Narvia was shocked to hear how long the routes would take in terms of days to a week in total if you pick the long route over the short one. It was a massive difference, which couldn’t be helped honestly because she was hurting still because of missing her mother and older siblings. She remembered, she held Mr. Cuddleton in her arms and cuddled him tightly. However, all this made her specifically remember what happened to her years ago, which traumatized her more than missing her mother. It was a terrifying experience; nothing she thought was possible, but it is in the deep back of her mind and only shows its ugly face during her downtime. ’ W-Why does this keep on coming back up? G-G-Grand Admiral Berkeley R. Jensen of Berkeley’s Butchers or 11th Fleet… I-I hate t-that bastard… for w-what, he did to me… Hope he’s d-dead.’ She thought with a deep-seated fear clear on her face as day, which shows she has even more traumas than missing her mommy. If anything, she wants to hear that the Grand Admiral Berkeley is dead, it would help her much, but she is still scared of what made him such a terrifying man. She is grateful to her godfather for saving her from Berkeley’s grasp. However, she remembered a saying her godfather said, ’ if there is a vote you go with the majority, don’t ever be the minority.’ She decided to speak up; finally, she was being helped by everyone else after all the time. ” I-I change my v-vote to… the Short Route since i-it isn’t right to cry over spilled milk.” She spoke with a slight smile to Natasha and Moonstrike. It was, specifically, she hoped she got the saying right anyway.

When Ashton and Flame brought up grand Admiral Laguna, she shivered down her spine, but being under the Butcher would be ten times worse. It was a bit funny, but Berkeley’s Butchers never used the Star Marines nor Carriers. She couldn’t help but feel a bit good about that and what Nikolas’ told her about that specifically, guess the butcher didn’t want to use magic to make the killing. ’...I am grateful for that, at least, but…’ She thought with her eyes staring directly at Mr. Cuddleton. Because of the staring contest with the teddy plushie, she continued to cuddle the cutest, fluffiest teddy bear plushie she has ever seen. However, there was a voice, close enough to her that made her look directly in that person’s direction; it was the drunk man. He was saying sorry to her about what he did. ” I-I’m thankful for your apology, t-thank you. A-And yeah, I feel everyone is a bit sad at what happened...” She spoke towards the drunk man with a smile on her face.

However, the other shock to her system hit as she was now a part of the ship’s crew, and it was 75 meters long. She already told everyone she loves to cook because it helps her with her traumas, which two of the many traumas appeared, but these two are the biggest ones. However, she heard Natasha say a specific thing towards Amy about helping all the Star Marines over their traumas. She smiled happily at this since she definitely does need help with that since it's been festering throughout her life. ” I-I’ll help as the best I can, Captain!” She exclaimed cutely, towards Natasha. She is very enthusiastic, even though there are many problems with her still. That is when Amy spoke up about staying here for her to give them a speech or something to that effect. If anything, Amy felt very warm and kind towards them all, and she smiled happily, but there were definitely things wrong with her. ” I-I will definitely come for a session with you, A-Amy, for my m-mental healthie. B-Because I definitely need it...” She spoke cutely towards Amy. The one thing that took her a bit like, wait, biscuits, like she wanted to try one of them. It was clear as day on her face, which she stared directly towards Amy with a smile. However, before she could say anything, she was interrupted with she wanted to say with what Amy said and did. Her eyes brightened up considerable time, and her smile was really cutely big; however, she did notice that Phi left after Amy spoke. ” A-Aww, T-Thank you! A-Amy, I-I will take good care of Cuddleton! I-It helped much, also, c-can I h-have a biscuit?” She questioned cutely too. When Amy’s tail gently patted, she giggled really cutely and was feeling much better.

Narvia had a different thing on her mind after receiving her biscuit from Amy, and that was finding the kitchen. She also had to get her bags from the cargo hold, which was funny; she had many clothes and stuff in there. All from her time in the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet. ” U-Umm, who wants to come with me to the Kitchen?” She asked curiously but primarily looked directly at Ariel since she helped her decipher the mission parameter. If anything, Narvia needed to do something to get her mind off of that bastard’s deeds and what he said all those years ago. She waved at everyone else; hopefully, they will find themselves wherever they will need to go. This made her want to find the kitchen, which would have to take or find it by whatever means necessary. She wanted to make something to get her mind off of things. It was a bit funny, she would rather cook something rather than sleep, even though her crying and everything has made her really tired.

She arrived in the kitchen with a look of amazement at all the unique thingies. It took her a minute to think about what she wanted to make, which made her want to cook Kebabs. ” H-Hopefully, there are enough ingredients to make… super greasy Kebabs...” She spoke out loud in the kitchen. If anything, Narvia wanted to make these since she has a feeling that Phi would want some. Because everyone is happier with a full stomach before sleeping, which she was slightly hungry too. All the tears, crying, and fear definitely made her that way, but the biscuit she ate from Amy was yummy. She’s slightly a strange kid, which makes her always the kindest and cutest Star Marine. If anything, she does want some help with the Kebabs.

_{Interactions: @The Man Emperor@6slyboy6@samakama@Letter Bee
Mention: @Jade Kiyo}

---

Tarak starts to give a small smile to Amy once he listens to her small talk about them going to her for mental support when they are racked with trauma. He gives a small smile and wave to her as he says, "I'll remember that. Thanks". As he starts to leave and try to find a room for himself. Knowing full well that when him and their drunk crewmember locked eyes, it was like they both remembered something.

Tarak entered a vacant room and started doffing his power armor, waiting to see if the man would enter to talk to him.

Surely enough, there was a pair of uneasy footsteps as Trajan entered the place, looking at Tarak with eyes that spoke of an eerie familiarity. It was like he knew the guy, but just couldn't place who it was, or when they met, if ever. "So, um, hi.", he began, leaning at the door post, scratching his head. "We've never been formally introduced and I think we have met before... the name's Trajan. Trajan Salazar."

For some reason, he didn't mention that Pyke was his first surname. At least, not yet.

Tarak looked on as he was right on the money with the man entering. Right on cue really as Tarak looked on to find the man standing at his door. As the man slumped Tarak listened to him introduce himself as Trajan. Not a name Tarak has heard in a while, yet a name he has heard a few times, just one particular time comes to mind, when he was at the orphanage he grew up in there was a boy named Trajan who looked similar to this man. It probably is the hair, they both have such vibrant hair it is very easy to see.

Tarak looked on as he started taking off more of his armor, as the back of the suit opens up and allows him to start stepping out, Tarak introduces himself, "Hey Trajan, my name is Tarak Hunter." Tarak normally uses the name of his title as his surname, Monarch always said it would be smart to have a surname when attending important meeting for Clients, so he made one up for those occasions.

Trajan shakes Tarak's hand, and another wave of familiarity washed over. "Tarak... that rings a bell. The only Tarak I knew before this was the one that was in the orphanage I spent a year in before being adopted. He was... a good boy. The best one, actually. Always looking out for the ones younger than himself... heh. Shame that the place burned down before I could persuade my fosters to take him too..."

Tarak has fully came out of his suit as he now stands at his normal height, still taller than most men yet more reasonable, as it shows he had been wearing a full black padded suit underneath. He steps forward as he takes Trajan's hand and shakes it. Yet once their hands leave each other, Trajan seems to remember something, a boy from an orphanage that burnt down. Tarak looked on for a moment, processing what Trajan just said.

Tarak said as he looked at him, "Trajan...Pyke? Born on Galirus?" He watched Trajan's face, Tarak knew he looked very different from then, just like Trajan would. It has been over a decade, and a war just passed. But Tarak was interested, is this Trajan?

Trajan's eyes went into a flurry of surprise, as he did not expect what came next. "How did you...? You're not telepathic, are you?"

Tarak looked on as he got a good enough response to continue with this conversation. Giving a small chuckle Tarak says, "Naw, I don't deal with that magic. I was Born on Galirus". As Tarak gives Trajan a small smile, "I'm Tarak".

Trajan freezed, as this was quite a bit to take in. "Oh... my God... So the kid that used to sleep on my lap and steal candy for the others did not die in the fire, but is standing before me, is a big man, and leads a band of magicians..." A tear fell off his right eye before he hurriedly wiped it with his sleeve. Trajan held out his arms, an invitation for a hug. "Come here, you. It's been too long..."

Tarak just scoffs with a chuckle as he sees Trajan remembers him very well. He chuckles even more as he sees Trajan opens up his arms for a hug. Tarak obliges as he takes a few steps forward and hugs the man as he says, "Yeah it's been a bit". He chuckles as he continues, "It's been a decade and you look like hammered shit".

"The horrors of war have eroded my good looks, I see." Trajan snickered as he held Tarak tight. "I missed you so much... I think I'm going to cry. Damn it..."

Tarak laughs a little as he says, "Eh seemed to have aged me like fine wine". Tarak felt as Trajan held onto him tighter as he hears the man's proclamation of crying. Tarak didn't feel the same, he's never cried, he never knew why, yet right now he didn't feel like he was going to cry or even shed a tear but he was happy Trajan was okay, "Hey, I'm happy to see you did good for yourself. Just found yourself in the bad end of a bloody war. It's still good to see you"

Trajan sniffed his sleeves, and then winked. "Well yeah, I became a sniper for the army, but I quit when I saw that the Ascendancy was using kids. Didn't think that those same kids will be my colleagues in the resistance."

"Yeah, things change when your government uses children in a war" Tarak said with a light chuckle. "Good to see you here, and good to see you still have that heart of yours. Knew many people who lost theirs when seeing stuff like that"

"To be fair, I was afraid I would lose it after shooting so many down.", Trajan confided. "Well, it's really good to see you again... we should drink to tha-... actually, no, I've had too much lately..."

Tarak laughs as he says with a pat on his back, "Yeah man you should sleep that off. Don't want the others having a hernia because you are drinking more". Tarak laughs as he throws his arm under the other mans arm and onto his back as he straightens him up slightly while he says, "Here, lets get you to your bed"

"Yeeeah... I should go sleep... now..." With Tarak's help, Trajan went off towards his own room, which was kind of a mess. As soon as he got there, he fell into his bed, and... well... there was snoring.

Tarak helped Trajan to his room, and once he plopped down, Trajan was out like a lightbulb. Tarak chuckled as he threw his blanket over him as he said, "Night".

As Tarak made his way to the cargo area, he needed to start getting his stuff into his room. He has plenty to still do before it is time to sleep.

Is this what the life of a working adult is like? No wonder weekends are celebrated so much.

The mission-related matters had been settled at last, and Ariel set free from worrying about everyone’s possible imminent doom at the hands of some patrolling cruiser’s plasma cannons. Now absolved of any responsibility, she could finally go back to doing something actually enjoyable and age-appropriate — and, thanks to Narvia’s invitation, it seemed that that meant cooking.

“Mhm! Let’s make something to celebrate our first day as freedom fighters.”

Although Ariel had been immersed in research and ‘work’ for a while now, she had still noticed and half-followed the dramatic scene unfolding in the less business-oriented part of the room. Pretty much everyone on the ship had had much tougher upbringings than hers. It was hardly unexpected that even Narvia would start to feel the pressure of years of broken dreams and unfulfilled wishes. In more stable parts of the world, there were probably former child soldiers like them leading very different lives. The Rau’ve didn’t put in much effort into explicitly rehabilitating and reintegrating the young veterans, but at least some ended up in good hands. Family, communities, education, work, support. Such things were considered important for a weapon of war to become a child again.

Well, the Star Marines onboard could be said to have ‘work’ down, at least. It was a line of work that would horrify most occupational therapists, but finances were no longer much of an issue thanks to that. It would be good to develop skills besides fighting and killing all the same.

“Phi didn’t get to eat just now. Something that she’d like would be good. And let’s thank Amy for Mister Cuddleton here with a taste of Earth cuisine. The rest of the crew, too, for taking us in.” How many portions would that be? Half a dozen or so?

Well, no harm in making extra. The kitchen was large enough to accommodate, after all.

“Kebabs are like sate, right?” Hm, didn’t everyone have a bunch of that back in the shuttle? Surely it wasn’t so good that they were craving it again already. Ah, but Seraphina had missed out on all that. Was she the sweets-and-confectionery type à la Iris, or more a fan of savoury dishes and MSG? “Meat’s not my forte, so I’ll prepare some side dishes. But not too much grease, Navi.”

Narvia was a skinny chef, but one worthy of trust. Her cooking usually had both nutrition and flavour in mind. As long as she was reminded, the kebabs would turn out well-moderated in all aspects. Probably.

“And let’s get some eggs and vegetables in there too. Variety and spice, plus it’d make for a more balanced meal. Otherwise, a certain someone’ll end up addicted to both sugar and fats.”

Opening up the drawers and cupboards around the kitchen, it suddenly occured to Ariel that perhaps the enterprising cooks had put the cart before the horse. It was a spartan sight — only the most basic of condiments and spices to be found. How were they going to marinate anything like this? And most of this stuff didn’t look particularly fresh, either.

Unacceptable. Only the best ingredients were allowed — for today, at least.

“It’s a bit… bare. Maybe we should take a look at the cargo hold for ingredients. The Rau’ve lady earlier gave us some stuff that’d probably be useful.” Plus, it would be rather fitting to reward Seraphina with the very foodstuffs that she had been guarding at the expense of her lunch. Like returning someone’s lost wallet, and receiving the cash in it as a thank-you. Although — the girl had snuck out at some point, and Ariel wasn’t too sure where she’d wandered off to.

As Ariel went off to hunt down some better-quality ingredients, she began making a wish list aloud. “Mm-hmm. Onions and garlic, and lemongrass. Coriander, turmeric, oh! We need sticks too. Were those there? Vegetables, we’ll have to see what’s in the crates. Peanuts, hopefully, though peanut butter should work — I hope no one’s allergic…”

When Avelyn waved, Laurey did nothing. A simple thing it would have been, to have raised her hand, waved back, perhaps with a smile or a wink. Winking. Yeah, the last time went so well.

When Avelyn waved, it caught in Laurey’s mind like a fish hook. It tripped up thoughts that came after, questions of motive and judgement met with riposte and counter in a spiralling descent, down the forever lines reflections when two mirrors meet, an infinite loop. Her mind turned to static fuzz.

When Avelyn waved, Laurey forced herself to wave back, the victor of her own private battle.

She was exhausted. She did not notice the red half-moons dug into the meat of her palms.

It seemed she was fritzing more and more lately, and the thought did little to comfort her. A killer migraine was gathering, black clouds blotting out the horizon. Still, there was a good chance that wouldn’t be an issue if the military cordon was on shoot-to-kill orders. Seemed like a lot of faith to put in stealth systems, especially when the blockade was supposedly to deal with the covert sort. This was life in the rebellion then, where all you needed were guts and grit, where their lives were expendable. At least there was no change there. The world she had known seemed sterile in comparison. Clinical.

Bland.

Whilst some drifted out of the room, Laurey hung back, and was rewarded with Amy’s little speech. She gave the odd-ball two thumbs way up as Amy swept her smile across the room. There was one who was special.

From besides Natasha, Laurey said, “I’m gonna trust your call on this one. You’re the captain afterall, captain. Just make sure we’re not the fire to the Ascendancy’s frying pan for these kids.”

With that, Laurey saluted, then paused at the door, looking back to the platinum-blonde girl. Should they really leave them with cigarettes? Given how teens were, the whole ship could end covered in a smog and tinted yellow. Eh, fuck it. She wasn’t their mum.

“I’ll be in the workshop or… about. If anyone needs me, shoot me a note,” she jiggled her omnitool as she left.

Before the workshop there was another stop Laurey needed to make. Down a ladder, along past the kitchen, another ladder, a narrow walkway, dimly lit and humming with the life energy of the ship and its systems that squeezed in and pressed down. A roomba bumped against her foot, and then went off, whirring quietly to itself.

Laurey went to the first of the doors in this forgotten corner of the ship and the screen awoke, green light staining the air. Words began to appear in blocky letters.

Escape Shuttle 01
Systems Online
Diagnostic Report…

It scrawled off a list of checkpoints and dates they’d been signed off on, oxygen, tools, food, water, medical supplies, then spewed out a report of its systems. Laurey slid open a panel under the screen and lifted her right finger towards it. There was a whisper, and the skin seemed to shatter like glass, webbed instantly with cracks. The fragments pulled back, held on mechanical spider-limbs, revealing a slender and intricate work of engineering. She inserted it into the panel, wires fine as webbing winding their way in. Into…

There was a jolt as Laurey’s world fell away.

One time on J-Heim Beta there had been a snowstorm. There always was. Laurey was watching it with… With… He said something.

“It is dizzying, all these pale things, like a tumbling field of stars.”

That’s how it always was. The world falling away in a tumbling field of stars.

Then it came back, a grateful breath, and Laurey was in. In two worlds at once. Overlaid with reality was the abstraction her mind had created of the computer’s language, electron pushing pulled apart and rearranged by a brain that mostly wasn’t hers.

Alone she hunched in a room, whilst sweet laughter drifted down from somewhere above, whilst the murmur of conversation and the trap of boots on metal mixed with the heartbeat of the freighter and made it truly alive. Alone in her pit, she felt it. Only half in the world, the pain was muted.

The roomba bumped against the other end of the trench, paused, and came back, still whirring.

In her other world she sifted through files, sorted blocks and validated that the system was as fine as it said it was. Moving from one to the next with mechanical detachedness, she did the same for all. It would not do to have loose nails in their coffins.


Finished, her head ached and the world seemed far away, as it always did after coming back. It’d go soon. The migraine she’d seen coming, well, Laurey could feel the change in pressure, hairs stood on edge… soon.

Up a ladder, along a corridor -

Her vision started to blur, the lights in her head grew brighter, and those outside hurt. She paused and resisted the urge to vomit. Her shirt was ruined enough already.

She saw a kid skulking about. The one who reminded her of a snake, coiled, watching, as though he was just waiting for a fight.

“Yo, bucko, you seen the Doc?” One hand was massaging her temple. It did nothing.

@FalloutJack

So anyway, I started blasting Nero was gonna head off to get the lowdown on the layout of the long walk of the ship. Except, he had been interrupted at about the doorway when Amy suddenly called out. He had been kinda' tuning out because the focus was on Navi's breakdown, and therefore a good time to be elsewhere, but he stopped when the self-appointed ship's morale officer wanted their attention for something. Must've been because of Narvia, 'cause she was talking about...well...therapy. Plenty of people would've said he needed some, but then plenty of people would be told to mind their own fuckinbg business. They'd had a guy, back in training, who was essentially the base shrink whose job it was to certify that Nero was ready and mentally-suitable for combat. Needless to say, he was shown to be rather anti-social and the doctor warned the officers on-base that Nero wasn't likely to respect any of them or a real chain of command, but only do what you set him out to do in order to 'rub their faces in how impotent they are'.

The reason that he didn't get on with people and that therapy wouldn't generally work was that he knew, going in, that they didn't care about him, so he owed those people...nothing. The good news is that time away from the war and with people roughly his own age that could relate to his situation had had the effect of him being not a total shithead. If he were older, he might've called the posse - the Star Marines - 'old war buddies'. As it stands right now, they're a mixed bag of 'fellow soldiers', 'close associates', and even 'friends, I guess'. And let's be clear here, this was a step up from just being 'people I tolerate'. He was even willing to put Moonstrike alongside how he viewed the Marines, assuming they let him be himself here. Anyway, what all of this was leading up to was that Nero didn't hold much faith in any kind of therapy, but he did find Amy interesting...because she actually seemed to care, which was unexpected. She was basically volunteering to be vented at. That wasn't too bad. He'd done about same, here and there, to his group, as is. Still, the added offering of biscuits now was a bit much, considetring that he'd eaten a few things already. He was about to reply to that when he heard Navi say the magic words: Greasy Kebabs. Nero's face lit up with that. Oh, fuck yes.

"Kebabs? Save my biscuit for later, Ames. If we're having kebabs, I'm gonna need it then. I'll be in to chop the meat later, Nav."

Like we said, Nero gets along with the other young soldiers. And that was when he wandered off, cranking some music on his Omni-Tool.



But yes, he was off and starting to get an idea of where everything went and where on board the ship while they were presumably getting ready to go to, and heading off for, Maiden's Reach. He wasn't in any terrible hurry. He was taking in all the ductwork and where it went, including where people could and would hide, and his Omni-Tool was on Map Mode, scanning the physical area to just give him a full 3D map where his eyes might - shock of all shocks - actually miss something. It was a while later that one of the crew addressed him in a hallway. It was that one girl that had bits implanted in her to interact with machines. You'd think that Nero wouldn't have seen that, but you're wrong. As what basically equates to an assassin, Nero was given a series of targets to look out for, just in case. They didn't know for sure how the Rau've operated, but they had to give him some army intelligence to work with. Part of that included being able to identify tactical officers with implants to control machines directly with their minds, coordinating turrets and other weapons. His stealth was used to get past such secure locations and open the path by killing the operator. Anyway, it didn't take a genius to figure out that plugs in head meant brain acts as computer, or that this musta' been a strain, since she wanted Doc Millard.

"Well, I ain't seen 'im, but if I were him, I'd be hiding the rest of my ciggies from Ari before she takes them all. She doesn't like unhealthy stuff."

So, he was basically saying 'If not the medbay, probably his quarters'. Speaking of which, Nero had spotted a room close to a duct he could leap into at a moment's notice. It was perfect!

Narvia had a look of a bit of nostalgia on her face since she made Kebabs for her godfather and most of the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet’s Capital Ship called the Dragon’s Claw. She had a large smile on her face, which was always be reminded about it; she feels more at ease in a kitchen than anything. She definitely agreed with what Ariel had said about celebrating and making food for everyone, including Phi and Amy. ” Y-Yeah, this is going to be really nice!” She exclaimed really happily. Obviously, she was excited to cook for everyone else like she did on the Dragon’s Claw. However, she heard someone speak behind her, which she looked at, and it was Nero. She smiled at him while holding Mr. Cuddleton. ” A-Aww, thank you! I will be grateful for your expertise with knives, Nero.” She spoke with a grateful look on her face at what he had said. It was nice to see everyone coming together to help her.

She blinked slightly when Ariel asked her what Kebabs are like, which made her think about it slightly. ” I-I think one of the six chefs on the Dragon’s Claw said, Kebabs are close analogs to sate.” She spoke, answering Ariel’s question, with an adorably cute smile. If anything, she did learn much about certain things while being in the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet. In terms, she heard what Ariel said afterward and slightly had a slight pout-like look on her face. However, making it super greasy wouldn’t probably be a good idea. ” A-Alright, I will not make it super greasy, but it’ll still be greasy enough. T-Thank you for doing the side dishes, Ariel.” She spoke with a tone of basically slightly dejected or disappointed.

Narvia giggled slightly at the mention of a certain someone, knowing who Ariel was speaking about, Iris. ” H-Hehe, you were talking about Iris, weren’t you? It is a good idea to do that to make a balanced kebab party with veggies and eggies.” She spoke with a cute tone on saying eggies. Obviously, she picked it up from her mother when her mother cooked dinner all those years ago. However, she decided to look over the kitchen and only noticed one thing, there was very little stuff to make Kebabs, but at least there were the proper tools to do so. She did notice Ariel had a similar look of like, what where is all the stuff. It didn’t take her much time to nod about what Ariel had said. ” Y-Yeah, good idea. Better to go to the cargo hold to get the necessary ingredients.” She spoke, with a bit of annoyed look on her face. It would be better to go with Ariel, which she did decide to go with her.

While Narvia kept close to Ariel and followed her to the Cargo Hold to get ingredients, she heard Ariel’s ingredient list. She slightly giggled at Ariel but was definitely happy to hear some delicious ingredients. ” T-To answer your allergy question, I am not allergic to peanuts. I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every once in a while.” She spoke towards Ariel, with a smile, and hopefully, it's good to help. While she finally realizes she kept her Dragon Sight up for all this time, it strained her eyes slightly, which made her blink three times. She is still holding Mr. Cuddleton and cuddling with it while walking with Ariel. This strain made her feel slightly like a headache and eye ache primarily because she isn’t used to the Biotech Upgrade yet. ” O-Owwies, Should’ve blinked three times sooner… I dislike when I get these headaches and eye aches for overusing Dragon’s Sight.” She spoke with a slightly strained tone of her voice. It was mostly because of how young she had it installed and still has a bit to get over the strain of using it for too long. However, she wanted it installed to see like her godfather can since his dragon eyes looked so cool.

---

Once Amy had finished her speech she waited for the rest of the kids to disperse while she watched them with a smile, as well as returning small waves towards everyone who told her that they would want to talk with her later. Once the dust had settled and she was left alone with Abaddon and Natasha in the room she would let out a happy sigh and shake her head at the almost empty biscuit box in her hands. "Awh, they grow up so fast. Maybe too fast..." With a slight smile on her face she grabbed one more biscuit and placed it between her lips as she planted the box down on the table next to the captain with a happy expression. "I know that they are crew now, but it's not fair that they went from being fighters for the Ascendancy to being soldiers for this rebellion. You know my opinion of all of this Natasha... we should let them be kids while they are still young, at least for a bit. Let's go easy on them at least while we travel." Amy looked into the captain's eyes with the gaze of an innocent puppy as she quietly nommed down on her biscuit before making a small nod in front of Natasha and excusing herself out of the room.

As she set down the hallway at a slow pace, she was both excited and afraid of the future ahead of them. On one hand it seemed very exciting, albeit scary to go into a fight like this. She clearly didn't think much of going into an active warzone, but that was the mentality of the Zvezd as a whole. There were precious few amongst the humans who possessed the brain power to resist their mind magic, so most of her species would not think much of a firefight when they could easily make the enemies fall asleep or "persuade" them into being their personal bodyguards. But getting blown to bits in space was a different thing, and that certainly got Amy worried as her eyes trailed the sleek metal surface and padded corners of the ship. As big as the ship was, she could trace it's length with every step she took, and it made her unnerved to know they might have to deal with people shooting at them.

She didn't even realize that she had made it all the way back to her room while lost in thoughts until the door slid open with a silent hiss. She looked up and made a tired sigh as she stared at the dimly lit room that had hardly anything in it: just the basic equipment that was given to her when she first got here. It wasn't a whole lot, but Amy's had to deal with worse on her travels through the galaxy before, and she appreciated having her own bunk for one. Humans seemed all too keen on poking and prodding her tail when she tried to sleep, trying to see if it was fake or not. Amy knew first hand just how real it was when you couldn't sleep because people have never seen one of your kind before. Though, not many have actually seen her kind, but that was a different topic for a different day.

With a small smile on her face she sat down on the bed, her eyes closed as her fingers dug into the soft fabric of the blankets while she stroked the surface of the mattress, enjoying the pleasing touch of the material. She already missed Mr Cuddleton, but that couldn't be helped if it meant cheering up one of the kids. Of course, that meant that the only thing making this otherwise bland room any more comfy and homey was Amy herself, which was certainly enough for anyone else to make it feel very welcoming, but she could hardly enjoy her own company like others could enjoy hers. Then again, maybe peace and quiet was just what she needed after these eventful days behind her.

Yes, that sounded great... Amy's eyes slowly closed as her breathing slowed down and she gently crossed her hands in her lap as she relaxed, her mind slowly sinking deeper and deeper into a dark abyss of nothingness as she tried to cancel out all the thoughts in her head to relax...

The door opened once more with a small hiss and Amy was yanked out of her meditation, and she gasped as if a bucket of cold water was emptied on her head. With a bashful expression she turned towards the one entering her room, her lips quickly curling into a curl as she saw Phi hold what she could only assume was a plushie that the girl had made herself. It was oozing emotions and thoughts, so fresh that Amy could practically smell the psychic handprint that Phi left on it. Really, it reminded her of Cuddleton, though in a different way. Whereas her teddy bear had dozens of years of hugging and love deeply sown into it's fabric to get a distinct imprint that she could sense, this plushie was like fresh bakery, or the smell of a new book.

"What a lucky find Phi!" Amy exclaimed joyfully, having to suppress a little chuckle as she appreciated the efforts of Phi trying to hide the fact that she was the one behind the creation of the plushie. Actually... she was so focused on the fact that Phi created the plushie, that she didn't even realize it meant that the girl could sew! It made Amy's jaws drop a bit as she got a hold of the soft animal and gently squeezed it against her chest, smiling happily up at Phi. "Let me guess. You want me to give this to... Narvia. Correct?" She asked with a chuckle and shook her head as her eyes focused on the girl's for a moment before she slid to the side on the bed and placed the plushie in her lap, patting the now free space next to her. "Come now, don't be shy Phi! Tell me, why are you so afraid of making friends, hmmm? I'm sure Navi would appreciate it a lot if you gave this to her yourself, probably give you a hug too! Maybe even cry a bit, she does seem like the sensitive type. So, as the, uhm..." Amy had to stop here for a second, wanting to give a reason as to why Phi should stay by being some figure of authority, but her mind was firing blanks as to what exactly her role was aboard the ship. After a few seconds she just decided to go with what she thought was best and made a flustered and somewhat apologetic smile at Phi as she continued. "-Professional nanny aboard the ship, I would be glad to talk about with you. Of course, you don't have to, I can tell you want to go back to the cargo hold and make more plushies." She blurted out, moments later covering her mouth with her hands as she realized she was once again reading into people's mind without even realizing or getting their permission. With a flustered blush spreading across her cheeks she shook her head for a moment and made and awkward laugh. "I-I'm sorry, I won't tell anyone. I can't always control myself around you people. B-but if you want to talk about it..." She fell silent with an apologetic smile and patted the bed next to her, while her other hand gently stroked the head of the small seal as she tried to get over her anxiety for blurting out things she shouldn't. Amy sure hoped she didn't scare Phi away with that...

@Jade Kiyo

---

---

Oh, she's crying. Not what I expected but still enjoyable. Abaddon sat the tray down, stowing away a few lemon bars for the nicotine depleted doctor. Abaddon's new teammate didn't inspire him as much as he wanted. Honestly if a few just gave up it would be preferable than keeping the dead weight. Abaddon let out a mental sigh, Is this really what the Ascendency committed war crimes to do? Sure some of them are semi-intelligent but I feel they are no more intelligent than a high ranking officer if even that. They might have skills to boast but they are special for their magic yet some didn't even show it. I have hope for some of them though.

Abaddon saw enough of whatever this could be called and left the room, still wearing his apron. With the short path being chosen, maybe Abaddon can lessen his disappointment in the Star Marines but if he is to listen to his inclinations, he should prepare to dig deeper. As Abaddon continued to make reservations about this mission he arrived at the kitchen to remove his apron and finish cleaning. Soon, he felt someone heading into the kitchen. Abaddon made a hasty exit, not trying to interact with some of the new people as he knew he might be a bit biting to them. He headed to his room, first to grab his digital library, and second to grab the good doctor some "medication". It should be a good time to self medicate.

Without a single shit given, Abaddon opened Millard's door and set down an assortment of drugs, including some more cigarettes for the doctor. "Want to party?", as he started to pull Millard's custom shot glasses out. Abbadon sat the bottle in the center of the table and the Mary Jane to the side. He took out this green needle that seen to have an orange lubricant at the end. It was a Rau've drug that makes biological creatures extremely docile and cooperative. To Abaddon though, it fills him with this unending giddiness, an effect between cannabis and LSD. He also has some more new-age drugs for the experienced.

@Th3King0fChaos

---

The lavender skinned alien's positivity was very infectious, and Phi had no immunity built up in that moment, nor did she care to resist the smile Amy drew out of her. She inclined her head, confirming the obvious guess, though the way Amy took to snuggling the thing a passerby might think it was meant for her. That smile transitioned into a frown with furrowed brow and slightly cocked head, not because she was averse to joining her on the bed, but for confusion about what she said. However, with a little thought put in she realized she must seem antisocial so far, especially to someone she had only just met and barely spoken to.

Amy went on and that confused expression deepened into a soft scowl. Phi opened her mouth to say something, and then snapped it shut once Amy slipped up. At first shocked that she had been exposed so easily Phi's face went pale and her body rigid. Briefly she considered trying to cover it up, but logically there was only one way Amy could know and any lie would be a stretch to sell. Instead she had to consider herself fortunate that Amy wasn't mischievous enough to want to spread Phi's little secret. With a long sigh her slender shoulders slumped in defeat. A few steps later she plopped down beside the older woman, resignation and embarrassment settling on her features.

"So you saw. And here I thought I covered all the camera angles. How careless. That is…" She paused as deeper embarrassment colored her cheeks.

I am so damn lucky I didn't start my master plan making plushies of everyone yet. If she had seen that I don't think I'd ever be able to show my face again.

"..well, that little hobby is super embarrassing. Needless to say I don't want the others to find out. Even if they didn't make fun of me I could never live it down." She finished this thought and closed her eyes, leaning back on her hands. With another deep breath she looked back at Amy, as serious an expression as she could muster returning to her face. Of course the severity of this look was somewhat undermined by that lingering blush.

"More importantly, I wanted to correct you on one thing- no, two things, but first! 'Professional nanny' doesn't feel right at all, nor does the mere title of counselor. Not that I think you're unprofessional or lacking in good counsel. I may not know just the right word, but I feel like you're going to be, and already are, something more special than your average therapist. So don't you dare sell yourself short, ma'am. Deal?"

Dammit, I do know the words, I just can't bring myself to say 'surrogate mother.' I might not even be able to until I know for sure what happened, and there's no telling how long that will take.

"As for the other thing, it's harder than I expected to kick a habit I didn't even have for very long. The way we were thrown into war like that, no, it's probably true for any soldier to a certain extent. At any moment in war you might lose a close friend, if not for being killed then for sudden reassignment. Day after day like that, you start building a mental wall without even realizing it. You start to… protect yourself and avoid getting too close to others. At least that's how it was for me, but I did have a few other reasons for feeling isolated from my comrades. I've been trying to bridge that involuntary gap between myself and everyone, I really have. But I guess it's going to take more time and work. I want to connect as family again, or at least friends, and not just have those things be words on my lips."

Her wistful smile and otherwise calm demeanor belied Phi's true feelings. Unaware of Amy's ability her mental guard was down, and her actual emotions were easy to read. Loneliness, desperate longing, fear of failure or rejection, the desire to be able to rely on others and have others rely on her. And swimming beneath these feelings was a deeper issue of doubt and uncertainty, silently threatening everything important in her heart. To be able to sense these things without seeing the facade Phi wanted to present, one might expect to see the girl shaking and on the verge of tears. But no matter how skilled an actress, that mask was only skin deep.

---

Amy watched carefully as Phi sat down besides her and began to talk. At first she didn't expect to too much out of the girl, but as the seconds turned into minutes she realized that she had struck a nerve with Phi. More and more information about the little girl came to light, both things Amy had already suspected and things that she never expected to hear from her. Her eyes were glued on the girl besides her, intently listening to every word, every breath and sigh that she would share with the alien who seemed so keen on learning about her troubles. And Amy was thankful for all the things she could learn about Phi, her ears twitching softly every now and then as she picked up on the tiniest of audio cues in Phi's words while she compared them to the raw feelings and emotions that were radiating from the girl. It was truly hard not to get a fee of the girl's thoughts and emotions now, as they were practically oozing from her as she opened up about her issues. But really, Amy didn't mind getting that sort of help, especially not when the small girl told her so much.

Once Phi had finished speaking, Amy hummed quietly and turned her attention towards the door, her eyes lost in thought as a haze fell over them while she peered into her mind to think about a reply to the girl. She knew what she wanted to say and she knew how she wanted to say it, but she wasn't entirely sure why she wanted to say it. It flattered her immensely that the girl praised her so much as to call her more than a nanny or a therapist. She could even get hints as to what she was thinking through her thoughts, but Amy wasn't entirely sure she understood their meaning. Just another thing that she still had to learn about humans and the way their mind worked. Which is exactly why she was so confused as to why she wanted to say the things she honestly felt like saying, things she considered to be too human but also unlike what she had experienced before whilst among them. An odd mix of emotions seemed to surround the words like a fine mist, emotions that Amy has never felt before and didn't know what to think of. And that scared her, made her unsure if those were appropriate things to say or think.

But she had a girl to cheer up, and a long silence would surely be the worst outcome now that she's invited Phi for a chat. So, she turned back to Phi with a radiant smile and reached out to gently place her hands on the girl's shoulder before speaking up.

"I understand the way you feel Phi, more than you can imagine. So few trust or want to spend their time with someone like me, afraid that I'm out to get them due to the reputation of aliens in the Ascendancy. Even the reputation of my own species, something I find is... quite fitting, but ultimately misguided. But in the end, it means I don't get to make a lot of friends before moving on. Though a part of me wonders if I could even be friends the people I meet." Amy explained quietly, gently gripping Phi's shoulder for a moment as she offered a warm smile, but her eyes seemed dull as she stared far past Phi's eyes and into the vastness of space around their ship. "But then I found you guys! We've not know each other for long at all, yet here you are talking to me about your feelings! Could you imagine if I kept my distance and didn't talk to anyone?" Amy asked and couldn't help but chuckle at that idea. It seemed she was back after that long pondering, her vibrant smile once more directed at Phi instead of some imaginary person Amy was trying to convince of her ways. With a giggle she stood up from the bed and hugged the seal plushie to her chest, spinning around in the little open area of the room with a happy sigh as she looked up at the ceiling light as if staring into a bright sun, and she could swear she felt it's warm rays upon her skin. "All these wonderful and unique people in one place, ready to teach me so much about themselves and their culture while we talk and have fun together! I couldn't be more happy even if someone gave me all the answers to my sea of questions and mysteries! You know why Phi?" Amy asked with a happy smile as she turned towards Phi and walked over to the bed, crouching down in front of the girl and gently grabbing on of her arms before pushing the plushie into it with a smile while her eyes stared into the girl's.

"Because of the experiences we share together. Of moments like this, when I feel like I have people I can actually reach out and touch, without them keeping their distance from me, or without me worrying if they will return the extended hand!" Slowly Amy reached out to gently touch and stroke Phi's cheek in a motherly way while her eyes scanned the girl's face for her reactions. "To feel like I have a family once again. A family I've yet to learn about, but one I can already tell will be more than what I could ever hope for. And you know Phi, you don't get that every day. Believe the words of someone who has been travelling on their own for a very long time now. So..." Amy shifted and turned on her heels, quickly hopping back on the bed as she curled one arm around Phi to hold her close while she extended her other hand, her fingers weaving an intricate illusion of a picture right before their eyes, the room around them slowly turning into the open air of a field on a sunny planet, the rest of the crew sitting just an arm's length away in front of them, smiles on all their faces as they talked and made jokes with each other that only they could understand. "Treasure the moment while it lasts. As sad as the truth is, it might be too late to use the chance if you take too long to open up and embrace the people around you. But if you treasure them and retain their memories, even if they are gone, they will still be with you forever. Right there~" Amy explained with a soft chuckle as she reached down to gently place her hand over Phi's heart and then smile while looking into the girl's eyes. Slowly the illusion faded away as she pulled back with a warm smile on her face and placed her hand sin her lap while she nodded towards the seal plushie. "I think you have everything you need, right here in your hands and heart to make the first of these friends and family you can treasure for life. I believe in you, and you should believe in yourself too~"

@Jade Kiyo

Narvia arrived at the cargo hold and noticed Tarak, and she smiled and waved at him. If anything, it's always nice to see the older brother of the Star Marines. She still had much on her mind, especially what the Butcher had said to her all those years ago. It was a bit terrifying, but she needed to say it for someone to hear what she had to deal with. At least, she had friends and a teddy plushie to hug, but it would be one of those needed things, to say the least. ” W-What’cha doing in the Cargo hold Tarak? Want to help Ariel and me to cook some Greasy Kebabs? Unless you have something else to do… A-Also, are you allergic to peanuts or either the twins?” She questioned her face with a smile since the allergic question did pop in her head for Tarak, Iris, and Samuel. However, it was obvious she wanted to say something else, and she sighed heavily. It was like what Berkeley said scared her the most, and had to get it off her chest. ”U-Umm… H-How do you d-deal with t-threats to your family or friends, T-Tarak?” She questioned him since he had a definite better idea of dealing with those types of things.

It didn’t take her much time to remember why she was here, for it was to get ingredients, and now she knows where her gear is too for sleeping, that is. She walked over to some of the crates that held the meats, primarily. Her mind was on what type of meat to get, which she remembered the steak kebabs she made on the Dragon’s Claw was her favorite. She looked at the crate’s tag to see if it had steak on it, and it did, which; she pushed open the crate and took out the juiciest looking steaks she ever did see. It made her giggle at how juicy they looked. ” I-I got the meat, Ariel!” She exclaimed with a goofy look on her face. It was hard holding the steak with the teddy plushie; as long as she holds the steak close to her, it might not be that hard. She was also holding the teddy plushie pretty tightly too since she didn’t know what Tarak would say to her multiple questions. Insurmountable odds were against her about that war and everything that caused her to degrade herself to almost nothing slowly. If it weren’t for Tarak and Amy, she would’ve probably collapsed completely; it made her happy she had such good people to be by her side.

However, she reactivated her omnitool to check her timer and saw it was an hour less than previously. It seemed like that entire meeting took an entire hour to decide their destination, which felt a bit like time was flying by at an incredibly fast rate. There was only a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes left until she can see what her godfather sent to her. ” T-Thank you for your extra processing power, Ariel!” She exclaimed with a big smile on her face. It was going to be a tough time to read over what is on that mission parameter. If anything, she’s hopeful she will get some good news in the entire mission parameters.

---

---

Tarak had left Trajan's room and started his silent walk to the Cargo bay. His mind was calm as he started to tap open his forearm mounted Omni-tool that is connected to his padded bodysuit, as he started to key up and look up music. As he found a Collection of Music that he listened to many times before, but still thought was great. So with a small smile, he pressed play, yet no sound came out. No, the music started to play in his head. His spinal cybernetic connected to his brain stem and connects to his brain which allows him to link directly to his Omni tool and with special modifications, he is able to even link up to power armors to increase his combat effectiveness in them.

Once he found his music, he began his stroll down to the Cargo Hold. His mind was calm as he was just listening to music as he quietly started to open the door to the Twin's room to check on them. He saw Samuel fast asleep as Iris was awake and drawing on him. Tarak had a smile on his face as he slowly stepped away and allowed the door to quietly close. As he continued as he just looked around the area, not only getting to know the place but also where people decided to sleep for the night. As once he made a few mental notes, he started to finally stop making detours and get what he needs before he heads off to bed.

However, it seemed he was not the first to be down here. Tarak didn't take too much of a mind to it, he just deactivated the music from going into one of his ears as he was here with both Ariel Narvia. As he started to look around for his stuff as almost immediately on his entrance Narvia spoke to him about why he was here. Tarak listened to Narvia as he learned she was here to find things for making Kebabs, now with th4e mention of food, Tarak realizes he hasn't eaten, he hasn't felt hungry, yet he knew he should eat soon. Yet he still had to do things before he did anything else so he answered Narvia's first little set of questions with a smile, "Ah I was here to grab my things and transition them into my room. I wish I had the time to help you guys cook. But I do need to do some transitional stuff before I can relax. You know equipment can be finicky".

After that, Narvia asked about allergies the Twins' had, he thought as he checked his mental list and started to list them out, "Ah Allergies that the Twins' have, well Iris has no food allergies, Samuel has quite a few. Samuel can't have anything with peanuts, soy, shellfish, mustard, celery, and I think Sulphur Dioxide. If I remember it is a preservative for some dried fruits, meats and is present in a few other things like some alcohols. So if you can dodge those things he would appreciate it". As once Tarak came out of his mental list, he gave them a smile and thumbs up. As he started to collect his box or two of items as he throws them on top of each other and started to lift them with ease as he started to leave, yet noticed Narvia looked towards him with eyes that screamed wait. As he stopped and looked at her as it seemed she had something on her mind as she asked him a very interesting question.

Narvia asked Tarak something that he has known the answer to since he was a kid, she asked him what he does when someone threatens his family or friends. Tarak never had blood family, he had bonds with others he considered family, yet this answer was easy for him to respond to, yet he knew he shouldn't. Tarak looked to Narvia with a slightly saddened expression as he said to her, "Ah well…I…never had family…Like blood family. I know why you ask…honestly I am not the best to ask…I never really dealt with that…I think asking someone like Iris would be better…she probably dealt with this so it is better to ask her opinion, after all, she's been protected and has protected Samuel since they were kids".

Tarak said with a smile that told them he was sorry for not being of any help. Tarak knew his answer, yet he wished not to tell her. He knew Iris would have a better answer for Narvia, one that wasn't so…gruesome. As he took his things as he says to both Ariel and Narvia, "Well good night. I'll see you two in the morning". As Tarak began to leave, heading to his room to start putting things away and checking them in case they were messed up in the transition over.

---

It occurred to Phi that she had no idea exactly what race Amy was. She hadn't planned to pry or research the matter, instead feeling it was fine to just accept that small ignorance. More and more it seemed to her like what someone was couldn't hold a proverbial candle to who they were. However, Amy looked a little uncomfortable or disappointed maybe when talking about her race, which now made Phi a little curious. But she held the question in check. Reputations were funny things as even if completely inaccurate they all too often defined someone or at least colored the observer's otherwise unbiased opinion. Amy was Amy, so far as Phi could tell, and she rather liked it like that.

Truly, what other of her race could be Amy? None other. Everyone was generally unique in their own way but Amy especially was becoming something special in her eyes. With each moment, word, and gesture down to the light twitches of her ears she was proving rare among rarities. At least this is what Phi thought she saw and what she wanted to see. She wanted to believe she could still trust a few people in this universe.

"No. It's almost impossible to imagine you as a reclusive hermit." She agreed, joining her in the light-hearted laughter. She watched and smiled while Amy danced with the little seal, and wove her inspirational words together. No, it wasn't just a speech for Phi's benefit, Amy was opening up in response to her own apparent transparency. Granted Phi had still been hiding things and felt guilty under the shining light of Amy's honesty.

Unless she's actually-

No. No, I think I could tell by now if she wasn't really as she appears.

Oh yes, wise, grown up Phi is surely infallible.

The swirling undercurrent in her heart shifted, attracted to brief thoughts of doubt that she pushed away like always. Now wasn't the time, not when someone was pouring their own heart into trying to help just her. How long had it been since she could feel like this? Almost hopeful. Doubts or not she didn't want to do anything but bask in that warm sense of caring.

Though a little perplexed, she didn't resist the handoff of her handiwork back to her own hands. The bright eyed figure before her had more to say yet, and in Phi's experience most questions would be answered if she waited and listened. So she squeezed the imperfect but pleasantly soft stuffed seal in her lap, watching and listening. It brought a small sense of comfort she hadn't realized she needed. Indeed while the things said and the passion behind the words were beautiful and lifted her heart, a nagging familiarity with the experience tickled the back of her mind. Noticing it now she felt the emotion had a distinct flavor that was out of place, something she couldn't help but wonder at.

This.. it feels, what's the word?

A soft, almost loving touch on her cheek and the mention of family brought the image of a gentle, feminine face to her mind. It was not a face she could ever forget but it had been a long time since Phi had seen her own mother. With this image she knew at once the word she was searching for and her heart felt like it clenched painfully.

Bittersweet.

She clutched the seal more aggressively and almost bit her lip at her distressing inner landscape. But it seemed Amy's presence alone triggered her usual defenses, keeping visible signs of her troubles minimized. It was not even a conscious decision at this point though she knew she would probably go on hiding things given the choice. She had to wonder when her love of theatrics had been corrupted into a dependence on deception.

A man's face with cool blue eyes came to mind, a face that conveyed confidence and intelligence. A face that made that dark undercurrent swell and her teeth grit at the complex, conflicting feelings that followed. Fear was perhaps the strongest and most easily recognized but of what exactly remained unclear to an observer like Amy.

Whatever it was, that tangle of thorns was shattered by the precious image Amy created. Shocked by the sudden display of what was in Amy's heart, the driving force behind her words, Phi had no room left to be plagued by her own dark thoughts. The light from that scene forced the slowly awakening dragon back into slumber, becoming only a faint murmur once more. Eyes wide, Phi's hand had moved automatically to cover her open mouth. She was far from ignorant of illusions and how they worked, but she was utterly unprepared for such a surprise, or the way it was used in this moment.

Feeling the warmth of Amy's touch, Phi looked deeply into her eyes, taking in everything she had said and the heartfelt meaning behind it all. Biting back the pressure that threatened to break her carefully crafted armor, she swallowed hard. Now fighting for her composure which usually came easily, Phi was dismayed at a slight tremble that couldn't be repressed. Her throat felt stiff as if it didn't want words to pass through, but she forced herself to speak.

"I-I understand. You're.. right. So very right. It's quite the gift of insight, something special, amazing. I- th-thank you. Sorry, I'm stuttering like this, I just…. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure at first. People are often more than they appear and just meeting someone it can be hard to tell what's really inside their hearts. I've known too many people that… but you… you're different, aren't you?"

Stumbling over her thoughts and words so uncharacteristically Phi took a mental step back and tried to collect herself. It was probably a good idea to stop talking, come to think of it. Off balance as she was Phi didn't know where her thoughts were going or what she might say next. Yes, it was probably best to be quiet until she got herself under control again. Besides, she did have a delivery to make. Holding the seal tightly she rose to her feet to excuse herself.

Right. Time to escape before.. something happens.

"Thank you doesn't feel like quite enough. I didn't come here looking for comfort but…" Unable to find the right words to explain it she laughed at herself, before smiling at Amy without anything but gratitude to be seen. She was still shaking, her self control showing cracks where there were none before, but where words alone failed that smile spoke for her.

@6slyboy6

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---

Millard had spent the entire time, the briefing was being held inspecting each person. He was not impressed, sure many of them were soldiers during the war, and each of them was some form of space wizard, however, none of that impressed him. They may have accomplished quite a few things during the war, yet he has little faith in their mental capacities. Sure some may be geniuses, yet they seem to be literal children with their actions. Millard didn't mind the slight playfulness, honestly, if they weren't playful at all, he thinks they would be extremely boring to him. Yet as he watches, each Star Marine had very little that showed their maturity. Some tried to feign maturity, yet others seemed to hold themselves differently. Not because of age, yet because of how they were brought up and what life threw at them. However, one stuck out like a sore thumb to him, Narvia. To Millard, Narvia is a liability rather than an asset. She at first seemed to be this young kind girl, yet on the simple remembrance that a damn lemon bar brought, she nearly broke down into a sobbing mess, needing multiple people to support her just to stop her from crying. Yes, they may be soldiers, yet this told him more than he needed to know: Some are truly kids.

Once the briefing was over, Millard just left, he needed a cigarette. Really, he needed more than that, he needed to get his mind off of things, because in honesty, he didn't find much to like about the kids. Was it unfair that he was bunching all the kids with the few things he saw? Yes. Does he care? No. One of them thought it was a good or proper thing to wish to stop him from smoking and Trajan from drinking, through taking their desired vice. Did Trajan need to stop before he hit the floor? Yes. Did that matter? No. Millard was more than willing to decide to not smoke in front of her, he just finds it annoying that Narvia girl also threw in that extra remark about smoking while crying, made him feel like she might have been fishing for some form of cutesy comfort, yet Millard won't hold that against her, he'll just have to make sure she takes extra care before she does something she will live to regret.

Millard made it to his room as he sat down and just leaned back in his chair as he looked at the ceiling as he left himself to his thoughts. He is trying to at least clear his pallet of what he saw today of the kids, maybe when he interacts with them in a one-on-one setting it will be different. Maybe today was a bad day, Millard doesn't know but he'll at least give it a shot, maybe he was just too moody today? Who knows? Yet immediately after some of these thoughts, he saw a large fellow walk in and set down some 'medication' for him and asked if he wished to party. Like any good soldier he said, "Hell yeah, I'd like to party".

Abaddon sat down on Millard's bed and started to infuse himself with the good old Rau've drugs. "Today was not the best day was it?" Once he got the use out of the needle he tossed it in a bag then threw it into the trash can.

Millard watched as Abaddon sat down and injected himself with what looked like some more of the Rau've stuff. Millard knew of this stuff because of Abaddon, as he asked if a Kaisoken could get high, and well other than magic, that was the literal only other thing known that can. As Abaddon threw a question out that made Millard lean back as he had the bottle of alcohol in his hand, "Not at all. It could have been better for sure". Millard takes a swig from the bottle as he continues, "On the same topic, how did you feel about the kids?" Millard wished to know Abaddon's opinion of the little super 'soldiers', maybe Abaddon saw something he didn't.

Abaddon had a feeling that it was going to be a drink out of the bottle night but at the start? He could tell that Millard was holding some judgments in him."Well, some are okay, some are damaged, some of them cry. Other than that, I was left with a mild distaste for them. I thought more of them would be more soldier-like. I have read a lot and describing some of them as Star Marines is truly a disservice to the Marines." Abaddon pulled out a very nice pack of cigarettes, "I brought you some more considering you were mugged by a little girl", Abaddon turned away to laugh a bit as that was funny as hell.

Millard listened to Abaddon as he described how he saw the children. Millard agreed with Abaddon on this one, Star Marines. Millard knew many Marines, these kids didn't even fit the bill for what a Marine is, well one of them was big enough to be mistaken as a Marine, yet he is the only one, the rest look like some kids who were thrust into combat. Millard took a breath as he is here to forget that, not keep harping over it, as he looked back to find Abaddon had produced a pack of cigarettes for him. He laughed as he said, "Yeah, she robbed me blind with that one. But at least some good came out of it". As he took one out as he started to smoke it as he continued, "You really do buy the good ones. I just stick to the cheap shit you can find on station". As he leaned back and started lean back in his chair as he said, "Well, we're here with them. I suppose to get to know them more closely would be easier than holding this slight taste in the mouth." As Millard looked towards Abaddon as he says, "Well, I hope they can be a help. I was wondering, who would be helpful to the jobs here? I hope one of them has healing magic". Millard lets his mind wander a little as he tries to figure out who had what magic.

"What can I say? The idea of buying cheap just feels wrong to me. If I can afford to buy rich then I do. Now why I'm buying things that I can't even try is a mystery to me as well." Millard's idea on how to deal with some of these negative ideas is to get to know them, "Maybe, I believe that some of them didn't get to show their maturity, some I am ready to be more disappointed as we get to know them. I will tell you that if Ariel steals my drugs I will have some words with her." It was a good question about their powers, "Except for the ones who straight up said their skills, you can make an assumption that one of the twins has a healing skill. Other than that, I have no clue. It's amazing how little you can tell sometimes, speaking from personal experience. Mirrorshard's magic would have been quite a fight for them." Abaddon laid back and rested his head on his hands, trying to not destroy Millard's pillow. "I really wanted to fight Mirrorshard! I feel like it's been ages since I had a decent fight. He may have at least stirred my spirit a little! But no, I sent him on a false mission. Well whatever, what's done is done." The drugs were hitting different today, maybe it's because he wanted to escape the den of emotions that was the meeting room, maybe it was him injecting more than usual, who knows?

"Eh it would make sense one of the twin kids would have it. They would probably want to look out for the other". Millard hoped Ariel wasn't their 'healer', or she will have to get over a lot of things fast, like his smoking. Millard listened, needing no need to talk, he hoped that what Abaddon said was true. Some of the kids being more mature than their introduction let on, hell, he was unable to see a few introduce themselves, so he was interested in those people, yet still, he had to just hope. As Abaddon spoke of Mirrodshard, Millard didn't leave the ship, because someone needed to keep the ship safe. And while that was happening he was straightening up his office. So Millard had no clue who this Mirrorshard was, nor his skill, so he asked Abaddon to enlighten him, "Huh, what could that Mirrorshard guy do? He seemed interesting at least".

Abaddon sat up, excited to talk about his student. Abbadon's voice was almost giddy in a way as he spoke of Mirrorshard "Well, first of all, it turns out my message is spreading. He had limbs and everything! Oh, how I wanted to test his mettle. But anyway, he was a swordsman, using his arm as the sword. But his magic was truly splendid, especially for how young he was. He was a bonafide mage slayer. If they would have fought him, I'm almost sure that they would have lost a great amount. I can only imagine him choking the last bit of life out of one of them, sucking every bit of mana. Oh, he was truly a monster in his own right. Not only was his magic superb, but I could also tell from his structure he was truly durable, I'm not sure normal explosives would be enough to damage him. You would need magic. But then that is where he would act as a mirror returning everything beautifully to the owner." Abaddon realized he was getting carried away. He gave a cough, "Anyway, he would have been a very difficult fight."

"Ah I see. Sounds like a real pain in the ass". Millard said once Abaddon finished his loving remarks of Mirrorshard. As Millard thought about what the kids came in carrying, most of them had very few weapons with them, most of them must have been heavily magic reliant, not bad, yet in situations like this, that is a death sentence. But Millard makes the remark afterward as he says, "Hmm, must have been a great feeling for you. To know such a great student had sought you. I was wondering though, how old is the boy?" Millard was interested because if he was younger then he would be slightly less dangerous as he would be inexperienced still.

"Mirrorshard is only past his first century. He is technically an adult but compared to me and many other Kaisoken, he is still a child. I'm happy to guide the youth though, I see it as a noble duty for the old to teach the young. Even if leading them to their destiny ends up cutting your own short. However, many Kaisoken of my age or less try to preserve the world they grew in, hampering the previous generations", Abbadon's tone had shifted to one of self-reflection, "I have seen many passionate men and women have their ambition snuffed out by our unchanging ways. I believe if I can create a path for change, whether for my beliefs or not, then maybe I can grow old as well."

"Ah, a beautiful dream. One I hold similar sentiments to". Millard was in a bit of contemplation as he thought about why he was here. Then not too long after he thought about really anything else, as he said as he just remembered, "Ah fuck. The kids are at that age. I think I need to deal with them before they run off and do something they live to regret." He thought about it, but as he stood up he felt the alcohol hit him as he then said, "Ahh, nope, I'll leave that for tomorrow", as he sits back down and leans back, knowing this will probably be where he sleeps for the night.

Abaddon could see how hammered Millard was, it might be best to put the doctor to sleep, any more and he might puke. Abaddon grabbed the drugs and put them in his bag, leaving the weed as it was legal. He now pulled the lemon bars out and set them in front of the doctor "I'm going to get you some actual food. Drink some water while I'm gone." With that Abaddon went out of the room and headed to the kitchen to procure something to keep a hole out of Millard's stomach.

Millard watches as Abaddon gets up and starts cleaning things up. Millard thought it was fair, he felt the drunkenness in his legs as Abaddon leaves him some snacks to hold him over until he comes back. Millard waves to Abaddon as he says, "Thank you, I'll make sure to stay put". Once he leaves, Millard opens up his minifridge to grab one of his many water bottles, as he drinks it quickly and starts munching on the Lemon Bars as he waits, thinking how he will talk to the kids about the more non-pg things couples can do.

Once Abaddon gets back, Millard eats for a bit before he heads off to bed. Knowing someone might want to ruin his sleep by waking him up because of their wish to see him be a 'Good' Doctor. All while Abaddon leaves to start working more on the ship, there was still quite a bit to be done before he could start to rest.

Letter Bee GM Post

The next day, the Xuanzang took off from the Galactic Bazaar and into the Wormhole leading to the Garden Route, after which Natasha began using the ship’s FTL/Spacewarper drive to begin transit to Maiden's Reach. The crew of the Xuanzang thus had their first day and a half filled with more opportunities to connect with each other, get used to daily life aboard ship, and pay attention to each other’s issues and problems. Ashton and Flame helped out around the ship as much as they could, while Natasha grew used to the presence of children aboard her craft.

But this idyll ended in the middle of the second day, when the Xuanzang finally emerged in Maiden’s Reach’s orbit… And found themselves in the middle of a large battle between two bona fide fleets, one of them unmistakably the latest models of Ascendancy warship, while the second was more ambiguous - They were composed of ragged, obsolete, Ascendancy military craft and models which can be most easily described as ‘pirate’. The latter seemed to outnumber the former, but there was no sign of either side giving way.

Nevertheless, this was a nightmare for the Xuanzang, which will have to go through this fleet battle to get to their destination...

------

((Alexander’s Battle Scene - Collab between Letter Bee, Conscripts, and Landaus Five-One.))

---

It's choreographed chaos.

Once the sensors and radars had detected ships moving in from the north, the mission was on. Ship crews scattered to their stations. From outside glance it might seem like a horror scenario from a disaster movie, but in fact everybody knew what they were supposed to do, where they were supposed to go and where everybody else was supposed to go. From the lowest of soldiers, to the highest of officers were aware of this.

"The innermost observatory ships also detect ships incoming. 14 ships in total, consistent with other reports."

"They're going to attack soon. It's time we move out." Captain Carina, speaking from the bridge, standing next to her Grand Admiral, addressed the ship navigators. "Move to point A4. We will rendezvous with the Basilone and their group."

This shall create a wall to box the enemies in from behind. Not exactly revolutionary, but it would serve them well here. They would not expect a column of military-grade warships coming at them from the back.

"Looks like they did team-up with poachers." Last time Alexander knew, they only had 10 ships. They either built all 4 ships by themselves using wildly unknown means, or they teamed up with local pirates, whose ships specification had already been noted in local government's database, and they all matched the 4 additional ships detected. "Seems like we'll be cleaning up two messes in one go."

14 enemy ships to be destroyed. He only had 9 on his side, but at his disposal were the air capability exceeding a purpose-built carrier. And that was only operating at half-capacity. He wasn't given all the spacecraft he requested yet. Its striking power would exceed all carriers in existence once it's finished, but spare funding was going into the so-called President's Plan instead. He didn't know what sort of plan that was, since he wasn't close enough to the higher-ups for it. It would surprise him if anything useful came from it. Last time his grand plan was given the greenlight, Alexander had a bunch of angsty teens to babysit.

'I haven't done this in a while.' All 14 enemy ships on the other hand were merely corvettes and light cruisers, with only two heavy cruisers in the mix, but the numerity still gave that sense of battle that he was familiar with. Standing on the bridge, commanding the battle personally, watching as the ships go at one another in a malicious firefight death battle, and most importantly, feeling that sense of danger around him, the sense that he could very well go down with the ship if he wasn't careful. And it actually felt good. His mother did say he is audacious sometimes.

"All squadrons have reported in sir." In record time. It might still be early, but the Deilos fleet had already reached the outer parameter. Their attack would begin soon. The sooner the spacecrafts could be launched the better.

"Launch the first wave." Firm and decisively, Alexander passed the order.

"Roger! Squadron 113, 114, 115, 116, 238, 376 and 381. Take off when ready and proceed to your targets."

---

Upon the order, two large doors slid up at the mid-area of the supercarrier, a door on each side of the ship. From within the door, sixteen state-of-the-art starfighters came to life. Eight were attached to the floor of the hangar in double columns looking towards the exit, while eight were strapped to the ceiling in the same fashion. Their pilots had just gone through a life system check, and now they are ensuring their starfighters are well-strapped to this mechanical lock on the white lines that lined the two columns.

The light in front of the door flashed green. The signal prompted the first four starfighter pilots of the column to turn up their engines. At the same time, the locks that bolted the fighters to the floor and ceiling accelerated, thrusting the vehicles along the white lines. Once they were close to the door, the locks stopped and detached the departed starfighters, now free to roam the vacuum of space. The light switched to red before switching back to green moments later. Twelve more fighters were catapulted within the next 15 seconds, making for a full squadron.

“Squadron 113, maintaining present course!”

“Squadron 114, standing by for next instructions, over.”

The other side of the ship also completed their takeoff flawlessly. That is now two full squadrons in motions. Within the next two minutes, two more squadrons joined courses, repeating until all seven squadrons were out in space, charging toward the targets.

---

By the time the Xuanzang noticed a sleek stingray-looking spacecraft lurking around in the area nearby, they would find all their communication machines, including radars and Omni-tools with communication features unable to work properly. Signals become weak to the point that connections are almost impossible.


Then, coming in from field of vision, 16 starfighters were flying toward the ship in tight formations. Almost immediately after, another 16 appeared, in the same formation. Then another 12, this time bombers instead of fighters. While there are no strangers among the former Ascendancy turned-rebels of the sight of military spaceplanes, their formation and the numerity at this point was something they would have rarely seen. They did not seem to notice the Xuanzang’s presence, however.

Passing by the Xuanzang, the fighter formation split in half, with one squadron moving sharply bending right to the side of the fleet while the other flying up while gliding a little bit left, heading straight for the center. Once they emerged into vision range of the targeted ships, the two only heavy cruisers of the Ascendancy remnants, they split in half again, with eight attacking each target. Gunners on the ships, having noticed starfighters coming from behind, panicked for anti-starfighter guns, but by now it is far too late. The front four fighters wheeled sharply towards the ship’s broadside. Before the ship guns could open fire, all four unleashed a hailstorm of a total 80 rockets, covering the entire midsection of the ship in explosions and instantly demolishing over half of their shield capacity.

Before the ship crews could process what unearthly terror had unfolded onto them, the second strike of another four starfighters poured in, decimating all shielding capacity in the section, and pulverizing several anti-starfighter batteries. However, the true nightmare were the bombers following in hot on their tails. With shields down and confused crews, the bombers had an easy time lining up their drop, even when some anti-starfighter batteries finally came online. The proton bombs tore a huge gape in the heavy cruiser, killing everyone close by and sucking the poor fools in nearby quarters out to space. In a span of less than a minute, the heavy cruiser had been crippled.

Having delivered their payload, the planes sped up, dove beneath the remnants until they were out of range of the fleet before turning back for their home carrier. The other half of the squadron had less success with the other heavy cruiser, having a couple of their bombs hitting the heavily armored turrets, but they nonetheless damaged a few thrusters, leaving the ship in a difficult situation. The other starfighter squadron that had veered to the side also performed their attack run, crippling a corvette at the side and incapacitating another ship's batteries.. Anti-starfighter fire had now intensified, but the lack of communication between ships meant focused fire between ships was impossible. Several of Alexander’s starfighters were damaged, but all managed to slip back to the carrier.

Meanwhile, on the Heavy Cruiser, Akriem’s Razor, flagship of the ragtag fleet of ‘Deilos.’ The Captain of the Ship, is Elaine Solarie Jensen the younger sister to Berkeley. She noticed everyone on the blasted ship is terrified of the outcome of running into Alexander Kherol of all people. ”Good bloody lord, can you stop being such idiots. All day I have to deal with this. I know you all would want to die like my cowardly older brother who killed himself during the Battle of Proxima. But you all rallied around me because of the reason I am a Jensen.” She spoke holding her hand to her forehead. As well, she sighed since they couldn’t really negotiate with Alexander Kherol even if they tried because of how bloody the 11th Fleet was. If anything, it would be better to die glorious than die like her brother’s cowardice. It annoyed her how pathetic her crew is compared to the great Berkeley’s Butchers of old. ”How much can we maneuver to give that bastard what for? Also, fire on anything that moves. I don’t care if it is a civilian ship, all that matters is it’s destroyed.” She spoke with an highly annoyed look on her face.

The Navigators look at their captain, who was a scary woman compared to others. “We can still move much faster than the other Heavy Cruiser. But these Carrier tactics are going to get us sooner before we can get into range.” One of the navigators said, nervously.

Elaine sighed at hearing that the sister ship to the Akriem’s Razor is badly damaged, but it cannot be helped. Since they can’t really communicate with their ships because of the blasted ECM. ”Ah, at least some good news to the bad. Move as fast as possible to reach where the fighters came from then.” She spoke with a slight annoyance in her voice. The Arkiem’s Razor started to move away from the formation at the fastest possible speed, since it’s better to close the distance to get their main guns firing. The Reckless Nature of this charge felt a bit insane to say the least, since they would be sitting ducks nonetheless with fighters and bombers taking them out one at a time.

For the Xuanzang, their danger was yet to pass, as yet another 44 planes would appear in the same fashion ten minutes afterward. They were to attack in a different vector from the last, but coincidentally also in the direction of the Star Marines.

Natasha was not pleased when the ECM began interfering with internal comms, but had managed to send a hurried message to the crew (including Star Marines) saying, Bridge. Now! This ought to call them and the crew to where she needed to assign them their duties now that she can’t just instantly message them. To Avelyn, she gave her first orders, “Remember what you said about heating up scrap metal and venting it to confuse thermals? Well, begin doing it - We’re going to be needing a surprise. Phi, Trajen, Flame and Ashton, man the ship’s guns - We have four turrets secretly tucked underneath the ship’s surface. Laurey, Samuel, try and get communications working. Amy, your ability to tap into the minds of people who can hear you… Does it work through speakers?”

Ashton interrupted, “I know the rules of enchantment, Ma’am - Even if it normally won’t, by having Iris enchant our communications devices once Laurey and Samuel get it working, we can temporarily transmit a mental suggestion to the people in the starfighters to not notice us or let us go. It’ll require a lot of magical energy, though, but Samuel and Iris are literally magically stronger together. And of course, Samuel himself can control electromagnetic forces, which would actually make us resistant to the electronic countermeasures that the starfighters are using.”

Flame added, “I have a second plan to buy us more time - Ariel, you can talk to Ghosts, right? Find a recently deceased spirit and find out what this battle is about. If I’m right and the Ascendancy forces are commanded by ー”

“It’s Kherol,” Natasha said. “No one is as fond of starfighters or as good at using him as he is. I dunno the opposing side, though.”

Ashton nodded and said, “Ariel, can you find out who Kherol is opposing and which of their two Heavy Cruisers are their flagship? If they are ‘relatively innocent victims and potential allies’, I have a plan. If they are worse than Kherol, however, I have another plan. Either way, I will need Finbarr, Tarak, Nero and Mr. Abbadon.”

Narvia arrived at the bridge, like everyone else, which was in a bit of shock to hear Kherol’s name. One of the people, who her godfather respected the most, which seems to be fighting remnants. However, she remembered a specific thing from her godfather’s letter that was inside of deciphering her omnitool. It talked about Berkeley’s Butchers remnants, other things, but specifically that their old leader Berkeley R. Jensen is dead. However, she wouldn’t really know who would be leading them now after the Battle of Proxima. She decided to interrupt what was going on, by speaking up. ”U-Umm.. T-Those ’remnants’ are from Berkeley’s Butchers, the 11th Fleet. A-At least, Berkeley is dead, he killed himself at Proxima. D-Don’t like the fact he still has soldiers loyal to him after all this time though… I have no clue who could be leading them now… but no one is good in that fleet that Alexander Kherol is fighting. If you are wondering how I-I know that… is because of the Decipher completed on that O-Operation that Nikolas’ gave me.” She spoke with an inclination of fear in her voice because being reminded of Berkeley or anyone in his fleet is terrible. Some relief was in her voice too since the one who led them is dead at his own hands. However, these plans were very interesting and it would be nice to get rid of the fear in her heart. ”I-I will help you in whatever mission against Berkeley’s Remnants, I want to no longer feel afraid any longer…” She spoke with resolve in her voice.

Natasha looked at Ashton and said, “What plans would those be, literal genius?”

The boy continued, “We will put up a distress beacon to mark us as neutrals - Say we’re a trade ship who failed to get the memo too late and flew into Maiden's Reach by sheer coincidence. We will then ‘accidentally’ fly close to the Berkeley Remnants’ flagship’s bridge, then have Finbarr, Tarak, Nero, Mr. Abbadon, and Narvia too, because of her revelation, portal in and attack.”

He then took a deep breath, “Now, the next question is: Why would we ever want to help Kherol, and by extension, the Ascendancy? Simple: To test our strength against weaker opponents before taking on the big ones. If we cannot even beat the people Kherol is curb stomping, then we definitely cannot beat the Ascendancy.”

Natasha nodded at that and said, “We’ll do our plans in parallel, then. Samuel and Iris, begin using your control of electromagnetics and enchantments right away in tandem with Laurey to get comms working. Those assigned to the turrets, go to them at once. Ariel, begin the seance while Fin, Tarak, Nero, Narvia and Abbadon, prepare for a boarding action - As for Avelyn, she’s to heat up scrap metal and superheat it in preparation for venting just in case we need that distraction after all.”

She then turned to Ariel, “Do a seance anyway - We’re still going to need information on the Ascendancy that only Berserkerley and Kherol’s officers would know. Then give us a full report of everything you find.”

Narvia nodded towards Natasha, she wanted badly to get rid of the agony of fear from what Berkeley said all those years ago to her. When he was beating her for being a child and using her magic to try it out. ”T-That nickname fits what Berkeley was… a monster.” She spoke in agreement to being one of the ones who will defeat her demons. This will be one of the hardest things she will have to deal with, to end the Butchers once and for all.

Upon returning to her new abode, she spied foreign thoughts in a neighboring room. Only for as long as it took to identify whom they belonged to, which wasn’t long because it was Amy. End of the corridor on the left, checks out. Going by what she could gather about the walking good mood dispenser from their brief encounter today, her mind was most likely going to be filled with pixie whistles and rainbow vomiting unicorns, so Avelyn counted herself lucky. She could’ve had Navi or Nero for neighbors. ‘Sweet’ kind of broken and ‘Holy shit’ kind of broken. Yes, this was a victory.

Avelyn left her room and crossed the corridor to Amy’s door, about to press the ‘request entry’ button when she heard voices from the inside. The beauty of youth was that you had time to spare. Returning back to her room, Avelyn lay back down, scrolling through the textbooks she had saved on her Omni-tool. Physics, history, economy… Arithmetic. She groaned. Last opened eight months ago, at the insistence of an elderly Rau’ve. The sacrifices one must make to further their understanding of their powers. Resigned to the following minutes being spent struggling to make heads or tails of the equations, she hoped whoever was currently in Amy’s room would hurry up. Wasn’t math supposed to have numbers, not letters? Not two minutes later, she fell asleep like a log.

---

The wake-up call was a harsh mixture of people’s thoughts and her Omni-tool whining through her right ear straight into her mind, indicating a received message. ’Eh… ”Bridge. Now!” Did I oversleep?’. The message fortunately identified the entire crew as recipients. Sealing her brain from others, she was up in what she humbly considered to be record time, though she had the unfair advantage of sleeping in her boots… and everything else. Ah, they were going into a fight, who cares she looked like she got chewed up by a cow. At least orders were simple enough. For now. No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy, much less multiple things being done at the same time. “Of course I remember.” Avelyn tapped her temple with her finger in response to Natasha, wearing a cocky smirk, “The day I forget something, worry.”

As she was leaving the bridge, Avelyn walked past Amy, briefly touching her hand as she did to share a memory of something she thought of on the way to the bridge, unaware of Amy’s exceptional willpower. Should she get through, the shared memory itself would fade away faster than a regular human could even notice it, but it would linger long enough for Amy’s brain to remember the words it contained, effectively passing a message. “Meant to pop in yesterday and warn you that a mind reader has taken up residence in the room across the hall from yours. Normally I keep people out but I can’t do that when I’m trying to sleep, so don’t think private thoughts in the evening, and if you get fucked up nightmares I’d like to know in advance.” The memory of Avelyn’s voice cautioned in a friendly manner, “Or just say ‘Nay.’ and I’ll grab a blanket and set up in the cargo bay. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Reaching the cargo bay, Avelyn put on some music and started going through the bay in a lawnmower pattern, hurling suitable pieces of material near one of the airlocks. ’Hope Kherol didn’t pull some super precise gravimetric or magic detectors out of his arse in the year we were gone, else we might as well be sending him our coordinates.’. In a few minutes, she assembled a decent pile of scrap metal, empty boxes and even included the forklift, saving it for the last decoy. ’Eh, screw it, Most of what it can do, I can do better.’. She divided the pile into six smaller ones, seven including the forklift, and banded them together with a roll of steel straps she found. The preparations took a few minutes, and in about fifteen seconds, she had the first bundle of scrap glowing faint red, indicating about 500 degrees celsius, more or less the temperature of starship radiators under normal running conditions. “Cap, on the slim chance comms are up and you can hear this, I’ve got seven decoys and one primed to go. Expect about fifteen seconds to get one up to temp, so if you want them all going at once, now would be the time to tell me.” She was reasonably certain she could keep reheating them once they were all glowing hot if the need arose, and in the meantime busied herself with familiarizing herself with the airlock controls and trying to straighten out her jacket a little.

Before Arrival at Maiden's Reach

Of course, the thing about Nero was that he was the genuinely sneaky one. And so, when the prosthetic girl was just a bit distracted by having been given information to ponder over, he found a shadow to slip into and...disappeared. No trace of him. The magic gave him proper levels of stealth in darkness, and he'd head off once the girl had gone, chuckling to himself while in the shadows that concealed both sound and visual trace of him. From there, he'd basically show up at the kitchen to make like a Ginsu World Class and then leave the rest of the actual cooking to the others as he went to his room and basically hit the sack.

Time passed...

After Arrival at Maiden's Reach

...and on the second day-

Bridge! Now!



-a gratuitous space battle happened?! What the effing fuck?! There was suppose to be increased security, a blockade! Who the hell ordered the war back in circulation? Oh, there was gonna be hell to pay... Then again, Nero DID want a little more action, as it had been peaceful...but dull around here. Well, wasn't that one of the reasons for him voting the short route? Uhh...maaaybe. Anyway, the good news - or whatever you wanna call it - was that someone was duking it out with the Ascendancy here, which meant it was time to go get their hands dirty. While Nero could do little more than magically give their ship cannons a bit of a boost while here, suggestions of sending him and a few others over to a ship were being made.

"And that's my cue. How do you want 'em done? I was thinkin', given the circumstances, that quick-an'-dirty would do. Too much mayhem right now to do it quietly on a ship at war."

The surprise here came in the form of Narvia revealing that she knew what the hell was going on before Ariel could call up a few ghosts. Apparently, dear old dragon-pops had sent that encrypted message before to warn her about Berkeley's Butchers, a group of right bastards that she obviously had history with, enough to want 'em dead. Sounded good. Even better was Flame cooking up a deception to get them close enough for Fin to portal them in and get the party started. It was a hella-good thing that Nero had geared up already. However, that thought from before niggled at him now and he got Natasha's attention.

"I can put a little pep in your ship cannons, buuut I think I gotta be around 'em to make the spell work. Ya got any problems with that? Won't take long, and then you get surprisingly-good guns...for a while."

Finbarr had been sleeping well during the transit from the Galactic Bazaar to Maiden's Reach. He rarely came out of the room, going outside mostly to eat and maybe socialize a bit. He wanted to conserve his energy as much as he could for the upcoming fights in the weeks and months ahead; tearing open holes in time and space were one of the most taxing things anyone could do, as that is essentially replicating what a hyperdrive does, but in a smaller scale. He sometimes wondered he got these kinds of abilities from the Kaisoken dust during the experiments; he had always been good at pretending he was someone else, being another character entirely. Finbarr had a good shot at the theater club back then; the directors and screenwriters adored him, and were quite ready to recommend him to the big studios. And then... it happened, and those dreams of being seen on the screen were gone. Now he's a portal chucking, shapeshifting, laser blasting mage that was accompanying his friends in a mission of vengeance. He had always been a kind soul, but now, he is going to help make a brave new universe. Blood would be shed, if it must.

It was a new day, and they had just reached Maiden's Reach. Unfortunately enough, there was a whole battle in there. Ashton proposed that he he in a strike team against the flagship of the rogue fleet, which Finbarr nodded at in agreement. "The thing has windows, so I can get us in there, ni problem. The helmsman will just have to make sure that we're near enough, or else I won't be able to reach."



A day had passed since they had left the Galactic Bazaar. Through some twist of fate, Trajan had met Tarak again, after so many years. All this time, he had drinking his frustrations and fears away, and now... well, someone from his past had seemingly come back to life. He still couldn't believe it, even if he had held Tarak in his arms after a decade and a half. Who would have thought that the kid that he used to watch in the orphanage was now a big man with muscles large enough to crack someone's skull, anyway?

After their meeting, Trajan had gotten over his hangover, wearing off by the next morning. While a little incoherent, he was still one of the best shots in the ship, and once Natasha had ordered them to man the guns, he rushed towards his station, taking his place at his favorite turret. Now, they wait...

---

_{Location: The Bridge
Interaction: @6slyboy6 & @jdh97}

---

The morning on the Xuanzang greeted the twins with a chilled room that had them bundling under their blanket for more warmth. A low consistent hum from the vents gave the room its ambiance. Soon the alarm Samuel set the night prior would ring out to wake him from his stupor. This day would be their first as Moonstrike operatives.

---

Samuel awoke just as planned with the alarm, as his day is calm, he traveled around the ship to find who and what needed help with. So he took to walking around and lending a hand when he could. Talking to those around the ship, and really using this time to just relax. His time here was nothing special, but it was very calm, as he took the time to think of the different situations they could get into when they reach the planet Plenty. Mattering on how fast they are they could be in and out within a quick time, yet Samuel doesn't feel like life would make it that easy. But never wishing to put himself down, he doesn't think about it, all he does is go and help those who need it and talk to people, as his skills are not really needed at the moment.

Iris had overslept, missing the alarm entirely. However, the day seemed to be calm, requiring little haste. In her dreams, Iris figured out what she could do with her magic. Her healing magic and practice with a medical kit should come in handy for the onboard doctor. Iris headed over to the medical bay after eating breakfast. She explained to Dr. Millard about her magic and her other medical-related skills. Dr. Millard mentioned something of how to take advantage of it but that would take a few days to set up. Until it was set up Iris would just have to manually walk around the ship and see people be effective with her magic. She made small talk with the crew and spent some time familiarizing herself with the ship. She took time during her lunch to start sketching some of her favorite designs she drew on Samuel last night.

---

The next day however was very different from the first, as among the relaxing times had during the first day was immediately interrupted by an abrupt stop.

Samuel didn't notice at first the problem, as he was assuming there would be a stop in the warp jumps, so when it happened he was going about his normal business, yet then he heard over the comms Natasha yell for them all to head for the bridge. Samuel was immediately sent into red alert as he sprinted over to the Bridge. As he began to look around for Iris to make sure she is alright, he didn't feel any shakes in the ship, yet he wasn't sure what was happening.

Iris was unaware of the upcoming battle until Natasha blasted over the intercom to head over to the bridge. Iris could assume it was a battle considering the intensity of her voice. Iris sprinted to the bridge to get a full understanding of what was going on. On her way there, Iris bit her bottom lip to send a signal to Samuel she was okay. Once she got to the bridge she saw Natasha and Samuel along with some of the other crewmates. Iris jogged to get over to Samuel and looked towards Natasha, "What's going on captain and what can I do?" Iris was holding on to Samuel's hand, not out of nervousness but to be ready for any magic she had to do.

Samuel noticed the bit lip and immediately did the same on his top lip as once he saw her come in he met up with her grabbed onto her hand as he waited for orders. Samuel began listening to Natasha and Ashton, as they began to figure out a game plan to get communications back online. As he took a second to compose his thoughts on how to counteract the Electro-Magnetic Currents he pulled Iris along as he headed over to the Communication systems. Samuel was slightly nervous, as he knew this was a pretty bad situation yet he steeled his resolve quickly as he pulled out a chair and sat down. He looked towards Iris as he said, "Hey Iris sit in my lap, It would make this easier". As he patted his lap preparing his magic and readying his self to counteract the multiple different vectors the EM Currents are coming from.

Iris listened to suggestions and orders. Iris has a head nod to Natasha and Ashton, confirming she could do this. Hell, she could know she could do it without Samuel but having him there would really reduce the strain just in case she had to break open a ship's bridge. Samuel pulled her to one of the communication terminals. She was ready to do this. Then Samuel offered her a comfy seat, "Don't mind if I do", as she jumps onto his lap. Iris then announced, "Ready to go when you are Amy!" Iris was plenty calm and she hoped her steadiness would help out some of the more nervous crew members.

Samuel put his arms around Iris and holds her as he began to use his intimate knowledge of electromagnetic forces to begin to trace it along the ship. Sure the ship may be able to withstand it, yet with two very similar forces coming from within and without, it makes damn sure it definitely felt it. So to avoid this, Samuel is slowly letting the magic seep into the hull as he then began intensifying it so he can allow Laurey to actually work on the comms. As once he feels confident in his magic is working he looks towards Iris as he says to her "Okay, I think it's your turn. I've negated the EM Currents from interfering with our tech". As he begins to cuddle into Iris more, as he is now keeping constant thought on his magic, so to hold he at least lets him focus easier.

A young girl watches the transport leave until long past when the after-images of its thrusters fade to nothing. Ghosts of ghosts. She does not cry now. Behind her a gate stretches high, higher and high, as if to deny her from Heaven itself. She shivers and wonders at when it got so cold.

In the prismatic forests on Maiden’s Reach a monohorn drinks in the moons with its mirror-eyes. It cannot know that in less than a week starships will arrive and tear down the night sky. It will never see it, either. A glass lion shreds its throat and it’s dead before it hits the ground. The lion laps up blood dyed silver by the moon.

In a satellite orbiting Terra a computer system wheezes, coughs its last bit, and dies. It’s a ternary system, the back-up of a back-up. It’s cold in space and so far from anything. So far from home. Even if somebody could come up, they wouldn’t notice that the system was dead; it’s the back-up of a back-up. The satellite continues to orbit.

On the floor of the Xuanzang’s medical bay Laurey Karlin convulses. She has just left Nero with a handful of choice words, only noticing his vanishing act on a semi-cognisant level. For close to a minute her body shakes and her face rocks against the floor. When it stops at first she is confused, and then the pain wakes too. Steaming vomit chokes her senses, her throat raw, nose whistling and burning as chunks of curry seep out. She does not cry now.

---

Laurey is in her workshop, interfacing with a roomba. The procedures are dusty, and when she shifts them round it sends sneezes through the system. It makes the process slow. There are only two more robots left to work on, stacked inactive on another workbench, whilst the one in front of her has its guts splayed and tacked into various devices. In space it's about efficiency, not just in cleaning, but in making use of what you have. Hence the security subroutines Laurey was also crafting for each roomba.

She has not told anyone about her seizure.

The mood-adaptive music is quiet, close to monotonic, as the weak AI shapes it into an ambient sound that smooths away the edges of the world and allows her to sink deeper into her focus.

Bridge. Now!

The music stutters then stops. The muted ring of footfalls and a deeper bass drumming bring her back. She scrambles to the bridge.

Through the viewport it is chaos. The stars themselves seem to burst. Laurey looks away fast.

The plan itself is equally shambolic. Thought up fast and full of flaws, but any action is better than no action. Most of the time. What Ashton proposes seems close to suicide, and Natasha goes along with it! Laurey’s no soldier; this is too close to death, it’s decaying musk crawling down her neck. But to fight seems futile. They are outnumbered, in guns, ships, and manpower, taking on unnecessary risk against a foe who would either be dead or limping from its wounds very soon, if the flash of the battle Laurey had glimpsed was anything to go by. It just seems so stupid! So -

The world fuzzes into static, and when Laurey comes to she is slouched in a chair, and Samuel is telling her something. A slice of time taken cleanly from her brain. She looks over and stares blankly, then her mind catches up.

“Right.”

She stumbles over to a mechanical interface for the comm systems. One of the screens shows a radar, fuzzy, but interpretable. The blobs show her the problem again, the sheer odds stacking against them. Her lips feel dry as she licks them. She sighs and turns to Natasha.

“Captain, do we really want to send up a beacon and paint a target on ourselves? We could just get out of here, let them kill each other. I don’t care if one of these kids is worth ten men, or even a hundred in a fight, if we get blasted out of space then they’ll die as well as one.”