Another engagement where all Avelyn had to do was wait it out. This rebellion stuff really was easy. When word came that the fight was over, she moved the scrap bundles aside, hoping the captain wouldn’t mind the scorch marks on the floor and went to see how the boarding team had fared. Rather well it seemed, and they even managed to convince Kherol of all people they were still with the Ascendancy, or so it seemed. Subterfuge certainly got her seal of approval.

As did the battle plan, given that it was based on it. “Oh, this is good. We can show up, say nothing, look dangerous, grab Realist and scram. Perfect spook behavior and they won’t even question any lack of uniforms or standardized equipment. And if they don’t like it, intimidation is a thing.” Avelyn rubbed her hands, seemingly looking at another easy run and - unlike the last time - well rested and dressed for the job, and she even managed to pop into Millard’s office for a checkup and to warn him of the tech in her ears and eyes to make it easier for him if it came down to piecing her back together after something went awry. “Now, how much could go wrong?” She was somewhat familiar with this sort of work, having received some training on handling dissent should some soldiers oppose the ‘righteous cause’ masse. “If the blackout fails, I don’t mind talking holes in their heads to keep them distracted and hopefully friendly while the rest of you find our tin man.” Avelyn offered, feeling confident she could string together a line of believable enough bullshit to answer any probing questions the local mooks might have, “And if not, well, been a while since I maimed a bastard who actually deserved it.” she shrugged, leaning against the wall near the door and quietly humming a happy tune.

---

---

The fighting had finished, as Tarak watched the fighting unfold. He witnessed Abaddon's skill, Nero's deftness, yet when his gaze was cast upon Narvia and Finbarr, he was dumbstruck. He watched as they floundered about with the two of them, and got hurt in the process. Not just any simple wounds, Narvia had suffered immense 3rd-degree burns across 25% of her body. Honestly, if not healed in short order, she will die from the lack of water in her system. As his gaze turned to Finbarr who was almost toying with his opponents. Tarak was happy the helmet hid his face, honestly, he was disappointed, not at how they handled the fight, but how Narvia seemed to react to the whole thing.

Tarak looked away towards the door to see the Ascendancy come in and give them the news. 'That's good at least. They think we're with them'. As they traveled back, he was silent during the ride, it was nothing unusual, he just didn't want to talk after watching that shit show of a fight.

Back on the ship, he was given a once over by the Doctor before he was told to rest up. Even though he was more than combat-ready, yet Tarak knew the Doctor just wanted to make sure he was okay. So Tarak left to his room to rest, knowing the next stop is Plenty, unless Natasha wants to make any other detours for some godforsaken reason.



Tarak had re-armed and was ready to head down to retrieve their AI. Tarak had known a few AI in his time, many knew multiple emotions and felt real. So this was like busting out any other person to him. Tarak was ready to take actual lead again, as he was even given liberty to split up everyone into teams. He knows each of them well enough to get a basic understanding of who will work well together, so now he began to figure out what is the exact game plan. Were they charging in? Sneaking through? All that depended on what was there. However they had no clue what is down there, all they could be certain of was that if the Ascendancy has people on the ship then they would need to be wary. He built a game plan with this exact contingency in mind, as he slowly laid out the plan to the group.

"Alright everybody, listen up. We don't know what is down there, so we will go in with the idea that there will be Ascendancy inside, and we'll be working around them."

As he looks to Flame and Ashton as he continues with his plan, "We will not make a Communication blackout, Kherol knows we are here, and I know he isn't stupid enough to think we are just some random band of idiots who got lost in space for long. He might have even passed along that us Magic inclined kids are here and should be wary of them, so we will have to do this the old fashion way".

As Tarak looked back to everyone and started to point people out as he spoke, "Alright, so were are going to be splitting up into teams: Flame, Ashton, and Narvia will be team one of the infiltration group."

Tarak then turned his attention to the next group he has in mind, "Nero, Samuel, and Iris, you will be team 2 of the infiltration group. "

"The job you Six have is to enter from the top, with Iris' magic, as then you guys will be using stealth to find the Realist and get out as the decoy team goes in ."

As Tarak's eyes began to cast over the rest of the crew, "Myself, Trajan, and Avelyn will be Decoy 1. Our job, with Decoy 2, will be acting as support to those we find inside as we will be acting as a group who is meant to collect the Realist. Decoy 2 will consist of Finbarr, Laurey, and Millard. Fin I need you to age yourself up to blend in with us older looking people. And Laurey you will be acting as an engineer to make sure the Realist is intact. So brush up on your knowledge of AI".

After that, Tarak casts his eyes to the next group, the group who will be staying up on the ship, "Phi, Ariel, Amy, I need you three to act as support as you will try to find the communications room and reroute all comms to never leave this ship. You will then use what is left on the ship to tell us information you can find with the cameras, and any developments that are made."

As Tarak casts his eyes to the last of the crew, their Captain and Abaddon, "I assume you already know why you do not need for me to tell you what to do. You two will be on the ship because of precautions to keep the ship safe and secure"

As finally the plan is laid out in full bare. The Decoy teams will be sent in through the entrance to 'search' for Realist, and take them off of the Ascendancy Troops hands, as they will act as the distraction as the Infiltration teams will head in to find Realist. Each infiltration team is equipped with a Micro Electro Magnetic Current jammer, provided by Samuel & Iris through magic, which will be activated and deactivated when they are to take down someone. Once found, the Infiltration teams will head back outside, where they will wait for the Decoy teams.

The Decoy teams are meant to be there to distract the Ascendancy Troops, and if they get hostile, which they probably might, are meant to take them down quickly as the communications team will go and take control of the ship and all functions to help with the search and keep communications quiet.

After which, this is where we will use the Rebels to our advantage, we will send a message to them, to raid the ship to look as if they took Realist, which is where we will leave as if we were overwhelmed by them. At that point, we will leave for off-world and leave looking like we were called off-world, which is where we will go off the radar and exit the stage like we were never here.

Tarak knew this plan had holes, yet it was better than going ham-fisted with no plan and just getting screwed once they leave as there is a barricade keeping them here. And most of the captains are probably aware the Realist is not meant to leave the Plenty. Was this slightly sacrificing some of the Rebels? Yes. Did Tarak think this was bad? No. The rebels were fucked from the word 'Go', this barricade that kept them there is the same thing that is keeping the Planet under lockdown. Once they run out of materials, the Ascendancy was going to land a large hammer on this planet, best to use your resources now rather than lose them. Tarak didn't tell anyone how he thought though, he knew many people would back-lash at the mere idea of him thinking like this. Yet what needed to be done was set in front of him



With the prep he did, Tarak was ready to head down. He had gotten prepared a set of fake IDs for each person, personnel information, a new name, rank, and had set stories for each person. It was interesting, Tarak seemed to have a level of knowledge in doing this that was extraordinary. Honestly, he knew a bit, he had Phi help him a good bit to really clean everything up. As these were to make sure the Decoy teams had a smooth time trying to at least get on the ship before anyone asks otherwise.

He knew the plan would fail somewhere, he was ready for it, this plan was cobbled together, but it was better than nothing.

@Letter Bee @Th3King0fChaos @The Man Emperor @Landaus Five-One @FalloutJack @Conscripts @dragonpiece @Starlance @samakama @jdh97 @6slyboy6 @Jade Kiyo

"AAAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAH! THE LOOK ON HIS FACE!!"

It was a rather quick fight for Nero, but ultimately satisfying, and when he straightened up, he saw that he didn't have anyone else to really deal with, as the others had managed to take down their own targets, some better than others. Navi's was perhaps a bit high in the drama, but whatever. She could handle her own thing the way she wanted to, long as it got done. Abaddon had crushed one of their spines, and Tarak had liberally applied the chunky salsa rule to another. All in good fun, which reminded him...it was time to get a trophy.

What? No, it's not what you think. Good god, no!

You see, what happened here was that the dead man, Tobias, had left behind a completely-intact plasma flamethrower, and Nero decided to relieve him of that device. After all, he wasn't using it anymore. By the time the newcomers to the scene had arrived, the dagger-wielder was already trying it on, grinning as he inspected it with his mask flipped up. He looked over at the men that just arrived, but saw that they weren't pointing guns. In fact, they were saying that he and the other marines - plus Abaddon - were free to fuck off in the dropships they came in.

"Alright, sure. I'm keeping this."

Yyyup, and no one will ever know - 'till later, perhaps - that they were handing over that madman's weapon to...well...another crazy person. Well...it's not THAT BAD. Nero actually cared what he hit, didn't want to explode, and certainly dodged better. This was more of a thing to mess with than actually keep for battle, anyway. Not unless it was going to serve alot better than his assassin-y ways. So, right along with the others, he'd take a dropship outta here, all a'grins with his new toy.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



During the time between their little battle and the Xuanzang's arrival at Plenty, Nero had indeed kept himself amused with Tobias' flamethrower. Well, now it was Nero's flamethrower, but anyway... Once he'd gotten his Omni-Tool to scan the machine - "Hey, tell me how this thing fucking works." - the young daggermeister was furnished with an instruction manual downloaded online, which...he only read the operating parts and the warnings for so he didn't overload it before he got any enjoyment out of the machine. As a result, he would be finding objects to hit with a gout of flame in the cargo hold, just for laughs. Someone would've happened upon this eventually, and he'd muse "I wonder if the Rau've ever feel bad about potatoes. Ah well.". FWOOSH...

This was how he spent his free time, which actually wasn't much, considering they'd bullshitted the Ascendancy into believing the lot of them were still on commission. Once he and the others were called in for a meeting, it appeared that they'd made it to Plenty, that they'd flown over a load of crop-laden countryside, and that they were hovering over a bigass prison ship that'd thrown itself at the ground...and didn't miss. Nobody ever told them the Knack, it seems. Ah well, no biggie. Whether the ship was ever gonna fly again wasn't his concern. They just had to go extract an AI, or whatever harddrive he was on, or however that worked. Tarak was in charge, overall, but they were going down in teams, and using Fin's portals to make it easier. Nero was here in his usual gear, listening to how they expected it to go down, with Avelyn expecting to blackout all the comms in the place and move in with intimidation. He liked that, but apparently Tarak did not.

"Ehh, spoilsport..."

Tarak wanted to keep up the fib that they were all still cool with the Ascendancy. Heh, that was gonna be a hard sell, especially with the fact that Nero has never been cool with those idiots. In any case, he started dividing them into teams, with Nero himself put alongside Sam and Iris. Ah, so he was stickin' with the sibs, eh? Well, as long as there wasn't any candy on board, Iris would have her head in the game, at least. This was actually a good idea, making them - along with Ash, Flame, and Navi - the infiltration doing the no-thrills search-and-retrieve, because Nero did NOT want to be talking to any Ascendancy assholes in there. He'd shoot his mouth off at the wrong time, and then probably tear their own off. All this was well and good, but Nero turned to Samuel and Iris with an additional bit of info.

"Once we get in there, expect me to be pretty much silent and out of sight. I'll be getting the drop on anything in our way."

Because that was how Nero operated when he was being serious. Was this the silent assassin that Elaine had been talking about? Perhaps. Or maybe she really thought that he was quiet all the time. Truth is, though, it was about his stealth power and training, which would keep an eye on those two throughout the mission.

Seraphina hissed through her teeth as she pushed the needle into Tarak's eye.

"Sorry, bro, I really messed up there. I was aiming for your forehead and now look what happened."

She sighed in annoyance with herself and pulled the needle out to inspect the damage.

"Hm. Good thing you're so porous or that would have left a mark. Guess subpar materials have their merits, namely being expendable. Still, I was spacing out hard just now. Mm, time for a break."

With a brief huff she set down the half sewn doll next to the others and put the wayward needle safely into a pin cushion. She doubted she would even be able to finish as soon as she planned, since the Tarak plushie would need materials she didn't have for the armor. She poked the little bear's nose before admonishing it for things far beyond any inanimate object's control.

"Why do you have to be all fancy and live in a shell? Why can't you just be soft like your brothers and sisters? Well, I guess little Nero's death mask is going to be a custom fabrication, too. And don't get me started on Abaddon!"

Flopping onto her side she looked over her collection so far. Most of the crew was now complete, at least in a rudimentary fashion. Some were unfinished like Tarak's bear and none had completed outfits yet. But she supposed it wasn't bad for a few scattered hours of work. The problem was that this hobby gave her too much time to think, and her head wasn't in the best of places lately. Not for a while actually.

Rolling off her futon Phi shut off the bedside light and closed the curtain that kept her secret away from any casual visitors. They would be arriving at Plenty soon which meant preparations had to be made and her head needed to be in the game. It didn't help that she hadn't managed more than a casual conversation in all three days of travel, not since speaking with Amy. Then there was the impromptu boarding action. While successful Phi herself could only fret helplessly while others put themselves at risk and Navi even came out badly hurt.

"What a terrifying mess that was. Goes to show how ready we are for a sudden crisis."

She thought about the conflicting ideas just before their captain settled on a bold and risky plan of attack. Phi herself agreed more with Laurey back then, to just cut and run. Granted she had followed orders without objection at the time. And in the end she could do nothing to help anyone, not Navi, not even Amy.

She sighed again as she finished her new look, taking on the image of another star marine long ago listed as KIA. It felt strange and uncomfortable, but it was the best idea she could come up with when Tarak brought up false identities. It was still a risk but a lie like this was easier to swallow, as well as maintain. Better than using their real identities by far. Even so she wondered at the fellow children they were impersonating. Had they ever actually met before? Were any of the ones listed as missing still alive?

Slapping her cheeks Phi scolded herself for once again getting lost in thought. Soon would be the time for action. Uncertainty had no place in the battlefield. Her personal armory helped center her mind and settle her nerves. The familiar equipment all had its own place, its own function. Consistent, reliable, each weapon like an old friend. She took her time preparing a lightweight loadout including minimal armor, and focusing on a pistol and submachine gun combination. For close quarters against other humans this bare minimum should be enough. And yet she found herself hesitating, and then reaching for a special piece of heavy ordinance. Well, this grenade launcher was about as heavy a weapon she allowed in the case anyway. This she slung over her back before going to the bridge to wait.

It wasn't long, less than an hour, before they finally arrived at Plenty. While the others began to gather on the bridge Phi took the opportunity to collect whatever local information she could easily gather. Among this was the crashed ship itself, which soon dominated everyone's attention.

"Damn, that is a big one. Good thing, too, or else the Ascendancy would probably have our AI friend by now. I wonder how many organic prisoners survived?" She thought out loud before laughing at Avelyn's points. "Too true. Looking scary and bullying Ascendancy troops sounds fun for once."

She wanted to add more to the conversation but Tarak spoke up in his no nonsense tone so she shut up and listened for now, committing the teams and plan to memory. It was shaping up to be a good arrangement, like showing your hand but holding a few cards back. However, when Tarak assigned the final team's role a hint of the surprise she felt inside showed on Phi's face. She couldn't stop her eyes from glancing at Laurey carrying a look of confusion. That woman was almost certainly the most tech savvy crew member on this ship, but after spending a little time with her going over combat analysis Phi was a little worried about her constitution. Maybe she was wrong but she thought she had picked up little signs that Laurey wasn't physically feeling well lately. Or the whole time Phi had known her. Even if that wasn't the case she was extremely valuable in Phi's eyes while her own skills were at best adequate for this particular job. So why?

Is this… about Proxima? Ahh, that makes sense. If it were me I suppose I wouldn't want someone like me on the ground either. I cracked during the most critical operation and others paid for it. But why Ariel? I can see Amy being better off away from the gunfire but- ah, it's no use thinking about this anymore. We've got our jobs and I'm not about to raise a fuss now.

Phi's face became blank and impassive once more. With a sharp nod she set aside the launcher and took a seat at one of the consoles.

"Yessir, I'll do my best from here. The rest of you be safe down there."

She didn't look at anyone after that, getting right to work. There were a lot of preparations to be made if she was going to do this right.

---

"Attention rebel forces. Your leader is dead. If you don't want to follow her, kneel."

He had no intention to be formal and courteous with this stern warning. He wanted serious business, and it showed in the language. The remaining Deilos ships that got left behind immediately self-destructed as a result. The rare few were then neutralized by the local defense forces. They would soon be trialed for war crimes and Alexander doubt any of them would get away with a firing squad, even with bribery or manipulation. Finally. Finally. The final ghost of the war had been eliminated, and threats (at least external) were extinguished. His years of hard work finally bore some fruits.

"Wow, these kids did their work quite brutally."

Long after the Xuanzang left, Alexander finally stepped foot on the Akriem's Razor. There weren't that much fighting on the way up to the bridge apparently. It is clear as days which were the victims of his soldiers and those of the kids. The former would finish their targets off quite quickly, so injuries were relatively few on their bodies. On the other hand, the latter's targets - the higher crew - were completely hacked to death. One with broken spinal cords. One missing fingers, melted hand and a stab in the legs and lower jaw. One completely blown up, his cooked flesh still smoking. And the other was decapitated. All of them were messy and brutal. Not that Alexander thinks these people don't deserve such deaths. He was in the opinion that all some people deserved was death, and he wouldn't mind one bit the brutal ends for these bloodthirsty monsters. Nevertheless, given they might not have personal connections to these folks, this might be how these people fight normally.

"Sir, the ship navigation system still works but the control center is gone." An engineer onboard reported.

"Is it destroyed?"

"No, just...gone. It should be over there according to designs. But these's no pieces of it that I can say it's destroyed. It just vanished."

"Ok..." His eyebrows piqued weirdly. He didn't know what sort of magic can simply just make something disappear like that. "Well, then we'll just have to tow the ship back. Scrap it for metals, we don't need this piece of crap in my fleet."

"Yes sir."

He shook off the thoughts and simply continued his work. Once Alexander was back on his carrier after inspection, he announced the cleanup operation for the rest of the remaining participants. They were to wipe off any traces of what happened today. By the next day, the routes would be back to normal operation, while the images of the destroyed fleet remnants would be displayed on the media as a warning and show of force.

---

Following the inspection of his spoils of war is the routinely briefing. It is relatively short with most of the content directed toward further missions that needed to be carried out. Once it was done, every ship captain and officer proceeded with a salute one at a time before they left for their respective vessels.

The last in the room was his flagship's captain, Carina. She didn't seem eager to rest yet apparently, being glued to the screen in front of her even as her colleagues have already left.

"What seems to be attracting you there, Carina?"

"Hmm." She pinched her lips before passing her tablet over to Alexander. "It's the pilot's reports. Our first squadron didn't have sightings of the Xuanzang, but apparently the second one does, and they report neutral signals being flashed from the ship."

Oh yeah, that thing. Its appearance over the entire battle was a strange event. And for what Carina just said, indeed it is strange. Of course, it made sense that they would hide from the Deilos fleet, and it also made sense that they would flash neutral signals to the combatants, assuming they didn't know the Deilos fleet before. But both of them back to back is a little weird. It's also possible that the Deilos spotted them and they chose to show their identities instead. But he didn't think the Akriem's Razor would have functional radars. His intel suggested that, but they could be wrong. The engineers were still doing their analysis, so he'd know soon enough.

"Speaking of the Xuanzang, you seem to know that ship's captain?"

"Oh Natasha? Yeah she's my academy friend, remember?" Carina replied.

"I...don't remember much. The name does click some buttons, but that's it. Maybe because I'm in Officer's Training all the way through."

"Yeah probably...She and I were top students in navigation classes, so we talked quite often. Well, before you snatched me to your department!" Carina threw a jab at the Grand Admiral, to which he'd return an amused smile. "I thought she died during Proxima, but apparently she's still kicking around. Hasn't changed a single bit, still couldn't understand sarcasm. Her apparent love for vehicles got the best of her communication skills I guess."

"Well, the war got it hard on everyone. You remember how those two kids, Ashton and Flame, and how they literally called themselves geniuses unironically?"

"Ah, give me a break! I never knew second-hand embarrassment was a thing until that happened." She shook her head hard. "But hey, it's nice seeing her still finding a job in the OIS after the war. And a pretty good one too. Tang-class ships are mostly reserved for skilled pilots." Carina searched the ship image just for Alexander to imagine. "I mean look at it. They have more tools with the ship so they wouldn't want a rookie at the helm."

Alexander gazed through the different images of the Xuanzang online and was surprisingly silent for a long while.

"Alex?" Carina curiously asked. "What's going on?"

"I noticed something weird..." He took a few swipe over the different images before plugging it into a wire on the table for the hologram. "Do you have still have the data for that ship earlier."

"Yeah?" Carina was still a bit confused but obliged anyway.

As the two holograms appeared side by side, controllable by the panel near Alexander's seat, the Grand Admiral quickly pulled his captain and friend over to the side of the table.

"You see that bridge?" He pointed. "The ship we encountered did not extend down to that area here."

"Oh?" Carina took a few seconds to look over the two models. "Oh, it doesn't! It's a bit tricky to spot from this angle."

Alexander switched the hologram setting for a complete sideway view "And look at the height of the ships. The Xuanzang from the online database is taller. By quite a bit. I assume that's the storage area"

"Yeah it is storage. I think the OIS wants to increase capacity." Carina also noticed something. "Does that engine look a little different to you? The shape is weird. That's military grade engine. How do they get that?"

"Oh this looks fishy." Alexander walked back to the panel, his strides getting wider and faster. "What's the code they gave earlier?"

Further inspection is required here. Something is definitely off. His suspicion earlier was tickling his senses again. Once Carina provided the code again, Alexander immediately called the OIS and requested special access, and not without threats delivered.

"Alright, here's the ship's basic information. Captain: Crawford Everest. Last update: 8 hours ago." Alexander slapped his palm on the table. "That's not the Tang-class OIS Xuanzang. They lied to us."

"Cheeky bastards. These two ships look similar in design it got passed our eyes while we were occupied." Carina checked the detail as well. "Apparently, there was an old design of the Tang-class. It was put in use for a bit, with a few ships being produced, but all of them have been decommissioned in favor of a more protected bridge and more storage capacity. All of them are scrapped now, and one was also named Xuanzang."

"So they somehow got their hands on that Xuanzang." Alexander said. Illegal vehicles roaming around the galaxy bought over the black market is an Ascendancy issue. But the bottom line for this whole ordeal is: he just got fooled.

"Natasha just mentioned she was heading to Plenty to deal with some sort of rebellion. I don't know if that's a bluff to throw us off or not."

Plenty? That is an agricultural world. Coincided conveniently with the unusual spike in food price in recent months! It all made sense now. Those people are rebelling and doing some shady media blackout to hurt the Ascendancy economically, especially the military. And for those kids on the fake Xuanzang are in on it as well.

"We want to cover all possible scenarios. We'll send ships on a search around the nearby sectors. For Plenty itself, we do have men on it yes?"

"Yeah" Carina knew exactly what's coming next. "I'll inform them."

"Good."

He never would have thought these immature unruly little ankle-biters had actually managed to fool him. Clever and smart of them indeed, throwing those information at him when he was not prepared to carefully analyze. Rebelling against the Ascendancy eh? They think they have what it takes to carry out a revolution? Brave, but now that they got his undivided attention, they would need way more than bravery and skills.

Natasha Zhang

"To think the Ascendancy would get rid of such a brave and capable person like your godfather," Natasha said to Narvia, her tone bitter and carrying more of the frontier 'Qingdao Accent' than usual. Then she continued, "Shows they know nothing of capability."

As Avelyn put forth a plan, then Tarak brought forth his own strategy, Natasha said to him, "Good plan - Probably the best we can come up with." Then she turned to Abaddon and said, "I hope you don't mind staying with me, by the way - I know full well you'd rather be in battle."

Then she turned to Finbarr and said, "Thank you for being honest about your powers and how they work. This will be very useful for extraction, especially as we need to escape as fast as possible before they catch on..."

Ashton and Flame

Ashton and Flame instinctively saluted Tarak, before Ashton said, "We're ready to accompany the 'Princess' to get ahold of Realist, sir."

Flame then spoke, "Just call her Navi, Ashton - You know calling her 'Princess' makes me jealous..." A faint smile, indicating that no, he wasn't jealous at all. "That said, Navi is one of the best people we can have with us - We should work on keeping her safe."

Ashton briefly held out his right palm, cupped it, then created a whirling globe of wind before saying, "Oh, we will make sure she's safe. We're family, after all."

"So are the rest of us," Flame looked at Nero, then the rest of them. "We'll protect each other."

Blue Crow (NPC)

Blue Crow inched forward towards the Circle of Hell's long wreck, avoiding the third which had been broken off by the crash. Accompanying him were four metallic soldiers who looked like robots to most eyes, metallic soldiers which were more physically capable than normal humans. Blue Crow avoided even thinking of what his troopers were actually made of - Best to absorb himself into the role he had chosen.

Don't even think of your other companion. Traitor to the Star Marines, killer of their friends, and now... The one who is taking the Bounty with us.

A pause as he approached his entry point, a loose plate which ought to lead to the lower corridors, which in turn led to the prisons. For now, the goal. All else must fade before it...

@Letter Bee@Th3King0fChaos@The Man Emperor@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Conscripts@dragonpiece@Starlance@samakama@jdh97@6slyboy6@Jade Kiyo

---

---

Millard had spent a good portion of the battle on Akriem Razor in the Medical Bay preparing the pods. These pods were state-of-the-art healing chambers that could be used to keep an isolated area secured as the pod will begin to administer proper medical procedures to diagnose what is wrong and what tools to use to heal the person. Millard knew many of the dangers that could be found while on the battlefield: plasma burns, bullet holes, deep lacerations, blunt force trauma, and many more pains man can bear to another. Yet no matter how many years of medical school he has gone through, he is never ready for what is to come through his door, all he can do is be ready for anything, even if he has no answer.

Yet today was not one of those days, as when the boarding party had come back Millard called for them to come to the Medical Bay to get a once over. It started with the most pressing person: Narvia. She had burns that ran deep and across about 25% of her body, which could have been deadly as he had no way of rehydrating her without putting her under in one of the pods and having her be in there for a few days, which had a 70% chance proving fatal if the burns ran too deep. Yet Iris had magic that set the person's body back to what they were 4 hours ago, perfect! Narvia wasn't burned for more than a few minutes, so she was healed up in a jiffy.

Everyone else was more than okay, Nero had no scratch on him and honestly came back happier than he was before. Finbarr was okay as he seemed to be his usual self, Abaddon was Abaddon, and Tarak was very insistent that he was okay. Millard knew Tarak was fine, the kid looked like he could flip a tank and take a car hitting him at full speed, yet Millard wanted to make sure he didn't have any internal damage and found nothing was wrong, just an opening in the suit that was immediately patched up by Iris as she just fixed it in a moment.

After all of this, Millard went around and checked on everyone, making sure people are okay, seeing if anyone was hurt from the attacks, he was not surprised to find no one else was hurt, he was just surprised how injured Narvia got in comparison to everyone else. After which, he left to the Medical Bay to await further orders, or until they leave the immediate combat area.



Millard listened as Tarak was given leadership for the operation. Millard was honestly confused about this move, Natasha and Millard had plenty more experience in a leadership role than Tarak. Sure Tarak leads a band of misfit super kids, yet Natasha was a captain for the Ascendancy and their Captain now. Millard had gone to officer training school and had lead multiple squads into fights as a leader and a medic. Even if Tarak's plan was about the same as Millard's, the problem with this approach that Natasha has taken is the fact that she gave up control as a leader. Of course, there is a time and place to do so, but on the first mission? No one was being deployed from beyond the reach of the captain, and now you look like a weak leader who can't think of a strategy as simple as that, even if that is not you.

Who knows, Millard might be overthinking things, he just has a weird feeling that some people might try to over step leadership in a bad way. But right now, he's just going along for the ride. After all, he was made squad leader! What a promotion.



Millard had taken to don his disguise, a well kept but worn armor that fits the part for a grizzled squad leader. As he was given a new identity, Millard Renaulds, a squad leader who has a week or two left until his 20-year contract has been served. Millard looked at that and laughed as he just realized Tarak might be playing a bit of a joke on him about it. Yet he finds it to be in good fun as he prepares his gear to go down. He won't be wearing his more customized gear, like his Doctor's clock, or his custom helmet, but he will be bringing his own weapons down, he is more comfortable with them after all.

Millard looked to Laurey and Finbarr to see if they are ready as he did one over each of them, making sure they knew who they were and made sure they looked the part. They wouldn't want them to get shot because Finbarr thought he was a girl. Something was off when he thought about it though, why was Laurey going? Sure the Realist could be damaged, but why is she coming with them? Was it to put up and act? This seemed strange, Millard thinks something is up. He'll stay quiet, he's just keeping an extra eye out for anything peculiar.

@The Man Emperor @Landaus Five-One @FalloutJack @dragonpiece @samakama @jdh97

---

~The Fight~

Fog of war. Three simple words that describe such chaos and disorder that it's only fitting that they are as vaguely described as this. For any one man or woman it can mean a million things at once, from simply not knowing where an engaged enemy might be, to a downright complete and utter self doubt that crippled them at a mission critical time. Amy was definitely experiencing the latter at this precise moment, her anxiety about doing a spell like this nearly driving her over the edge. She was worried for everyone inside the enemy ship, and while she knew she had to help them out, what if it was her spell that would cause the enemy to think something was amiss? If it didn't work out then all they would hear are a few commanding words through their radio, something that would raise suspicion in even the most lax of fighters when coming from an unidentified source.

Thankfully Iris was here to help her out, and with a sigh Amy flashed a more relaxed smile as she listened to what the other girl had to say. Having her trust meant a lot to Amy while she doubted her own abilities: she could now replace her own self-doubt with the confidence someone else had in her abilities. With a deep sigh she would nod, still smiling as she reached over to gently stroke Iris's cheek for a moment. "Thank you Iris, your words are too kind to me. But you're right, I can do this. I have to do this." She explained with a sigh as she turned back to the comms terminal, her hand hovering above it as her eyes gazed at the interface while the doubt began creeping back into her. No, stay strong Amy. She was ready to go now, she knew it. She had people relying on her.

She was just about to start broadcasting when the all-clear message came through that they were clear. Amy could hardly believe what she had heard, her ears perking up for a moment as she looked over at Iris and Samuel in first confusion, then with a quickly developing smile. "They did it! We're clear!" She blurted out as she spun around on the spot before rushing over to the siblings, encompassing the both of them in a warm hug of joy as best as she could, a quiet "eeeeeeek" leaving her lips as she let all the built up anxiety get out of her system. It took quite a few seconds before she would pull back from the hug, beaming at the two others for a moment as she tried to get her thoughts together. "Right, sorry to disturb your magic! I'm just... so happy! Hopefully this means everyone is okay and we can get to Plenty soon. At least, it makes my job redundant... and that's how it should really be." She explained with a small sigh, placing a hand on her head as she flashed one more smile at the two. "I'm sorry, I built up quite a headache from all this anxiety, I'm not exactly used to combat responsibilities like all of you... I'll be in my room if you need me." She explained as she made a polite bow before she would quickly hop n skip out of the bridge at the most awkward speed ever.

If it was up to her, Amy would've ran back to her room straight away to cry out all the tears hiding behind her smile, yet walking seemed too dangerous if anyone were to address her and break up her facade before she got back to her safe place. Not a minute later the door to her room opened with a silent hiss and then closed with the same sound as the dull sound of Amy landing in her bed echoed around the room. Then slowly sniffling and the sound of silent crying filled the air, the tiny room's exterior growing into a dark and infinite abyss, lit up only by specks of light that seemed too distant to even be the stars around the ship. They seemed too distant to be in the same galaxy as the ship itself, something far, far beyond the reach of any human that ever lived or will live. But this simplistic serenity was the only companion for Amy while she brood in her dark room, letting her feelings out into oblivion to get rid of them for good.

~En Route~

The man in the image never seemed to age. No matter how often or how hard she looked, Amy could never seem to find a single white hair in the old man's beard despite the wrinkles that were starting to appear on his face with every smile. It was like... a frame out of place, as if someone had taken a picture from somewhere else and stitched it together into this picture. But she knew it wasn't the case... she hoped it wasn't the case. "I let you too down old man, hmmm?" Amy asked quietly from the small picture inside of her pendant, her finger running across the small picture in an almost yearning way. Biting her lips softly she closed the pendant before shutting her eyes, reaching out with her free hand as a faint blue glow filled the room for a moment. Once she opened her eyes she was facing down herself, a perfect replica of her younger self... a self she could not recall without this pendant. A part of her past, lost to darkness. Her eyes slid across that young face and smile, coercing a little smirk from herself as she stared at the hand resting on her younger self's shoulder. Standing up she would walk closer, her eyes filled with wonder as she reached out with a hand to slowly pull her fingers along the face and chest of the man she knew the visage of so well. "Who are you..." She mumbled quietly to herself as she looked at the spitting image of the man on the picture. At first the illusion was incomplete, faulty... but over hundreds of hours she perfected it to the point she could have him dance like a puppet if she so wished. And sometimes, she really do wished they could make him do that, make him talk and tell her all the secrets she was so desperately trying to find out... but that's all he was, a puppet without a voice. Once more Amy would sigh, a few tears rolling down her face as she hugged the illusion with all the warmth and love she would hug a real person, her tears landing on the cold and unforgiving metal floor as the illusion slowly faded out of sight and left Amy crying once again in her own room, laying curled up in the corner as she was left with her thoughts. "Why did I leave you..."

Amy had shut herself up in her room while they were travelling, not feeling ready to face any of the crew. The mission to get them through was a success and she knew it, but in her heart of hearts she felt that she had left the others down. She didn't do anything other than waste Iris's time while on the bridge while she was getting worked up over a spell. Navi was seriously injured during the engagement and she didn't even go to see her... she felt too weak to look the girl in the eyes. She felt that she had let those down that she wanted to protect, she felt so... helpless. This was no smuggler's ship anymore, this wasn't a cargo transport where all she had to do was put up the illusion of a container to hide her sleeping corner. This was a bona-fide military operation, something where she felt she did not belong. A part of her soul itched for combat, but the rest of her being simply yearned for a place to belong to. She would happily give up her hunt to just stay with the kids and help them, but how could she do that in good faith if she was unable to protect them?

Slowly Amy opened her eyes as she looked down into the palm of her hand. Her eyes narrowed as a small flame kindled in the middle of her hand, slowly growing in strength until it lit up the room with a cozy orange light, the heat radiating against her palm as Amy winced silently. "N-no... I can't..." She muttered to herself, shutting her eyes as her grips closed, the small flame in her hand getting snuffed out as she did and the room falling back into complete darkness once more, leaving Amy alone to with her thoughts.

~Briefing~

The Amy that left the room was different than the Amy that the crew might've come to expect. There was no smile, no giddy half-hopping walk or endearing words. She was quiet, that brightness that usually seemed to follow her around now only a dim shadow of her body. Quietly walking into the back of the room, Amy leaned against the wall behind everyone, hugging herself while she listened half-heartedly at what Tarak had to say. It wasn't that she wasn't interested in her task or didn't want to put in all the effort... if anything, she would put in 200% effort now, but she was starting to doubt if that was enough of her. How could she protect Phi or Navi? How could she protect anyone? Looking at the two girls from the back of the room, she had to make a conscious effort at stopping herself from crying again, the guilt built up over the long hours spent sulking in her own room coming back to her.

Nobody blames you Amy, only you. Stop being stupid. A silent hiss left her lips as she closed her eyes and turned her head away, the familiar voice seemingly disappearing for a moment. Come on, stop being such a crybaby! We both know you can do more than sulk! Amy clenched her teeth as she shook her head once, banging her head against the wall behind her with a wince, the voice leaving as quickly as it came. With a silent sight she opened her eyes once more as she looked over at Tarak and listened to him finish up his debrief. Great, she was teamed up with Phi. She would've been overjoyed any other time, but now... now she was afraid the girl was going to get hurt because of her. Even if her actions, or rather inactions, didn't affect the last mission at all, Amy feared that she might not get so lucky next time. If she can't act when her friends are in danger... then maybe it was best to leave once more, and go searching for her home. Maybe one day she'd find a place she can call her own and see the dawn of a galaxy that was won over by the kids on this very ship. But as for what her future was? She was torn... her primal instincts told her to run, far-far away from any fighting or responsibility, but her maternal instincts have kicked into a higher gear ever since she's been on the ship, and they were screaming at her to fight tooth and nail to protect the kids. She refused to believe that they were just fighters who had been trained to kill, and she wanted to help them see through this war so they can return to being just kids... make up the time they lost.

Such were the thoughts that weighed heavy on Amy's mind as she leaned against the wall in the bridge, listening with one ear to the inputs from the rest of the crew as the debrief ended.

@dragonpiece

“No comms blackout and straight-up bossing them around? Oh, today will be great.” Avelyn rubbed her hands together. In an ideal case, she wouldn’t have to hurt a fly, and she would get to enjoy harmlessly screwing with people’s heads for a bit. Of course, it wouldn’t be like that. What were these ‘ideal conditions’, where could one find them and how much did a lifetime subscription cost? But if push came to shove, she was happy to have Tarak on hand to hide behind. As for Trajan… she didn’t really know what he did, a side effect of her private rule to stay out of friends’ heads, but at least she’d know after today. “Think it’s worth a try to see if we can scam some extra equipment from them while they think we’re on their side?”

Thud.

What the-?

She turned her head toward the source of the sound, quiet enough for the tiny computers in her ears to decide she’d be better off hearing it in case it was threatening, just in time to see their favorite bundle of joy recover from… headbutting the wall? Avelyn suppressed a snicker at the thought of the artificial computer in her head - arguably smarter than the biochemical one - confusing that with a distant gunshot or explosion. There was something amiss though, and Avelyn thought she knew how to fix it. With the briefing concluded, she took a minute to make her way to the galley. Mug, sugar, water, spoon and the star of the show - coffee. Instead of bothering with the kettle, she heated the life bringing mixture with Pyrokinesis on her way back to save time, tapping Amy on her shoulder once she found her. “You look like you haven’t slept much, neighbor.” She rapidly cooled the still boiling liquid to a drinkable temperature and floated the mug over to Amy, keeping it suspended in front of her with the spoon seemingly stirring its contents by itself, “Worked for a freighter pilot, can’t hurt a freedom fighter.” She joked as she fondly recalled her father basically living on coffee whenever the demand for water rose in one of the many systems serviced by the ice hauling company he worked for.

"Decoy 2 will consist of Finbarr, Laurey, and Millard. Fin I need you to age yourself up to blend in with us older looking people. And Laurey you will be acting as an engineer to make sure the Realist is intact. So brush up on your knowledge of AI."

"Older me, coming right up..." Finbarr stood some distance away from the others, chanting his Shapeshifting magic in rather accented phrases in Gaelic. It didn't take him long, but the boy was soon covered in a magic purple mist for half a second before appearing as an older version of himself; if one were to make an estimate, he looked at least 30 years of age in that form. Finbarr had grown taller, though he did look a little scrawnier than his shorter form... perhaps because he can't increase his mass, or something. Either way, his pistol was holstered, and the pair of blasma blades were ready to pulled out of his belt should the opportunity or the need for battle presented itself.

"I am going with the Good Doctor and the Lady of Machines.", Finbarr said absentmindedly while pouring himself a drink before the mission. "Ah, no, that's not it, right, we're completely different people now." He then looked down at his fake ID; a certain Leo Mills; melee specialist for the squad led by whoever was the guy that the doctor was supposed to be. Hmmm... this will be fun.

"Myself, Trajan, and Avelyn will be Decoy 1. Our job, with Decoy 2, will be acting as support to those we find inside as we will be acting as a group who is meant to collect the Realist."

"Gotcha, amigo.", Trajan nodded as Tarak gave them their roles to play in the ensuing battle... mission, whatever. Either way, he had been sober for the last two days, perhaps in part with the fact that he had a very good revelation when he had found Tarak, that little runt turned big man, once again. And now that they were back together, Trajan is going to do his best; better than he ever did when he was still serving under the bloodied banner of the Ascendancy...

"Melchor Dreyfus... supposedly an excellent marksman with a lot of dead aliens in his list... very clever." Trajan stuffed several magazines of ammunition unto his belt, ready to be swapped out with the one on his rifle once it ran dry. His heated chainsword, a terrifying and hellish instrument of death, was kept sheathed behind his back, while he wore a rather monochromatic set of armor, which was hidden beneath a cloak that exuded 'I am an assassin' vibes like nuclear radiation. "Alright. Let's get to it. Can't wait for the celebration afterwards!"

In many parts of the world, burns as deep and extensive as Narvia’s would have been fatal. Even if you happened to be in the right place, your socioeconomic circumstances could easily decide whether you’d receive curative or palliative treatment, if any at all. Fortunately, she had been the only one to receive serious injuries — a mass casualty situation would have meant triage. And that, in all likelihood, could have meant a liberal dose of painkillers and last rites for her. Not something Ariel would have liked to administer to another friend.

After that would have come deciding the method of burial. Occasionally a ship might keep the intact corpse onboard, perhaps in some freezer, until they could land for a more traditional funeral. The more efficient method was to eject it out the airlock or perhaps ‘cremate’ it with the engine. The most efficient method involved recycling.

Would have, could have. Such unpleasantness was all behind them now. Narvia was here, healthy, heartily acting as adorable as usual. That was all that mattered; at least until the next mission came. Until then, the Star Marines — and the adult crewmates, too — could enjoy the boring tedium of daily life. The cycle of numbing pain and peaceful normalcy would continue. Today the Xuanzang had arrived at the rebel world, Plenty. People would be dying in the hours to come. Ariel could only hope that her next séance would not be with any one she knew.

Tarak, as usual, had formulated and presented a plan of action. It sounded decent enough to Ariel; easy enough for her to say, seeing as she had been again assigned to a cushy support role away from all the gunfire and gore. Well, there’d be none of that if things worked out — but she doubted any one here sincerely believed that that would be the case.

Time for work!

Ariel plugged her omni-tool into one of the communications consoles, right beside where Seraphina had plopped down. She wasn’t too familiar with all the knobs and levers, so having it all on a touchscreen would make interfacing a bit easier. Nor was hacking her specialty, though she had engaged in electronic warfare more often than not during the war. It was a bit less stressful than medic work — the fact that your friends’ lives lie in your hands is slightly less of a Sword of Damocles when their blood and entrails aren’t spilling out in front of you — and had definitely been far safer than frontline duty.

“We’re like the lookouts in a heist film.” Ariel could hardly complain. It was an essential role, yet isolated from most of the risk. She’d wanted to chat a bit more, but Seraphina bore the look of a cool all-business operator. No small talk, for now.

A quick series of taps and gestures on her omni-tool booted up an array of programs, some less questionably legal than others. They would be coming in handy soon. “Three of us need to monitor both cams and comms, plus taking over the crashed ship down there. I’ve dabbled a bit in hacking and the like, so mind if I handle the latter, Phi? Then you can take communications.”

“Let’s aim to take control before they notice anything’s wrong. If they do manage to transmit some signal, we’ll have to resort to jamming. But if it’s too obvious, it’d blow our cover anyhow. So—“ Ariel swiped at her screen, and soon a new file had been uploaded into the ship’s database. “I found some rebel propaganda we can use as interference as long as we blast it at full power. Hopefully it’s believable enough.”

“As for Amy — she hasn’t got any military background. But I think we can still leave her to monitor some of the cameras and simpler sensors. Keep an eye out for the Ascendancy forces planetside and in space. Actually… where is Amy?”

It wasn’t the first time Ariel had said this aloud. The last few days, Amy had been unusually absent from the corridors as well. Ever since their first combat with the defectors, in fact — no, cracks had begun showing even during the boarding operation. The team mom and pseudo-counsellor was in dire need of some love and therapy.

Physician, heal thyself.

Amy was an adult. Probably — it was quite taboo among some xeno-anthropologists to assign such labels to non-human developmental stages. But she seemed to fit the mould. That especially included her behaviour with regard to the child soldiers (or in her case, simply ‘children’) — affectionate and protective, even maternal in some sense. She probably had difficulty reconciling her image of the Star Marines as ‘children’ with the reality of the ‘adult’ lifestyle they had taken on. One of dissonantly un-childlike fighting, killing, and dying.

At least she wasn’t starting to sympathise with their opponents. That sort of emotion led to insubordination, and that more often than not meant death.

“Sorry. Phi, give me a moment. I’ll go get Amy back.” Ariel pushed herself away from the consoles, and headed over to the far end of the bridge.

Feelings of powerlessness, at being unable to protect these ‘children’. Ariel had seen similar things before in a few adults who had worked with them in wartime, even with how carefully restricted their rare interactions had been. Those who could not restrain themselves had been assigned elsewhere. And those were trained personnel. For a civilian tossed into a complex modern battlefield without so much as a boot camp, like Amy — the already immense pressure would be amplified, compounded to an overwhelming degree. ‘Failure to adapt’ would be putting things lightly.

“Amy—! Um,” Ariel reached out, half-unsure, before going all in on a gentle, tender hug. “Like Avelyn said, you look super tired today. It’s been a tough week for everyone. And, this mission is about to be even tougher. It’s all really stressful, and all of us feel that too. So there’s no need to keep things pent up. Talk to us. We’ll listen.”

Ariel had buried herself in the taller woman’s bosom. But now she turned to look upwards, to look at Amy directly. “If… if you want, you can cry on my shoulder too. Let it out. And then — be the best Amy you’ve always been.”

Kinda' some odd things 'bout the crew, as of late. It looked like they were a bit shaken up by the last little engagement. Laurey obviously wasn't in the best of moods, but then the last thing Nero had to compare that to was her complaining of a headache and needing the doc. Speaking of which, Doc Millard was actually alright, but apparently he was posing as military today and his grizzled appearance was suppose to lend to that. And hey, who knows? With him on a completely different team than Ariel, he might actually get a smoke in! This plan of Tarak's called for nearly everybody on the ship, since...well...the Circle of Hell was a bit big. Even Amy was part of this, though...she wasn't looking too well.

Definitely not liking the whole 'We put the crew through a military shakedown mission' thing.

It wasn't hard to imagine the chief morale officer and general counselor of the ship being put off by how things were handled, and how they were almost unphased by the fighting. Several of them - Navi included - might've even been better off, afterwards. Nero actually overheard some of Dr. Millard's personal notes recorded about that, while in the vents. Oh, you think you always have privacy, but Nero can not only move fast through the vents, but the Shadow Step also meant you couldn't even detect him doing it. He had not, per se, been snooping on anybody. Yet. Still, if he had done...and he'd gotten the drift that Amy was worried that they might not be more than killing machines...it's actually kind of funny that she didn't find Nero literally playing with the flamethrower. It takes all kinds of things, but he got clear enjoyment out of that. Much like how Fin seemed to like shapeshifting, this time being made to look older...which was a shock.

"WHOA! Son of a bitch!"

Seriously flinched at that. It wasn't like becoming a cat. That was normal...ish. This? This was just...unnatural, somehow. He still looked human, but...you know...the unfamiliar on the familiar. Kind of a problem. And speaking of that, Nero suddenly thought of something. If Phi, Amy, and Ariel were going to be their saboteurs to make sure nobody got off any communicaes about the situation at hand...well...why not use that? A little bit after the time Avelyn and Ariel started giving Amy - Lotta As here, amirite? - some help, Nero would head on over to have a word.

"Say uhh, Ariel. Ya mind keeping an ear to my comm channel while on the mission? My stealth works better in the dark, and if I need it, I'd like to be able to call 'Lights out' on certain rooms and corridors, alright? Make things alot easier."

In terms, Narvia was still slightly heavily embarrassed for blurting out that about her last name being changed. She couldn’t help being herself because she loves being sweet and filter-less it's what makes her, her. It took her a while to calm down from embarrassing herself, but she had a bit of thought in the back of her head. ’ I love everyone on this ship! They are so sweet as my new family, but I still need to free my father's original. Also, I wonder if the giant crystalie man would like a nickname? Abaddie.’ Narvia thought with a big goofy smile on her face. Obviously enough, she was in her little world of wanting to give everyone nicknames. However, her train of thought was diverted by the other voices in the briefing room, specifically Avelyn and everyone else. It was stupid not to pay attention to a briefing, but nicknaming people's priorities are important for her.

However, Natasha spoke up about what Narvia said about Nikolas’ leaving the service. It did hurt slightly that the Cryptic Dragon waited until now to tell his goddaughter he was retiring. ” I agree with that, they have no sense, but I guess in a sense having a strategic ideological man like my godfather still in charge of his own fleet would be dangerous. To whatever plans the President and Miss Laguna has planned.” Narvia said with a slight understanding of why they would make him retire, but he would do it anyway. It’d be hilarious if he made the Grand Admiral Laguna sweat because of how cryptic he is. Draken’vina is where Narvia wants to stop dealing with everything and be happy with her mother, step-father, and older siblings. ” I usually call Nikolas, the Cryptic Dragon. Because that’s how he always does things previously, seeing that letter that told me of my name change was a bit shocking, though… I am Steven-Zahrin instead of having the same last name as my biological dad, Conner.” Narvia said, with a slight realization of what she had said. She was heavily blushing again because it's even more embarrassing than previously. It’s a bit of a hard thing to get used to, but it happens when something comes to her mind.

Narvia took sometime before she could stop blushing, but Avie had a unique way to say kill people if a communication blackout didn’t work. However, Tarak sounded like the voice of reason for not going with the communication blackout plan. Basically, Narvia, with a sigh of relief, was grateful not everyone was sold with a communication blackout plan. It would be a bit impossible fool, Alexander Kherol, for too long. However, it came to Tarak’s plan, which she smiled happily since she would be apart of one of the two teams infiltrating the massive crashed ship. She was about to say something, but Ashton and Flame spoke up before her, and she started to blush cutely at what Ashton said. ” Awwh, thanks, Ashton and Flame! I will also protect you too since we are a team after all! As well, I will do my best, Tarak!” Narvia exclaimed cutely, adorably and a bit flushed in the cheeks. She started to hum a happy little tune because of all this, but she did hear Phi and cutely waves at her. ” I named the seal plushie you created after you, Phi! Because it was really cutely designed, I love it.” Narvia spoke with a happy smile on her face.

However, Narvia was slightly worried that usually is so happy and helpful wasn’t talking, Amy. In her rush, she walked towards Amy, and there were other people near her, Avie and Ariel. ” A-Amy, why are you sulking? You are a ray of sunshine all the time. I like you more as a ray of sunshine over, a cloud of sadness.” Narvia said cutely because it's not really good to have their mother figure being so sad. Avie gave Amy a coffee cup, and Ariel wanted to give Amy a shoulder to cry on. She giggled at all this because it was really adorable, and she wanted to join in hugging Amy. ” Amy, want to cuddle my seal plushie? Cute 1 is super adorable and has been with me for a long time!” Narvia exclaimed cutely, trying to invigorate Amy by offering a plushie. She was generous since Amy did allow her to use Mr. Cuddleton during her cry fit; it was delighted. It was one thing she wanted to say to another person in a while, to share and play with her plushies. However, not many people on the Dragon’s Claw acted like children, unlike her. ’ I am much happier with people smiling and having a fun time than being all seriousness all the time. However, this operation is pretty serious, infiltration operations, I think that was the first one I had done previously with Nikolas?’ Narvia thought to remember her left hand on her chin trying to remember, but she was an observer in that mission.

Narvia did notice that Dr. Millard was being quiet during the meeting and was watching everything. It’s like he was pretty much-judging someone, but she didn’t quite know who because she was more worried about Amy right now. However, it would probably be a good idea to get ready for the operation, and the best way to do that was to look over her gear. She was always a bit shocked at seeing Finbarr turn taller than normal. ” Finny, it always shocks me when you get taller, like really tall. Much taller than I am right now.” Narvia said with a shock on her face.

Narvia couldn’t help but giggle slightly at Nero’s what he said about his stealth, which is definitely true. ” Hehe, always to the point, aren’t you, Nero?” Narvia question with a smile on her face. It’s the one thing she wouldn’t change with Nero since he probably would still be doing this after the revolution; it’s what he would do. She always giggles cutely; however, she smiled happily at the whole thing. It would be a great thing to get in and out, saving realists and getting the information but better to be safe than sorry. ” Huh, guess we are going in at separate points on the Circle? In terms of where the two teams that are going into the crashed vessel.” Narvia said, to make a quite determining factor of an observation. It made her remind herself and look over to Iris. ” Umm, I have a question, Iris. Can you please get rid of these scars on my face?” Narvia questioned Iris since Iris’s helpful healing ability was definitely helpful.

---

After the briefing, it would be a good idea to get herself operationally ready for the infiltration mission of the Circle. Narvia had to make sure she had enough of everything for her two pistols, the sharpness of her knife, and Daichi. As well, she did a mini-prayer with what Nikolas’ had always done before a battle. ’ May the Dragon’s Will give me strength in the operations to come, must free my family and must free Realist from the enemy.’ Narvia thought to give her a boost to her confidence. It made her think a bit, and she should’ve done this before the battle on the Razor, or she wouldn’t have been injured so badly. The Repetition is one of the keys to being prepared, or that’s what her godfather told her, the ever so cryptic man she loved deeply because of how he was with her. She smiled on her face afterward and went to where the Infiltration teams had to wait on the Operation ship. ” This is going to be fun, Flame and Ashton, and thank you for what you said in the briefing, again. I can see why the two of you are a couple, and you are so supportive of everyone!” Narvia exclaimed happily, towards the two of them.

Narvia was forged by her experiences to stay herself and slightly optimistic and slightly pessimistic, which is how she is. It might also be a good way to keep herself positivity to think of the infiltration mission as a fun thing only because there are some massive hurdles to get over defeating the Ascendancy, the Gravia Military Company, and others. However, there was one prick, she didn’t like, but there are many reasons she didn’t know because of the betrayal he caused to them. But that stayed in the very back of her mind it's not going to be like, and they were going to meet again after all this time. ’ I do hope that’s the case because I would so give him a piece of my mind!’ Narvia thought to keep that deep in the back of her mind. It’s one thing, but hopefully, she isn’t a jinx here. ” Uhh, are you two ready for this operation?” Narvia questioned Ashton and Flame. It was honestly a good question since it always is better to ask the other people in the team if they were ready. Since teams must stick together, which is always the case.

Narvia did the only thing she could to be ready for the operation, looking over her gear a second time, in front of Ashton and Flame this time around. As well, she hums a tune while she looks over her gear. It is what she does when she’s being serious over her usual demeanor of being slightly an emotional wreck while being really cute and adorable too. ’ Everything is good to go, nice!’ Narvia thought with a cute adorable smile and continuing humming.

Ashton and Flame - Not a GM Post

Flashback, Before Arrival on Plenty

The Xuanzang's observation deck was empty most of the time, and so Ashton and Flame were able to just go there and look at the stars peacefully. They had spent a few minutes just enjoying the beauty before Flame broke the silence.

"Ashton," he looked at the other boy, before saying in a serious tone, "We managed to pull the wool over Mr. Kherol's eyes today, but we both know that won't last forever. So tell me, why aren't you more worried?"

Ashton looked at his boyfriend and said, "I am. I am very worried." He paused before continuing, "Mr. Kherol... He's smart and he treats us like his own folk and I believe he's a decent person in general. But there's a saying in the Galactic Web - fear the anger of a gentle man. I don't know the original source, and Kherol isn't always gentle, far from it, but it rings true."

A pause as his gaze steeled, "And that's why I want to be more like him."

Flashback, The War, Several Months Before Proxima

Ashton and Flame had just returned to Kherol's current flagship after a planetside combat mission in the Rau've-held world of L'eve, an Earth-like planet desired by the Ascendancy's high command as 'living space'. As they walked to their assigned quarters after their regular decontamination and checkup, they expected nothing at all except a good night's rest after their excursion, followed by another combat mission within three or so days.

This was why it was a surprise when they came across Grand Admiral Kherol and Lt. Carina. It was even more of a surprise when, after the two boys had saluted them, Kherol had said, "At ease, Marines. Also, happy birthday - You two are turning fifteen today, right?"

It was then that the two discovered that 1.) they had the same birthday and that 2.) the Grand Admiral cared enough to greet them on it. But there were more surprises in store, bits of actual respect that Kherol took for granted, but which the two Star Marines, even Flame, greedily lapped up. For Kherol's next words were:

"I heard you two risked your lives to save seven hundred of my men and women from the enemy partisans just hours before. While I cannot remove the Star Marines from combat duty entirely, I can give you the rest of the day off - No training, free run of non-classified parts of the ship, and extra ration cards. Go enjoy yourselves."

As the Grand Admiral left after having said those last words so casually, Lt. Carina looked back and said to them, "Happy birthday from me, too."

Then she left as well.

Flashback, Before Arrival on Plenty

Small kindnesses. Proper gratitude. And of course, sheer tactical and strategic acumen, that was what Kherol showed to them. This was why Flame was able to say to the person he loved, "I understand why you want to be like that, even if I personally don't believe it's possible. But tell me, if it meant fighting against him, why did you choose to seek out Moonstrike and fight the Ascendancy? I know you're not so naive as to say that Kherol will just 'turn good' and help us overthrow the President-for-Life and his ilk. So what is it?"

Ashton's answer surprised him. "Because I want to prove myself to him. Because I want him to acknowledge me. Because I admire him yet at the same time envy him. And, I know you think this is a fool's errand, but I want to defeat him, even in some small way." He then smiled, "I wasn't being entirely honest when I said that I wanted closure, or rather, you guys assumed that I wanted 'justice', preferably a bloody end to the Ascendancy. But the truth is always that for me, closure means confirming that the Ascendancy was abusing us on purpose, and I don't mean the experiments or them forcing us to fight."

Flame looked back at Ashton, eyes glinting with reflected light, "So you've noticed it too. Their humiliations and experiments and torture, it's done with deliberate inefficiency. If they really wanted us to be efficient soldiers..."

"They'd have treated us better," Ashton said. "Flame, I talked with the Rau've about the effects of Kaisoken dust on other species, nowhere does it say that it works only on children and teenagers. Humans might be different, but tell me, have you ever seen our tormentors do more than imply that Kaisoken dust doesn't work on adults?"

The redhead said, "I haven't, and I'd bet no one else has. Ashton, we need to tell everyone else this -"

"I don't have solid proof," Ashton interrupted. "And the very thought will just make everyone else angrier." He sighed, "Right now, we need to wait, maybe we'll find proof while fighting for Moonstrike..."

@Letter Bee@Th3King0fChaos@The Man Emperor@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Conscripts@dragonpiece@Starlance@samakama@jdh97@6slyboy6@Jade Kiyo

Laurey was okay.

During the flight to plenty, Laurey was not exactly chipper, but more… pleasant? Colder? Less offensive.

The space battle had not shaken her resolve; it had strengthened it. She knew she wanted to serve the rebellion, that was a desire that burnt away all doubt. But the experience had birthed new iron truths that she held within herself. Namely this: the crew was insane. Not every individual, perhaps, but through mutualism they were a toxic whole. That had to be the truth. It was whilst she had been vomiting that Laurey had found this truth, staring her in the face. This ship was full of damaged goods led by a damaged captain.

So Laurey’s only hope of surviving was to do her best to avoid angering the bloodthirsty hormone-bombs.

As such, she spent most of her time in her room or workshop. When she met another she interacted with all the flavour of water. She even stopped having so many headaches in public

And didn’t visit the doctor anymore

And even her mind was calm through careful self-medication of Bliss


For the journey she was a pallid, sweaty ghost.

She made a drone. Modified one of the roombas, already equipped with weapons from its previous modifications, to respond to instructions through her omnitool, and therefore her mind. Simples things; there was only time for basic fuzzy logic. And it was still earthbound, but it would fly someday.

So busy she was that she didn’t notice what a watershed moment that battle had been. She did not notice the new division that rent the heart of the group. There were those who had fought, and there were those who had not. She did not notice Amy’s conspicuous absence. She did not notice the satisfied languor with which the killers stalked, lions full after a hunt. She did not notice Navi. The catalyst. Stupid Navi who deserved every ounce of loathing Laurey harboured against her. Sometimes even that grew cold. The tear in the group, it could grow, the slow death before total oblivion. But Laurey did not notice. That had to be the truth.

Laurey would not see it. One more mission and then she was leaving. The AI was the only thing stopping her asking to be transferred now. There was a proverb floating around the web about the five things a wise man feared. One was an unfettered AI. When strong AI was created, it was an act in defiance of any god. What pride it had inflated. What terrible cost it had wrought. A mind born of numbers, shorn of all psychology, infinitely contemplative and incidentally cruel.

It represented an intellectual diamond, and secretly Laurey hoped that it had been damaged, that she could salvage some esoteric knowledge or arcane programme something that would

Really take her drones to the next level.

Her part in the plan was therefore a godsend, and whilst there existed the formal possibility of violence, Laurey doubted the survival of any organic lifeform inside the ship.

She had the perfect skeleton in the closet for the role. From her footlocker she produced it, all crisp lines, immaculate. The skin of another life, one that would fade into the past and soon be someone else’s. She ran a finger along the fabric, and started to wonder at how different things could have been, but that way pain lay.

She arrived back at the pre-mission muster in her Ascendancy uniform, her hair tied and stuffed under a cap that was pulled low to hide most of her affronts to god. She nodded to Millard and did not taste blood. Laurey was okay. That had to be the truth.

---

Amy was just about to leave the meeting when she realized just how much unwanted attention her inner demon caused her to garner. With a little sigh she put on a small smile as she saw Avelyn approach, happy to see that her fellow psychic was the first one to really pick up on her sour mood. Seeing the coffee cup her nose twitched a little bit while the familiar scent of the drink assaulted her nostrils, and her posture eased up a bit as she offered a small smile to Avelyn. "I've been sleeping ever since our mission Aveyln... but maybe this will help wake me up." Amy explained with a soft smirk on her face as she reached out and grabbed onto the cup of coffee, taking a quick sip from the hot drink before she quickly pulled it away from her lips and let out a loud "eeeeek" while she opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out, fanning at it with her free hand. "Ahhhh, haht!" She whimpered and closed her eyes as she waited for the burning sensation to disappear from her tongue, placing the cup down on a cabinet next to her. She never did handle heat well, not even ones that normal people considered to be temperate...

She was just about recovering from this little experience and turned to Avelyn as she wanted to bring up what the girl told her before their mission began, but her thought process came to an abrupt end as she froze up and turned to face Ariel approaching her. She had not interacted with the girl at all, and out of all the kids she definitely looked like the one that would need the least amount of pampering and care. Suffice to say, that fact made it all the more surprising when the girl took a step closer and have her a hug, sending a mad blush running up Amy's cheeks as she was caught with her hands in the air, hesitant about hugging the girl back just yet. What was this assault she was experiencing? Was this how everyone else felt when she hugged them out of the blue? Maybe she should be more considerate the next time she used such a potent psychological weapon, since she doubted her illusions could ever have the same affect on anyone that Ariel's hug and words had on her right now.

Slowly, tears began to stream down her cheeks as cracks began to appear on her sulking self, and indeed on her cheerful self as well, the deeply emotional and vulnerable inside of the girl starting to shine through as her arms wrapped tightly around Arial, placing one of her hands on her back and the other behind her head as she pulled her close. Her own head lowered as she let it rest against Ariel's while her tears began to roll down her red cheeks and soak into the hair of the girl at a steady pace, Amy's body shaking every now and then as she sniffled quietly and kept hugging the girl like her life depended on it. She felt all the more nervous when she heard Narvia's voice call out to her as well, and with a little twitch she would look up at the girl with teary eyes. Her fingers gently gripped against Ariel, in the moment completely forgetting about the suffocating hug she was delivering as the girl became like a pillow she could hug to feel safer. Words could not describe just how thankful she was for that original hug, but she really needed to just let all of her emotions out in the form of all the tears and hugs.

"I-I'll be fine Navi, don't w-worry..." She was lying. She didn't feel like getting better at all if getting better meant becoming emotionally stable. If anything she felt like she was about to break down and bawl while soaking Ariel's hair with her tears. She tried to force a smile onto her face as she looked at Navi, then she would relent from her crushing hug to look down at Ariel, gently stroking the girl's cheek before she wiped away a few of her tears to try and make herself appear even a little more emotionally stable than what she was. "Y-you kids are... the most amazing people I've ever met..." Amy managed to push out as she bit down on her lip to stop it from quivering. She wasn't ready, not yet. She needed to get her thoughts in order, to make up her mind about everything that she was in. She desperately needed time that she didn't have and she knew it. But until she could do that, the hug from Ariel would suffice at keeping her stable enough to not break down into a crying mess in the hallway, but it probably made the situation even worse behind closed doors.

Slowly she would close her eyes and pull Ariel back into the hug, deep down hoping that she wasn't being overbearing on the girl... but she really needed the hug right now. "Thank you, all of you. You're all wonderful, a-and I don't deserve the love you've shown me." Sniffing quietly she nuzzled softly against Ariel before she finally let go and let out an embarrassed chuckle, wiping away her tears. "I-I'll get myself together for this mission. But... I would appreciate the company after we're done... thank you..." To think she was the one offering council and was now the one crying and relying on the kids for hugs to keep herself stable... it was irony in it's purest form. Then again, when she first joined she didn't expect the kids to make parts of herself surface that she hoped were long gone, or that she didn't even know existed. One thing was for certain though, this was a journey where she was sure to find herself at the end. Even if she had to take that journey one hug at a time.

Realist (NPC)

The Soldiers guarding the Circle of Hell will let the two Decoy teams in, happy to be 'relieved' of their duty to guard Realist. As for the Infilitration groups, they'd find themselves entering without major difficulties. All the while, they, as well as Blue Crow and his companions, were being observed by their quarry, the AI in question named Realist. For the AI had managed to interface with the remaining electronic systems of the ship without anyone's knowledge, and was now scanning the wreck's structure to see which parts remained intact.

Two-thirds of the ship was in reasonable condition, including the mess hall, medbay, cells, engines and secondary armory (primary one was blown out). All sections were patrolled by the remaining guards and crew, most of them having disbelieved in the Star Marines' existence before but who were now happy to see them. Realist mused that desperation made them ignore any sign that the Star Marines were disloyal rebels now. Either way, both Decoy and Infilitration teams would have free run of the ship, which included access to, or easy trespassing to, the sections which weren't the cells.

Where will they go to?

Armory (PMs to DarkTrioJake and dragonpiece)

(Info has been PMed)

Mess Hall (PMs to KingChaos, Man-Emperor, and Starlance

(Info has been PMed)

Medbay (PMs to Landaus-Five-One)

(Info has been PMed)

Cells (The Jest)

(Info has been PMed)

Engines (Man-Emperor, JDH97, and KingChaos)

(Info has been PMed)

---

(( Note: Time in this post is relative, so whatever happens in this post does not mean it is happening at the moment for other players ))

When he mentioned he was laser focused on this group of lying Star Marines, he meant that. His ship made beeline towards Plenty, pretty much in hot pursuit of the Xuanzang. Though given the time he had allowed these kids to take initiative, by now they would definitely have arrived and possibly doing what the hell they wanted to do there. He might have been too late to reach there personally, but thankfully, some of his men are there, so his one hope of subduing these Star Marines was all on them. Or at least gathered as much data on them as possible. By now, he only knew those two brats Ashton and Flame onboard, along with Natasha. But who knows which star would also shine bright in this whatever justly ideologues they are imposing. Could it be Trajen, the famed sniper that went AWOL from the army? It would suck to see such talents working for demagogues. Or other Star Marines. These ankle-biters tend to go in groups. If there is a Star Marine 'leader' of sort like that one kid wounded up in this too, chances are there would be loads of his followers on it as well. But much of it were speculations, and he shouldn't go too far with it, lest he forget real actual facts.

"Permission to speak freely?" Carina quickly broke the silence, while still at their individual posts. "Alex, you seem to know more about those child soldiers than you are. Just curious, how many more of these individuals are out there?"

Alexander pondered for a moment, sighing as words left his lips. "Couple of hundreds, anecdotally, pre-war. Who knows how many of those facilities are out there. And how many of the kids are left after."

"So you did see these facilities?"

"Yeah, I even went in. Unfortunately the extent of these facilities are very much limited and sanitized for my visit. The chief scientist probably wet his bed when I announce my arrival."

"Wait. I thought those are classified. I couldn't request entry if I wished to."

"I kinda abused my Admiral's position. And seeing that I was making a fuss about not letting army generals know the details about their own troops that they would be assigned, they relented."

"Jeeeeezzz." Carina turned around to give a mixture look of bewilderment but with the knowledge that this is exactly the type of thing Alexander would say. "For a fascist dictatorship, it's borderline insubordination what you did."

"And that's politics, my dear Carina." Alexander merely shrugged as he let out a laugh. "But I only see what they want me to see. But that much is enough already. These kids are potentially very dangerous."

"That's why these scientists want them, I guess." Carina sighed heavily as she was quickly reminded of her. "I don't wanna see what happened to Sarie again."

"Sarie..." Alexander rubbed his eyes before applying lubricant drops he had readily in his pocket. He shook his head firmly. "They better not."

He would not let that happen. Not under his watch.

"I'm gonna go down to Plenty as soon as we arrive." He said.

"Sure." Carina just nodded. It was probably unnecessary, since he could very well send in an experienced ground officer for inspections, but considering Alexander had already expressed personal interests in these Star Marines, there's no way in hell he wouldn't be directly on the scene. The smells, the sights, the sounds, the senses. Everything is just more vivid when in person. And most importantly is personal control. When in person, it felt as if everything was in hand's reach, that he could let go what he needed to let go, and grip what needed to be held. Because if it really came down to it, it would not only be his duty...

It would be his personal responsibility.

---

---

In the midst of the fighting, Samuel had watched everything unfold. The fighters pulling away from the ship, to the larger ship their team had left to deal with the people on the bridge. Samuel saw his sister try and help Amy, and Samuel scoffed in his head. Amy should be the one who is there for them, but when they need her, she falters. Samuel lets out a sigh as he lets those thoughts leave his mind, maybe she didn't know the full extent of her power, he wished she would have tried, yet it seemed in the little situation they had, the others had made contact and had fooled the Ascendancy. There, Samuel had dropped his magic, knowing he didn't need to keep up this field, though not too tiring, it was annoying to do while making sure he didn't fry the ship's systems.

Iris was relieved that talking to Amy was enough to get her going again for now. With that, Iris waited for her to broadcast her message to the other ships. Iris was hiding this anxious excitement about finally using her magic again. The last time was at Proxima and let's say that she didn't really have a good time at that fight. Right as Amy was going to release her magic, the fighters came back through another ship, making this message unnecessary. Iris slumped back into Samuel as all that stored up tension released quickly with no payoff. Now she just felt sluggish. Iris released her magic and turned to Amy to see what she was doing now. Iris could see she was relieved that it was over and that she was heading over. As she gave the hug, Iris had a hard time resisting Amy's hug. She did give in and hugged her fully back to try to celebrate with her a little. As Amy left the communication room to tend to her headache, Iris had an odd feeling as she came off as someone who would usually not let a headache. Whatever the case, Iris turned to her brother and smiled towards him, "You did great Samuel!" Iris ruffled his hair for a bit before getting off of him, "I should check to see if anyone needs some fixing up. Want to come with?"

Samuel threw a smile to Iris when she turned to him as she congratulated him, he sent the sentiment right back at her, "You did great yourself". As she hopped off of him as she asked if he wished to come and greet the other, to which he responded with a "Sure". As he got up from his sat as he grabbed her hand as they started to head to the hold where they all are. As he began to say hello to everyone who came back, to see each of them and how they fared. His eyes scanned each person, Tarak was fine, his suit was slightly cut but otherwise fine. Nero came back with a new toy and some released tension. Finbarr seemed like his old self. Yet Narvia came out a wreck as he saw her with enough burns on her to look like she had stepped into a microwave and decided to wear a tin foil mask.

Iris locked hands with Samuel as he grabbed it as they head to the bridge to see the people. She saw that almost all of the fighters had returned unharmed. Then her eyes had landed on Narvia. She was badly burned and seemed to be running on adrenaline. Iris pulled Samuel along with her as she made her way over to Narvia. Once she got close Iris did a quick assessment of her injuries. This wasn't to check how she should be healed but to try to understand what happened on the Arkeim Razor. Seeing the plasma thrower Iris had to assume that there was a pyromaniac using a fucking plasma thrower inside the bridge. Always a good idea to use it when he could melt screens and possibly any number of important instruments. Well, whatever happened doesn't matter at the moment I need to heal her. Iris spoke lightly, "Hey Narvia, hold still for a second and I'll get you looking all pretty again." Iris reached her hand out to an unburnt part of Narvia and gently laid a hand on her. The feeling Narvia felt would be a bit overwhelming at first as all the pains and aches she felt after the fight would vanish as if they were never there. The burns were all gone and not even a single scar to show for it. It is as if she never got hurt in this fight. Honestly, this magic can be a bit intensive if a lot is gone. Luckily she was just burned, technically not much was missing. Iris backed out of the group now having done her job as a healer.

Samuel followed Iris after everything was said and done. He knew nothing that happened on the ship, but he knew enough to get the sense that Narvia was caught in something dumb, she was the only one who had any injuries, well really she was the only one who seemed to have seen action. Either she went in and fought everyone by herself or, the likelier option, she was caught up in something she didn't see coming. Yet he wouldn't hold it against her, there are things they can't control, so he just shrugged it off as bad luck, as he now focused on just relaxing. They still had a long ride.



Iris was pretty relaxed after the battle. She was still running around to update what people look like that way If any of them got injured she could help out. Amy was the exception to this rule though. Iris could tell that she wanted to be left alone and Iris frankly didn't want to force herself in unannounced. However, Amy's disappearance from the ship stuck in her mind as it was part of her job to see people. Slowly, thoughts of what Amy was going through started to weasel their way into Iris's mind even when she was off duty. Iris looked for distractions to keep her mind going in other ways. She looked at fashion, watched YouTube, And even read articles about stupid things like chihuahua being rats. The last one she'll choose to buy into though. After all this thought Tarak gave out our roles for the mission. Iris was just happy that she was going to be able to play an important part in all this. Working with Nero was new but hopefully, it will be fine. Tarak also asked her and Samuel to make some mini blackout zones. A project was a good distraction for the bit of guilt she was accumulating by leaving Amy alone. She worked on the design for around a day and came up with an innocuous steel box with magnets on the inside so it could stick to the walls of the ship. With that out of the way, she went to her brother to see if he was up to enchanting the box with her.

Samuel had spent his time doing little things around the ship, he cooked, cleaned, and did many of the more basic menial labor. He didn't think much on the previous mission, may it be the fact it was just so simple? Probably. The mission required little to no of his attention, and the afterthought was even less so. The only thought he was left with was the fact he had very little thought in the abilities of Amy. She froze up right from the get-go, sure the ship was getting attacked, but to freeze up because of a few potshots just seems stupid to him. Maybe he just not being considerate enough, but she chose to go against the government of humanity. And most beings know of the very hideous things they are willing to do, so to come here half-hearted just doesn't seem like something people would do. But who knows? Samuel is just doing his own thing as then he was approached by Iris to help make a magical EMC jammer. He was more than happy to help, honestly, something like this would be fun, combining magic with Iris is always an extremely fun thing to do, that is how they made her gauntlets and Greeves, so if this turns out well, they might be keeping these for other operations. However more than that, he is really happy to make something with his sister. So he went and sat at their desk so they could work in the comfort of their own room.

"Alright, Lets get started!" Iris said to Samuel as she pulled a second chair to their desk. The basic physical mechanisms for the EMP have been made so now it would just be Iris and Samuel talking like normal. The size and lack of complexity made it quite an easy task. "So Samuel, have you made better friends with anyone yet?" Iris knew that Samuel's tendency can cause a bit of an issue when it came to friends.

The creation of the EMC jammers was of little trouble, and honestly of little importance. What he wanted to do is do something with his sister, and this makes for a great excuse for them to spend time together. As it seems Iris made the first move as she asked him a simple question he had no real trouble answering, "No, I haven't really made the effort. What about you? Have you became closer to anyone?" Samuel didn't really think much on the topic, they only knew the crew for a few days, and were sent on a mission almost immediately, so socializing was not really on the to-do list for Samuel.

"Eh, not in particular. I have to go around and see people as part of my job but those are little things. If anything, I'm just getting better at talking to them in general." Iris pulls out some snacks for them as anytime is a good time for snacks. "Working with Nero should be pretty interesting though. I am a little worried that I won't be able to stay stealthy though. What about you? I know you're much better at stealth than me but do you think you are Nero stealthy?"

"Mm thank you", Samuel says as he grabs some of the snacks Iris provides as she speaks. She brings up the idea of working with Nero, honestly, Samuel is interested in seeing Nero work, he is just concerned if he'll just drag Nero down. As he hears Iris has a similar fear, "Honestly, I don't think I'm as good as Nero, I think I'll do okay enough. I just hope he'll be taking the initiative in the stealth and going ahead of us". After saying this Samuel gives a small chuckle because of this.

Iris feels a bit less worried that Samuel is also concerned by Nero's stealth ability. As she listened she downed like an entire Twinkie without thinking. "He probably will, I think he is aware of how ninja-y he is." She went back to work for a bit and then back to talking to her bro. "Is it cool if I get a subscription to a few things? They are absolutely essential, promise." Iris leaned on her brother, upping her cuteness in an attempt to stay under his radar.

As they talk and work, Samuel found himself in thought, thinking of how the plan could go. He ate a few things as they worked as he heard Iris speak again. There he heard words that fired off a near-automatic response, "What are the subscriptions for?" Samuel had lived his life with Iris, she always pulled the same trick, talk to him, does something with him for a bit until he was distracted, and then go and ask for something. He has never once failed, as he had always stopped her from buying the dumbest of things, like when they were given some credits from their officer to get what they wanted from the local planet, there he stopped Iris from buying into money rats who were trying to sell Iris on a get rich quick scheme. However, even after all of these things, she still wanted to buy more nonsense.

Fuck. That response was so quick and so on point that it felt like she was just punched in the stomach. Iris turned to her brother and sat on Samuel. "Well, you see, it's stuff for us to have fun with. So what do you say, can you do it big brother?" Iris pulled out the big brother card a strong card. Mix that with her sitting on his lap, Iris was sure she could get his credits out of him.

Samuel was waiting for this move, sitting on his lap and acting cute, yet even with expecting Iris to pull out this. He was not fully ready for the 'big brother' card. Yet as he tried to stop, he felt his defense waver as he looked away and said, "Okay if that is what it's for I suppose it wouldn't be bad". Samuel knew he should have had more spine, yet he just couldn't keep hold when Iris pulls out all the stops.

Iris's slightly pouty face changed the instant she got the okay from Samuel. She put on a big smile and her eyes gleamed with excitement. She started to hug him and tug him around a bit, "Oh! Thank you thank you thank you. I promise it isn't for dumb things like usual. They even say they got 100 billion members so I'm sure it isn't a scam!" Iris grabbed her multitool and started to go to Netflix to set up an account, showing Samuel. She also got a Roku, Hulu, and Disney+ membership. "Now we can have movie days!", Iris says as she gives her brother a hug and some cuddles. As they went back to work she activated stage 2 of her plan of setting up her personal subscription services. They were magazines and things for adults like weekly digest or the cosmopolitan(not that way). And last but not least, the galactic swimsuit catalog. Iris has been needing swimsuits for a while and she thought it would be a good choice. After all, the magazine says it curated only the finest models for their high-end swimsuits. She didn't understand why the finest models were needed but that’s okay. Hopefully Samuel didn't see this or he might start mumbling to himself again.

When Samuel heard the first bit of glee, he was happy. Until she said something about 100 billion users, his suspicions grew as he asked to see what she was buying, there he saw some of the most basic subscriptions. He sighed as he thought something crazy was going to happen, as she exclaimed about having movie days, and honestly, that doesn't sound too bad. Yet as he worked he noticed Iris making a few other purchases on her Omni-tool. He wouldn't bring it up, he knew she wanted some other things, so he thought it'd be fine, after all, a magazine subscription or two wouldn't be bad. He just hopes this won't become a constant thing, and he hoped it isn't too expensive.

Iris started to scroll through some of her new fashion magazines, showing Samuel and hoping for his honest opinion on how she would look in them. Iris wasn't ashamed to show some of the more revealing clothing to her brother. In fact, She hoped he would get extremely red. Most of the revealing stuff she wasn't considering but it was fun to act like she was to confuse him. come on little brother, BLUSH!

Samuel had been working as Iris was scrolling through her Omni-tool as she asked for his opinion on the clothing she was looking at. He saw multiple very revealing clothing, as she was asking his opinion on what he thought. Honestly, he thought she would look good in it, however, he felt really weird with the thought of her being in these, as he started going red as he said while looking away, "I think they would look great on you". He couldn't control his blush, but he can control his voice and how much she can see his face. He doesn't know what she is thinking but it seemed strange that she would choose such outfits.

Once Samuel started to turn his head away Iris started to get a really smug look like she one. VICTORY! After winning she stopped teasing her little brother and started to take their work seriously. She stopped talking to Samuel for at least an hour as she was working hard trying to push through the repetitious nature of making the mini-EMPs. Nearing the end of the construction period, Iris's lack of action with Amy came eating at her thoughts again. She would have let them pass on their own but she didn't have to. After all, her best friend was in the room with her. "Hey Samuel, do you think Amy is doing alright?" Iris's face looked as if she was in some minor discomfort.

Once Iris seemed to finally get back to work, Samuel took this time to focus as well. He was used to making magical gear, making his weapon, making Iris', and making many others for the Ascendancy, he was used to menial tasks. Yet after a good little bit of time, the silence was broken as Iris asked something odd. Samuel tilted his head as he thought, I don't think she is in any pain or distress that I know of. Maybe something came up and she is just caught up in it. Samuel was trying to build some understanding on the situation as he looked at Iris as he sees she looked discomforted like she did something wrong, yet he didn't know much about the situation they had together, so he'll play it safe, "From what I can tell, she might be going through something, but I think she's alright overall. After all, she did do alright after your little pep talk, maybe she is just recomposing herself before the mission". Samuel didn't know much on Amy, her strange aura didn't make her very appealing to approach, Samuel felt off about her, but this could also be the fact she looks…different. But that is his own problems, he isn't one to force how he feels on to others, he is just hesitant near Amy, she seems too weird.

Iris sighed out and looked towards Samuel, " I don't know, she didn't come to see how the boarding party was doing after they got back. That and I haven't been able to see her the last few day has me concerned to say the least. I know that she may have been shaken from the first fight but you know…" Iris looks like she is trying to put her words back in order to properly convey her discomfort for the situation. "Bounce back? Yeah, I thought she would bounce back from her mistake and return to that cheerful person she had shown us. I can't help but worry that she needs someone to comfort her right now…" Iris slumped back into her chair and continued talking to Samuel, "But your probably right Samuel. I'm probably just overthinking the whole thing." Iris sat back up and started to work faster, an old habit she got whenever she went against her gut.

Samuel saw as Iris seemed to look like she slowly seeps into her own fears. Maybe Iris was right, maybe Amy needed someone to talk to, however, what if she didn't need to talk to anyone? What if talking only hurts more? Samuel didn't wish to put them both through struggling with now even more painful emotions, with the ideas of weakness and the inability to help. So when he saw Iris quickly get to work and even go faster than normal, he knew she was going against her own gut feeling. Yet, Samuel stayed silent, knowing this had to be the best option.



After collecting together to get ready before the operation is to begin, Samuel finds himself at the precipice of the begging of the end. He is about ready, he's all geared up with his weapons, equipment, and he will be giving the EMC jammer to Nero, because, well, Samuel is able to use his magic to do the same. As he sees Nero takes the initiative and stated exactly what he expected. Nero would be using his skills to go ahead and clear a path, as Samuel and Iris will be going and acting as support. Samuel saw this coming, honestly, he was more than happy to take the job, as he is more than ready to use his magic to help, and honestly, leaving the job up to the professional is more than up Samuel's alley.

Everyone gathered before the mission. They already distributed the mini-Emp's all that's left is to go off on the mission. The guilt for not trying to check on Amy had entered remission. That was until Iris saw Amy with a noticeable change in her mannerisms. At first, Iris thought this was do to Amy's efforts to steel herself for this mission. That analysis didn't hold for long as Iris started to notice some of the signal of distress she was giving off. Iris wanted to go over and try to help but she just couldn't find herself to distract herself from the mission. She forced herself to focus on the mission. Then she heard a dull thud coming from Amy's general direction. All that focus she had built up went away as Iris whipped her head towards Amy to see what was going on and she could just see Amy struggling. Iris was about to head over when Avelyn started talking to her. This tempered Iris as she continued to pay attention to the mission. She noticed Ariel even go comfort Amy. Iris felt relieved that more people were there for her but she couldn't help but be dissatisfied that she wasn't. Iris swore to herself that she would be there for Amy when they got best. Now she just needed to focus up and get it done.

In terms, Narvia did notice the nurses and medics see the three of them. She smiled kindly and waved at them. When the Chief Medical Officer spoke towards them, she continued with her happy smile. ” I only have a calming spell.” Narvia spoke kindly towards the Chief Medical Officer. However, she did agree with his sentiment about the scumbags on the top using children. It was a dreadful thing, which didn’t matter now, and it happened cannot cry over spilled milk in her mind.

When Flame turned to her to ask with an emphasis on please, to activate Flowered Ground, her calming spell. She was always the most thoughtful of others as long as she needed to be. ” Alright, Flame, I will activate Flowered Ground.” Narvia said with a kind smile on her lips. Her body started to glow with the High Magic school’s pure white magic, and a protective barrier starts to spread out in a 4.57m radius around her. As well, it has Silverlight flowers sprouting everywhere, always in bloom. ” It’s up. Hopefully, the calming nature of it helps your wounded, Chief Medical Officer.” Narvia said with a smile.

Narvia can tell that Flame isn’t enjoying her choice to go into the medical bay. Thankfully, she’s perfectly healthy and has no injuries, so it’ll be more manageable, all thanks to Iris. She tries to keep her eyes on the Chief Medic, and the others in the room worried about their injured. ’ I’m sorry Flame. But it was one of the few options I had… I didn’t know there were these many injured in the Medical Bay. I should’ve thought more carefully about choosing the destination, in all honesty.’ Narvia thought with her left hand on her chin while keeping Flowered Ground up. She had no behavior to deem under wise since she doesn’t want to kill any injured people because it is against her honor code.