[b]Mosaic![/b]

"Yes," said Hera. "It is. It is your fault when they look away. It is your fault when they fall. It is your inadequacy when they find happiness and purpose outside you, your failure when they come home with shared stories, and proof that you are unworthy of love when they love another. And this pathetic wretchedness will boil inside you, no matter your exterior glory, no matter the praise and reassurance you receive. The adoration of millions will feel as nothing compared to the loss of one, because the loss of one will reveal what the millions could not see."

She looked out at the polychromatic black. "To wear the regalia of control. To be unable to control the things that matter. It's enough to make you want to murder a child." 

She sighed, gently stroking the ox's nose. "In the end, I never escaped my father. I couldn't, not like Zeus. His was the form my anger took when it reached the breaking point. And you? Your parents were monsters too, in their own ways - the Emperor and the Assassin. The anger they left you with sleeps inside you still, though the Lethe washed it away."

She offers her hand, delicate beneath the jewels. "I cannot tell you how to overcome your anger. But I can show you the shapes that will inspire it when it comes."

[b]Ember![/b]

The storm descends. It is a miracle you survived.

You are far from the ship, your tether is severed, and the primary defense you have against the flock all about you is the cloud of frozen debris from those you have already dispatched. You are boxed in; they cannot come in, and you cannot come out.

From your vantage, you see the Reactor Sphere deploy.

Azura spaceships are modular, orrerys of spheres, different platforms for weapons, shields and armour. What comes now is an aspect of the Slitted; a secondary reactor that was close enough to a gravitation catapult to be launched at ultra high speed out to this deep space engagement. This far from a gravity well it maneuvers like a coral reef but it doesn't need to - all it needs to do is provide the tethers to empower the flock to engage in close range battle with your Knights. In fact, already plovers fly out with cable spools to revivify enemies already disabled.

This is the target. But how to escape the trap? How to strike?

[b]Dyssia![/b]

You land a direct ELF strike on the system defense Plover. It doesn't flinch. Too late you see the tether - too late you see the support reactor.

They changed the rules of the puzzle on you. 

Enemies that should be disabled light you up, blasting you from every side. Your tether is cut and the Plover jolts cold and still. You can see whirling lights as the Knights try to reattach you but they are far away.

Still, though, just because your machine is disabled doesn't mean you are. A Knight of the Publica, unarmed and dismounted, is meant to be the match for any Plover. Azura Doctrine would state that you would be the most valuable captive and most dangerous enemy, but you fought in an unmarked and ancient engine from the human empire and so the servitors here overlook you.

[b]Dolce![/b]

20022 looks askance. "Why, yes. You don't know the [i]Kneel Before The Victor [/i]Prayer? It's standard issue in the Service, a prayer to Mars that is answered with knowledge of how a particular battle concluded. Invaluable, really, it's very important to have things ready for a new incoming administration. I was going through it on the way here, and frankly it's a disaster - the Crystal Knight humiliated," he said this with an [i]especially [/i]neutral expression, "the Slitted critically damaged, the Imperial warship escaped with a crew full of rogue servitors, the whole population of Beri. This is a [i]regional [/i]issue now."

Despite the tutting and shaking of his head, there was the subtle impression that 20022 was pleased. Not at the escape, but because the escape meant he had license to get off Beri.

"Naturally, the Regional Director for Genetic Stability is Biomancer-General Liquid Bronze," he said. "A colourful figure, hero of the Avatara War. He's a rising star in the Skies, especially after the Pix fiasco unseated his main rivals. You'll like him."