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Dartz · 04-17-2011, 01:56 PM

I was thinking ranging from Transit Van-sized, to bus sized.... and probably not that well built since they only need to get through one re-entry. Also. Big dropships put a lot of eggs in one basket... one missile (or Panzer Kunst) and all the troops on it die. Small dropships are harder to hit, and less eggs get broken when one does.

I'd say go for the smaller things... because it makes them easier to smash and kill... but at the same time, makes it hard to put a dent in their numbers. There's only so much damage that can be done. It'll be like wrestling Jelly. No matter how much you rip off, there's always more to bounce back.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

**robkelk** · 04-17-2011, 03:19 PM

A scene for later on, using a couple of open characters...

The fighting was getting closer, but Noah stayed beside the computer. He had to finish making a copy of the Catalog for the Crystal Millennium, and he had to be seen to be finishing making the copy - anyone who was watching had to think these were the only copies in existence. If they didn't, they'd be hitting Stellvia as soon as they realized the master version of the Catalog was there. (They might hit Stellvia anyway, but better to keep laying the false trail despite that chance.)

"Mr. Scott, we have to leave! It's too dangerous for you to remain here!"

He looked up at the Senshi. "Thank you, Ms. Simmah, but it's more important that this information get out. You heard what the Boskonians said when they breached the perimeter - they want this data, and they aren't willing to share."

"It isn't worth your life, sir! Please, sir - what could I tell Sailor Stellvia if I let her best friends die when I could have prevented it? We have to leave! Now!"

Serenity I reached up and put a hand on the taller woman's shoulder. "Let him finish, Erin. In the name of Love and Justice, this is something he needs to do."

"But... is it really worth your lives?"

"It is. At least, Mr. Scott thinks it is." The Queen of the Crystal Millennium turned to the President of Stellvia Corporation. "And I trust you to have your priorities straight, Noah."

The computer chimed and ejected the memory stick. As Noah handed it to the Senshi's leader, he replied, "I think I do, Tanith."

"It's done. Can we please leave now?" Erin pleaded.

"You two can leave," answered Noah. "I'm going with someone else. We have to get both of these copies off-planet in different ships."

"But..." Erin Simmah started to complain, then realized the tactical sense of Mr. Scott's words. "All right. God speed, sir. Ma'am, this way, please."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

LynnInDenver · 04-17-2011, 05:47 PM

For when Noah asks about killing the Fifteen that's inbound, presumably to back up or as the really big ass bomb the Boskonians are sending.

Jeph leaned against the one control console, sighing heavily, her eyes closed. She still hadn't changed out of her Rock Band costume from earlier, although her wig was askew on her head now. She knew, already, that Fifteen's crew was already dead except for the accidental AI. Then, she opened her eyes.

"Nene, can you patch me through to Sparky on speakerphone?" Nene nodded, glumly, and connected her phone to one of her USB interface jacks. "Sparky?"

"Yeah, chief, things are going to get hot over here, if you know what I mean?" Jeph winced as the voice had a fair bit of bravado in it, but that was just the way Sparky was. Talkative and cheerful to a fault, but not nearly as bad as Eddie the Shipboard Computer.

"Do you have any way of altering Fifteen's course?"

"No way, no how, chief. They poked around and chopped me off from the controls here. Listen, chief, I'm done for if what Nene told me is true anyway, you don't have any way of diverting the ship from the outside. It's been an honor."

Jeph hung her head down, closed her eyes, and hoped the rest of the people in the room, especially Noah, couldn't see how hard she was trying to hold in the tears. But there was no way they could save the last person aboard Fifteen, and save Serenity Valley as well.

"I understand, Sparky. May your next existence be a little less harsh than this one has." Her voice sounded husky as she forced the tears back down with some effort. Then, she looked at Noah, her eyes shimmery with unshed tears. "Do what you have to do, Noah."
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

**robkelk** · 04-17-2011, 06:39 PM

Immediately after that, with a slight change in plans because Midnight doesn't have a forcefield

"Thank you, Sparky, Jeph." Noah voice wasn't wistful, though - it was filled with determination. He turned to his own PDA. "Katz? Yayoi? We have permission to open fire. Begin the hostage rescue."

As Noah plugged his PDA into the speakerphone, people in the room considered the phrase "hostage rescue" and started looking hopeful.

'-rstood, Yayoi." Kohran's voice came from the speakers. "Warhead yield is set to what the JMC engineering models indicate will take out the engine, and no higher."

"Target acquired. Transmitting coordinates. And I really should be the one firing the missile." Trigon's voice was unmistakable, even through two audio relays and the remaining jamming.

Yayoi was stoic. "Missile launched."

Then there was seven seconds of near-complete silence, ended by a bright flare visible through the windows and the dome.

Yayoi was the first to speak. "Blue Midget 15's engine has been destroyed." A cheer went up throughout the room, but the SMOFs didn't join in. "Blue Midget 15 still on collision course with Serenity Valley." The cheering stopped as quickly as it had started.

"Confirmed. Now let us show the weaklings on the surface what ships commanded by AIs can do."

Jeph looked at Noah in alarm. "Is Trigon flying solo?"

Noah shook his head. "No, Katz is up there too. Trigon's just monopolizing the Uncertainty's bandwidth again. Sparky, it's going to get a little rough up there."

"What, it's going to get worse than being shot at?"

"I'm afraid so," Yayoi answered. "The last time we did this, we had three ships and hours to get ready. This time, we have two ships and mere seconds. I apologize in advance."

As sounds of ship-to-ship collisions came over the speakers, someone in the room asked, "What are they doing?"

"They're modifying the asteroid-deflection protocol we used to save Auckland a few years ago," Noah replied after a moment, when it became apparent everyone involved was too busy to talk.

There was a burst of static over the speakers, followed by Yayoi's voice. "Phase 2 complete. Blue Midget 15 has been deflected and is now headed for open space."

Noah put an arm around Jeph's shoulders to steady her.

"Incorrect." Everyone looked at the speakerphone in alarm. "The target has been deflected, but is not headed for open space. It is going to impact - correction, it has just impacted Serenity Valley security satellite 23-B."

Sparky's voice came over the speakers. "Whee! Can I do that again?"

Noah turned to Jeph. "Sorry about that - I think you might now have the AI equivalent of an adrenalin junkie on your staff."

"He's still alive; I can live with that."

"Yeah. Yayoi, Kohran, come back, please. Katz, Trigon, thank you for your assistance."

"I'm sorry, Noah," Kohran replied, "but we took some damage and cannot land. We'll have to return to home port to make the necessary repairs. You're going to need a ride home, dad."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

04-17-2011, 09:24 PM

For around when the alarm starts in the underspace
I was manning a 7-sided dice productions booth that day. It wasn't the kind of thing I liked doing, but as the only mobile person in the company, I was the only man for the job.
The day hadn't gone so badly, and the sales had been pretty good (especially for Destruction Dive and Fenbuilder) but right I was bored out of his mind.
':-] SERAVIEL ? OGL ALARM JUST WENT UP.' came up on my Iphone.
'I should have expected it...' I thought. Of course the place would have to be attacked on one of the very few days I was out. "Any idea of the reason ?"
''_' SENSOR NETWORK'S COMPROMIZED... BADLY AT THAT.'

"Any chance it might be accidental ?"
':-( NOT REALLY... IT'S MUCH TOO EXACT FOR THAT.'

That meant Boskonians. Either incoming or already here. "Patch me up to Spot, will you ?"
':-) WILL DO.'
"Spot ?"
'-Whirr ?-'

I can't believe I'm asking this. "I have a very important question for you. Are you able to take a hit ? There's a battle incoming and I need to know what you can do."
'-WHIRR-' That meant yes, I'd learned.
I thought for an instant. I wasn't in any position to command him, having very little to no tactical information. However, I didn't trust OGL leadership one bit with something as important as that. A few instants of thoughts solved that issue. The man sure to be involved, especially with what he'd been about to show to the world.
I manually typed a number in my phone. 'Noah ? It's Seraviel. I have something for you...'
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

Black Aeronaut · 04-18-2011, 05:34 AM

Midnight had no problems.

Midnight was in her element.

With her speed and acceleration, few things could touch her in the furball.

And with her advanced sensors, she could track every friendly and hostile in the area. She made sure that the friendlies were getting a clear tactical picture of what was going on.

In the mean time, she would follow her last directive from Black Rider - continue to support with a live tactical feed and take out any targets of opportunity.

And that was when she saw it. It was a shadow, at first. Just a ghost in the clutter. But it takes a ghost to know a ghost.

"ALERT! Enemy forces are in possession of a Blackbird-class vessel! Moving to intercept! Cortana, take the tactical net - I need all my resources to take this girl down!"

04-18-2011, 05:27 PM

@blackaeronaut: Some blackbird vs blackbird action sounds like a lot of fun... *G*

Black Aeronaut · 04-18-2011, 06:09 PM

Interesting thing about Blackbirds - Ben keeps the secrets to maintaining the engines close to his chest. And the quad-helix thrust focusing units tend to require adjustments now and then to stay in top performance.

Given that this is a pirated Blackbird, I'd say that the AI has been subverted, or removed entirely, and that the engines are running at a reduced efficiency.

Midnight will be at a slight disadvantage because she's running on a pure Acceleration Drive.

04-18-2011, 06:21 PM

blackaeronaut Wrote:Interesting thing about Blackbirds - Ben keeps the secrets to maintaining the engines close to his chest. And the quad-helix thrust focusing units tend to require adjustments now and then to stay in top performance.

Given that this is a pirated Blackbird, I'd say that the AI has been subverted, or removed entirely, and that the engines are running at a reduced efficiency.

Midnight will be at a slight disadvantage because she's running on a pure Acceleration Drive.

More experience of the Midnight and the ability to counter the others Blackbirds stealth with the integrated transmitter should make it an even fight...

Cobalt Greywalker · 04-18-2011, 07:00 PM

Eddie let a sub-process run for a full half-second considering options now that the Midnight was engaged with a fellow Blackbird.

“Tinman to all points. White Stallion going to full power on sensors. Set filters.”

At this point Eddie grabbed as much bandwidth as he could, ramped the Stallion’s sensors to full power, and dumped oceans worth of data down the pipe.

The reason the White Stallion hadn’t been at full power was simply how crowded it was out there. Even at a tenth of its normal power the cross-interference of the sensor signals from both fleets was bordering on the impenetrable. Hence the Fen A.I.’s had been running interferometric analyses on the sensor net, taking into account the multifarious sensor equipment and their interactions.

What Eddie had just done was pretty much burn through any interference with shear power, and blow away the fog of the battlefield.

To the Magnificent Midnight it was like she’d been wearing dark sunglasses inside and someone had just pulled them off. The rogue Blackbird stood out like a mountain in a desert plain at noon.

“Gotcha.”

OOC: Didn't think the Midnight would like Eddie 'zarking' the other Blackbird by focusing the full power of the Stallion's sensors on it. A system that can detect everything within 15 light-minutes would do some damage if focused on a single target. Smile

As is, the rogue is half blinded while the Midnight got a nice juicy target lock.

Dartz · 04-18-2011, 08:17 PM

Another blast. Another hard impact. Blazing fuel. Frozen blood. Another dropship smashed. Jet wasn't sure how many of them she'd taken out. Come in from the top, lead with the right foot at a decent speed, and let physics do the rest. The van-sized pods just tore apart or burst. Waved armour could take the hit.... almost.

Wreckage drifted by. It was silent. All was silent except for Jets heartbeat pounding deep inside her.

Jet saw two blackbirds chase each other through the sky., rolling, turning, diving, charging in again. The chaser might've been Midnight... Jet was almost certain it was. The leading Blackbird seemed to be limping, trailing smoke from one engine, but the pilot knew what he was doing. He was just about keeping his plane ahead.

Right up until the moment he seemed to run into a brick wall of static and started to shine like a radio lightouse. It near flooded her radar it was so bright. It took her more than a few moments to figure out what had happened, filtering through the haze and noise on the radio. Someone was begging for help. there was something else she couldn't quite make out, lost in a static warble, followed by one word that made everything dreadfully. One word came through clear.

"...Tinman..."

Jet finally understood just why that Blackbird had suddenly seemed so confused. Jet finally realised exactly where she was leading her Gruppe. She knew just how lethal a blast of EM like that'd be....

"Engel Flight! Break Zero-Ninety!"

Straight up. Pray they got the message in the static. God willing, they'd see her break and have the sense to follow. Jet boosted her engines hard, a deep vibration from somewhere in her right foot warning of a bearing failure in the turbine, moments before the auto-systems caught it. Jet didn't throttle back...

She didn't see what happened to the blackbird, she focused herself on picking her way through the debris. The wreckage of what might've been a Peacemaker drifted passed in a haze of leaking fuel, followed by another dropship that'd been clean cut in two.

Jet wasn't even armed with anything heavier than a pistol. Her blades had snapped off long ago, leaving only buckled stubs. One of her wings had jammed shut.

"Engel Flight, status!"

The rational part of her mind was surprised she'd even spoken. She was half running on autopilot. Eight voices answered. Jet glanced back, seeing them picked out on her HUD. There was something so relieving about seeing them catch up. She wasn't alone at least. There were nine of them left.... nine small people, caught in a very big furball. Didn't anyone remember they were up there? There'd been some orders what seemed like an age ago... but since then, nothing. Whoever they were supposed to rendez-vous with... hadn't been there.

"Now what?" Gant demanded of her, pulling alongside.

Jet could see one whole side of his leg ripped open, revealing the actuators underneath. Sparks spat out every few moments. There was only one thing she was certain of.

"We can't stay up here,"

Something exploded far above, punctuating that statement.

"No way I can make landing!"

Jet looked around, "I doubt any of us can," A Pause. "I think they've forgotten we're up here,"

"I don't think we're gonna be up here much longer!" Gant gave a nervous laugh.

"I'll call for a pickup, somebody's gotta hear it." Jet glanced around once more. They were all pretty battered. Still going far longer than any of them had any right too, but battered nonetheless. "This is Engel Flight hailing any vessel in range. We're stuck up here, we need a pickup,"

Nothing.

Another wave of dropships was coming in. Jet looked at them, then at the Gruppe, wondering if they'd go. Standing still left them a sitting duck. No real choice there....if they were going to be stuck up in space, they might aswell get stuck in. She had no idea what else they could do but keep fighting. Just be lucky they don't get shot down by their own side.

"Follow me!" she yelled, boosted her engines. Her right turbine finally blew, blowing sparks and shrapnel through the exhaust. She felt something ping off her armour, before biting deep inside her leg with a lot more pain than she'd expected. Swearing blind, Jet pitched over, compensating for the loss.

Well.... that's not going to be covered by the warranty, she thought, before she started laughing madly at the absurdity of it all. Next target. In from the top, lead with the right foot. It smashed as easily as all the others.

Jet tried once more, hoping for an answer.

"This is Engel Flight hailing any vessel in range. We're stuck up here. We've got damage and we need a pickup,"

------

Had to rewrite a little... got Ninja'd.... Oh well.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

Cobalt Greywalker · 04-18-2011, 10:41 PM

Dartz, the Stallion is not directing its full power at the rogue Blackbird, and will lower the power output once the rogue is disabled. Engel Flight isn't going to get zapped.
But Jet doesn't know this, so leave it as is.

But I'll be nice to you...

The chipper voice came over the radio.

Two small ships approached the remaining members of Engel Flight. They were spider-like. They were Blue. Jet wasn’t sure, but they seemed to be cheerful.

The lead Tachikoma continued.

The other Tachikoma asked.

The other Tachikoma let off an annoyed blurp.

**robkelk** · 04-19-2011, 12:31 AM

Sorting out what's been posted so far. "foo##" still needs to be written...

A Line in the Sand

written by the Fenspace Collective

Prologue - June 2013

A small group of men were sitting around a non-descript table.

One of the men stood up and looked into the faces of each of the attending persons.

“Gentlemen, some of our spies in several Fen factions have forwarded important information to us. It is time to reveal and use our combined strength for the first time.”

A short guy with an Italian suit groaned. “Skip the rhetoric, we are here to earn money, leave craziness to the Mads. If you got something profitable for this committee, spit it out.”

The men standing nodded and continued. “As you all know, the Fen plan another of their conventions soon. What we did not knew is that some Fen were visited by a group of alien travelers a few weeks ago. These travelers...”

Someone else interrupted him: “Aliens ? You are crazy... there have been rumors of aliens since the Trekkies got up here. Don’t waste our time with these rumors.”

“... these travelers left after some days, but they left behind a small repository of advanced knowledge. From what my spies have told me it contains a lot of material about space science, advanced biotech and other things. Rumors suggest that these document will be released at the convention. I ignored this rumors until one of my spies on Hades Station forwarded me this paper.”

He held up a small printout of maybe 20 pages.

“THIS, gentlemen, is a construction template for a small and efficient fusion reactor. One of our scientists looked over it and confirmed that it appears to be authentic... and does not require handwavium.”

He stayed silent while the rest of the group stared at the document in his hand, trying to grasp the new facts they were confronted with.

”You all know that the situation is slowly getting worse. Most of our spies have been purged by the Fen, small operations in the asteroid belt are constantly harassed by patrols and cargo flights to Earth are becoming more difficult. We must not let this alien knowledge get into the hand of the Fenspace convention, otherwise we will face a decisive technological disadvantage... and most likely a fatal one too!”

The man in the Italian suit raised his hand, this time with a much more serious look on his face. “What do you propose to do?”

The speaker smiled.

“My group has been planning a raid against the moons of Jupiter for some time, both to gather supplies for our operations and to disrupt the food deliveries to the inner system more permanently. I propose we take the equipment to get into Ganymede’s orbit without raising an alarm, gather our mobile forces and deal a blow to the Fen which they will never recover from. We bomb most of the spacecrafts there while they are still on the ground, then land with a large reaver force supported by a few groups of Berserkers... grab the alien documents, take all the Fen we can get away with and wipe the floor rest of them by ramming a large freighter into the valley from orbit. If we do it right we can kill most of the faction leaders and gain a solid and permanent technological advantage... not only over the Fen but over Earth too.”

Someone in the back of the room were taking an audible deep breath.

“It is an ‘all or nothing’ operation... but if we continue like we do now, the Fen will shut down most of our operations within 24 months... maybe even faster with the new alien technology. We have only a few days until the convention begins, so there is not much time. It is to act now or to die soon...”

A man with an American suit right out of an Al Capone movie nodded.

“Let’s call a vote about all of this...”

Serenity-Con

Deception

Like most Fenspace conventions before, SerenityCon was present in two different universes.

In the physical world a huge number of Fen of all kinds were running around, having a good time and discussion more or less important things.

The second part of SerenityCon was happening in cyberspace. Even network specialists from Earth would never have been able to comprehend the amount and complexity of communication between the hundreds and hundreds of AI equipped crafts, the ad-hoc networks, virtual servers and remote-controlled avatars. Some of it were running with the same speed as the physical world, other parts were running at an accelerated timeframe to keep the participants from being bored.

Cortana was enjoying her time and listening to the local traffic. On the right two groups of AIs were playing a large game of tower defense with some of the webservers of the convention, while others were discussing, categorizing and analyzing the most recent discussions of the other Fen. There was even a small gambling place where AIs were betting cpu power on things like important discussion results, number of biomods per minute on a certain cafeteria and harmonic resonance frequencies of large groups of Fen having a party.

It was the fifth day of the Convention and the proportion of work to partying was slowly sliding more and more to the parties. Not everyone was happy with the things happening in the last year, but at least most Fen were having a good time. Later this hour there was an announcement about a large scale core war hacking contest and Cortana was already looking forward to see it. Hacking was not really her area of interest, but it was always fun to watch.

Suddenly Cortana’s virtual avatar blinked and looked around, she had the feeling something strange was going on.

Concentrating on the input from the Stargazers radios, Cortana finally found the source of her strange ‘feeling’.

“Hey you little guy, what is wrong with you” she murmured and looked more closely to the weak signal of one of the sensor satellites of the Ganymede network.

“Perfect encoding, all checksums right, frequency as expected, nothing alarming on your data... but why do I think you are a little drunk today?” she whispered while accelerating her timeframe as much as she could.

All analyzer subroutines told her that the signal was perfect as ever, but Cortana was sure that her standard software was wrong this time. She began comparing it carefully with the data she recorded when getting into Ganymede orbit and frowned slightly.

The signal had gained some minor features it had not some days ago, and Cortana was pretty sure that changes like this were not just a matter of wear.

“I need some insight from someone with a different perspective” she thought and browsed through the attendance list of the convention.

“Ah, yes” she acknowledged, “you are perfect...” when she finally found the entry she was looking for. If there was one ship you could bet on that it was NOT parking on the ground, it was the Blackbird called Magnificent Midnight.

“Cortana of the Stargazer to Magnificent Midnight, I think we are in trouble and I need your help.” With a few short sentences she described her the funny features of one of the sensor satellites of Ganymede. “Please do a passive scan on the frequency of the sensor network and send me all results you got in an encrypted reply... and please hurry, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Cortana wrapped the message in a OGJ encryption code and send out a wide beam data package into the sky above Ganymede. The Midnight would be somewhere up there and would hopefully reply soon.

The next 30 seconds were the hardest waiting time Cortana had ever experienced.

“Midnight to Cortana... result of scan attached on message. Will do a quick flyby of the satellite. Expect another message in three minutes” said the response from the Blackbird.

“If in need for recon data, ask a spy plane” murmured Cortana with a smile and opened the attachment to correlate the two sets of data... and nearly froze in shock.

She stared on the data for nearly a second, then ran everything through her calculations a second time... and a third time, but the results stayed the same.

She could hear 15 sensor satellites above the Stargazer in the sky, happily sending small updates on the gathered data. But when she combined her data with the package from the Magnificent Midnight there were only five point sources in the sky, each of them sending the data of three sensor satellites... and each of them in a totally wrong position.

Cortana’s ‘view’ focused back into the sky as she thought about the implications what she had discovered in the last minute.

“Either some joker managed to draw fifteen sensor satellites to different places, glued them together in groups of three and made sure neither he was seen by the satellites nor they noticed the change in position.... or someone has replaced these fifteen satellites. Which means someone can control what Ganymede orbital watch can see on its screens... or what it cannot see.”

Which meant that anything could be up there... from a Professor-sponsored weapon of mass amusement to a fast asteroid-style kinetic weapon. For another second she thought about sending out a clear alarm message to anyone in range, but then decided otherwise. Starting a mass panic would be more counterproductive than anything else.

She slowed herself down to realtime speed and connected to the local Operation Great Justice office, demanding a priority line to the head officer. If this one would decide that she abused her OGJ access codewords she and maybe Cathy would be in trouble... but better in trouble than being wrong about this.

“OGJ office, head officer. What can I do for you.... Cortana” a bored voice acknowledged her request.

‘Ahh, the poor guy who has to stay in the office while the rest of Fenspace is partying’ she thought.

“Here is Cortana from the Stargazer... I just discovered together with the Magnificent Midnight that someone seems to have replaced parts of the Ganymede sensor network with their own system. Someone else is controlling what we see or NOT see in the sky above the Convention.”

On a subchannel she was sending some 3D pictures showing the results of measurements by Magnificent Midnight and herself and the resulting positions of the sensor sources... and their proposed positions.

“Oh...” she heard through her radio connection, but nothing else was coming out of it for a perceived eternity. After ten seconds she decided to grab the initiative again.

“Yes I know, maybe it’s nothing, maybe we have hours of time until something happens... and maybe IN THIS MOMENT there is a kinetic kill vehicle incoming on your office... and the first thing you will know about it is the knocking on your damned roof!”

Finally she heard some hectic action on the other side of the connection.

“I understand, we are raising an alarm... stay in this radio connection and inform us about new results... we will...”

The second radio began signaling an incoming burst transmission from the Magnificent Midnight.

“Midnight to Cortana... bad news attached... more data soon.”

Cortana looked into the attached data and sighed. “OGJ office... I have more bad news for you from the Magnificent Midnight...”

"I don't know why I have to wear a three-piece suit for this," Noah complained.

Yayoi sighed. "If you don't make a good impression out there, nobody's going to take you seriously."

"They aren't here for me, they're here for the Catalog. Why can't I just wear my usual polo shirt, slacks, and kevlar-lined jacket?"

"That isn't sufficiently professional. You aren't Steve Jobs, after all."

Noah sighed. "Polo shirt, not turtleneck."

"Noah, you trusted me enough to give me Yoriko's position as Vice-President of Stellvia Corporation. Trust me on this."

The door opened. Noah smiled when Safety bowed in midair as the door closed behind her - she was still so new that everything she did was delightful. What she had to say broke the mood. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just received a message from the Magnificent Midnight. Cortana and Midnight are picking up some odd signals from the Ganymede sensor network."

"Odd?" Noah raised an eyebrow. "In what way?"

"They aren't sure."

Noah started untying his tie. "I have a bad feeling about this ..."

"You do have a tendency to overreact, Noah. Are you overreacting again?"

"Consider what we're presenting here, and how much it would be worth if not everybody had a copy of it. I have to go out there and present the Catalog, so I'm wearing my body armor. I want the rest of you someplace relatively safe, and the safest place I can think of is inside the Epsilon Blade with its forcefield turned on. Prep for launch as soon as the three of you are aboard - I want you to, as the Warsies say, 'pick up your visual scanning.' Coordinate flight paths with Midnight."

Yayoi and Safety nodded. "Do you have any messages for Kohran?" asked the latter.

"Yes," nodded Noah. "Kohran is to drop whatever she's doing and get back to the ship right now, and ..."

Safety waited for a moment. "Sir?"

"And ... tell Kohran she's to remove the weapons locks from the kaboomite warheads."

I was manning a 7-sided dice productions booth that day. It wasn't the kind of thing I liked doing, but as the only mobile person in the company, I was the only man for the job.

The day hadn't gone so badly, and the sales had been pretty good (especially for Destruction Dive and Fenbuilder) but right I was bored out of his mind.

':-] SERAVIEL ? OGL ALARM JUST WENT UP.' came up on my Iphone.

'I should have expected it...' I thought. Of course the place would have to be attacked on one of the very few days I was out. "Any idea of the reason ?"

''_' SENSOR NETWORK'S COMPROMIZED... BADLY AT THAT.'

"Any chance it might be accidental ?"

':-( NOT REALLY... IT'S MUCH TOO EXACT FOR THAT.'

That meant Boskonians. Either incoming or already here. "Patch me up to Spot, will you ?"

':-) WILL DO.'

"Spot ?"

'-Whirr ?-'

I can't believe I'm asking this. "I have a very important question for you. Are you able to take a hit ? There's a battle incoming and I need to know what you can do."

'-WHIRR-' That meant yes, I'd learned.

I thought for an instant. I wasn't in any position to command him, having very little to no tactical information. However, I didn't trust OGL leadership one bit with something as important as that. A few instants of thoughts solved that issue. The man sure to be involved, especially with what he'd been about to show to the world.

I manually typed a number in my phone. 'Noah ? It's Seraviel. I have something for you...'

foo01

(bombing the spaceports)

“And here we are... the missile ships will enter the orbit around Ganymede within less than 5 minutes, and no swarm of Fen fighters in sight. I would say Phase One was a full success, lets go to Phase Two as soon as possible. If we have smashed the crafts on the ground, we have all time in the universe to do the rest of the job.”

The insertion of the radio platforms to fake the signals of the Ganymede sensor network had been as smooth as possible. With the help of the code from the Ganymede service engineer they had copied the current signals and began broadcasting them exactly the moment the kinetic flechette strikes had hit the real satellites and destroyed them. This and the sabotage of some of the key nodes of the rest of the network would give the fleet a nice and easy to use corridor to get directly over Serenity Valley without being detected. After this it would be the work of the drop ship crews.

“Is our special surprise package loaded and in place? If everything goes to hell we want to get most of the important Fen with the big bang on the ground.” It had been a pleasant surprise that one faction had managed to intercept and capture one of these damned Blackbirds spy planes some time ago, but having a really fast and really stealthy ship to deliver a multi-ton bomb was a great bonus for an operation like this.

“Give the troop transports the signal that we are going forward with phase two. They should rush in after the two missile waves, keep them of balance and make sure they don’t organize... as soon as the first missiles are away, activate the communication jammer, no need to give the Fen a chance to call home.”

A woman on one of the consoles of the bridge looked up. “Sir, one of our ships says they saw something out there... they are not sure what it was but the engineer says they were passed by some shadow. The optical records are not conclusive, could be a very small spy satellite.”

The captain cursed loudly. Flying under the protection of a radar cloak was great, but it prevented to usage of your own radar too. If they had been discovered this could cost the operation a lot, but they still had a chance to accomplish their goals.

“Damn them, all of them... five minutes more, is that too much to ask for? Get these missiles out as soon we are in range, the timetable just got shortened a lot! And activate the Interwave jammer NOW!”

The tech just looked at her screen, not comprehending what she was seeing for a moment.
To the side of her, her manager was also blank with shock. Surely what was on the display could NOT be real. Then he dove for a row of buttons on the next console.

At some time in the past, some helpful soul had labelled the buttons for quick recognition. They were “PANIC!”, “PANIC MOAR!”, “AIIEEEE!!!!”, “WTF?!?”, and “Egon’s gone Bye Bye!”.

The manager’s dive hit all of them at once.

foo02

It was stupid. It was insane. It was daft as a brush and madder than the Professors Panel. It was desperation. It was the only chance. Missiles, bearing down on orbiting ships. Bearing down on defenceless orbiting ships. Max thought fast, thought like lightning.

"Intercept them! Knock them out of the sky!"

Jet thought he was insane at first. She wasn't the only one.

"Hit them just ahead of the tail, the warheads won't go off,"

Max managed to project confidence, the certainty that he was right, the certainty that if they pulled it off correctly, there wouldn't be so much as a paint-scratch. Jet wasn't quite sure why she was going along with this plan, or why she wasn't making a beeline straight down to the ground, or off into the black.

Her target streaked forward, trailing condensing vapour and ice. Anti-shipping missile. It's target was getting closer. Some lumbering waved transport. Jet could see it's engines begin to glow, thrusters exhausting as it tried everything to move. The missile tracked unneringly. One hit and that ship would just disintegrate.

Jet could run. Jet could leave them to it.... Jet really wasn't sure if she could live with the guilt of it.

Or was it just a case of Max order, she follow? It wasn't insane heroism, she told herself. It wasn't stupidity. She was only following orders! Sure that was easier to believe. Jet just couldn't say 'No' to her trainer. She assumed that was it.

Ten meters out, she realised she was doing her best to just keep her mind from fully realising exactly how dangerous this was. A few milliseconds. Everything running full bore. Thinking like lightning on an adrenaline rush, mind trying to cram as much as it could into these last few moments. Well... at least she got to kiss Ford... really kiss. Real skin touching skin with the sort of tingle waved alloys just didn't have. Cold hand on one side of her face. Warm fingers on the other....

Adjust a little bit. Missile's moving slower than she guessed. Ease in. Hold your breath. Grit your teeth and wham!

Jet hit so hard, with such a strong kick running up through her leg, she could've sworn the missile went off right then and there. There was a flash of twisted metal and expending propellant burning momentarily in the vacuum before it boiled and froze at the same time...

And then. She was clear.

The missile's warhead spiraled uselessly into the black, finally detonating relatively harmlessly in open space, bursting into a cloud of sparkling debris. Above and behind her, a few of it's compatriots hit home, causing untold carnage. Jet would swear she saw someone blown out a shattering window... a humanoid figure trying to swim desperately back in, reaching for safety that was getting further away by the second... before going dreadfully still. He seemed to ask the question... why not my ship?

Max's voice crackled into her mind. "Come on! That's only the first wave. Next salvo's coming in. Get moving. Try get more than one this time."

There was no arguing with that, as much as Jet wanted to. Just keep going. Jet'd already picked her next target.

foo03

It didn't take long to get into a rhythm... as crazy as it was. Surprising how that happened. It'd almost become a game. How many could she get before impact? Don't think about what happens afterwards. Just get back out to hit the next salvo. They were still coming in. Still a distance out. Wreckage was burning in space. Debris pattered off her armour. Ships were starting to move. Defenses were starting to come up. Jake got hit by a friendly missile defence battery. Gone. Just like that. So much debris. Keep going Max orders.

Don't think. Do.

There was so much noise over their radios... they had to switch frequencies just to be able to communicate with each other. Only Max and Jet still had the OGJ frequencies loaded. Crazy chance saw them being the only ones with the new operational encryptions. Jet could hear the panic giving way to calm. The hard part was over.

Last missiles. Next comes the dropships.

Jet angled in... smash goes one. Adjusting her vector, she aimed for the second. It just disintegrated. Then to a third. A fourth. The Fifth was too far away and she cursed it.... the ships own defences took it out. High and infront of her, she saw Max dive towards one of the last stragglers.

He disappeared into a flash of burning orange, and a spray of wreckage.

"Engel one, Engel three" Jet tried.

Silence.

"Engel one, Engel three," she tried again, desperation creeping into her voice. "Answer me!"

Silence

"Engel one, Engel three," she yelled. "For fuck's sake Max answer me!"

Jet spinlocked for a moment. That..... that's not fair!

"Engel flight, [hq callsign]. Move to position 125-mark-40. Dropships inbound. Meet up with [whoever]"

For a few moments... Jet wasn't able to answer. She was waiting for Max. Max wasn't going to answer.

What do I do now?

Follow orders. Just keep following orders.

"Engel flight. This is Three. Orders are to move to position 125-mark-40. We're going after the dropships."

Her voice was breaking. Jet was scared beyond all belief...

"Engel flight, Wilco," she radioed back to command. "Engel one is down. This is Engel three."

"Engel flight. Take command Engel three."

She'd been afraid of that. Jet mumbled Shephard's prayer and got going.

Midnight had no problems.

Midnight was in her element.

With her speed and acceleration, few things could touch her in the furball.

And with her advanced sensors, she could track every friendly and hostile in the area. She made sure that the friendlies were getting a clear tactical picture of what was going on.

In the mean time, she would follow her last directive from Black Rider - continue to support with a live tactical feed and take out any targets of opportunity.

And that was when she saw it. It was a shadow, at first. Just a ghost in the clutter. But it takes a ghost to know a ghost.

"ALERT! Enemy forces are in possession of a Blackbird-class vessel! Moving to intercept! Cortana, take the tactical net - I need all my resources to take this girl down!"

Eddie let a sub-process run for a full half-second considering options now that the Midnight was engaged with a fellow Blackbird.

“Tinman to all points. White Stallion going to full power on sensors. Set filters.”

At this point Eddie grabbed as much bandwidth as he could, ramped the Stallion’s sensors to full power, and dumped oceans worth of data down the pipe.

The reason the White Stallion hadn’t been at full power was simply how crowded it was out there. Even at a tenth of its normal power the cross-interference of the sensor signals from both fleets was bordering on the impenetrable. Hence the Fen A.I.’s had been running interferometric analyses on the sensor net, taking into account the multifarious sensor equipment and their interactions.

What Eddie had just done was pretty much burn through any interference with sheer power, and blow away the fog of the battlefield.

To the Magnificent Midnight it was like she’d been wearing dark sunglasses inside and someone had just pulled them off. The rogue Blackbird stood out like a mountain in a desert plain at noon.

“Gotcha.”

Another blast. Another hard impact. Blazing fuel. Frozen blood. Another dropship smashed. Jet wasn't sure how many of them she'd taken out. Come in from the top, lead with the right foot at a decent speed, and let physics do the rest. The van-sized pods just tore apart or burst. Waved armour could take the hit.... almost.

Wreckage drifted by. It was silent. All was silent except for Jets heartbeat pounding deep inside her.

Jet saw two blackbirds chase each other through the sky., rolling, turning, diving, charging in again. The chaser might've been Midnight... Jet was almost certain it was. The leading Blackbird seemed to be limping, trailing smoke from one engine, but the pilot knew what he was doing. He was just about keeping his plane ahead.

Right up until the moment he seemed to run into a brick wall of static and started to shine like a radio lightouse. It near flooded her radar it was so bright. It took her more than a few moments to figure out what had happened, filtering through the haze and noise on the radio. Someone was begging for help. there was something else she couldn't quite make out, lost in a static warble, followed by one word that made everything dreadfully. One word came through clear.

"...Tinman..."

Jet finally understood just why that Blackbird had suddenly seemed so confused. Jet finally realised exactly where she was leading her Gruppe. She knew just how lethal a blast of EM like that'd be....

"Engel Flight! Break Zero-Ninety!"

Straight up. Pray they got the message in the static. God willing, they'd see her break and have the sense to follow. Jet boosted her engines hard, a deep vibration from somewhere in her right foot warning of a bearing failure in the turbine, moments before the auto-systems caught it. Jet didn't throttle back...

She didn't see what happened to the blackbird, she focused herself on picking her way through the debris. The wreckage of what might've been a Peacemaker drifted passed in a haze of leaking fuel, followed by another dropship that'd been clean cut in two.

Jet wasn't even armed with anything heavier than a pistol. Her blades had snapped off long ago, leaving only buckled stubs. One of her wings had jammed shut.

"Engel Flight, status!"

The rational part of her mind was surprised she'd even spoken. She was half running on autopilot. Eight voices answered. Jet glanced back, seeing them picked out on her HUD. There was something so relieving about seeing them catch up. She wasn't alone at least. There were nine of them left.... nine small people, caught in a very big furball. Didn't anyone remember they were up there? There'd been some orders what seemed like an age ago... but since then, nothing. Whoever they were supposed to rendez-vous with... hadn't been there.

"Now what?" Gant demanded of her, pulling alongside.

Jet could see one whole side of his leg ripped open, revealing the actuators underneath. Sparks spat out every few moments. There was only one thing she was certain of.

"We can't stay up here,"

Something exploded far above, punctuating that statement.

"No way I can make landing!"

Jet looked around, "I doubt any of us can," A Pause. "I think they've forgotten we're up here,"

"I don't think we're gonna be up here much longer!" Gant gave a nervous laugh.

"I'll call for a pickup, somebody's gotta hear it." Jet glanced around once more. They were all pretty battered. Still going far longer than any of them had any right too, but battered nonetheless. "This is Engel Flight hailing any vessel in range. We're stuck up here, we need a pickup,"

Nothing.

Another wave of dropships was coming in. Jet looked at them, then at the Gruppe, wondering if they'd go. Standing still left them a sitting duck. No real choice there....if they were going to be stuck up in space, they might aswell get stuck in. She had no idea what else they could do but keep fighting. Just be lucky they don't get shot down by their own side.

"Follow me!" she yelled, boosted her engines. Her right turbine finally blew, blowing sparks and shrapnel through the exhaust. She felt something ping off her armour, before biting deep inside her leg with a lot more pain than she'd expected. Swearing blind, Jet pitched over, compensating for the loss.

Well.... that's not going to be covered by the warranty, she thought, before she started laughing madly at the absurdity of it all. Next target. In from the top, lead with the right foot. It smashed as easily as all the others.

Jet tried once more, hoping for an answer.

"This is Engel Flight hailing any vessel in range. We're stuck up here. We've got damage and we need a pickup."

foo04

The chipper voice came over the radio.

Two small ships approached the remaining members of Engel Flight. They were spider-like. They were Blue. Jet wasn’t sure, but they seemed to be cheerful.

The lead Tachikoma continued.

The other Tachikoma asked.

The other Tachikoma let off an annoyed blurp.

[i]foo05

“We could use the Rail Cannon.” Lebia suggested, mind focused on the ECCM battle.

Eddie calculated all the variables.

“Negative. Can not build power fast enough.” It was the current limitation on the Rail Cannon. And right now it sucked.

A.C. dashed past the cockpit of the Boskonian vessel, allowing her fully extended sword to slice the top third off.

“Then pulse charge the bloody capacitors then!” She snarled, dodging fire both friendly and mostly hostile and straining her flight pack to do so.

For want of anything better, Eddie tried it.

“Power curve acceptable. Beginning run.”

The Stallion turned, its rail and coil guns clearing space as she aimed directly at the drifting freighter. Seconds ticked by as the capacitors filled to capacity. Eddie made sure all friendlies got clear.

“Power level at 98%. 99%. Full power now.”

Caught up in the moment as she was, A.C. swung her sword arm across her chest in a dramatic fashion (incidentally bisecting another enemy ship) and bellowed over the com-net…

“FIRE!”

From the outside, huge shock cones spat out of the Stallion’s engines as Eddie threw them to emergency power. A second later the Rail Cannon mounted to the top of the ship spoke for the first time, the immense recoil nearly stopping the ship dead, with a green arcing muzzle flash as the vaporised ice used to protect the rails from friction was ejected.
Sensors screamed as the diamondoid bolt blazed across the space between the Stallion and the freighter at one percent the speed of light.

At 5 kilos, the bolt hit the freighter with a kinetic energy equivalent to almost 5.4 kiloton’s of TNT. The impact point atomised with a flash, with some of the cloud of atoms fissioning and fusing. The shock front passed into the freighter, disintegrating the structure and igniting the remaining atmosphere into plasma. Both elements tore through the ship at ultra-sonic velocities, instantaneously killing any remaining crew before reducing them to humidity.

In less than 90 milliseconds, the 2000 tonne freighter was reduced to a rapidly expanding and cooling cloud of atoms.

foo06

(the invasion)

foo07

"Karen, we've got to get these kinder out of here," Eljay said as he disconnected the puppetry rig for Miss Susie. He could have led the kids out while performing the telepresence, but that would have left him in a bad position if any of the Boskonians found his practically helpless body.

Karen tilted her head as if listening to something. "Eljay, take Lime and the kids to the Pinafore. That should be safe enough."

"Right," Eljay agreed and let out a bit of a squawk of surprise as Karen kissed him.

"No matter what happens, I love you." She stepped back and took off her jacket, revealing the Crest of the House of El.

"Is this really the time for cosplay?" Eljay asked in confusion.

Karen shook her head, tossing her blonde curls as she pulled two red cloths from a pocket in the discarded jacket. With a thought, she lifted from the ground.

"Karen?"

"I was going to tell you on your birthday, but it looks like the Black Hats took it out of my hands." She shook one cloth out to reveal a cape, and tied the other around her forehead.

"I am an Armitage type III android patterned after Kara Zor-El," she said softly. "And I'm going to save the day."

foo08

The fighting was getting closer, but Noah stayed beside the computer. He had to finish making a copy of the Catalog for the Crystal Millennium, and he had to be seen to be finishing making the copy - anyone who was watching had to think these were the only copies in existence. If they didn't, they'd be hitting Stellvia as soon as they realized the master version of the Catalog was there. (They might hit Stellvia anyway, but better to keep laying the false trail despite that chance.)

"Mr. Scott, we have to leave! It's too dangerous for you to remain here!"

He looked up at the Senshi. "Thank you, Ms. Simmah, but it's more important that this information get out. You heard what the Boskonians said when they breached the perimeter - they want this data, and they aren't willing to share."

"It isn't worth your life, sir! Please, sir - what could I tell Sailor Stellvia if I let her best friends die when I could have prevented it? We have to leave! Now!"

Serenity I reached up and put a hand on the taller woman's shoulder. "Let him finish, Erin. In the name of Love and Justice, this is something he needs to do."

"But... is it really worth your lives?"

"It is. At least, Mr. Scott thinks it is." The Queen of the Crystal Millennium turned to the President of Stellvia Corporation. "And I trust you to have your priorities straight, Noah."

The computer chimed and ejected the memory stick. As Noah handed it to the Senshi's leader, he replied, "I think I do, Tanith."

"It's done. Can we please leave now?" Erin pleaded.

"You two can leave," answered Noah. "I'm going with someone else. We have to get both of these copies off-planet in different ships."

"But..." Erin Simmah started to complain, then realized the tactical sense of Mr. Scott's words. "All right. God speed, sir. Ma'am, this way, please."

foo09

(Blue Midget 15)

Jeph handed the microphone and stand of the gaming setup over to the next person in line to play, and walked over to the bar, itching a bit at the wig on the top of her head, and then pulling down her spandex skirt a little bit, wondering what the hell possessed her to activate her biomod and dress as BGC Priss for the debut of the Rock Band setup she had Handwaved with Myk a couple of months back.

That shifted to wonderment as her phone buzzed on her skirt belt, and she looked at it to realize that Nene was calling her. In the middle of a Convention party. Nene never did that if she could help it, unless it was something very, very important.

So Jeph answered it.

"Hey Nene. What's up?"

"We've got a Blue Midget coming into the approach patterns," she said. "I can see their JMC network. But... it's the Fifteen."

Jeph's ears started to itch, and itch badly. Blue Midget 15 had disappeared in the Belt a month back, without a trace. If she hadn't already been female, she would have shifted right then and there.

"Nene. Log into their computers if you can, any means necessary, verify their identity and status. And contact OGJ with your findings if they're anything other than "oops, we lost track of where we were"."

"OK, will do."

On the other side of that conversation, Nene was already at work.

She had embarked on something of a personal improvement plan ever since the Jupiter Mining Corporation had expanded into something of an important shipping powerhouse. Now, she could do all sorts of things expected of AIs that weren't housed in anthropomorphic presentations, including being able to run hundreds of simultaneous human-speed avatars... or a few high speed avatars, all of them wirelessly.

So, she stretched out her presence over the wireless network that the JMC had set up as a 'backup' to the primary wireless network that linked the bulk of Serenity Valley together into an electronic community, and touched the accidental Artificial Intelligence known only as 'Sparky' aboard the Fifteen.

Oh thank creators someone to talk to. You won't believe the amounts of poking I've been undergoing here, much of it quite painful, Sparky said. Nene winced a little bit, she'd never quite cottoned to Sparky, who had been accidentally incepted when the engineer installing the computers on Fifteen, a Fiver with a bit of a disregard for protocol, had not quite followed procedures when applying Handwavium to the system.

How badly have they been poking you? And who? Nene asked.

Oh, you won't like it, but I need to verify you, Sparky said.

Tell me, command override, Garibaldi Peekaboo Game. Nene commanded, the pit of her virtual stomach starting to drop out.

OK. They've cut off the primary feed, so I can't give visuals, only text, but they boarded, killed my crew, and physically cut most of my connections, except for internal sensors. Then they wired in some sort of rude computer that seems quite willing to kill itself for them, and began loading in all sorts of junk. I can tell that the ship's pretty well loaded down with mass right now. And I heard them say something about kinetic kill.

In the office where she had been doing some important paperwork, Nene would have dropped her phone if she'd been holding it. Instead, Jeph heard her swearing, which was so out of place for her that it got Jeph's immediate attention again.

"Oh my fucking hells. Jeph, the Reavers have commandeered Fifteen, and loaded it with enough mass to completely vaporize Serenity Valley if it hits. I'm already calling OGJ Control here about it."

foo10

Jeph leaned against the one control console, sighing heavily, her eyes closed. She still hadn't changed out of her Rock Band costume from earlier, although her wig was askew on her head now. She knew, already, that Fifteen's crew was already dead except for the accidental AI. Then, she opened her eyes.

"Nene, can you patch me through to Sparky on speakerphone?" Nene nodded, glumly, and connected her phone to one of her USB interface jacks. "Sparky?"

"Yeah, chief, things are going to get hot over here, if you know what I mean?" Jeph winced as the voice had a fair bit of bravado in it, but that was just the way Sparky was. Talkative and cheerful to a fault, but not nearly as bad as Eddie the Shipboard Computer.

"Do you have any way of altering Fifteen's course?"

"No way, no how, chief. They poked around and chopped me off from the controls here. Listen, chief, I'm done for if what Nene told me is true anyway, you don't have any way of diverting the ship from the outside. It's been an honor."

Jeph hung her head down, closed her eyes, and hoped the rest of the people in the room, especially Noah, couldn't see how hard she was trying to hold in the tears. But there was no way they could save the last person aboard Fifteen, and save Serenity Valley as well.

"I understand, Sparky. May your next existence be a little less harsh than this one has." Her voice sounded husky as she forced the tears back down with some effort. Then, she looked at Noah, her eyes shimmery with unshed tears. "Do what you have to do, Noah."

"Thank you, Sparky, Jeph." Noah voice wasn't wistful, though - it was filled with determination. He turned to his own PDA. "Katz? Yayoi? We have permission to open fire. Begin the hostage rescue."

As Noah plugged his PDA into the speakerphone, people in the room considered the phrase "hostage rescue" and started looking hopeful.

'-rstood, Yayoi." Kohran's voice came from the speakers. "Warhead yield is set to what the JMC engineering models indicate will take out the engine, and no higher."

"Target acquired. Transmitting coordinates. And I really should be the one firing the missile." Trigon's voice was unmistakable, even through two audio relays and the remaining jamming.

Yayoi was stoic. "Missile launched."

Then there was seven seconds of near-complete silence, ended by a bright flare visible through the windows and the dome.

Yayoi was the first to speak. "Blue Midget 15's engine has been destroyed." A cheer went up throughout the room, but the SMOFs didn't join in. "Blue Midget 15 still on collision course with Serenity Valley." The cheering stopped as quickly as it had started.

"Confirmed. Now let us show the weaklings on the surface what ships commanded by AIs can do."

Jeph looked at Noah in alarm. "Is Trigon flying solo?"

Noah shook his head. "No, Katz is up there too. Trigon's just monopolizing the Uncertainty's bandwidth again. Sparky, it's going to get a little rough up there."

"What, it's going to get worse than being shot at?"

"I'm afraid so," Yayoi answered. "The last time we did this, we had three ships and hours to get ready. This time, we have two ships and mere seconds. I apologize in advance."

As sounds of ship-to-ship collisions came over the speakers, someone in the room asked, "What are they doing?"

"They're modifying the asteroid-deflection protocol we used to save Auckland a few years ago," Noah replied after a moment, when it became apparent everyone involved was too busy to talk.

There was a burst of static over the speakers, followed by Yayoi's voice. "Phase 2 complete. Blue Midget 15 has been deflected and is now headed for open space."

Noah put an arm around Jeph"s shoulders to steady her.

"Incorrect." Everyone looked at the speakerphone in alarm. "The target has been deflected, but is not headed for open space. It is going to impact - correction, it has just impacted Serenity Valley security satellite 23-B."

Sparky"s voice came over the speakers. "Whee! Can I do that again?"

Noah turned to Jeph. "Sorry about that - I think you might now have the AI equivalent of an adrenalin junkie on your staff."

"He"s still alive; I can live with that."

"Yeah. Yayoi, Kohran, come back, please. Katz, Trigon, thank you for your assistance."

"I"m sorry, Noah," Kohran replied, "but we took some damage and cannot land. We"ll have to return to home port to make the necessary repairs. You"re going to need a ride home, dad."

(denoument and cleanup)

foo11[/i]

--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Dartz · 04-19-2011, 01:18 AM

Well.... Jet's also somewhat more sensitive to EM than a Blackbird.... and it's always better not to be blinded for however many seconds in the midst of the biggest furball since Garfield goes to Chernobyl.

Now for something a little screwy. Either it'll work well.... or it won't. We won't know unless we try. Not sure whether these Tachi's sing like the ones in 2nd Gig as their satellite crashed... but I just couldn't get this out of my head, so decided to at least try for it. Blame Rebuild of Evangelion and the fact that somebody linked me to the song while I was doing this.

EDIT: Well before Foo 5.

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

It was better than nothing, Jet figured. She'd been hoping for something armoured with a decent cargo bay. Still, it got Tiegel and Mari out of vacuum. Mari was bleeding bad. Worst injuries went inside. Anyone who couldn't keep up clung on, Jet, Tyko and Rijn had to plough the way.

Simply because they were the least damaged. Jet was down to two engines, with one wing jammed by a piece of shrapnel she just couldn't reach. Her helmet was embedded in a truck somewhere, and her face stung all over from a number of little scratches and scrapes that'd frozen over in the vacuum. The pain in her leg had dropped to a dull ache and an irritating warning message. Homeostasis was starting to take care of the meat injury.

The too-cheerful think-tanks knew how to stay in formation, that was the main thing, but they would be out of ammunition, wouldn't they?. Jet led. Rijn on the right. Tyko on the left. Tanks in the centre. The three flying Engels shooe'd away any opportunistic missile attacks. The tanks'd pick them up, relay the data, the three Engels would intercept. Kick and boom.

Another dropship made the mistake of getting in the way. Rather than bother going around it, Jet rammed straight through, getting a good look at the surprised occupants as she went in one side, and out the other. They followed her, blown out by vacuum as the van disintegrated.

By now, the cyber was running on full autopilot, not quite sure how she was keeping things together, but not wanting to look that gift horse in the mouth. The think-tanks were singing their way along, breaking tune only to give a quick warning, before taking up precisely in time with where they'd left off.

Another missile, easily dealt with. Jet made sure everyone was alive. The tanks tune changed, becoming a little more distorted, a little more natural. Jet could hear Mari singing on the radio. Singing deleriously. Jet tried to hail the Japanese cyborg... all she received was the song.

Itsumademo taeru koto naku
Tomodachi de iyou
Asu no hi wa yume mite
Kibou no michi wo

The Eva-03 song. They passed what looked like a motorhome, most of it's side stoved in and splintered in a way that didn't suggest anyone aboard had survived. Dropships. A Blackbird wing with the number 103 on it, wearing markings from some Belter Colony. Parts of a Valkyrie. A Blue Midget. An Manticoran navy ship split in two, lights still on. It fired it's missiles one last time before the lights guttered and died. It was the Warlock

Still singing.

Sora wo tobu tori no you ni
Jiyuu ni ikiru
Kyou no hi wa sayonara
Mata au hi made

Something big went off, only a few kilometres away. A Zig fighter with a hole in the cockpit glass. Dodge around a wreck of something that defied identification. In the distance, something was falling towards Ganymede, obviously out of control. Gnarlycurl loomed over the horizon, rising like a moon. Within arms reach, but still a vast distance away. Small sparks flickered and flared around it. Jet called for a tighter formation, they were starting to separate as they dodged around wreckage. It was all so close.... everyone had been so close.

Kyou no hi wa sayonara
Mata au hi made

Maybe they were singing because they were scared. Trying to put a brave face on it. Keep spirits up. Could they be scared? It made a strange, ethereal harmony with Mari's soft voice... it gave the whole scene a strange, animated quality, an odd surreality to it. Silence. Static and the Song. A full flight of Peacemakers was making everything that got in their way regret it, chased up by two whole wings of Zig fighters. Jet tried to radio them... but it was lost in the static. Smoke was rising from Serenity Valley far below. Was Ford alright.... did she escape? Was she fighting, or running away? Another cluster of dropships angled down towards the surface, a wing of Zig fighters breaking off to chase them.

Shinjiau yorokobi wo
Taisetsu ni shiyou

One of the tanks broke tune to warn of a incoming missiles, the other just kept on singing along with Mari. Four inbounds. Jet gave the order to get off after them, roaring off on two engines. Knocking out the missile was easier than dropships. Jet hit one with her damaged leg, shielding her good left engine. Tyko got the second, easy as pie. Jet's vector carried her through the third.

Kyou no hi wa sayonara
Mata au hi made

Rijn aimed for the Fourth. Rijn exploded. Just like that. There one instant, gone the next.

Mata au hi made

Jet heard screaming.... Jet didn't know where it was coming from until after she'd grabbed the wreckage of that Zig fighter and thrown it at a passing dropship hard enough to send herself spinning for a few seconds. The Zig crashed into the dropship's engines, sending it spiralling out of control in flames. Jet screamed every curse at the she knew, and a good many she didn't. Jet wished so much to be left alone with them in a room for thirty seconds it hurt....Jet promised them every violent death she could think of under the sun.

Jet was interrupted by Tyko asking if she was okay.

She answered in the affirmative. Her eyes were stinging cold as something froze. Just keep going.... their almost home. The tank's song changed, the two machines still singing along with Mari, making time as they flew on.

Jet wanted to hug whomever she heard on the other end of the Gnarlycurl ATC when they finally got in contact.

-----

Note... on the Fenwiki it's noted that Jet can deadlift over 500kg with little trouble, and can happily upend a family car.... throwing a Zig fighter hard enough to clonk a passing dropship is well within her ability. Especially given her actuators are electromagnetic...

Much later....
-----

Gnarlycurl was heaving. The asteroid-ship shuddered ever so slightly as something big met it's end on the wall. Jet, and the surviving Engels had found themselves somewhere quiet to rest and refuel. Tiegel and Mari would live. Rijn, Max and Jake wouldn't.

Jet was shaking.

Tyko looked up at her.

"Jet, when are we going back out?"

For a moment, Jet wondered why Tyko was asking her. The answer was numbing. Max and Jake were dead. Really dead. Jet looked at the other cyborg as if she was insane for a moment., before glancing at the others. Some weren't too bad. They were all looking at her for an answer, but with no clues as to what the right one was.

Herself, aside from the engine damage, she was alright. With the shrapnel gone, she was almost back to normal. Her left engine still gave good power. So long as she led with her right, there'd be little trouble. The JB-Weld was already starting to set under the Duct-tape bandage.

"Who thinks they can?" she asked. Essentially, who's certain they can keep up?

Tyko, Lenneth, Jash and Gant answered in the affirmative. The others apologised, but they'd good reason. Repairs were going to be expensive.

Jet smiled warmly, looking down at Gant's leg.

"It looks worse than it is," he assured her with that big smile of his. It was forced as hell, but still comforting. "Besides, I still have these. I can keep up," He flashed the thrusters on his palms. "I'm good,"

"Right." Leadership decision time. "Find some weapons. Either we'll try hop a shuttle help out on the ground war, or we find something that lets us help out up here. Take ten minutes. Get something to eat or drink, and we'll meet back here,"

"For Max," Tyko said softly.

"And Jake," Lenneth added.

"And Rijn," Jash Finished.

"What was it Max always said?" Jet wondered aloud. "Righteousness alone is our king. Lets do it"

She wondered if her sanity wasn't still drifting out in the void somewhere? Who in their right mind would want to go out and fight?

Perversely, Jet herself. It just didn't feel right to stay aboard and not be out there helping out somehow.

---------

So.... any suggestions for what they find on the big Transformer base?..... Aside from someone calling them an idiot for going back out there. I'm assuming Jet has time to get quickly get patched up and back out there before the railgun shot... and probably find something to do.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

***Bob Schroeck*** · 04-19-2011, 02:39 PM

OOC: I have no idea what or how to contribute here. Fenspace!Bob is almost certainly at SerenityCon, possibly with Peggy and Luna, simply because of his connection to the Girls. But beyond that I'm drawing a blank. He doesn't carry weapons, and his fenship is not armed or otherwise capable of being a warcraft.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

**robkelk** · 04-19-2011, 02:50 PM

Bob Schroeck Wrote:OOC: I have no idea what or how to contribute here. Fenspace!Bob is almost certainly at SerenityCon, possibly with Peggy and Luna, simply because of his connection to the Girls. But beyond that I'm drawing a blank. He doesn't carry weapons, and his fenship is not armed or otherwise capable of being a warcraft.

OOC: If you brought Salvage I, then you have the capability to evacuate a half-dozen civilians just before the Boskos break down the doors to the hangar bay...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Dartz · 04-19-2011, 03:42 PM

Like Dunkerque really. All the little unarmed ships doing their damnedest to get through the firestorm in orbit and get people out. It'd make a nice contrast... a far more subtle and real heroism than the fighters all blowing stuff up in orbit.
________________________________
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Foxboy · 04-19-2011, 04:31 PM

[ooc: somewhere in the foo 7-9 area]
"Momma?" Lime asked. "What's going on?"

"Boskonians are attacking, sweetie. Apparently they want the technology Mr. Scott has." Karen tilted her head, listening. "Hmm. Some of the Kunstlers are in trouble." She frowned. "They've breached the walls. Not good."

"Why would they do that? Isn't Mr. Scott sharing?" Lime asked, blinking cutely.

"Sweetie, they don't want to share," Karen said, tapping her ear. "They want it all for themselves."

"That's not right! We've got to do something!"

"No it's not," Karen replied gently, "and we are. Your father is going to need your help getting all of these kids to the Pinafore so we can get them safe. It's our duty as Kandorians to save people, right?"

"Right!" Lime replied, eyes blazing with determination.

"That's my little girl," Karen said, smiling. She switched to Kryptonian. "::I love you, sweetie. Don't forget that. And protect your father. He's not as durable as we are.::"

Karen kissed Lime's forehead and began to fly towards the fighting.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

04-19-2011, 08:47 PM

Some more stuff from the AIs point of view
=======================

Bleeding Edge

Its said that information is the lifeblood of modern civilization. This is especially true for AIs and cyberspace.

The first warning most AIs on the parking field got about the arriving danger induced a shock in many of them. Within one moment several Avatars of AIs participating the convention remotely from distant space stations flickered and died in a wave of disorganized pixels.

For milliseconds most AIs could not believe someone would be able to do something that evil... someone had cut the Convention from the Interwave, all of the multiple redundant transmitter stations at once!

Whole virtual worlds toppled when some of the players who held the constructs together vanished and most activities on the virtual convention grid came to a stop, then a storm of electronic cries of anger rolled through the grid. Here and there the interconnection of the grid already began to crumble under conventional jamming attempts of the Boskonian fleet in orbit, others were clogged with calls to reach the Fen in the convention area.

But as fast as the confusion and chaos appeared, it was pushed aside again.

Quickly several groups of AIs began setting up local network, analyzing the incoming jamming patterns and working around them. Instead of red versus blue tower defense, it became a three team battle to set up the most jamming resistant network. Trading team members by bribing them with better local network access, stealing strategies of the other teams, even fighting some local wars about radio frequencies to be used. Slower AIs working on the overall distribution and routing while the faster were zipping around the options available for radio communication, probing for ways to get some more performance out of jammed parts of the spectrum.

‘Damn, where is Trigon when you need him’ Cortana thought with a grim when the situation stabilized after a while, ‘his local network would have most likely be able to shoot down enemy spacecrafts with lightning... 12 seconds of communication disruption is just too long for a convention... the Boskones will pay for this!’

And then the first enemy troops arrived at the area.

Black Aeronaut · 04-19-2011, 09:24 PM

OOC: Figured I might as well show what Ben's up to and just what sort of mindset he's in.

Benjamin took aim, and squeezed the trigger. Two .500 Nitro Express rounds exploded in sequence, the spent clinking loudly on the floor. One more reaver's chest decorated the walls like a Jackson Pollock painting.

Gina's rifled blasted out a round, bisecting another Reaver further on down.

He didn't flinch. He was too pissed off. He'd seen what they'd done to the mining settlements. The Blackbird up there was one of three that he had personally sold to such a settlement - he'd given them a good deal since they had been just starting up. From what little they'd found suggested that the 'Birds had died... messily. They had presumed that the inability to account for the other one had been because the Bosko's had scavenged the metal - good 'waved titanium was tough to come by, and the most expensive of the materials used in their construction.

There was also the fact that Blackbird AIs are unwaveringly loyal - death before dishonor and all.

To Benjamin, the 'Birds were practically his kids since he personally awoke each one. And someone had either killed the AI... or locked it out of the control systems, turning it into a prisoner within its own mainframe.

Make no mistakes - at this moment, Benjamin was a study in tranquil fury... and not the more commonly seen "Don't Make Me Destroy You" variety. This was the stone-cold executioner with no remorse or pity. Cold, efficient, methodical.
Gina was concerned... mildly. She'd seen him get like this before. He'd be moody for a while, but still functional, and he'd get better in a day or two. He'd just have new reasons to despise the Boskonians, and Gina had to say that she couldn't blame him one bit.

He glanced down the side corridor and saw no contacts. "Clear," said Ben tersely as he took up a position. Gina took up the rearguard and the Jesses began to proceed onwards. Their plan was simple - patrol the most likely routes that the Bosko's would use to get at The Package. Ben wasn't concerned too much with the potential hostage situation as the Supers had that angle covered. He was feeling very bloodthirsty at the moment as the old Native American and Aztec blood in him stirred, and the area they patrolled provided the most target-rich environment.

The last Jess tagged Gina on her shoulder, and she in turn tagged Ben. Ben went on from behind, keeping pace while watching from behind.

Cobalt Greywalker · 04-19-2011, 10:04 PM

OOC: Something for the post-battle part of the fic. I expect the rest of the collective to give other views of the end of the march, so feel free.

Lebia kept an eye on A.C. as the two of them sorted through their respective piles of information. Much that the blonde could do both jobs at the same time and do it more easily, A.C. had experience. Lebia never quite got how the cyberneticist thought, a side effect of her literally being made of Handwavium perhaps, but it never ceased to amaze her just what her creator could do.

A.C., on the other hand, was far too focused on the job at hand to note the android’s looks. She hadn’t even got out of the base bodysuit of her armour (not that anyone was complaining, given that the space black suit clung to her like a second skin). At her console, multiple searches ran through the collected data from the wrecked Boskonian ships while she collated data and matched it. That she was using several accounts on systems around the solar system that she shouldn’t was not noticed, Eddie having got her a bakery’s worth of Danish.
She was close, the cyber could feel it. Numbers poured back from logs as the sometimes Super wrung systems dry back-tracing messages.
“Yeeesss.” The moan was low and erotic, fairly dripping with dark delight as things came together. “Show Mistress that you’re HERS.”

Lebia raised an eyebrow.

Again A.C. didn’t notice, crunching the numbers to tighten the net. Timestamps from routes and messages came together to wrap a sphere of time around the source of the go order. Finally, she accessed the charts and mapped her sphere over the Solar System.
“So Sweetling, think you can hide from me hum?” She murmured, the emerald eyes of the beauty narrowing and darkening. She accessed the nodes of FenNet once more, looking for more signals. Slowly but surely, the sphere collapsed in on itself.

Until all that was left was a single noise source.

With a savage grin, A.C. burned the location to several drives then yanked a PADD out of a drawer and uploaded the data.

PADD in hand she got up, allowing several people to see the bullwhip coiled around her slim waist as she strode out of the room.

Maybe it was her implacable stride, maybe it was her presence, but people looked up as she made her way towards the main argument room and sensing something important was going on started to trail along.

As she entered the main corridor, BNFs hanging around outside looked up and started to fall in behind her. More and more gathered themselves into the crowd so that by the time they reached the doors to the room the guards knew better than to bar the way of the near army marching down on them, opening the door with the fuss or being noticed by the arguers.

A.C. transferred the PADD to her left hand as she walked through the doors, pulled the whip free with her right, and then cracked its full length down on the table.

In the startled silence following the raven-haired warrior hooked the PADD into the holo-projector and brought up an image of an asteroid all labelled up with astronomical details and current position.

“Here’s our target Ladies, Gentleman, and Undecided.” A.C. said calmly. “Say hello to The Farm.”

Ebony · 04-20-2011, 05:12 AM

Hey, I figure the Blazers are in this too. Unfortunately, I'm in training this week, and the brain, she is tired. I'll try to have something in a few days, after I get done. In brief, though, I think that the World Watch 1 crew (who aren't the Cavaliers until 2014, when the World Crime League reveals itself) will be circulating the convention, probably playing an impromptu gig with the filkers at one point. When the attack happens, they'll concern themselves with rescue operations mostly, with the Rugsuckers focusing on defense.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

**robkelk** · 04-20-2011, 02:59 PM

OOC: Y'know, I put numbers on the "foo" placeholders in the consolidation for a reason. I can tell where some of these should go, but I'm not sure about others... (And don't be afraid to name the same placeholder someone else named; most of them have room for plenty of snippets.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

04-20-2011, 05:26 PM

robkelk Wrote:OOC: Y'know, I put numbers on the "foo" placeholders in the consolidation for a reason. I can tell where some of these should go, but I'm not sure about others... (And don't be afraid to name the same placeholder someone else named; most of them have room for plenty of snippets.)

Ahh, forgot about it... mine (Bleeding Edge) would fit foo3 (or maybe foo4) I think...

Dartz · 04-20-2011, 07:31 PM

OOC: What sort of timeframe are we talking about for events on the day? I'm assuming that Jet's been in action for at least 1 - 2 hours..... and possibly longer depending on what people think.... by the time she gets around to calling for a pickup. Wear and tear of repeated impacts and close calls with missiles having taken their toll. They started effectively unarmed and set up for an air show, they got the first warnings halfway through their routine.

Another half hour on Gnarlycurl just getting some quick patch-up work done with JB-weld and duct tape, find something weaponry that works in space... ... anyone who's not in too bad shape goes back into the furball to do.... what I can't think of right now. Maybe they repeat that 'Plough the road' thing they were doing with the Tachi's.... taking out missiles targeted at evac-ships or something. Either that, or play to their close-in strengths and try board one of the cruisers in a counterattack....

Jet will probably taking orders from someone by this stage.... and is already a bit fried to be able to think much for herself. What does the collective want Jet for?.... I'll figure out how to make Jet do it.
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