Tasha is only vaguely aware of what she told Bumper about Lord Yama. She's pretty sure that she covered the Markers and such, but that was before she passed out. The past day had taken quite a toll on her, especially with the lack of sleep, and she made up for it by having a proper, deep sleep.
But even that has to end, as someone is trying to rouse her. "Hey, wake up Tasha. Unless you don't want breakfast before we leave?" It sounds like Neesa.
"I'manowango-mmnngh," is Tasha response, followed by a roll over and her hiding her muzzle under one of her wings. She feels like she never wants to wake up, deep in the comfort zone of really good sleep.
"If you don't get up, someone will just carry you out," Neesa notes. "And really, that is hardly a good impression to leave on the Phins, now is it?"
"Phins-no-care-all-about-sex-leave-alone-Neeeeeeessaaaaaa," goes Tasha, but at least she cracks her avian eye open and peers over her feathers, blinking groggily.
"They're giving us fish tacos," Neesa explains. "I don't know what those are, but anything other than raw fish sounds good right now."
A long suffering sigh escapes the semi-awake women, who finally sits up. She looks around for a moment, unfolding her wings and rubbing at her eyes until she says, "I'm coming, I'm coming ... Um, where am I?" She doesn't remember going to bed.
"On a bunk in the 'dry hab module'," Neesa reminds. "The Titanians have already gone to eat. If we don't hurry, there might not be anything left!"
"Huh," goes Tasha, wondering when she teleported in to a bed. Shrugging, She rises and then nods to the other woman. "Hokay, lets go."
The mess hall is.. messy. It's another half-flooded chamber, and the Phin 'chef' is actually hanging in some sort of body sling suspended from a mechanical frame with metal spider-legs coming out of it. The dolphin controls the robotic arms that prepare the food, deftly wielding knives and other cooking instruments. The two Titanians, Rushfighter and Bumper, already have plates heaped with.. some sort of sandwich from the looks of it, but with thin, hard bread. "Ah, you finally wake-k-k," Kaa greats Tasha and Neesa.
"I was tired, it's not easy for a bird to sleep under the sea, you know!" The younger of the two women trots her way towards the food line, getting in to it and after watching the others, also copying them in grabbing a tray. "I guess we're just about done down here, unless the scientists found more, Kaa?"
"Nothing!" the pilot replies. "No returns on siesmics or deep-radar.. it's just seabed now. Brookida had to meditate, but is back giving order to start mining minerals from the crater."
"Meditate?" Asks Tasha, who cautiously fills her tray with the peculiar fish-in-hard-bread affairs. "So we're heading back to the ship? To be honest, I was hoping there was more to do. I feel like I just got here."
"Mining is boring," Kaa says, then laughs at his own pun. "Get it?"
"Um, like a bore? A boring drill, I have one for, um ... My hammer-axe-drill-vice," the hybrid replies, glancing at the man for a moment before she finishes up her plate. "I never did get any treasure, you know?"
"Treasure? What about me? Aren't I worth the effort?" Kaa asks, and rolls around in the water.
"Sure, I'll bring you with me! I can always use a pilot!" Tasha reaches over to pat the man as they walk back to their table, which just so happens to also be where the Titanians are sitting. "Hi Rush, hi ma. So what's the plan now?"
"Knowledge and experience are to be treasured," Neesa tells Tasha, but smirks as well.
"Go back to Phin-ship, get paid, return to Mauler, go to fish market," Rushfighter says, spraying a bit of fish since his mouth was full.
"I can get that without blood though, I was hoping for some kind of treasure," Tasha admits as she takes her seat. "Not because I need it, but the novelty is nice! I rarely get anything for all my effort, you know? And, I like souvineers." Tasha turns to nod to Rushfighter, wiping off her face as she does. "Hokay. Paid, huh? And a market?"
"Yeah, big fish market, trade for lots of good junk," Rushfighter says. "Everyone go there."
"I just so happen to like everyone, so it'll be fun," Tasha notes as she munches on her fish tacos through the side of her mouth. "I think I like fish, too, come to think of it."
"It dangerous place though," Bumper cautions. "Edge of explored space. Furthest you can run if you gotta run from something."
"Oh? I was expecting a bunch of stalls and men yelling about their merchandise, this sounds like something considerably grander. A space station?" Asks Tasha, who has decided fish tacos may well be one of the best foods she's ever had.
"Yeah, space station.." Bumper confirms.
"They're talking about Outpost Caltrop," Kaa notes, from behind Tasha and Neesa. "Mining station, but still a major hub for the no-questions-asked sorts."
"Ooh, exciting!" Tasha wiggles her free hand, unable to quite contain her excitement to simply grinning and wagging her tail. "Oh, the old Sifran station! Blammo told me about in what feels like a long time ago."
"But can I really go? I ask a lot of questions, right ma??" The hybrid then notes, smiling across at the woman who knows.
"Blammo talk too much for own good," Rushfighter says, shaking his head.
Bumper looks at Tasha and seems to consider. "Good bars there. Lots of weird people. Prolly hokay," she concludes.
"Is it really that bad I know about it?" Tasha inquires, leaning forward and talking between munch-a-thons. "Blammo's great! He helped me a lot back when I first came to your ship, I'm not sure I'd have succeeded without him." She then nods to Bumper. "I like the sound of it, it reminds me of home, just, more interesting."
"Blammo fine, gots a Titan out of it, so worth it," Rushfighter says.
"Ya, me too. It was a good day, even if the others were a bit mad about the whole thing," the red woman agrees. Somehow she's managed to decimate her food while still managing to talk, and is nearly done.
Neesa has been quiet, mainly because she doesn't like to talk with her mouth full. Once she swallows, she tells Tasha, "Maybe you can bring back the secret of tacos as your treasure?"
"Hmm," goes Tasha, who takes a moment to wonder if 'Tasha's Taco Titan' would be a viable business model. Flat bread with sauce work, so maybe.// She's sure Katherine could sell it somehow; The young woman doubts anyone trusts her business accumen. "Maybe. I still want physical treasure, though. I spend quite enough time searching for inner mysteries, emotional returns and the figurative and metaphorical."
"What sort of souvenir do you like?" Kaa asks.
"Ancient artifacts, historical, cultural, political, and technical databases. Titans. Weapons. Um, armor. I get a lot of use out of armor. Religious materials. I like shiny bits too. I'm sure there's more," Tasha relates, right before she pushes the last taco-half in to her muzzle.
"K-k-k-k-k," Kaa ratchets. "You want Phin culture stuff?" he asks.
"Sure, I wouldn't mind a historical and cultural database of the Galactics either. It doesn't have to be involved, but it'd be nice to have an idea of basic history and what's important these da-, erm, these dangers I may have to deal with. Political ones," the half-Vartan replies.
"I don't know if we can give you that sort of information," Kaa notes. "You aren't technically an ally. Neither are Titanians. Can give you.. art. Stories. Religious stuff, yeah."
"'Not technically an ally,'" Tasha repeats, making a wry face and turning to shake a finger at Neesa. "Aren't politics a pain in the butt? Oh well." She turns back, then shrugs. "I'll take 'em. Have any painting materials? I paint."
Tasha suddenly tilts her head in a very avian fashion, tapping her lips. "So what am I considered, anyway?"
"We don't paint with.. uh.. colors," Kaa notes. "I will give you some Phin paintings, but they are acoustic. You are.. a mysterious stranger."
"Hmm, I like that. Both of those, actually." Tasha gives a little shrug, then smiles as she leans back, pushing her tray forward to show she's done. "I'd paint something for you in return, but I don't have my paints and your friend would probably think it's spying on him anyway."
"I'll copy my personal collection over to you," Kaa promises.
"You're the best Phin in the universe," Tasha tells Kaa, then reaches over to pat him again. "I'm going to miss you, when we go. I hope we'll meet again."
"Sure! I'll come visit you after we finish on Encante!" Kaa promises.
"You mean, the whole project?" Tasha asks, eyes widening. "I'm, um, not easy to find. Usually."
"I'll join the Titanians, go fishing.. they know where you're from, right?" Kaa asks.
"Maaaaybe," Tasha hedges, glancing towards Rushfighter and giving him a subtle nod towards the door.
Subtlety is not one Rushfighter's finer skills. "Mebbe Phins make good bait.. catch bigger bigguns with faster wigglier bait.." he ponders.
"We, um, we should probably get going." Seeing her effort lost, Tasha instead tries the mother.
"Going? Oh, yeah.. how we doing that, Lucky Kaa?" Bumper asks their pilot.
"Oh, we shoot up out of the water and dodge missiles, then shadow-hop through the debris ring," Kaa says, showing all of his conical teeth.
"Terran missiles? Ooh, I'll have to pay attention," goes the hybrid.
"Hopefully!" Kaa says. "We could run into a visiting 'observer' ship from one of the big Galactics too. They like to pop in now and then to make sure the Terrans aren't up to anything sneaky."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Tasha asks as she stands up, leaning forward once she's up -- on Neesa's shoulders. "Lets get going?"
"Missiles are like rockets, right?" Neesa asks, looking less excited by the prospect.
"They're guided using sophisticated computers," the youngest of the women notes to the middle. "I like military science, too."
"Some of them use psi-tech," Kaa notes. "But Terrans don't use those. Way too expensive!"
"Psi-what?" Goes the red woman, brows raising. "Does this have to do with 'psycic flensing'?"
"Dunno what that is but it sounds horrible," Kaa notes. "No, psi stuff lets it pick out thinking beings as targets, or project a sense of doom and despair so you don't want to dodge. Nasty stuff."
"That sounds like magic," Tasha notes, head tilting as her brow furrows. "How does it work?"
"It's old Galactic tech, so.. no idea," Kaa says. "Supposedly banned by the Rules of War, but.. well, we aren't enemy soldiers, we're 'outlaws' so that may not apply to us."
"Scary. I'm curious how it works, though. It sounds very peculiar, not like the technology I've seen or even what I think I see around here. Different. Like the hyperspace drives. And, as a warrior, ways to fight I've never heard about worry me on a practical level," Tasha notes.
"You don't plan on fighting Galactics though, do you?" Kaa asks with a bit of a laugh. "You're riding with Titanians after all."
"Ah, no. Not if I can help it, anyway. It's just, you never know what will happen and I've had to figth a great many things I was woefully unprepared for. Besides, I just like to know. I'm an adventurer, after all! And speaking of that:" The hybrid thumbs behind her. "Lets go."
Hours later, the longboat is streaking into the stratosphere, while the cabin is full of water and flashing (but silent) alarms. "Cutter on the horizon," Kaa reports. A hologram floats in the nose of the cabin, showing the planet, debris ring.. and several red markers that indicate patrol ships.
"Who does it belong to?" Asks Tasha, rebreather on and leaning forward to inspeak the readout -- or what little she understands of it. She notes the positions, then glances up towards the looming cutter.
"Us," Kaa says. "That is, Terrans. Ooo, it's the Anklebiter.. err, not it's real name, we just call it that. Karnor ship, inside joke. Trying to talk to us.."
"Terran Karnors," Tasha breathes, and she doesn't stop leaning forward. "Will we be able to hear them? I've been curious what they're like."
"Hear them? We can't open contact, sorry," Kaa notes. "It's just a handshake request, not a message. We've got a fake IFF but that never lasts for long."
"Oh, I see. That makes sense. I've never been in this situation before, so it's all a bit new even if I understand the basic tactics and strategy in abstract," Tasha notes. She turns her eyes back to the readout, feeling a momentary pang of loneliness as she remembers her poor Melchior still under repair.
"Yeah, they've targeted us, hang on to your livers," Kaa says, as the ship fully powers up its stator and begins evasive maneuvers. "We should hit the belt before the missiles reach us, then they'll have to switch to low yield."
"Can't risk bombarding the planet with meteors, right? That wouldn't look good on the political or public relations level, plus it seems at odds with Terran ethics," Tasha offers, head tilting. She doesn't move from watching the display, but she does reach over an brace herself with her hands at least.
"I don't understand any of this," Neesa says through gritted teeth, as the ship seems to bounce around. Bumper is still taking a nap it seems, while Rushfighter is watching the tactical display.
"Hah, time to burn some gyroscopes!" Kaa laughs, as he sends the boat into seemingly impossible maneuvers. They reach the debris belt and dive in, barely seeming to avoid collisions. On the display, the missiles appear to be.. turning back?
"We're under attack from ship-to-ship missiles. The Terrans have to appear to be attacking us, in order to keep the appearance of combatting the rebellion and not standing for piracy. However, they don't want to really kill us -- they will if they have to I think but not otherwise. By pretending to fight, they put on a show for the Galactics and create a believable cover so that other Galactics don't have grounds to intercede." Even as the ship rocks and dives, Tasha continues to explain the situation carefully and without pause, despite the manuvers. She does glance at the other screens, and the viewport, brows rasing, but she doesn't react more than that. "Annnd, it looks like the missiles have recovery programming! That's got to save on costs."
Once they're deep enough inside the ring, Kaa shuts down the stator and lets them run silent. "Once we've orbited towards the lunar insertion, we'll zip out to the moon's shadow," the Phin notes.
At this point, Tasha settles back, hands folding across her chest. "You're really an amazing pilot, Kaa. I hope that some day I can be half as good as you are."
"What do you fly?" Kaa asks.
"Whatever I can find and learn how to," is Tasha's answer, her head tilting. "Old ships, land vehicles, myself, animals, and Titans. I, um, I like antiques. And I have a lot of use for reliable technologies."
"I'm not sure your Titanian friends think reliable tech is very interesting," Kaa laughs, then goes quiet as new information appears on his screens. "Alright.. this is a surprise.."
"Hey, Titanians like all tech, just like me. It's why we-" Tasha pauses, frowning as she leans forward again. "Is there a problem?"
"Someone's doing a quantum resonance scan," Kaa notes. "Could be prospector drones."
"Isn't that the same technique we used to speak to the artifact's occupant?" Tasha asks, glancing back towards Bumper.
"Simpler," Bumper says. "Send out Hyperspace-A pulse at specific quantum frequency, get a return pulse from matter with proper frequency match."
"Oh," Goes Tasha, who settles back again. She shakes her head, admitting, "I was a little worried they were trying to figure out what we were up to, and had a problem with it. So, what sort of matter are they looking for?"
"Except I don't know what they're scanning for," Kaa notes, sounding a bit worried. He watches the tactical display, which is showing immediate space around the ship and along their course, since they aren't using active scanning themselves.
"That's, um ... Not good. I don't like 'mysterious surprises' inside battlefields. I have bad memories of surprises," the hybrid notes, and then leans forward for the third time. "Is there even anything nearby to scan for besides us? I don't see much. You can't determine the target from the type of scan used? Bumper?" Tasha glances back.
"Sure, check noise in that band," the Titanian suggests, coming fully awake with a big yawn inside her helmet. Kaa manipulates controls, and replies with some meaningless number.
Tasha keeps watching Bumper, the person she trusts most to understand the numbers, with Captain Rushfighter second and herself somewhere near last.
"Celestial Empire," Bumper claims. "Tandu ghost-hunter, prolly."
Kaa lets out a series of whistles and clicks that almost certainly expletives.
"Ghost-hunter?" Tasha asks, glancing between the two.
And when she thinks to ask, the hybrid also adds, "Tandu?"
The pilot is too busy now, so Bumper explains. "Tandu old client of Nagas. Very old, hardly ever seen. There are rules about how much Client race can be modified. Tandu come very close to edge of that. Bred for hunting. Will be a one or two-man ship out there, stealthed. They like ambushes."
"That doesn't make me feel any better. Why are they here, of all places?" Tasha asks, focusing back on Bumper. "And why are they using a mining survey system to do it? What would hunters need of such a system, I assume that it can also locate hull materials?"
"Can locate unique chemicals in blood," Bumper notes. "They hunting, of course. Outlaw Phins are fair game. Gonna have to fight them."
"We can't just run away?" Neesa asks.
"Kaa not let them find Ningyo," Bumper says.
"I'll help, if I can, " Tasha promises, pulling a deep breath afterwards and slowly rotating her right arm, limbering up. "I'm just not sure what use I can be unless we board them, and even then, I'm in a bathing suit with a knife. Still, I've been up against worse!" The young woman grins, thern asks, "So, modified. How modified? Genetics? Cybernetics? Was is consensual?"
"Maybe all of that," Kaa whines. "Different types and castes for different functions. Warriors, priests, engineers.." There's vibration in the hull as panels open and weapon pods emerge. "You any good at shooting, Red?"
"I'm mostly a melee specialist, but I can handle a gun," Tasha notes, scooting forward. "I do have these cybernetics if you can accept Khattan neural links."
"We don't use those, sorry-ry-ry," Kaa notes, but a new panel lights up next to Tasha. The longboat has missiles along with the cannon, but the automatic targeting is shut off. "Can't use computer to aim," Kaa notes. "Sensors give us away. Quantum computation also trackable."
"So ... Just point and shoot. Ah, and space is difficult to measure depth in without instruments.If the missile can be programmed on board, we could dump them behind some of the coming asteroids and order them to ignite once the ship passes, or, better yet, set them for high yield and detonate the asteroids in to their flight path and let their momentum do the damage for us," the young woman considers as she takes a moment to try to familiarize herself with the controls. "If we time it right we could hit then with the rocks, then the remaining missiles, and then I'll use the cannon while they're limping and their trajectory is stable, assuming they survive. Assuming I'm not completely wrong about this, too."
"Don't want to make a mess, bring down the cavalry on us," Kaa notes. "Need to find them before they find us. They may already have a fix.."
"They ahead, outside belt, forward lunar equilibrium point," Rushfighter reports, holding his hammer in both hands. "Active stator."
"Hmm, right, no messes either. Won't their signal strength fluctuate as they near us? Bump-" Tasha pauses, then nods. "Well, I can just shoot them too. Or try. We'll see. It seems like they're waiting for us to arrive and biding their time, so ... Lets see." Tasha begins the process of matching the targeting to the equilibrium point, and asks, "They're stealthed, you said?"
"Yes, because they best at lunge, poor at dodge," Bumper says. "Sword tactics."
"Hah, is that so?" Kaa asks, and whistles up new information. The tactical map expands to show the moon now. It looks odd.. as if it had an infestation of gophers.
"They're probably waiting for us to go around the moon, using it to hide our outbound trajectory," the pilot notes. "So we go through it, lure them in where we have the advantage."
"I programmed in a area burst around their supposed location, but I don't see anything. Should I wait? A sword must cut through a narrow cleft; Disrupt the window and you can't strike, or so my teacher told me. I was hoping to put them off balance by striking first and ruining their surprise. Should I wait, Captain?" Tasha asks.
"Fire when I say," Kaa replies. "Will give us cover, light them up to anyone looking too. We'll be underground by the time they realize we aren't doing a loop."
"Yessir," Tasha replies, giving the Phin a distacted salute as her hand covers over the confirmation. "I still can't see them, though. Is that part of their 'stealthing'?"
"They'll be too small to see at this distance," Bumper relates. "Celestials like active stealth - so they use a lot of power on black-body fields and reactionless drive."
"While we are cheap!" Kaa says, as he brings the stator up to standby.. and begins warming up the fusion drive.
"Hm, interesting. So much new technology." Tasha watches the screen like the proverbial hawk, her muzzle nibbling on her talons in between talking as she waits. "I assume they also put most of their power in an initial forward barrage? Or use similiar missile tactics?"
"Sword lunge," Bumper notes. "Ship is sword. They impale with it. So it also like a missile with a pilot."
"Stupid bug-lizard things are still flatlanders," Kaa notes. "No match for someone that naturally moves in three dimensions."
"Oh wow, really? Ramming tactics?" Ramming tactics are, in Tasha's experience, considered an old tactics even on Sinai. The realization it's still in use momentary stuns her with how small the universe can bow. "Wow, a sword-ship. I hope it survives disabled, I'd like to see it now!"
"Getting us into position, prepare your spread Tasha," Kaa notes. The diagram of the moon becomes transparent.. showing nested spheres, with odd, enormous tunnels from the surface to the first layer, which doesn't show any detail at all.
"I'm trying. The computer is helping me with these readouts, but it's taking some time to figure out what it wants from me and how to go about it," Tasha notes as she hurriedly enters, re-enters, and adjusts her entries. "These spheres are gravity? At least the tunnels are straightforward ... -ish."
"No, solid," Kaa notes. "Don't know what it was used for, but the moon is a machine with moving parts."
"Oh, well, that's different. Though, I'm at least glad to see the real answer was impossible to know," the hybrid remarks. "Solutions in. Firing is green, spread is as good as it's going to get given the situation, I think. I have the cannon on standby in case it's not enough."
"Fire," Kaa says. "We'll launch when they're one minute out from detonation."
"Firing." The ship rumbles with the release of the missile spread, and soon the objects are zipping away on both viewscreen and viewport. "Cannon ready."
"Strap in," Kaa says. "Going to turn on stator at same time as drive, so there may be inertia lag."
"That's always fun," Tasha remarks with a grin, bracing herself with her hands. "At least I'm already in the fluid, this time!"
"I hope at least one of you knows what's going on, right?" Neesa asks. Bumper doesn't seem all that concerned, and Rushfighter is still holding his hammer, and likely using it to detect the alien ship's presence.
"Oh, sure! I've stumbled my way through many battles! And who'se left standing? Me. And Kaa? Kaa's the best pilot in the universe!" Neesa can hear Tasha cackle-bark in her helmet as the younger woman hovers a hand over the cannon controls.
Just then, the boat lurches. There's a moment where the full acceleration of the drive is felt before the stator field fully engulfs them. There's no hiding now, as the little spaceship jumps forward with thirty gravities of acceleration. Soon after, Tasha's warheads detonate, letting the hunter know that it's been spotted.. and the chase is on.
Shaking her head to clear it of the heavy G-loading, Tasha takes a moment and then straightens to report, "Detonation ... Target remains. Damage unknown, but it is pursuing. Cannon ready. Think I can destroy the walls as we flee? Or will the impact not be enough to damage them?"
"Don't make a mess, we want them to follow us," Kaa says. Ahead, the moon is growing very large. It looks like a moon, certainly, on the outside, but Kaa is diving towards a shadowed crater. A very deeply shadowed crater.
"Isn't the point to disable or destroy them? Or do we need them spotted for the political remifications? Or do you have a plan that's better than 'shoot them or make them run in to rocks'?" Tasha asks as she tests the cannon controls by panning them this way and that, getting a feel for response time.
"Better that they go down where nobody sees," Kaa says. The boat is swallowed by the crater.. which is the mouth of a shaft. It's not straight, by any means. It's wide enough though, and the bursts of fusion flame provide both illumination and a glowing trail of particles to follow.
"Oh, is that it? Alright." It's not the first time for Tasha, but she finds the result somewhat dissatisfying. She wonders if it's her Vartan heart, uncomfortable with subterfuge rather than open and honest warfare. Still, she's begun to see the value in subtly and suspects she'll be using it a lot more in the days and years to come. "Do they have weapons other than ramming?"
"Probably, but they won't use them," Kaa says with confidence. Part of the reason for using this tactic becomes apparent, as the Tandu fighter enters the tunnel behind them. The recently irradiated rock overloads their stealth field, forcing it to drop. Tasha can see on the display that they're being chased by what is best described as a flying shaard - complete with golden glowing cutting edges.
"Ooh, it looks like a shaard. Ah, blowing it up is going to make me feel bad later, I just know it." Tasha shakes her head, but her aim doesn't waver. "I do hope it survives, though. Not that I'll be holding back if that's what it takes."
"We'll have a clear shot once we reach the center," Kaa says. Although from the tactical display, they're still moving at very high speed towards.. a solid floor.
"Just let me know. I'm not sure I can read the display perfectly," Tasha notes as she examines her target. It's beautiful, she decides, regretting the realization immediately as she reminds herself she'll probably be annhilating it shortly -- unless it annhilates them first. "Are Phin some sort of hunting commodity?"
"We're the best pilots," Kaa notes. "Maybe we don't duel with Titans, but we can still do it with ships." The floor ahead is still solid and Kaa isn't slowing.. and then the floor isn't solid as the mouth of a new tunnel begins to slide into place beneath them.
Tasha grins at that. "I can certainly see how true that is, regarding piloting. I thought you said Titans were no longer used? At least, not in a museum." She risks a glance at the other displays, noting the bizarre movement of the alien moon. "The moon's quite active, isn't it?"
"Yeah, Grinder has lots of shells, each about ten kilometers thick, all full of holes and moving at slightly different speeds," Kaa notes. "I have them all memorized, along with the timing."
"Phin are amazing," Tasha concludes, grinning more. "Or is that cybernetics?"
The following ship has to put on burst of speed to make it through to the next tunnel before it slips past, putting it closer to the longboat.
"I'm just a genius!" Kaa claims, showing that dolphins at least have amazing egos.
"And they're very persistent," the gunner notes as she watches the ship doggedly persue them. "Is it, um, dishonorable or against their religion, code, etcetra, to run away? Or do they just like the chase? Not that I can blame them." She then barks a laugh and reaches her free hand over to pat Kaa again, which necessitates her elaning over.
"I think failure means being eaten by the queen or something," Kaa claims. "We want them a little closer.. going to force them with this next slide. Our drive will play havoc with their shields."
"Shields?" Tasha asks, glancing over. "You mean, their ramming bow?"
"Force fields," Kaa notes. "Their drive relies on the stator fields a lot. Ours doesn't.. we just want to lower our inertia."
"Force ..? Um, explain it to me later. I should concentrate on destroying the pretty ship and not on understanding it," the gunner insists, ears canting back in her helmet. "Ready any time."
"Oh, can they get a signal out from here? Contact their own people, or anything like that?" Tasha then asks.
"Plus, it wouldn't be fair to shoot them in a tunnel when they can't dodge," the Phin notes, as he jinks the ship closer to the tunnel wall, which lets the next tunnel transition move a bit further before he dashes through it. The Tandu is forced to jump forward again, or be caught in the grinder.
"Little ship like that? They only call to report success," Bumper notes. The flight through the moon has her attention now.
"Fair? Hrrm, I suppose not, but battles are rarely fair. What matters is we survive and go home to our friends and family." Tasha nods, returning her focus to her screen. "I was thinking we could contact them, I bet they've never seen a ship with two Titanians, a Phin, a Karnor and a hybrid. We're probably some sort of hunter's dream, it could make them desperate or distracted."
"This next leg is called the Colon, because it's got a blind bend in it," Kaa notes. "We make our attack after we get through it. The shark is 12 seconds behind us, we'll be through before he hits the bend."
"Just say when," the red woman notes.
"You'll know when you see it," Kaa notes, as the ship lights up the tunnel to make the sharp turn. Then it's down another slight curve, and out into.. emptiness. Kaa practically spins the ship nose-to-tail and decelerates hard, while pushing them off to the side. The tunnel they came through is still glowing.. and any second now the enemy is going to pop out.
Tasha puts a bit more juice in to the system, bringing the system charge to full and the capacitors to max to reduce firing delay as low as possible. After that, it's just waiting. Her hand covers over the confirmation and the others can see her leanin in slowly, drawn to the screen, eyes wide. Her expression is different; There's a certain mania behind her eyes, a fire, and her teeth are bare in a cross between a smile and a silent growl. Her ears cant back, tail up.
The sword ship stabs down through the mouth of the tunnel. It really is something elegant and beautiful, even if the aesthetic is a bit alien. The stator housing is obvious, at the ship's center of mass, and the vessel is longer and narrowing than the longboat. I single blister between the blades is probably the cockpit.
With no small amount of pre-deed regret, Tasha confirms firing and the cockpit whines with the discharge of energy.
It takes only a fraction of a second for the tungsten-coated uranium bullet to strike, well before the hunter can make its defensive move. Whatever the ship is made from, it isn't tough enough to survive a kiloton impact. It shatters. And then the stator implodes to prevent any of it's technology from being recovered.
Tasha heaves a sigh, leaning back. She shakes her head as she watches the pieces drift apart. "I probably shouldn't ask if we could have captured it intact, should I?"
"It would have self-destructed," Kaa notes. "Tandu don't let themselves or their equipment be taken. Paranoid buggers, pretty xenophobic."
"Well, they exploded my sense of victory, too. Now I'm just depressed." Tasha leans back in her chair, resisting the urge to rub her face given its inaccessibility. She watches the pieces scatter, shaking her head.
Kaa turns the ship, and sends through the mostly hollow insides of the moon. There are giant pillars joining the inner shell to several incomplete ones deeper in, but the Phin sends them around instead, looking for the proper exit tunnel.
"You wouldn't have enough limbs to fly it anyway, probably," Kaa notes, before sending them towards the surface at a more leisurely pace.
"I'm sure I could manage something, even if it took years and a brain connection. I may never see one of those again, too. Mmm, this is going to depress me for a while, I know it." After disengaging the cannon and setting her control console to stand-by lockout in case of futher emergencies, Tasha rests her hands on the panel, then her head on her hands, looking dispondent.
"You can't collect one of every space fighter there is," Kaa notes. "Where would you keep them? There are probably thousands of styles still out there, some millennia old."
"Besides, this ship is better, we just proved it," the Phin claims.
"I could be happy with just one," Tasha notes, sounding about as sad as she looks. "I love my Titan, but he's not a lot of use in space. I've considered equipping him for it, though, but I'm hesitant to modify the frame given I know so little about his design and purpose. My other ship is, um, well it has complications. So ... " She eyes the screen mournfully.
"I don't know many girls with their own spaceship," Kaa notes. After a few more transfers, they're back in space, heading towards their rendezvous with Ningyo and the Mauler.
"I had a pony as a little girl," Bumper relates. "Was sweet. Blew up lots of stuff with it."
"It's over now, nobody is going to try and kills for a few hours?" Neesa asks.
"It's not really mine. It's, um, complicated. It's more like I'm taking care of it for a while, but I don't really want to use it because it's not mine and I can't command it fully. Plus I don't trust some parts of it. 'Acting Captain' is probably too generous. I've been wondering if a Titan could be converted to a spacecraft, though. I mean, it's not like aerodynamic shape matters in space," Tasha relates, She rolls her head to peer at Kaa a moment, then asks, "Is it unusual for women to own ships out here? I've been to, um, places where women aren't even allowed to fight -- it seems to be a Terran thing?"
"Not a lot of privately owned ships, not by Terrans anyway. Big corporations and governments.. and whatever the Khattan have," Kaa notes. "All Silent-Ones ships are part of the military."
"A lot of infrastructure and resources needed to maintain them, I know. My ship is mostly automated, so it takes care of itself, but it's old and it isn't suited to space travel anymore, so it's more like a highly mobile space station. For me, it's mainly been my Titan. I have worked on some Silent-Ones technology, though. I've forgotten a lot of it, but I can work on older 'Minds-of-Light.' That fighter, how far could it go? Did it need a mothership?" Tasha says, sounding a little happier for the conversation.
"It was probably a limpet on the last Celestial cruiser to come through," Kaa notes. "There might be others in the system.. we know to look for them now."
"Second chances!" Tasha exclaims, sitting up. "Although, I still have no idea how I'd capture one or if I even could. Better than nothing, though! It'll teach them for hunting the Phin. At the very elast, the parts would be nice to have."
"Bah, suicide ships," Bumper claims. "Use them for anchors."
"Is there a better ship?" Tasha asks, rolling her head to peer at Bumper. "Something small? That would fit in the hold? That could be modified?"
"Just build one," the Titanian suggests.
"Or parts? I love Mel, but I've begun to wonder if a melee weapon and batteries are really enough anymore," the hybrid elaborates.
"Build one?" Tasha considers this a moment, sitting up. "Could I? I'm not a Titanian, I have a hammer but I'm not a Titanian. Building a ship might be beyond my abilities. I like making my own tools, but I have to be realistic, don't I?"
"We gots old ones in junkyard, might still be stuff to pick over," Bumper claims. "Stuff from other 'Galactics' that didn't last, too."
"Holy sea cow, are you talking about the Ghost Fleet?" Kaa asks.
"Oooooooo, ghosts and old ships?" Tasha is all the way up now, then she skips seats to relocate beside Bumper and listen.
"Eh, if that's what you calls it," Bumper says.
"Not ghosts ghosts, but.. yeah, kinda ghosts," Kaa says. "It's an old spacer tale. That somewhere out there is a derelict fleet that predates all the current Galactic civilizations."
"Some kinda old," Bumper admits. "All junk. Some old junk, some new junk. Not all the new races made it."
"Hm, that would make sense. There were a tremendous amount of pre-Galactics, with infrastructure exceeding the current day. They would have left a lot of ships behind when they were, um, removed. I'd love to look!" Tasha leans closer to the otehr woman, wiggling her fingers.
"Mebbe we swing by, up to Rushfighter," Bumper says. The Titanian captain is still holding his hammer, but is fast asleep now.
"I better be good then," Tasha decides out loud, leaning back. "Or convincing."
"Maybe we find some junk to bring," Bumper notes. "Maybe we trade you.. old ship for Yam God."
"You ... You want the Yam God? WHY, for one and two, I don't exactly own him. I'm a little afraid his patron might be upset with me if I ruin him, too. He is a haughty pain, and we owe him, but ... He didn't hurt us. Er, much anyway. He is a damgerous monster though. Why do you care about him?" Tasha asks, ears askew and twitching.
"He old junk, dangerous junk," Bumper notes. "How you know he tell you truth?"
"I don't. He may just be hoping I'll go trigger the ... " Tasha glances at Kaa, frowning, then continues with: "thing we know about and destroy myself. He seemed to like me, but he serves them. And, um, maybe I do too? A few of them, anyway. I don't know who he answers to, though, and ethically I deeply dislike that he has such little regard for other life. In fact, he goes on about judgement, so, if I were to say ... judge him ... he should understand. Theoretically. Gabe says we can't judge the gods, but I don't think either of us agree with that. Do you really want him though? And, what about his patron?"
"Glow-plants been around longer than us," Bumper says. "Maybe it work for who it claims.. but not made by them."
"That makes sense, but, still, what do we do about his um ... boss. I'm not completely fine with upsetting them, not all of them anyway. Hor, er, H and A and E seemed like be-, um, people I don't want to hurt. Ari, I don't know. The others I know little about. But, I have a connection to them. Still .. I can't imagine some of them would be fine with 'murder recklessly.' But, what if he was protecting us?" Tasha asks.
"Crack him open and ask," Bumper says with a grin. "Lots of old stuff like that, some look harmless until they blow up."
"Stage trees," Kaa comments.
"Force him?" Tasha asks, ears perking. "Can it be done? He has the advantage where he is, and my predecessors would rest easier if he were gone. I would like answers. Um, am I defending him too much? I just, I don't like sentencing something to destruction without careful though. I know he's not my friend, but I don't know how deep his motivations lie. I suspect he may be my enemy, too."
"What's a stage tree?" Tasha then asks, head tilting. "And I suppose it couldn't hurt to confront him again, and this time on equal terms -- or more than equal. He respects strength, that much seems certain."
"We can be very persuasive," Bumper says. "If he who he say, he know about us. Maybe that enough to loosen lips.. leaves.."
"Oh, there are these trees found on lots of worlds," Kaa says. "They grow perfectly straight, hundreds of feet high, with big seed pods on top. Just weird alien trees, right? Until someone caught one on fire. Turns out they had solid rocket fuel cores. They'd blast off, in stages, and lob their seed into interplanetary space. No way they could have evolved that way, so someone made them. Great for cheap orbital launches of course. Which is probably the point."
"That seems ... Um, fair. I think. As long as we give him a chance. I'm not protecting him either, but for me to be part of his destruction I need more of a reason than 'I want a ship' -- as much as I want a ship. We're also, um, connected. But I don't know how, exactly. What it means. Gabe and the other see him as a threat alone, but I'm deeper connected to this. There's something ominous in my fighting him, when we may be on the same side. It's hard to explain," Tasha tells Bumper, shrugging a little for lack of words.
Tasha then nods to Kaa, smiling a little. "Those sound interesting! My, um, /Yam God/ is a bit more dangerous. He's a sentient infestation of another system. We spoke in the past, and he's responsible for a lot of mayhem and other things, but I'm uncertain of his real motivues. We may even be on the same side, believing in the same people. But, my gut tells me something's /off./ I just can't imagine the people above us being perfectly fine with his methods. Or if they /are/, then /I have a problem."
"Best to find out, eh?" Bumper says, crossing her hands behind her head.
"You must be some sort of 'god magnet'," Kaa notes to Tasha. "I guess that makes me a god then too! Pilot God Kaa!"
"Hm, I think you may be right. I guess on some level I was afraid of making myself look like a fool, or of questioning him too much -- or them, too much. Plus, I wasn't in much of a position to challenge him anyway, but with you all I think we have a chance!" Tasha grins.
The red woman pauses to turn her grin on Kaa, then asks Bumper, "I do seem to meet a lot of gods! So, is Kaa another one you want or can we leave him alone?"
"'Cept we won't be going with you," Bumper notes.
"Um ... What?" Tasha asks, ears going askew as she stares blankly at Bumper.
"We land at the port on Abed, that's far as we go," Bumper says. "You decide Yam God a problem, we deal with it then."
"So I just need to go back and talk to him, and decide his fate? How will you get at him if we decide he needs to be, um, removed though?" Tasha asks.
"He on ground, in swamp, uninhabited.. old Celestial junk lying around.." Bumper rattles off. "Big debris ring around planet, stuff falls."
"Oh, an orbital attack. That might work. He's clever though, so be careful. he has more than a robotic body to protect him -- I'm uncertain if he can call for help from any other source, either. I'll um ... I'll do it. For the ship, because I need to, and because they deserve it," Tasha says, resting as hand over her heart. "I won't feel too bad, if he has to go."
Kaa is suspiciously quiet through all this. "We'll be back to the ships in less than an hour," he finally reports.
"Thanks, Kaa. Sorry to talk about things so vaguely, I hope you understand," Tasha tells the Phin as she turns in her seat, settling back and getting comfortable. "Believe me, it's for the best."
"Hmmm. I don't know what worlds you're talking about," Kaa says, sounding frustrated. "I should know all of the worlds, frontier or not. It's humbling to hear about stuff that is way outside your experience."
"For what it's worth, I feel the same way. All the time. In fact, I felt the same way when I met you and your kind. But that's what keeps things interesting, doesn't it?" Tasha reaches over and pats the Phin again, smiling. "You get used to it, but you never get over it."
Kaa fweees and makes a raspberry sound. "Well, at least if you go to Caltrop, best bar is the Surf-n-Turf. Lots of Terrans there."
Tasha laughs at the name, surprised that the humor still translates. "I will, I will! It'l be interesting, meeting the rest of the Terrans -- and everyone else, too. It'll be my first real exposure to a large variety of Galactic culture and people -- in a way that doesn't involve missiles anyway."
"Well, the underbelly of Galactic Culture," Kaa says. "But underbellies are fine if you rub them the right way."
"Believe it or not, I used to live in an 'underbelly.' I grew up right on the edge, between that world and the one in the light. I was never sure where I belonged," the youngest of the women relates. "Now, I go out of my way to be in places I don't belong at all!"
"Keeping track of the dress codes must be a nightmare," the always-naked dolphin notes.
"I solve that by wearing whatever I want, and if I need to wear something, letting smarter people with better sense handle it. Once, the most beautiful woman in the whole world helped me pick out a dress! Or, well, picked it out for me, but that was probably for the best. And she did my hair! Well, her man did my hair. I sort of stood there and smiled. I'm, um, not so good at things like that, but it was still a wonderful night," says the hybrid.
"Things I will never have to worry about," Kaa notes, then starts activating various controls again. "Time for docking, secure yourselves please. I'm not usually bumpy going into the tunnel, but I am a bit tired.."
Tasha nods, settling back in to her chair and settling in again. "Take your time. We'll be fine, I'm sure. Besides, we could use the rest -- we have a lot to do before we get going."