Anarion

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

“Oh…gosh” Pia says out loud, as she flushes. “Oh gosh, oh no I’m causing an international incident! They didn’t mention this in my classes and none of the other Zaldarians were this strict!” She hastily signs <I…didn’t learn the whole culture in my classes. Please forgive me, I did not mean to offend. I can…write? Is that like a translation geist? We’ll sign and then I can use a mesh to write your words on a screen. Would that serve?> She pauses, wipes her hands on her sweater. <I’m very sorry. Is this…normal…have I accidentally made…advances on other Zaldarians?>

She doesn’t speak that last part out loud, but she’s blushing incredibly red and both Anna and Pietro are looking at her. Anna is stifling laughter and Pietro has a grin that he can’t quite keep down.

***

Isabelle

A little time after your training is done, you’re met by Matty, one of Mirror’s followers who’s working at the Hangar. She was the one that seemed easily embarrassed at the party, but she’s also dressed as a mechanic and looks very much like she’s on a mission as she comes to see you.

She marches right up to you, hands at her side. “Hi, I need you to invite whichever of your siblings might help us to come meet me tomorrow at Trosta’s Arms and Armor on Akar II. We need at least one of them for our plan, and I don’t know who would be best or how to get them there, which is what I need your help with. We’ll take care of the rest from there.”

She’s trying to sound very confident, though she doesn’t project herself the same way that Mirror does and she’s got her paws clenched as she’s speaking.

What do you say to her?

***

Dolly

“I feel like maybe you will think less of me. But…I simply want things.”

She sighs and ducks under the doorframe, being very careful not to bump you, Dolly, as you go in. She doesn’t set you down though, she’s enjoying herself as you start looking for list items.

“My last name is Antonius. One of the two great families that formed the Terenius Consortium. But I’m from a backwater planet, and I am not a child of that family. I was adopted into it. My home is called Valor, and it is not so far from your space. But it’s not right next to it either. It is a stopover. Not so large as Shiki, nor so fashionable. Not directly trading with your people, but not close enough to the capital to be truly valued. Right in the middle. When it was named, everyone thought that it was for brave explorers, but I think now it is for the bravery of the people who choose to stay.”

She kneels down so you can look at a shelf (without being let off her back) and confirm that she’s selecting the right parts to be sent to Jade’s idol.

“So, my wish is for things for my planet. Enough to become the greatest manufacturer of the latest generation mark 3 mechasuits and interstellar trade vessels. It is a selfish wish, for my people over other people. Ada chided me for trying to make such a thing happen alone in my last fight. But nevertheless, that is it.”

***

Mirror

Though you may not realize it, you have, through support and planning, squared away a great many things. Matty is out on her mission, her wish a special secret she will not share until she succeeds.

The crew is hard at work on the Whip shaping it to be ready for your battle with Marcina Villajero. They know what repairs to make, have an ample supply of equipment and parts, and have yet to receive any uniquely special instructions

Requests to Mayze are, for the moment, as sorted as they can get, and Slate has seen to it that the food and drink stores are replenished with a variety of sweet and salty flavors that might suit your whim if such a whim takes you.

And as for the rest of your assorted followers and hangers on, well, Dolly is out shopping. Kiriala is also out shopping, though strictly for her own luxury goods, she insisted after her elimination with Isabelle that she had some special jewelry to find and bring home for her crush back on Hybrasil. Isabelle should be presently meeting with Matty to get that rolling.

So, for a brief and blessed moment, you and Slate are entirely alone with nothing pressing on you.

“So, should I take my clothes off now?” she asks with a wink?

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Mirror

“You know this isn’t my strong suit, boss-” Slate starts to say, but cuts off when Matty raises her hand very high. Slate looks at you, back at her. “Uh, go ahead sweetie.”

Matty blushes and when everyone looks at her briefly goes mute even though she asked to talk, but then she takes a big gulp and starts going. “I um…I think if Isabelle helps, just with an invitation, I could help. I still have space at Trosta’s so it will be weird but not suspicious weird, like the normal kind of weird. Or the weird kind of normal? Like [Watching the visitor taste of new cuisine at a faraway land’s hunt]. “But if we get them there, I think I could do it. I felt like…um, like Isabelle is maybe a bit like me sometimes and if her siblings are all under the same mother who’s like you talked about her, then I think, maybe they’ll be like that too. So I can talk to them and try and I think I can do it.”

Having poured out all her words for this bit of persuasion, she instantly blushes even brighter as she waits for you all to say something.

***

Solarel

There’s a flurry of action. Your lunch is finished, and Anna pulls out a small electronic card that she briefly gives to the woman serving the food, who runs it through some sort of electronics with a primitive geist that makes a number embedded with the card go down slightly, then hands it back to her, which is apparently the signal that you should all leave as Anna gets up and makes a gesture indicating she expects you to come with her.

You quickly find yourself in a small studio, just a couple blocks off the port. There does not appear to be any magic sword-wielders jumping out of the woodwork as you follow Anna. Further, Pietro is not matching her magic cape look at all. He’s wearing pants and a t-shirt and not much else. Notably, he isn’t wearing any shoes in the studio, which is unusual for Terenians in your experience, but this doesn’t seem to phase him, being a fellow that stands nearly as tall as you, with short hair and a neat mustache.

The studio itself is not large. There’s just the one shooting area, but if you have the eye for this sort of thing, you’d be able to tell that within the limits of the space, no expense was spared on cameras or lighting. The setup is perfect, the equipment has high quality lenses capable of any shot one might and that is physically possible to achieve in a cramped studio. You can’t tell what color the cramped studio is supposed to be though because every wall is draped floor to ceiling with massive cream-colored blankets for sound treatment to block out the noise of the port. This also means that you may find the space unusually meditative: quiet like the great fields of Rovig are quiet when the wind dies down.

Pietro just got off the phone, and he’s now discussing something with Anna, but he’s shouting so you can only hear his half of the conversation while you wait. “...can’t believe you took on another project! That’s…what…five this week? Are you going to do all the editing for them too? You need to sleep sometime Anna! Or at least try! Don’t…no…no no no, don’t look at me with that pout, don’t you dare. …I’m not…look, I’m not saying you can’t edit them all, I’m just saying that we both know you can’t keep this pace forever and then you’ll drop off the face of the map completely for days and I’ll have to get everyone together to pick up the pieces. …Can we just…yes this is a unique opportunity, it’s why I already called the interpreter before we did this. …okay you win, but just remember that the last festival said they don’t take submissions longer than three hours.”

There’s a brief pause, they offer you a soda, which is extremely sweet and otherwise has no particular taste. A few minutes later, the interpreter arrives. She’s a short, mousy sort of girl, brown hair cut to neck length and worn loose, and wearing a ribbed black sweater.

“Hi, I’m Pia” she says out loud, while making the hand signs for welcoming an honored guest. “How well do you understand Terenian? Do you need me to sign with my speech for better understanding, or should I just speak your signs for the rest of the room?” She says and signs approximately the same thing.

Anna is trying very hard not to vibrate herself through the floor behind Pia and Pietro is trying very hard to stand still and not sigh or close his eyes.

***

Dolly

Angela looks where you’re pointing and then hefts you over her shoulder without asking (but while carefully untangling your tail from around her) to wade through the crowd. “I don’t think I’ve heard all your history, actually, little cat. No, a Gardens you say? Do all your people take one of their names for their job, or did you just follow in the footsteps of your family until they found you had a more important talent?”
She considers herself as she gives you the bird’s eye view of the crowd (slightly adjusting you so that your butt is just over her shoulder and you’re looking forward and just a tiny bit down without overbalancing).

“You were there, through Jade. With the table I mean. You felt lit, saw it while it was happening. But then, it was mixed with so many things. I was just thinking about moving through the space, you know little cat? Don’t you go on ritual hunts, or were you too recently a Gardens for that? I’ll need to tell the people back home that only some of the Hybrasilians do that if so.” She laughs, her long low laugh, which you can feel vibrate through you view her strong arms. “But I move through the space with strength, that is what this body is for. If you make yourself strong and then you never think to use your strength, well what’s the point, ya?”

***

Isabelle

Asil definitely picks up on your point about Mira: “Mm, also consider, just…for the sake of argument, for speculation, doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, but maybe your mother was actually thrown off by all this? Maybe some of the contingencies she planned for didn’t happen and some things that did happen were way outside her plans. Maybe she’s just feeling off her game. Maybe she just isn’t coming up with a good move, finally feeling her age, that sort of thing. Maybe she got nervous and went to shore up that factory contract? I don’t know all this rich people stuff, but Adriana is the President of all of TC and a champion mecha pilot. Isn’t it possible that the Lozanos are actually the ones that have more to lose if they strain that relationship too far?”

She gives you a look that you don’t see over the backrubs. “Anyway, that’s enough speculation, isn’t it? You’re nearly done with your ice cream, and I’m done with mine. We’ve done all our maintenance, and you’ve got a lot of your schedule freed up. But you should still train, don’t you think? What kind prep do you think you can do against Solarel?”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

She gives herself a bump on the forehead with her own palm, which makes her hair bounce. “Ah right, ugh I’m dumb, so dumb, most of you don’t speak, I learned about that. Ugh, that was…yes, that was a yes, right? You look excited!”

She runs through a whole emotional train here in the span of a couple seconds as she grapples with beating herself up and then realizing you’re enthusiastic all at once. Her face lights up when she reaches the end. “Okay, okay, can you uh…Terenians usually nod for yes and shake their heads side to side for no, like this.” She bounces and shakes her whole body as she moves her head, her long pink hair and her cape bouncing with her. “So uh, if you can nod then I’ll, uh, I can call my guys and we can do a thing. And, oh my gosh I haven’t even. My name’s Anna Maria Alvarez. I’m a film student, I’m making documentaries and I’m so excited to get to include a Zaldarian. Oh I’ll need to get an interpreter, I bet Pietro knows someone. Okay, so, well, can you nod first and then I’ll tell show the set and everything. And um, I’ll cover your lunch too, for giving me the time of day and everything. Thank you!”

***

Isabelle

Asil, now sitting and working on her own ice cream, gives you a long, considered look. “You have had a lot of trauma” she says after a moment. She takes a considered bite of ice cream, very slowly, lowering her spoon and carving out a nice round piece. The smell of coffee rises from it as she works at it and she enjoys that while she’s thinking of what to say.

“What you’ve said is very bad, but what you’ve described is not a person, not even a very powerful and wealthy business owner, but some kind of monster shadow who reaches all around the galaxy.”

She chews again, considering. “You should meet my bisabuela sometime while she’s still around. She’s 105, did you know? Do you know what she’d do to your mother if she got kicked out of her apartment? It wouldn’t be a lawsuit or some dumb plan to make the system work for her. No, she’d come find your mother and set fire to her room with her locked in it.”

Asil stares you in the eyes. She’s grinning, but she is entirely serious. “Do you think bisabuela cares about getting hurt too, or dying? Or going to jail? She’s 105, she could fall over anytime. She would be delighted to go out spiting anyone who touches a hair on the head of one of her family members. Don’t think for a second that only the reach get to have family, Lozano.” She emphasizes the name, a reminder of the importance of who you are while also denying that importance. A dare, a challenge, and also a protector, someone who’d fight and die for you if you become hers.

“Now, you’ll tell me that your mother would never let anyone get that close. That she’s perfect and monitors everyone and everything. That she’d be entirely comprehensive across the galaxy, right?” She stops and flicks your forehead all of a sudden. “Trauma! This galaxy takes weeks to get news from one end to the other. Even in TC space, you have to be somewhere and news only comes as fast as people move. She literally cannot get word of such a stupid plan any faster than it’s put into motion. But more important than all that. Than any of that is this. If your mother were really so powerful, so confident, so utterly in control, would she really be putting so much on YOU Isabelle? No. I know, trust me. You do that because you’re afraid. She is afraid that she can lose everything she has, that it’s really possible and she can’t do anything about it.”

And then she stares at you. She’s worried. Worried maybe she pushed too hard, but also worried about you, about how much hurt is inside you. She’s looking to see if she needs to stand back up and hold you.

***

Mirror

Whenever you return and have the time to check there are some notes for Mayze Serpaws. Some new orders from various nobles, including a member of the Hybrasilian military who had attended the party. Her name is Shiva Teuru Nine Dishai, she’s the leader of one of the largest huntress lodges on Hybrasil, an imposing lioness. She apparently found your designs intriguing. Though that one isn’t a rush, she wants it for use back home, not for a specific upcoming event, and will gladly take whatever timeline you offer.

Perhaps the most notable is a letter from Adriana Teresio.

To Mayze Serpaws,

You are a rare person. When offered an opportunity to curry favor from someone powerful and of vast wealth, you took a bold risk and delivered me something that could have made me very angry. Or perhaps something I might have refused and even sought to ruin your reputation for making. Many wealthy Terenians would have declared a vendetta against you for delivering a dress that drugged them for an evening.

I am thus forced to conclude that you are either extremely analytical to have correctly understood that I am not such a person. Or that you are willing to humble those in power regardless of what consequences may accrue to you. In either circumstance, you have my deepest respect. People of your nature are extraordinarily difficult to find in my position.

As a result, I will not sully your motivations with an offer of money or power. Nor promises that I cannot truly promise to keep given my political position. Rather, I simply offer you my personal contact. The enclosed comms channel can be used to contact me personally and directly at nearly any time (save perhaps if I am in a summit that prohibits any communication device while present). I trust you will either use it wisely or for an appropriate laugh before forcing me to replace it.

There are, of course, many more orders if you’re willing to open things to them, Mayze has no shortage of customers that would simply offer money, but these two stand out from the others.

***

Jade and Dolly

When the party is over, the crews dispersed, and everyone rested (with appropriate blackmail saved for Six Stones), the question now is what comes next.

Mirror’s request is outstanding, and you wouldn't want to miss the finals anyway, so nobody is permanently leaving Akar for the moment. On top of that, Jade needs maintenance anyway after Mirror had to carry her out of the Arena. The entire connection from the central core to the idol’s legs is completely severed and the crew is going to have to rebuild that from scratch, sourcing all new components.

Jade is also not the most patient mistress. She would like to be able to fly freely at any time, and so even though there is no match approaching, the crew are all working as fast as they can to get the idol fixed. In fact, there’s simply no technical staff to spare right now.
And that is why, Dolly and Angela, you find yourselves together in the bustling Akar port with shopping lists in hand and a long list of specialized electronics and neural mesh wiring to obtain.

“...do Hybrasilians always press-gang their highest-ranked pilots into menial labor?” Angela asks, eyeing you in a way that suggests she’s seriously considering whether to lift you up and carry you over her shoulder to better navigate the crowd, Dolly.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

This is nothing like Roevig. The street where you find yourself feels warm and close. The little table is a light, wooden thing in the shape of a circle, barely big enough to fit your bowl and a narrow tall glass with your tea. Steam still rises from the black lacquer of the bowl, and bits of some kind of green herbs and garlic and small pieces of noodle that were difficult to pick up are stuck to the bottom.
You’ve never eaten food like this. You could have on Akar, if you’d sought it out, but it’s not the mainstay there, and not what they bring Zaldarians by choice. It doesn’t taste like Hybrasilian cooking either: the herbs and vegetables don’t sit well with them, and some of the savory spices in these noodles would probably make Mirror gag.

You’ve never been in a place like this. The table is small because the restaurant seats its people so close together, waiters and waitresses expertly weaving their way between the tiny tables to serve the food. The low lights, tinted slightly reddish, make the space feel even closer and more intimate, as do the velvet curtains that cover the door. Only when someone new comes in is there a moment of white light that creeps into the space like a slash before closing up again. And yet there were so many places like this one. A street filled with little holes for any Terenian to duck into and eat, drink, or chatter if they can make themselves heard above the constant purr of background noise. None of this appears owned by any Empress, none centralized or in service of any knight nor lord.

You reached Horizon in a blind rush. Horizon, the name of both a system and its one habitable planet, stood for a long time as the edge of space for the Terenius Consortium. The Hyperlane to reach it was longer and the only exit point besides TC Prime led to a dead system with no useful resources and that still doesn’t have a name. The Consortium expanded to the galactic south instead, and only when all routes there were exhausted did they return to striking further out, eventually finding the Cerulean Belt beyond Horizon and coming into conflict with the rapidly expanding Zaldarians. But Horizon still sees itself as the edge of space, gazing out into the great unknown. It dedicated itself to making ships. Not mechas, but civilian ships for trade, transport, and exploration. Its shops fill with people, its ports bustle with trade. It is, after all, the gateway to the capital of the Terenius Consortium for the entire galactic east.

Five years ago, you wouldn’t have been allowed here. There are still very few Zaldarians at all, and equally few Hybrasilians. This is squarely in TC space, and it’s filled with Terenians. But you are allowed. The virtue of the Arena meant that raiding stopped and travelers, though rare, were permitted. The Aeteline received no more than a few low whistles at your arrival. Few people here know enough about Zaldarian designs to even realize the unique nature of the Aeteline. To them it just looks like a damn nice ship.

So you were a stranger but only remarkable as an oddity rather than a sensation. You moved yourself to one of the myriad of restaurants along this row, and you ordered the noodles that were the biggest picture on the menu, which they brought you along with hot tea. Sitting in this crowd with the constant rumble of conversation around you feels like being wrapped in a blanket of vibration and warmth. In that space, you devoured your meal before you had even known it.

As you stare into your bowl in reverie, you feel the lightning bolt of a very light tap as a Terenian girl sits next to you and tries to get your attention. Despite the heat, she’s wearing a red cape over her port jumpsuit, for no purpose beyond its look as far as you can tell. Her long hair, dyed bright pink and worn down below her shoulders, shines brightly compared to the room lights.

“Hey!” she says brightly, flashing you a Terenian smile that she’s probably hoping you’ll understand as friendly. “I saw you come in here, but I’ve never seen a Zaldarian tourist ordering noodles before. I know this is forward of me, but do you want to be in a movie?”

***

Isabelle

After the library, Asil insists on ice cream. Someplace smaller and deeper into the city of Akar Prime, further away from the port and out where there’s mostly just housing. People here all watch the matches, but they’re not catering to the pilots, and so when you go into Renaldo’s Scoop, you get simple ice cream and not fancy concoctions that someone is hoping will make it on camera.

When you’re seated, and with whatever is your favorite flavor, Asil sits behind you and massages your shoulders. Then she sits down with you and starts her own icecream, coffee flavor. “You know, since I met you, I keep seeing you how eventually come around. Isabelle Lozano is always panic first, then think of doing the wrong thing, and then figuring it out and doing what’s right. We’re gonna have to work on speeding up that cycle though.” She boops you on the nose with her spoon very gently.

“So…we’ve got time now and we’re way out of the way. So what’s the worst you think your mom could do if you stood up to her? Keeping in mind that you’ve already committed to doing all our cooking and earning our way as a mechanic.” She winks at you.

***

Mirror and Dolly and Entourage

[All Who Gather Feast After Hunting]. To always revere Grandmother Hunger, to give thanks for her reprieve, and to offer it to the pack. If there is such a thing, this was the origin of Hybrasil. To imagine the pack not as a static, tiny thing, but as a growing thing, gathered around the hunter, where those who are weak may feast with those who are strong.

Nine Forests, in her role as the head engineer and most in charge of Jade’s physical body, smiles a knowing smile that broadens to a grin as Dolly dances for the gathering and Nines gets to see the fruits of her own handiwork. In her heart, she thinks that this worship is something special for her as well because her paws worked in the name of her goddess to make it real. [Dolly takes a string on Nines.]

Six Stones, after her fourth drink, pulls her own shirt off and joins Dolly at the pole. She can’t help it. She’s always secretly envied her priestess. It’s why she teases. And in this celebration, safe and without worries for the next day (little knowing what Mirror will demand of her) she lets caution to the wind and grabs hold of Dolly’s collar and her wrists as she joins in the dance and lets Jade do what she will with such an impertinent worshiper. [Jade my take a string on Six Stones through Dolly’s entice on her behalf.]

Poor Matty Swimmer is wearing her little bell tonight just like Mirror instructed after their first meetings. After just one drink, she can’t keep herself from looking away but constantly glancing up at the dance, the blush rising in her cheeks to utterly consume her. After the third time she jingle jangles so loudly that she startles herself, she gives up any pretense and throws herself into Mirror’s chest, where she buries her head happily and looks for pets.

And Slate. Well, she’s certainly enjoying the show, but she’s not overcome. She sidles up next to Mirror instead, arms crossed, a smile on her face and a drink in hand, but with a face that says she’s thinking business. “So boss, you’ve got almost everybody you wanted, right? All the pieces lined up. The only one, besides Solarel herself, is the TC champion you met. Villajero. I watched her fight today. Outgunned her opponent in every way, but she let slip a little. She’ll change things up, but between us, I’m feeling a little reassured. The Ninetails has the firepower to beat her, even if that mecha of hers is [the beast who grew tall to eat the sun until Katchtenkirya tricked it into becoming drunk and spitting it out]. Just make sure you match her until you get your shot.” She sips and watches the dance, her other arm running over yours, her claw pressing on the skin to let you know she’s there as she runs it down through the fur.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

The Emberlight came through your match pretty well. A lot (really a lot) of nicks and scratches from all the space debris, but you avoided any of the sort of exchanges that would have ripped it open or thrown key components out of place. You can run a finger along the exterior and feel the rough texture of the metal, cold and strong, reinforced in so many ways, capable of withstanding the force of movement when you direct it.

So, compared to your last couple matches, repairs are a breeze. The crew checks it over and tells you everything is looking A-okay, and you go and enjoy a drink and relax with Asil.

It’s only two days later, when you and Asil are cleaning up the paint job, that Asil insists on running a complete internal scan. Because sure it’s not needed after the fight, but thoroughness is important. No reason not to run it and make sure that everything is in perfect shape.

And that’s when she calls you over with a “hey!” that you can’t refuse and you find the internal override for the AI assistant. It’s a small round device attached near the computing core just outside the cockpit, barely larger than your first. But it’s not supposed to be there, and it’s capable of intervening between the piloting controls and the mecha’s actions, changing or simply removing your control. Who knows when it got there. It obviously hasn’t been necessary for whoever was planning to use it. Nobody caused you to throw either of your last two matches. Or took over during any of your maneuvers.

This could be sabotage from Solarel, it’s certainly in keeping with her previous matches. You might have even heard about how she supposedly broke into the Hangar and did something to Mirror’s mecha that caused the power to cut out during their match. The mystery of how still hadn’t been solved on that one. Though, the latest reporting is that nobody has heard hide nor hair of Solarel between her matches since the final tournament bracket started. Not even her own maintenance crews or the former owners of the Aeteline.

Asil, on the other hand, is giving you a look that says she thinks the cause is closer to home and the Lozano hangar might not be a safe place to speculate. What do you do?

***

Mirror and Dolly

The return trip is surprisingly easy for all the mess you’ve made of the field. Mines disarmed, the route to the Hangar is illuminated. There’s a need for support of Jade’s idol, which cannot properly walk after the severing swordblow. Though the cut is so clean that this might as well have been an opportunity to redo the central wiring to the legs.

There’s ample opportunity to discuss payment immediately. Perhaps with Dolly firmly held in the arms of a powerful opponent because Jade’s cult is more than happy to allow Mirror to be the one to pull Dolly from the cockpit once the idol is secured.

And then there is time to relax. In private. Or with loved ones. Matty is ready to rave about how Mirror used her sword the second you prompt her that it’s okay (but she’ll be a very good girl and not say anything without permission until then), and many of the crew are ready with refreshments and relaxation on both ends. Nine Forests has a full report on Jade’s repairs and proposed design updates whenever Dolly wants to hear that too. This isn’t the party of the opening fights or celebration of getting into the finals, but every match matters now and they’re all big and important in their own way. Besides, from here on out, it’s a champion and then it’s…well, would it even be worth the run if it isn’t Solarel at the end?

***

Solarel

There is nothing and no one to stop your departure. But in the void between planets, it is not your mind but your body that gives out first.

Absorbing energy directly from the Aeteline can only go so long. It starts with a sort of itchiness under your skin. Then a feeling of stiffness, joints that want to settle and not move. You know this sensation, though it has been some time since you’ve really felt it with all the work you’ve done in Akar to stay constantly hooked into new plans, new work, new efforts. But your body is tired, it has cycled and released its energy so many times and even you, of all beings, cannot simply sit in a mecha cockpit forever. You need food and rest, a new source of energy, a chance to stretch and to properly sleep.

Will the Walker of the Mountain brave civilization in Akar? Or seek succor elsewhere?

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

“It’s not” Marna says as she attempts a dodge while still recovering, taking half the shots as they slice holes into her mecha, her breathing labored as she discharges yet another round of entry.

[Marna takes insecure in addition to already being hopeless and angry]

“You still don’t understand me, Isabelle. I don’t think I would beat Solarel. Besides her, I’m the best that Zaldaria has to offer. I’ve beaten pilots from Hybrasil and your Consortium. In war, and in the arena. And I still don’t think I would beat her. But I could try. I’ve got enough power, enough speed, enough defense that if I read her strategy correctly, I’d have a chance at winning. It’s possible, that’s what you need to understand. If you couldn’t beat me, it wouldn’t be possible for you to win that fight. But you have. If we keep going, you’ll either tear me apart slowly or you’ll close in and finish things with that laser dagger. So, I yield.”

She relaxes, but makes no move toward the Hangar entrance just yet. “You’re an incredible pilot, Isabelle. Winning or losing against Solarel won’t change that. You don’t need to beat her to prove you’re good. And you won’t stop being good if you don’t beat her. Especially, her! She makes winning about…about understanding, not skill. If you fight with her in an empty field with only blades, I’m sure you’d win. If you got to decide on everything in the battlefield, you’d win. But you don’t get that! You get an unknown.”

She pauses to breathe, then continues. “You’ve already beaten a champion. Don’t you dare forget it. If…if you need to win to prove you’re good enough, you still haven’t found the right reason to fight. Keep looking.”

[Take insecure as the final response to the fight.]

***

Solarel

The fight is over in less than a second.

You kick. The crab leg cracks the ground, pushing with intense force, balanced with the other leg through the intensity of your practice. Thrusters fire at maximum force, combining with the jump to carry you to Maelia faster than any crystal fire drive can move a mecha.

An ionic blade was precisely the right choice for this move. The intensity of its energy cuts through the shell created by the twin crystal fire drives. The strike is precise, perfectly targeted to account for the Supernova’s motion as it finishes the last round of firing. You pierce above the cockpit and cut off the control from the pilot to the power source. Emergency systems kick in immediately and the shield shuts down. The entire mecha shuts down in an emergency stop. You’re familiar enough with Hyabrsialian technology to know that from Maelia’s perspective most lights have gone out and she’s in free motion, bracing for impact, taking advantage of Hybrasilian eyes and instincts once disconnected from controlling her machine.

The Supernova drops like a rock, landing more or less on its legs and then falling backwards into the foliage.

Though your blade is unharmed, the interference from the strange energy has caused a slight decay on the front of the Aeteline’s upper chest where you got closest, and as far as both geist and nanobot are concerned, that small area of the body simply ceased to exist.

[Fight response: creating an opportunity for Isabelle]

Once it stops and settles, the hatch pops open and Maelia pulls herself out. She’s looking up at you and speaking unassisted, but with the Aeteline’s perceptions, you can easily understand her. “Thank you!” She’s saying. “I way overtested in space combat, this was incredible data for combat on planetary surfaces or on-station situations.” And you can tell she’s grinning.

***

Mirror

The jackals are defeated and lie around you. The combat space is narrowed and potential mine locations revealed. What is left last of all is merely the speed of the dancer who feels the nip of your blade and jumps into its embrace to score just one more hit.

How does the final exchange go?

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

“You know you might be throwing the match this way, right? Yeah, good. It would be stupid if you did it without knowing. But doing it while knowing…that’s good.”

She sends a signal for videoscreen, so you can see her directly. The image comes on, a very tall Zaldarian woman with drab grayish coloring that wouldn’t stand out in contrast to her personality. She’s smiling, and her head is tilted just a little.

“This is the kind of move that changes matches, and it’s not a dumb one. Sometimes you press your advantage and it’s exactly what your opponent expects and they’ve got an ion cannon lying in wait for it all along.”

“That’s how Solarel thinks because she fought in war, she was deployed to carry out the Empress’s will, win at all costs. There’s no trick or trap that’s beyond her and no reason to hold back from using them. Raiders are different.”

She flexes her shoulders up and rolls her neck, a motion lightly reflected in her mecha as it withdraws to a safe distance while she talks. This particular match has been a match of terrain and closing, and promises to remain as such as she recuperates.

“You have to think of us as playing a bigger game. We had holds with non-combatants at fixed locations, constantly being skirmished over in the border space. If I showed up and raised an entire colony to the ground because it made a good distraction to intercept a shipment I cared about, you Terenians would have escalated wildly in response to that. Every mecha for three jumps would have converged on me, maybe blown up my entire hold in response. So even if I got away personally, what would I get away to? It changes what’s possible when you’ve got something you’re protecting.”

She chuckles. “I’m pretty sure this translates, but tactics serve strategy. You know that sort of expression, right? You Terenians teach the same thing in your military schools that we Zaldarians teach from our graying elders in the wilderness. Our goal as raiders was to grow our holds: get enough resources for everyone, enough willing artisans and crafters and even farmers and builders to support the pilots, who protected them. Expand territory, eventually build up enough good people to go found a new hold in new territory. It’s how we leapt so quickly from Zaldaria to your borders, and the cats borders all at once. That’s not how the empress herself fights though, nor her great knights. And especially not a knight like Solarel, deployed so far ahead of everyone, all by herself in a newly manufactured machine of war. No constraints, no limits, no repercussions for her. Well…no repercussions until she lost the favor of the new empress and the old empress alike. Call it long-term repercussions. I wonder if she planned for that, planned for how her reputation would affect her life. I kind of doubt it, doesn’t seem like her style.”

“Do you know what she’s seeking now, though? I can tell you that. She wants Mirror, the Hybrasilian pilot. Wants to beat her, wants to capture her I think. You could tell from her big match with Mirror already, the one she lost. She hasn’t put anything near the resources she did for that match into anything else since. And there are stories about them among the Zaldarians, though they’re just rumors since she got banished and nobody ever got a proper account.”

She offers you a shrug. “I guess I didn’t really tell you how to beat her. But that’s what you have to consider. She’s not aiming at you or at me. She’s looking for the fastest, most efficient, tactically best way to get past us and get at her real target. If you want to beat her, use that against her.”

***

Solarel

She goes full burn chasing you, crashing through the smoke screens and doing her best to keep you in range, or just full burst after you. You race ahead of the fire, and stray lasers scorch the Aeteline, sending energy shuddering up your limbs.

[Take frightened]

Seconds pass as the chase continues, roaring past the edges of the fire and through the forest, laser blasts withering sections of trees and baking the earth. She does not explode in a massive core overload, but something is happening.

The Aeteline is shielding you, but whatever Maelia is doing, as she lowers her flight to chase you, it’s harming the arena. This was all built by nanobots, and where the supernova flies, it seems like they are breaking down in surprising ways. Parts of the terrain waver and shimmer. Animating geists within the system are being melted away and the laws of physics aren’t behaving properly, solids acting like liquids under forces that shouldn’t exist. There aren’t a lot of details because you’re both moving too fast, but she’s leaving a wake behind her and it’s tearing things up.

This is a little bit beyond you. The Zaldarians are much less known for their technological experimentation than the Hybrasilians or Terenians. But you understand that this is an effect of the drive. Of multiple drives. This, something like this, is the reason that multiple drives are not combined. It’s the reason that no manufacturing center, no god of any template is supposed to come out with multiple drives. The Aeteline was, as far as you were aware, the closest one could get, with as strong and direct an energy drive as could safely exist (and that arguable as to the safety).

By all rights, this ought to be happening to Maelia herself: she’s at the center of this energy, after all. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case, as she and the Supernova are maintaining the chase. She’s found some way to offload or counteract this problem, creating a zone of safety for herself. While that does mean that she is not experiencing core overload, there’s no way to know if this is simply a permanent state of her mecha, whether it has a time limit, or whether there’s some ongoing randomness to what she’s doing that could eventually catch up with her.

This does present a host of new tactical options. But even the sniper of the Kathresis who missed Akaithon’s head in the heat of battle by scant inches may want to have some care with this. If you manage to breach whatever protections she’s set for herself without stopping the drives, there’s a very real chance that Maelia could be killed.

***

Mirror, Jade, and Dolly

Your match is one of two getting major viewership at the moment, though you have no way of knowing this. Marcina has already won, and Isabelle has disengaged while the combatants speak. Solarel and Maelia are in a chaotic battlefield, and the two of you have engaged at close quarters, offering the most exciting moment to moment fight action. Everything is at high speeds and split seconds as you continue to press in melee and with point blank explosives.

Jackals are careening forward, ready to close the gap and assist their master as fast as they are able. Mines surround the position, and the whip, for all its power, is relatively locked in place, its range of safe movement limited to only a handful of vectors. There’s an opening to try and counter its assault with the jackals in play.

But those jackals are not as fast as the whip’s tails. Tail 2 is inoperable, but tails 1, 5, and 7 are active. And with this frenzied assault, tails 3 and 8 are ready to come online.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

“I…”

There’s a real hesitation from Maelia. She’s really thinking about that. About what it means to fight and win, what it means to respect someone, what it means to respect an alien. Maelia Dala, of all Hybrasilians save perhaps Mirror herself, has thought about this question intensely. Working at the forefront of unexplored space, as she has, she’s thought about all sorts of life-forms. In her mind’s eye have danced great space vampires that might feed off the heat of ships. Vast energy beings whose consciousness, unmoored by a stable physical point, might barely be recognizable to the bipeds of the galaxy in their metal shells. Has she forgotten what it means to see someone similar to you, but fundamentally different?

[Maelia adds insecure to her guilty.]

“...no. Fuck you.”

Then the moment passes. Or no, it’s not passed, it’s turning into fire for her. She tweaks some settings and turns up her power, forward shields eating your latest shot as she sends out rapid fire shotgun attacks from above you, too frequent and wide to entirely avoid. It doesn’t matter if she has to take hits to get there, she’s pushing double the energy that you are somehow. The air around the Supernova shimmers with its own pulsating energy. It reminds you of the feeling of being hooked with the Aeteline’s drive if you can imagine that being external to you.

“So high and mighty. But you don’t get to tell me what respect is and you do not get to tell me who’s got the superior technology. You think the state of the art stands still? You think I just sit on what I had, that the same things that won you the war will last you forever? You may be a demon, but I took my time to prepare my god in response!”

She’s attacking with overwhelming force, without regard to any damage she takes short of being knocked out. It’s a strain even to the Aeteline: if you stay in this position, she will overwhelm your defenses and disable your mecha before you exhaust hers.

***

Isabelle

You can blunt but not entirely stop an attack of this size. It’s an extraordinary move to do even that much. What should have swallowed you whole instead gives you space to swim, and by the time Marna herself reaches you, she has overstretched, forcing her to withdraw into the cover and focus on purifying her own mecha. This was, after all, an attack where merely weathering it put you at an advantage.

[Marna adds hopeless to angry]

“Listen carefully, Terenian.” Her voice is tired over the intercom. You know that’s an opportunity and she’s tipping her hand by speaking in this state, but that’s not the point for her. “You’ve shown you have the skill to plan a fight. That’s Solarel, that’s a piece of her. She thinks she’s different from the schemers of the Capital, but she’s never understood the border raiders either.”

She laughs, coughs slightly. “None of that made any sense to you, huh? Just listen. There’s a lot of ways to win these fights. But none of them are foolproof. You plan a good fight? You’ll eventually get a battlefield where you can’t prep. Just imagine how this would have gone if our entry locations had been right next to each other instead of across this huge debris field. No, what’s important is that you’ve got a way to stay in the game even when things are down. Doesn’t matter if it’s doing what you’re good at even better or finding an alternative, but these big fights, you gotta plan for the fleet that shows up at your back.”

And that is when the slow split missiles that she had embedded in the quiet wake of the debris wave, the ones that avoid scanning without strong heat or special momentum, finally reach you and proximity detonate, shaking the Emberlight and setting your teeth rattling with the impacts.

[Take Frightened]

***

Mirror and Dolly

Glass shatters and metallic dust billows aside as you meet. Camera drones are circling, and the crowds are gasping as you close and meet at high speed.

***

Angela (epilogue)

“I’m going to have to completely readjust my loadout for the next fight now. Thanks for that.”

Marcina carries the entire Barn Owl slung over a shoulder back to the Hangar entryway. You imagine that this is how Dolly felt when you were holding her like this. The proportions are very similar and you can feel the pressure on your stomach through the neural mesh where she’s positioned you to take the weight off your ribs.

She doesn’t sound sarcastic when she speaks either. It’s a sarcastic statement, she’s obviously trying to joke. But you know sarcasm and there’s no weird alien physiology things happening to get in the way of reading her either. She sounds genuinely appreciative.

“This is good. I didn’t think I needed to make changes from my setup last tournament, I had my focus on understanding my opponents and how I could beat them with the setup I had. Comfort and overall strength. But you exposed an obvious flaw with very little firepower. If you’d added a feint planned into that maneuver…hmm, well, no actually looking over the g-forces involved, if you’d gone any less than all out, I’d have been able to get clear without losing my sword. You needed something like a point-blank grenade I think, an immediate follow-up that would have blown us back apart with further damage despite the force we were both closing at. Then you’d have had the advantage at range against me with many more points of attack open to you. Well…doesn’t matter, anyone with half a brain’s going to pick that up after this fight, so I’ll need to make adjustments. Maybe a smaller blade with a holster so I can swap it with a rifle at will.”

Her attention was obviously drifting there, but she turns it back to you. “Great work, great match. Thank you!”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

She raises her arms, wrist shield flashing to life just in time for the shot, but even with that, there’s a sound of crunching metal as the impact presses her back, and for an instant, the combination of heat and pure kinetic force throws the entire Supernova off balance. In a situation like this, you’d typically estimate that the battle would be over. The target vulnerable, unable to respond to its own pilot, ought to be a death knell in a situation like this. You have an easy follow up for subsequent shots.

But…there’s a high-pitched humming and crackling noise and suddenly the Supernova is surrounded by coruscating white energy, animating its limbs and letting it move with a suddenness that throws off the follow up shot. It shouldn’t be possible to start moving again that fast. Her shoulder laser, previously fired in a shot-gun style burst, shifts position at the same time and sends a focused, long-range shot back at you, followed by several others.

“Not every Hybrasilian wanted to be in those fights, you know. Not all of them wanted to face a demon. You didn’t give them the courtesy of retreat though, did you? Didn’t ask if they wanted to be there, or why they were there. You struck most of them before they even knew you were coming. And now you tried to do the same to me. I didn’t think you needed to do this in the Aeteline. It’s one thing to employ traps and cunning when you know you’re piloting a vastly inferior machine. It’s another to decide you’re not willing to abide by any expectations of how pilots match skill. I wanted this to be a traditional fight! I wanted to see what kind of pilot you were! And you’ve shown me. And now I see that I don’t owe you any respect or reservation, Solarel.”

She maintains her altitude as well: the firing angle is better and makes it more difficult if you decide to dodge. It’s not that she’s overwhelming you, you’re still in an advantageous position to trade shots with her, it’s just that she’s fully embraced the style of fight you’ve offered, entirely dropping the standard Hybrasilian close-ranged approach that you’d expect to be more typical. And at least for a moment, this extra energy she’s somehow wielding is giving her a different edge, offering her a speed and unpredictability of airborne movement that can thwart even the Aeteline’s tracking and firepower as you trade blows.

[Maelia takes the guilty condition, and also seizes a (different) superior position.]

***

Mirror

Mirror, that effort with the sword lights up tail five. Only five, all by itself, adding it to one, two, and seven. The display bar cut itself short, reset. Maybe this is a modification of the program, or maybe it was always set up to have this sort of option? But either way, it feels like tail five wants a turn with the new weapon, and is jumping at the chance to do something.

Dolly, and Jade

Jade, or Dolly. Mirror’s made herself visible intentionally. That much is obvious enough. Whichever of you chooses to take physical control, you have this chance where you know her precise location and she does not know yours. She’s practically begging you to throw her your best shot.

***

Isabelle

“Oh that was a good one!” comes the shout. There’s an enthusiasm, but also a gravel to it suddenly. You’ve shown your position, after all, and filled her with energy. And she was already moving to boot. Marna grabs the largest piece of debris she can reach and flings it at your deflector that bounced the laser into her at maximum speed, crushing it completely.

But there are more deflectors, of course. Many more, full of tactics. But she’s already grabbing another metal boulder as she rushes. Flinging that one around as she banks. In this debris field, with the force she’s outputting, the throws not only strike your equipment as she finds it, but deflect and rebound and send other debris bouncing.

The Emberlight is many things, but it’s not the heaviest mecha out there. And what you’ve suddenly facing is the entire battlefield turning into an undulating, chaotic wave shifting towards you. Always towards you. Because Marna, for all her chaos, has your location clocked and she’s tracking you now as you try to move and reposition. Her throws are always with you in mind, building up momentum in the field to make the whole thing a chaotic mess. One block of jagged slag races just past the head of the Emberlight, and you’re forced to burn a shot on another that’s headed straight for you in order to break it up.

And as for Marna herself, though she’s rushing about madly, now changing direction, now burning hard and straight, she’s also working her way towards you, riding the wave she created, bearing down on you for an assault, changing to track as you try to flee and ready to intercept if you try to break out from the cover that the debris offers you even as it attacks you.

Tactics are all well and good, but you’ll need to do something to counter the overwhelming force being directed at you now.

[Marna takes Angry and wrecks the field in new and interesting ways to seize a superior position.]

***

Angela

Your plan was amazing. The Jormungar, for all its armor and shielding, does indeed need to do something about missiles. Missiles are dangerous and powerful and even Marcina can’t just eat the whole thing. She has to put energy into defense, has to subtly shift her movement to space out the impacts a little bit, and that gives you a chance. The autocannon fire focuses on the wrist joint, and the combination of the explosive heat and the sustained focus as you close breaks the shields, which can’t be concentrated that narrowly, cutting through the hand and the blade with it. The powerful laser blade blows clear of the tumble as the two of you close.

Oh yes, this one will go in the piloting handbooks. Absolute best possible use of resources available concentrated in a narrow time window, perfectly optimized. Nobody could find fault with the efficiency with which you accomplished your goal, and future students will view this maneuver as the archetype on which to base high-technical skill missile combat.

No, the problem is that the goal you wanted to accomplish is not what you needed to win. Marcina fires one additional thruster and suddenly the Jormungar is rotating at the same time as it’s charging. The kick hits you so hard and so unexpectedly that the neural mesh doesn’t have time to do the full reduction of energy transfer and you feel a sharp pain that probably means you just cracked a rib. Warning sensors blare, indicating that the pilot’s compartment has been compromised and is exposed to external fire. The blast from her own shoulder missile, fired point-blank, perhaps in a sort of salute to the superiority of your tactics, hits hard enough to send the Owl tumbling head over heels, and the compromised cockpit causes you to feel the heat before you’re pushed away, lightly singeing your hair and eyebrows.

Nor does she wait for you to recover and stabilize the fight. The follow up strike from her punch sends you careening into the ground, and then she lands with a foot against your back, pinning you in place (though mercifully, she did not further crush the mecha or cause you any bodily injury. She probably knows her hit could do that and held off just a hair once she had the superior position).

This fight is effectively over, though you’ve lost with queenly dignity.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Mirror and Dolly

It’s a simple enough matter to leave mines in an ally, though they’re on the heavier end of ordinance and the idol can only fit so many. Not enough for every back alley and city street, not even with the extra weight that jackals can bring. You’ll have to pick carefully and make some predictions about how Mirror might move.

On the other side, the presence of the jackals does create its own pattern. Spread out jackals can be slowly detected as one gets near them, and a picture of where multiple jackals are starts to paint a picture of where Jade has passed. If she doesn’t spring her trap quickly enough, Mirror may find herself the predator.

***

Solarel

“Goddess” she crackles over the comms, an intake of breath, a moment when the scale of what she’s facing has struck her and her voice has reacted ahead of her mind or her reactions.

The spear glances, deflected by your loose blade and her own reaction to the intense heat. Few indeed are the pilots that could see an inferno bloom below them and press into it with no hesitation. Even among the Zaldarians, most would find it too daunting to plow in headfirst that way, regardless of whether they could use the heat.

There’s a three move exchange. Stab, step, thrust to see if she can push through your diffuse sword. But the heat is intense and you can hear Maelia panting on the other end of the line. She’s kept the line open even though she knows you won’t speak directly, knows that she might be giving you an advantage.

When she can’t land something decisive, she fires a spread burst from her shoulder as cover and takes off, trying to rise above the flames and give herself some space to reconsider her attack. She has laser weaponry for short to medium range, and is prepared to continue firing if you immediately follow.

“Damn. Damn, you’ve barely been in the arena a moment. You must have had this plan ready immediately, before even knowing where I’d be? I guess you really have fought a lot of us. But damn, the scale of it. Solarel the destroyer. You’ve put a whole forest alight just for the opening move. I didn’t think big enough, didn’t think I could be immediately enveloped like that. Only one direction left, and I bet that’s your plan too. Well, let’s see if you’ve got the ability to execute on it!”

Do you press despite the risk of her advanced weaponry, or do you have another tactic in mind?

***

Isabelle

“I haven’t, but I plan to!” Marna laughs. “Heim would have you believe that the frontiers and the capital of Zaldaria are like different worlds, but they’re more like neighbors. We have our own holds, and as such our own rules, each of us the head of the family and thus the decider as to what that family is, what it covers. But we still follow the same rules, fight for the glory of the empress, follow the teachings of Zaldar. Most anyway. You Terenians never bother to pay attention until you’re hip deep in it. Zaldarian infighting isn’t the same as yours. We raid each other for sport and pleasure and it’s a privilege to be part of it: captor or prisoner. It took us a while to realize when we met you and the cats that it wasn’t that way for you too!”

“Quit stalling though. Here, let me make it easier for you. Or harder maybe. You’re going to earn this win if you get it at all. Anybody that touches the Aeteline has to prove they’ll do a better job against it than I would and you’re the first!”

She lights up suddenly. Obvious on even the simplest scanner, no need for nanobots. Maximum thrusters all power to them, and she sprints off with a blue flame trailing behind her. Not at you, no, she has no clue where you are. But she’s painted a target on herself, only she’s made it a moving target, one that’s hard to hit ducking and weaving and smashing through the debris with spikes and fists leading the way. It’s an interesting tactic. It’s not like her drive will fail and she’s got a fair shot of bumping close enough to you to find you if you just hide somewhere for too long without attacking. But that’s not what she’s expecting. She’s practically inviting you to start the fight with a red carpet here.

***

Angela

You underestimated her. You were already estimating that she’d crush you, but you still somehow underestimated her. The control that she’s displaying with a mech that size is ungodly. She leaps the crater, using the missile guidance that had brought them over her to send them back into the crater rim, and then she charges you. You fire your autocannons, but she effortlessly shifts energy into the shields for the volley and then back to thrusters as though she’s reading you like a book. With that level of control, she can make it go far faster than it should while defending, and as your second round of missiles signals that it’s finished reloading, she’s transitioning into a sweeping strike of her sword to force you back and throw you off balance. You have to nearly fall backwards to avoid the match ending in one hit, and she’s still advancing.