaled for all weapons to go active, but held back from target locks.

**********************************************************

"Lost lock .... reaquired. No, lost again", the scan tech was droning.

"Reply", the Comm tech stated. "Narrow beam transmission, ship to ship."

“Cobra Nine, INV Highwind, Indoan Fighter Command. I have an emergency message to relay for your commanding officer,”

"Cancel lock, set to friendly, it's Indoan", Anestice said. The attempt to lock stopped as the delta on her screen went from red to green.

“Transmitting now.”

The Admiral listened to Simeon rattle off his personal code and then listened to his message. Her first thought was to ask if this was a joke, but after the Kolnari affair she was sure that Simeon wouldn't cry wolf.

"Reply, same band", Anestice snapped, "get General Quester-Benn up here and call in those ship, we're jumping soonest."

The ships began landing in the hanger as she replied. "Cobra Nine, this is Admiral Quester-Benn. Transmission recieved. We are gathering our flock and jumping as soon as possible to the SSS-900-C. If you are returning prior to our jump, please pass on that message. Admiral Quester-Benn, Central Worlds Navy, Battle Wagon Victorious."

**********************************************************

"So ummm, what's going on Pops?" Joat asked.

Channa gave Joat a quick rundown, having been kept in loop by Simeon through her mastoid implant.

Joat turned toward the W.Y.A.L. "Well, buddy, guess it's time we parted company", she said.

"WHOA!", Simeon shouted through the nearest wall speaker, "you said you were leaving."

"No", Joat replied, "I said W.Y.A.L. was leaving, Rand didn't want to hang around."

"Yeah and your going, Channa, get her on that ship."

Channa moved toward Joat who darted away and then froze as Rand replied.

"Joat. I still have time. And besides, we can take some people with us", he said from his speaker on the ramp.

"YOU can", she said, deftly dodging Channa again as Alvec stood by and watched.

"Joat. I can carry them, but I can't tend to them. I need you and Alvec for that. Joat ... you know what it's like to left alone and to be frightened", Rand said.

Joat slipped away from Channa again and then glared at the ship, "HEY! When did you pick up a psych program?"

"I didn't", Rand replied in rather coy voice not typical of the A.I.

"FARDLES", Joat said in exasperation as she dodged Channa again, "WILL YOU STOP MOM?" she said loudly. "GHU! Alright, fine. I'll go, get some people on board. Alvec, check our stores and plot a jump as far insystem as we can go with what we've got", she snapped.

Alvec grinned and did a smart salute then winked at Faye, "Farewell, Lady Fair", he said and turned, heading up the ramp.

"Well that's settled", Channa said, swiping her hair back.

"Blackmailed by my own ship", Joat muttered as she took the controls nearby and guided a ladder to the side of the W.Y.A.L. "I just want to check that patch job first. Don't worry, Rand needs Alvec and I, so I'm going."

Andie raised an eyebrow and clicked her tongue in disapproval when Lauralin went to use her abilities to transport Ariel, but said nothing. When Lauralin realised her mistake, she glanced at one of the medics and nodded. The medic removed a folding stretcher from a storage compartment, unfolded it, snapping the connections into place, then activated the small AG unit built into it.

“Here, that should do,” he told them, pushing it gently so it floated across the gap between them. “I’d suggest you fasten the restraining belts, if only loosely, for safety reasons. It wouldn’t do for her to fall off.”
***

“Five, they’re lighting up,” warned one pilot, as the sensors detected the energy build up in the hostile warships. “We’re running out of time.”

“They’re offering us the chance to leave, Six,” replied the other. “We should, too. This isn’t our fight. But we’ll wait until Windy arrives.”

“What if they don’t wait that long? We’re ECM equipped, but there’s no guarantee that’ll help much. If they fire on us, are we allowed to fire back?” There was a long pause, “Where the hell is Windy?”

“We’re authorised to defend ourselves if necessary. Just do go starting any fights.”

A few seconds later, the Highwind emerged into the system, a long way away from anything else currently there. The Mind surveyed the feeds from the sensor drones quickly, had a brief discussion with the CO, then began Displacing all the drones in the system back on board. It also issued a recall notice to the two fighters, who altered course and began heading towards the frigate.

~ Fayalin-Xunrae, we have recalled all our drones and fighters in the volume in an effort to avoid provoking the Ramanthians. Legitimately, we cannot protect the station, but I am doing my best to find a solution, the Mind told the avatar. ~ We have been successful in contacting the Victorious, and they are preparing to depart.
***

When the Victorious ceased attempting to track her with weapons, the counter-measures automatically shut down again, clearing the clutter from their sensors, and the pilot breathed a sigh of relief. She acknowledged the reply when it came, then began inputting the data for her return jump. She was interrupted by an chime informing her of an incoming long-distance message from the Highwind. After reading it, she immediately started transmitting to the Victorious again.

“Emergency message from Highwind. Three hostile vessels detected in vicinity of SS-900. Estimate as two corvette-class and one destroyer-class warships. Highwind cannot engage unless fired upon,” she told them tersely.
***

Fayalin returned Alvec’s gesture with a smile and a casual salute of her own, tipping her hand outwards after her fingertips touched her temple as the third and fourth fingers on her hand curled inwards.
“May good fortune smile upon you in your travels,” she told him, then looked at Joat. “Get used to it. If he turns out anything like ours, it’ll happen a lot,” she told the woman after the ‘blackmail’ comment.

“The Highwind reports they have made contact with the Victorious, and it will be departing shortly,” she told Simeon and Channa. “Though whether they will arrive fast enough to do something about your unwelcome guests, I don’t know. The Highwind is bound by regulations; they cannot fire without being fired upon, so they are powerless at the moment.”

Turquine grabbed the straps near Ariel's torso and started tying them. Lauralin giggled and shook her head, "Let me", she told him as she took a quick look at them and figured out how to strap her down and did all the straps.

"Ready", she said to Andie, stepping aside for her father to push the stretcher.

**********************************************************

Swarm leader Krak'kt saw the ship appear and narrowed his eyes slightly. With the ship visible he redirected the two corvettes toward the Highwind and began moving the destroyer toward the station, still without target locks, but with weapons hot.

"Scan system, full. Are there any other ships out there?" he asked before opening and communications with the recently arrived ship.

**********************************************************

Anestice frowned at the message, "Understood, we're five from jump. Is the area near Simeon clear at the moment?"

**********************************************************

"Thanks for warning", Joat replied grinning as she headed up the ladder.

"I understand", both Simeon and Channa replied as she typed out instructions and sent them to a section chief. "Okay, Joat, Fifty passengers, that shouldn't overburden your systems."

"We can take twice as many if they don't mind being packed in, the life support isn't a problem there, it's a design for many more than that", she said, eyeing the repair that had been done in space.

((OOC: Okay, we've got some crossed wires, and I think it's at your end. The FF is at Midgaard, as was the Highwind before it jumped. The only Indoan presence at SS-900 when the Ramanthians arrived were the two (cloaked) Kestrels, one comm drone and several sensor drones (and Fayalin, but she's not exactly going to show up on a scan).

I'll write up a post after you've edited the last couple of posts.))

(Okay, edited. Like I said in an edit note before, my brain isn't linked to a computer like shell peoples are. *grin* Sorry, for the confusion.)

((OOC: Hehe, no worries. Happens to us all, and more frequently than we'd like to admit. That's why I try and take the time to look through a post once I've written it, to make sure I didn't do anything stupid. And still things sometimes slip through. :p))

Andie looked at the straps on the stretcher for a split second, nodded her approval, then gestured out of the medbay door. Before she followed them, the avatar picked up the neat pile of Ariel’s clothes, which she placed over the sleeping woman’s legs. While Turquine had taken his shower, one of the medics had removed the remaining battlesuit components from Ariel, and clothed her in a lightweight one-piece robe with short sleeves that extended to just below her knees. She led them back to the hangar where Nancia was waiting, arriving just in time to see one of the Assegai transports lift off the deck and glide out into space. On the other side of the ship, the second transport was doing the same. The two vessels joined up into formation and headed for the artificial moon, ready to begin their new assignment.

The two security officers were still standing guard over Nancia, and they were joined by a third, who was carrying the weapons relinquished to the Indoans at the time of boarding; Turquine’s sword and Rayanna’s rapier and quiver.
***

“Attention all personnel, Level one Battle Stations. Repeat, Level one Battle Stations. All personnel to your stations immediately.” The announcement sounded loudly throughout the Highwind, preceded by an alarm klaxon. The alarm and the announcement repeated twice more, then fell silent.

“The two corvettes have altered course to intercept us,” reported the tactical officer. “The destroyer is heading for the station.”

“Enemy vessels have weapons armed, but not locked,” added Sensors.

“Guns, release defensive batteries. All offensive systems to active standby, and prepare to lock on to X-ray Two on my command,” ordered Bailey. “Order all Cobra units to prepare for immediate scramble, and ready the number two catapult for launching Virgos. Comms, any transmissions from the enemy vessels?”

“Nothing yet, sir.”

In the Highwind’s dorsal hangar, the nine remaining Kestrel fighters on board were undergoing final launch checks as their pilots strapped in and prepared for combat.
***

“Wait one,” instructed the pilot, and hurriedly sent a message back to the Highwind. The reply came quickly, and with the requested data attached.

“This is local volume as of thirty seconds ago,” she said, transmitting the sensor data received from the frigate. “Vector data is attached to each contact.”

(OOC: I hear that. I try to proofread too, I just lost it there somehow)

"Nancia", Lauralin said as she approached the ship, "permission to enter, please."

"Granted", she replied, "preping now. With clearance we can launch in 10. You should place Lady Ariel in the med box, I can tend to her until we reach the surface."

Lauralin turned to Andie, "Thank you, for everything. I hope you clear of the system alright. Fare you well."

They then entered the ship and, with instruction from Nancia, put Ariel into the medbox and then moved to the main cabin and strapped themselves in.

**********************************************************

The swarm leader put a hold on weapon lock and opened a channel. "Attention unknown vessel. Our querrel is not with you. We wish only the abomination and the station. Stand clear and no hostilities will be necessary."

The corvettes slowed thier approach as the swarm leader awaited a reply, but still moved toward the station.

**********************************************************

"Confirmed", Anestice replied, "and thank you. We'll be jumping soon. Last of the fighters are being secured."

She nodded toward the engineering station, "Prep for jump on my mark. Set speed, now, at full. I want a high V coming in."

"Aye, aye", the man replied, and the Victorious began to move with surprising speed increase for her size.

**********************************************************

Joat was climbing down the ladder as the passengers began arriving. They looked frightened, but in control at the moment. They're look seemed to indicate that that control could slip away at any time.

"Alright", Joat said loudly as the came in, "Everyone step aboard. Follow Alvec. He'll show you where to go. We lift in 15 so please cooperate and move with haste."

“I hope that the hassle of evacuating the station is the only misfortune you suffer in the weeks to come,” replied Andie, bowing her head briefly. “Nancia, contact Flight Control again only when you are ready to depart, not before. And be warned, we may have to eject you before then. Things are getting complicated elsewhere.” She turned to the security officers. “This ship will be departing fairly soon. Withdraw to a safe distance,” she told them.

The two officers nodded, moving several metres away from Nancia; the third had returned to his duties after returning the weapons to their owners.
***

“Transmission from X-ray One,” reported Comms, then played the message aloud to the bridge.

“X-rays Two and Three have reduced velocity, but are still on intercept course,” added Tactical.

“Hmm, we must try and stall for time until the Victorious can get here,” remarked Bailey. “Comms, prepare to transmit.”

“Ready sir.”

“Attention, incoming warships. There are innocent civilians on board the station. We request that they be allowed to evacuate before you take control. There is no need for unnecessary bloodshed here.” He nodded to the Comms officer, who transmitted the message. Bailey had deliberately avoided giving any information as to their identity away; the last thing they wanted was the Ramanthians or their shadowy benefactors knowing who the Indoans were.

“Number two catapult reports ready for action,” relayed the senior Flight Controller. “All Cobra units ready for immediate scramble.”
***

After sending the Victorious the sensor data, the pilot of Cobra Nine finished inputting the settings for her return jump to the Highwind, then waited. The last message had also instructed her to wait for the Central Worlds vessel to jump before she initiated her own jump. She knew why; the Indoan frigate was trying to put off any violence for as long as possible, and the appearance of a wormhole might spark a reaction, no matter what came out of it. After the Victorious arrived however, there was no need for such actions, as the game would be up at that point.

Krak'kt considered the transmission, running the options through his mind. He would lose prisoners for the labor camps, but taking a tactical target with no losses was appealing. After a full minute he made his reply, "Agreed. Once the station is cleared we expect you to leave this area. Failure to do so will result in attack." He then contacted the two corvettes and ordered them to hold positions. They stopped moving in, waiting while the station continued it's evacuation.

**********************************************************

Once Nancia was prepared she contacted Fortunes, "Fortunes, Nancia, I'm ready to lift if I'm clear", she said, and waited for the clearance.

**********************************************************

W.Y.A.L. finished loading and Joat contacted Simeon. "Hey, Pops, were ready, am I clear?"

"Clear", Simeon replied, "be careful, Joat. Channa sends her love, and Zen hugs from me."

"Thank's", she said, choking a bit as she spoke, "see you soon."

"It's a date", he told her, with more confidence than he felt.

Rand double checked the area and then they pulled out of the station with thier passengers and began moving away, preparing to jump out.

**********************************************************

A few minutes later the Victorious simply vanished and less than two seconds later simply appeared near Simeon. Tactical information flooded in and the ready flight crews began leaping away from the Victorious. 12 missile frigates and 20 fighters were away in less than one minute and speeding toward the destroyer. The Victorious vanished again, reappearing almost instantly between the Highwind and the two corvettes.

"This is Admiral Anestice Quester-Benn. You will power down your weapons and lower your shields. Surrender, or be destroyed. This is your only warning."

Swarm leader Krak'kt glared at his tactical display. Angry about being duped he would have his vengeance. While he might not be able to take on the heavily armed warship, the station was another matter. He ordered the corvettes to split up, pretend to be about to engage the warship and move off, then jump back with the information they had gotten. He continued his path toward the station, looking at the incoming fighters and frigates, confident that would last long enough to let off a salvo at the station and then escape.

{Nancia, this is Fortunes Flight Control. You’re cleared for take-off,} replied the controller.
***

“Well, that should have bought us enough time for the Victorious to arrive,” remarked Bailey. “They even did us a favour and took a while to respond.”

“X-rays Two and Three have come to a relative stop.”

“Sensors, can you identify the location of the communications transmitters on X-ray Two?”

“One moment… Yes, I think so, sir.”

“Planning something, Commander?” asked the Mind.

“The most dangerous thing that can happen here is a transmission to the rest of their fleet,” Bailey pointed out, “So yes, Windy, I’m planning something.”

“New contact!” exclaimed Tactical. “The Victorious,” he added, after the identity was confirmed. “Gods, she’s big,” he muttered.

They watched while the Central battle-cruiser deployed it’s forces and made it’s declaration, then waited for the response.

“X-ray One is heading for the station. X-rays Two and Three are moving to engage the Victorious,” reported Tactical.

“That’s a feint. They’re not stupid; there’s no way those two ships can take on something that size. They’ll jump out and make sure their fleet gets the data,” guessed Bailey. “Have we been fired on?”

“Negative, sir.”

“Fine, time to get creative,” the Commander decided, “Jump us in right behind Echo Three. On reversion, immediately launch ten Virgos for a Delta strike on Echo Two and scramble all Cobras. Windy, effectorise the hell out of Echo Two’s comms equipment, override the Actuator safeties and send Echo Three on holiday. Do it now.”

A split second after Bailey gave the order, the Highwind vanished into a wormhole and reappeared almost immediately directly behind one of the corvettes. Then several things happened all at once. The frigate’s powerful electromagnetic effector locked on to what they hoped was the other corvette’s communications equipment and overwhelmed it with energy. Ten Virgo drones shot out of the starboard bow, one every two seconds, and directed at the same corvette’s engines, at which they began volley firing missiles. Finally, a wormhole burst into life mere metres in front of the first corvette. Several seconds later, the Kestrel fighters boiled out of the dorsal hangar and began orbiting the frigate’s hull.

(Sorry, internet was down yesterday.)

Nancia lifted quickly and cleanly, moving away quickly toward the planet. "I'm clear, Fortunes, thank you", she sent.

**********************************************************

Ivanova guided the ships to appropriate docking areas and informed the guards on duty that evacuating personal will be sent to thier areas for immediate removal, then went back to the task of taking care of the ships in the area.

**********************************************************

Anestice watched the tactical and saw the incoming corvettes. Almost at the same time her XO and her third shift commander called from thier tactical stations elsewhere on the ship, "They have to be out of thier minds", Captain Torin stated.

"No, they're up to something, they know they don't have a chance."

They watched as the Highwind vanished and reappeared and then monitored thier activities. She grinned, "Apparently I'm not the only one who realizes this. Send them my compliments, will you Pol?"

"Highwind, Victorious, this is Pol, the resident shell person. The Admiral offers her compliments on anticipating thier tactics."

She watched as the first corvette, who had been accelerating, tried to turn and slipped into the wormhole.

"Target the second and fire a burst from two of the canons", she ordered. Two of the antimat canons fired, sending coherent energy in four streams. When it hit the shields, they barely flared, but then the energy began to take effect and the entire shield around the ship wavered and then vanished, blowing out the shield generator.

The Corvette, in desperation, fired rearward toward highwind and tried to cut away from the Victorious.

"Well that was a mistake", Anestice commented, "those Indoan vessels are far more effective than ours of that class."

**********************************************************

Krak'kt accelerated toward the smaller vessels, anticipating smashing through them. Once in range the Valkeries fired four missiles each. The destroyer tracked the 48 missiles and launched anti-missile missiles as they locked on defensive guns. The missiles closed and a few seconds before impact seemed to explode on thier own. In truth, however, the cases blasted away and six smaller missiles broke away from each parent. The cluster missiles changed the incoming tracking trajectory from 48 missiles to 336 independently targeting warheads. The destroyers computer frantically tried to track all the targets and anticipate firing solutions.

"VEER OFF, VEER OFF!", the swarm leader shouted, too late. The multiple impacts smashed through the warships shields and tore into the hull. After a moment she vanished in a fury of blazing energies and the Valkeries changed thier course toward the last remaining ship, even as the unseen Banshee's followed suit.

“X-ray Three has entered the wormhole,” reported Tactical. “X-ray One has… been destroyed… by the Central force.”

“Ouch,” remarked Bailey, with a grimace, “Must have been one hell of a punch.”

“Incoming fire, X-ray Two,” exclaimed Tactical suddenly. “Target altering course, going to port.”

“Windy, confirm that.”

“Confirmed. Contact X-ray Two has fired on us,” reported the Mind, as the weapons fire in question hissed off the shields.

“Helm, roll ship to port; dorsal exposure. Guns, target X-ray Two and release batteries; full salvo,” ordered Bailey sharply.

The frigate rolled with surprising speed, exposing every weapon emplacement on the upper hull to the hostile vessel. The instant the manoeuvre was completed, all of the exposed armaments fired in sync; 21 laser cannons, 10 plasma cannons, 16 missile launchers and 4 particle cannons, representing just over half of the frigate’s total firepower. The Kestrels, which had scattered as the corvette fired on them, also fired their own missiles, as did the Virgo drones.

After the initial salvo, the frigate’s weapon systems continued to fire, though they now did so in their own time, instead of the concentrated, synchronised burst that had started the fight. The Highwind would continue to fire on their target until they were absolutely sure it no longer represented a threat.

{Thank you,} replied the Mind, {The other corvette is on it’s way to the far side of what you call Andromeda. It won’t get there for at least three days, if it survives the trip.}

“Windy, you and the XO can finish things up, can’t you?” asked Bailey. “For I believe I must now confine myself to quarters and await the results of the inquiry.”

“Yes Commander.” There was a long pause, then the Mind added. “The council will understand what you did here. I will make sure of it.”

“I know you will, Windy. Thanks.” Bailey saluted the bridge crew, then left the bridge.

“New contact, Cobra Nine returning,” announced Tactical, as a small wormhole deposited the Kestrel in a section of empty space not far from where the Highwind had been before it’s microjump.

"Pol, contact Simeon, Comm, open a channel to Highwind and recall our ships", she said and stood up straight. "Well, the Lady did just fine, everyone. She's yet to lose her name." Based on the databurst that Simeon had sent along with the Indoan ship, however, she wondered how long that would be true. "Recall our ships and get us closer to the 900.

"Highwind, Victorious, greetings, and thank you. We're recalling our ships .... have the Banshee's decloak .... and moving toward the station. So if you have anything cloaked out there, let us know or have them recalled. What happened to the other Corvette?" she asked.

"They sent it to the far side of Andromeda", Pol answered instead.

"Well they won't be back for awhile", she replied.

"Simeon wants to wait until the station is evacuated", Pol informed her.

"Standard procedure for any station manager, hard or soft shell. Well stand by in case there's a problem and then take him out last."

"He doesn't want to go", Pol told her.

"Yeah? Well as military commander present in this sector it's my call and he's going. Please see to it that he's informed."

"Done", Pol replied. "W.Y.A.L. just left. Unknown drive technology."

"Unknown? Never mind, it's Joat, nothing surprises me with her. Highwind, please advise as to your status, do you require any assistance?"

“Attention all personnel; Stand down from Level one Battle Stations. Condition lowered to Level two Battle Stations,” announced the Highwind’s Mind, “Repeat, condition lowered to Level two Battle Stations.” There was a slight pause, then it added, “We have successfully engaged two corvette class warships in battle; one destroyed, one neutralised. We sustained no casualties or damage.”

“Recall the Cobras and begin recovery of the Virgos,” instructed Colonel Cochrane, Bailey’s XO. “Send a message to the Fortunes, updating them on our situation. Begin standard post-action checks, and send a maintenance team to the number two linear catapult.”

As the cloaked Kestrels returned to their mother ship, the Virgo drones disappeared one by one as they were Displaced back on board. The frigate had opened up a safe distance between it and the debris left by the Ramanthian corvettes, but was otherwise at a complete stop relative to everything else.

“Windy, will you deal with the natives for now,” asked Cochrane. “I still need to think a little.”

{Negative. Highwind did not receive damage from the enemy vessels,} replied the Mind simply.

Once the Victorious moved close to the station, the Admiral launched her six scouts. They moved into positions of the galactic compass and above and below the plain of the station. There they came to zero V and then completely vanished. While hard to detect in flight, no known systems could find them while they were sitting idle. An occasional sensor sweep might be detected, but typically they kept to passive receptors.

"Comm, station", Anestice ordered. "Simeon? this might not be a good time, but how are you going to get everyone off the station?" she asked, fully prepared to drag him screaming off of it if he couldn't get all the bio bods off.

"Highwind is sending for some transports. They can take everyone", Simeon replied.

"Good to know", she replied, "big as we were we're chock full with a full battalion of legionaires. 10,000 in all. We'll co-ordinate with them and the Victorious will take you and Channa. Admiral Quester-Benn out."

"Comm, Highwind", she then ordered. "Highwind, we understand that you are sending ships to evacuate the station. We will assist you as needed. Simply tell us what you want or need."

{That is correct. High Command have dispatched a number of freighters configured for personnel transportation, complete with escort ships. They will arrive in approximately five hours. And with respect, we’d probably like you to stay out of the way. Each freighter is carrying a small detachment of Rangers to act as loadmasters and security, although we may ask for help in that regard if people get troublesome,} the Mind replied.

“Do we know the composition of the task force yet, Windy?” Cochrane asked after hearing the message to the Victorious.

“We do. It was transmitted just before their departure. There are seven Three-hundred series medium freighters, escorted by the Silveretta and the Eclipse,” it told him. “It’s interesting. Both are Defence Fleet vessels. I wonder if High Command thinks we may need their expertise over an Explorer vessel.”

While there was no real difference between a corvette assigned to the Defence fleet and one assigned to the Explorer fleet, the Defence vessels tended to be better in actual combat, as they practiced more; taking part in the regular defence exercises. The difference in ultimate objective also played a part in their capabilities; Explorers usually fought only to survive and escape, whereas Defence vessels always fought to destroy their opponent, and were thus usually more effective fighters.

“Message from the Faded Fortunes. They will join us at this location in four hours,” announced Comms. “They also congratulate us on our victory.”

"Understood", Anestice replied. "Most likely better off that way. Aside from my naval personnel to run the ship we're filled up with Legionairres and they aren't known for their gentle natures. The stationers shouldn't give you too much in the way of trouble. They're fringe civs and of tougher stuff than the more settled regions of Central. Once you get the civs and workers off, we'll take Simeon and Channa. We'll have to take them to the shell academy. They'll take care of Simeon or arrange to have him installed elsewhere."

((OOC: Going to assume that nothing happened in the interval, and jump forward. If you had intended otherwise, let me know and I'll change it.))

The past five hours had passed fairly quietly. There had been no further intrusions from the invading forces, nor anything in the way of trouble within the system – probably thanks to the presence of the Victorious. The Faded Fortunes had arrived on schedule, an hour earlier, reporting a similar lack of activity in the Midgaard system. They had left a few long-range sensor drones scattered around the system before their departure, to warn them of any intrusion there. The corvette had also Displaced Fayalin-Xunrae back on board shortly after it’s arrival.

Almost exactly on schedule, at a point twenty megametres from the SS-900, space buckled and twisted briefly, before blossoming into a wormhole, which promptly disgorged nine vessels; two 170m Vadra-class corvettes, identical to the Faded Fortunes, and seven 97m TD-302 “Avalon” medium freighters, all identically painted in light grey, with large blue and white flashes near the bow and engines. After a few seconds, the small group vanished into another wormhole, then reappeared moments later only a few kilometres from the other two Indoan vessels.

{Task Force Phasel, Indoan Navy; arriving. INV Silveretta commanding,} sent one of the corvettes to both the Victorious and the SS-900 after forming up with the other Indoan vessels. The freighters broke formation, moving towards the station as a group, each one requesting docking directions independently.

“Fade, open communications with Silvie, will you?” asked Valero, on board the Faded Fortunes.

The two Minds briefly exchanged greetings, then opened the channel to their respective bridges.

“Hello, Elle,” Valero said, “How are things?”

“Nikki. It’s been a while,” replied Col. Eleanor Valero, commander of the Silveretta. “Makes sense though. If anyone was going to drag me out here, I knew it would be you.”

Nicola laughed, “You never could keep your nose out of my business,” she told her elder sister.

“And you could never stay out of trouble for more than five minutes,” shot back Eleanor playfully, laughing as well. “How are you doing?” she asked, moving on to more serious matters, “Windy told us about the incident a few hours ago, but what about the rest?”

“Then you know we weren’t involved in that engagement,” replied Nikki, “We had a few interesting moments a while ago though, before this business even started. There’s far too much to tell you now though; you’ll just have to wait until we’ve got some leave.”

(OOC: Nope, we're good. Nothing else, basically. You'll be gone before the Ramanthian's show, then you'll be quite of this area of space for awhile. I'm sure your people will be happy about that *grin*.)

"Welcome to the SSS-900-C, Silveretta, under Simeon and Channa. Sorry for any inconvenience", he said in an official voice that was kept carefully under control, knowing that he would taken from the safe confines of his titanium column soon. "Channa is busy helping the station emergency leaders get the passangers ready and apologizes for not being able to communicate with you directly."

**********************************************************

"Acknoweledged", came Admiral Quester-Benn's reply from the Victorious. "We understand that you'll be loading the passengers with your own crew, but stand by to render assistance. Should it be required, General Quester-Benn will lead the relief force. We have cloaked vessels in system, and all indications are clear."

**********************************************************

Simeon acknowledged each freighter and four to the southern pole and the other five to the northern pole, indicating the berths they should take. He then contacted the emergency leaders to inform them that the freighters had arrived and would be docking shortly before making a general announcement.

"Attention all station personnel", he began, using a female voice that tended to keep people calmer then his own male voice, an easy thing to do since his voice was transmitted through speakers. "The Indoan freighters have arrived. Please co-operate with the Indoan officials so as to conduct this exodus in an orderly fashion. Thank you."

All was as prepared as it could be. Gus was in charge of the northern section, while Patsy was in charge at the southern. Channa decided, having nothing further she could do, to return to her and Simeon's quarters and sit with him until the shell team from the Victorious arrived.

{Understood. We were told you have approximately ten thousand evacuees on the station. The –three-zero-twos can carry up to two thousand each, but we’d like to make it an even spread; putting nearly fifteen hundred on each. It was also made known that you may have some cargo you want removing. Unfortunately, that will have to be dealt with on an item by item basis. The freighters have been fully converted, so there is little space for cargo on board any of the vessels,} the Silveretta sent back to Simeon.

The freighters split according to the directions given, four moving to the station’s north pole and three to the south, and slowly manoeuvred into position. Though they matched velocities with the station’s rotation, they were still several metres from the docking booms. Two fully suited Rangers left each freighter via the secondary airlock, and began setting up the flexible tubes that would link the main airlock with Simeon’s docking booms, bypassing the differences between the two devices. They moved quickly, clearly well-practiced with the system. As each pair worked, their respective freighter moved slowly closer to the station, under the guidance the two soldiers. It took less than five minutes for all seven freighters to complete the sequence.

The two squads of Rangers on each freighter then split evenly; eight on the station maintaining order and shepherding people in the right direction, and eight more on the freighter, guiding people to a seat once they passed the heavy double doors that formed the vessel’s main access. All of the Rangers wore a battlesuit, sans helmet, and carried a rifle. The interiors of the freighters resembled more normal passenger transports, with rows of seats, split into groups four across with aisles in between filling the cavernous hold, though the seats were even more basic than was usually found on those craft.

Simeon alerted Gus and Patsy as to the division requested and the were busy seperating the goups as the Indoans came aboard the station.

On the northern pole Gus was snapping out orders to the civilians, having been formerly in the navy, herding them along with as much precision as he could, given that most, while they were tougher than civilian internal to Central, had never served. His voice boomed above the noise in the huge bay and he checked, double checked and rechecked each and every name as they went on board the freighters.

Patsy, while not military, grew up in the badlands of Central before it expanded to make the area more civilized. Her voice had drawl and twang to it, but she made herself heard none the less. She too was checking every name, making sure that no one got left behind.

"We can skip the cargo", Simeon said in reply, "the Ramanthian station designs are different from ours and I had my people seal the good items in crawlways and certain sections of the station that would appear normal with a wall in it. I'm encryping the computer system so they can't get into it. With a war on I doubt they'll take the time to wonder what's in the encrypted files with the rest of the system showing normal layout and inventory."

((OOC: Sorry, things have been a bit mad the last few days. What with doctors, moving, uni and various other things, I've been struggling to keep up. Also, I think I need a new set of characters. I can't keep track of this many, and I don't like having so many either. Note to self: Don't go beyond about ten people in future. :p ))

The Rangers did their best to make sure that the embarkation of passengers passed as quickly and as painlessly as possible, though with so many people involved, it was inevitable that there were some issues. They were glad of the help from the two station seniors, having a face known to the masses helping to give out instructions had probably made things quite a bit easier. The task took longer than they had hoped, mostly due to the vast number of people involved, and even though there was no real reason for haste, the Indoans were still hurrying things along.

The freighter crews were glad that the loading of cargo had been cancelled; it saved them having to fit it all in. Eventually, as the capacity of each freighter touched fifteen hundred, the freighters sealed the airlocks and prepared for departure as a pair of Rangers worked on disassembling the connecting tubes they had set up. One freighter at each pole remained accessible, and both Gus and Patsy were approached by one of the squad leaders, asking if they were certain that everyone on board the station had been evacuated.

“Okay, can I have everyone’s attention, please?” a voice sounded throughout one of the freighters, “Welcome aboard the F611 Lysander. Everyone must fasten their safety harness and tighten it enough to ensure a secure fit. Additionally, under each of your seats there is a separate belt harness. You must fasten this around your waist; it will adjust to fit. This will protect you in the unlikely event of a serious hull breach.” The sergeant making the announcement figured it would be best not to mention the fact that they would only have thirty minutes of air from that point, and that if the freighter was destroyed they would freeze to death long before their air ran out, and probably before they could be picked up by another vessel. “If you have any problems or questions, please ask myself or one of my colleagues.” Similar announcements were taking place on each of the other freighters.

{The freighter pilots are reporting they are fully loaded and ready for departure,} sent the Silveretta to Simeon, {Are you certain there is no-one left on board the station?} it asked, repeating the question put to Gus and Patsy by the Rangers.

Patsy nodded, "Ayuh", she said, "ever'ones aboawd", she told the squad leader smiling. "Am a goin ta with Samin", she informed them in her drawl. "Y'all are set. Thank E kindly fer the assitance." Then she turned and headed toward Simeon's cabin.

On the other pole Gus gave much the same reply, except in clipped military tones and then also moved back into the station heading toward Simeon's cabin.

Simeon checked the data pads that Gus and Patsy carried remotely and then did a quick visual check and finally a scan of the station. "We're clear. Gus and Patsy are going with Channa and I, your freighters are cleared to disengage from the station." He sent a quick data burst through the channel, "Those are the co-ordinates for your freighters, just take them to Rigel and they can be taken care of from there. If you arrive before we do, they may not know what's happening out here. In fact I highly doubt it. They can wait for Victorious or contact Rigel central themselves, whichever they would prefer. If they choose to contact Rigel, just let them know that the Victorious will be along soon to verify what they're telling them."

Then Simeon opened up a channel to the Victorious, "All personel have been evacuated except Channa, Gus, Patsy and myself."

"Your ready to be removed?" Anestice asked.

"No, but I don't have much choice and I've done all I can here."

"Alright, prepare to receive the reaver."

A ship launched from the Victorious. She was large enough to hold about 20 men and had large engines for her size. She showed no weapons or shield, other than standard deflectors for normal space hazards. Rather than head for the north or south pole, she docked at the center of the station at a smaller emergency docking ring. The shell team made their way to Simeon's cabin, hooked up a portable memory unit and gently informed him that he should shut down his access to the station's memory banks. He should then search his biological memory and then dump any information from the station's bank that he wanted to keep, but he would have to leave the rest. Simeon began to do what they told them, feeling as though he was excising a part of his own brain.

The sergeant that had spoken to Patsy watched her walk away with a slightly bewildered expression on his face, trying to work out what it was she had said, while the one at the other pole saluted smartly, then both returned to their respective freighters. The last two vessels quickly made their preparations to depart, then the freighters moved away from the station, one after the other, drifting sideways to put some distance between them and the station before firing the main engines and forming up into a group once more.

The formation then made a micro-jump to join up with the Indoan warships, and the Silveretta transmitted the interpreted destination data to all the other vessels, slaving their systems to that of itself. As one, the small task force activated a wormhole and vanished into it, leaving the system behind. Whatever was to happen there now, the Indoans would not be returning for quite a while.

The freighters reappeared in the designated system, that which the natives knew as Rigel, almost a minute later, with the three corvettes holding escort positions ahead and to the left and right of the transports, and the frigate acting as a rearguard for the group. All four warships immediately scanned the surrounding area, then shared their data to compare any anomalies. They made no transmissions to outside sources, only encrypted narrowbeam exchanges between themselves and the freighters.

Rigel was the peaceful heart of the Central Worlds systems. No defense platforms or warships were scanned. While considered the heart of Central Worlds, it really contained nothing much of value, other than a central hub for various businesses both government and private. The brawn barracks was also located here and newly graduated shell ships came here to pick out their brawns, as well as older shell ships who needed brawn replacements.

Nigel blinked at the display as he detected the warships, "ahh, Sir?"

"Yes?"

"We have ahhh, we have WARships coming in. Not ours."

"What?", came the voice of his supervisor in surprise. "Let me see." He looked over the shoulder of the young man in the seat and then closer for a second look.

"What should I do, Sir?", the young man asked.

"Pray they're friendly, son", he told the man, "because we have no defenses. Open a channel, wide band."

"ATTENTION unknown vessels. This is supervisor Harmon. Please state your business."