[center][h2][b]Ilshar Ard’sabekh[/b][/h2][/center]


Despite the somewhat dismissive shade in the Invictoid’s words, Ilshar had very little issue with what it actually said. Leaguer equipment was rarely subtle in the ways these kinds of deployment needed. That had been why so few in his units had taken trophies during the war; as good as that stuff looked, most of the time it ended up being dead weight. Not that the UCL did not have precision gear when they needed it, but getting a hold of it in working condition was a feat for those truly buoyed by the breath of the Nexus. For the time being, the coils of the spiral had favoured him with free choice from the Intransigence’s stockpiles, and he would not be one to complain about that. Odds were that in a ship like this they would have no trouble with organically interfacing technology. How long had it been since his last implant? Growth and decay renewed themselves in a healthy body, that was the example the cosmos had set for their kind.

Rasch being designated the unofficial leader of their equally scrambled unit, at least as far as the strange gealtirocht was concerned, did not sit badly with him either. Someone who had a clear head and good enough flow in the common-space language was good enough. A proper tarrhaidim unit would have been another matter, but this was the wider Expanse for you.

[b]“Easy there, that’s not how we work,”[/b] he chortled at the voidhanger’s maybe not unjustified caution. Perhaps shooting your way to the top was how the Intransigence usually did things. [b]“Keep running clear brain-fluid and I’ll be right behind you.”[/b]

The armoury itself, once they had reached it, looked quite decently stocked. If it could support a handful as heavily armed as their new support team, scarcity would have been a thing of the past. Ilshar ran wide-angled eyes over the group, lingering curiously on the drifting scielto and shifting a foot as he passed the hulking vrexul. The insectoid alone made the chamber feel crowded, even without the strange sensation that seeped from its celaderakan companion. Abyssal, perhaps?

What was certain was that what seemed like their leader was unimpressed with their human complement. Ilshar could hardly blame it.

[b]“The unaugmented… The body is a bud of the spirit, as they say where I’m from.”[/b] He strolled past the confrontation, shrugging amicably.

[b]“We will have to find our eyes in there, but I think ether will matter more than vacuum. I assume you don’t know any more about the currents in there than we do.”[/b]

Guided by his frontal eyes, he scanned the armory supplies as he spoke, reaching for the necessities. Vacuum-sealed membrane, respiratory sacs, what about Oneiric- Something caught his interest, and he forgot the rest of the room for a moment.

Seraphic Predator symbiote. He had heard something about their kind, mostly in his latter years in the Expanse. Those of Enthuur who spoke of similar things balked at them - too deviate, something that would mar one’s harmony with the Nexus. An instrument of heretics. And still…

[b]“Is it not all Its bounty, in the end…”[/b] Ilshar mused, whether to himself or his memories he could not be sure. Maybe attunement was slipping out of his reach as he hefted the ether-insulated capsule and looked at the writhing form within. But if he did not make it, very likely the whole dream of harmony would die with him, and the Worm Host could well make the difference in Sargasso. Pensive, he made his way to a table and began to strap off his vambrace armour, only halfway listening to what happened around.