[b]Ember![/b]

Within the light of Mars it is time to discuss maps and logistics.

Liquid Bronze's fleet is on an intercept course. Five Imperial-era battleships, one modern supercarrier, and a support fleet of fifty smaller Warspheres, cruisers and destroyers. A precise tally of their resources is irrelevant; in terms of force applied to this problem their numbers are effectively infinite. That is not to say they operate without constraints.

First and foremost, they are the hunters and have limited ability to force an engagement. This means that Liquid Bronze has split up his fleet into twenty different battlegroups. Any one battlegroup might make an even match for the Plousios, but the cold Martian logic implies that a fair fight will cause so much damage to both sides and attract sufficient notice that the rest of the force will be able to close in on the damaged survivor. 
Secondly, they will be operating at the end of their supply tethers. Liquid Bronze, in a desire to settle the matter quickly, has only allotted space for two of his battlegroups to be resupplying at any given moment; that means the rest will be running lean. Any expenditures of exotic resources will be difficult to replenish in the field.
Finally, the political context is a limiting factor on Liquid Bronze's activities. That was how Dyssia's Pix originally escaped their own Decommissioning - the Biomancers do not have unlimited remit to disrupt inhabited and productive planets in their search for rogue agents, and the relationship with various sector governors may be strained. The death of the Crystal Knight is both a positive and negative in this regard; she was personally invested in your destruction, but she was also capable of reining in the Biomancer-General if he went too far.

The plan at the moment is to hide inside a star. This will not end the chase, but it will transition it into an advantageous defensive siege. This is a valuable delaying maneuver - Liquid Bronze's insufficiently supplied ships will not be able to spare the exotic cooling materials required to engage on anything but the worst terms. Given his impatience, it is predicted he will force an immediate engagement despite the risk, and a humiliating defeat will be valuable in destabilizing his position. And that is the only endgame that makes sense for this kind of hunt: against a foe with infinite resources it must become politically untenable to continue to the pursuit.

This means, then, engaging the battlegroup containing his supercarrier, [i]The Cancellation of Florence Nightingale[/i] directly. Damage to that glorious ship on the field of battle would be an affront to Mars; if it is to fail, it must be at the hands of a nightmare beyond the normal context of the battlefield. And so it is that you have decided to call on your divine uncle Poseidon whose terrible hooves shake the stars themselves. For this kind of blessing a rare and treasured sacrifice must be prepared. 

What do you have that is rare and treasured, Ember? (Hypothetically, would you describe yourself as rare and treasured?)

[b]Dolce![/b]

"Love, then?" said Artemis, again with a distant dagger-smile. "You think that's what it comes down to? I don't believe it. Not from you. You had love before this adventure began and you'll have love after it. Love isn't what sent you out your door. Love isn't what made you throw in with a renegade Princess and the God of the Dead. Love isn't what made you step into the Lethe, risking everything you ever were. No, Dolce, you give yourself too little credit - it's not anything as simple as love that drives you. Everything you are doing, every decision you've made, from the first day you left the comfort and safety of the Manor, was driven by something far deeper and more powerful than mere love. And though you don't [i]want [/i]to give up on your love, on your softness, on your sense of morality - I think what you're really hoping is that it won't be [i]necessary [/i]to do that."

Artemis leaned forwards. Demeter is in the background, smiling. To Demeter, Artemis is an ally. She doesn't see the knife even when it is this close.

"I can't promise that it won't be necessary to risk any or all of those things," said Artemis. "But what I can promise is that I will prevent you from sacrificing anything unnecessarily. If - and this is the only prayer I require - you tell me I'm right. You don't need to say what truly drives you," Demeter is tilling the soil, earth running through her fingers, searching for seeds. "You just need to tell me that you need to finish what you have started."