12th April
11:40 GMT
"You still can't see through the walls?"
"No. But given what Doctor Mist was saying… Just waiting until the spell runs out of power is a perfectly viable option, if you want to take it slowly.
"
"Unless they're sacrificing the hostages for power."
"Ah-? No, that wouldn't work. Magic…
Short explanation: while magic energy is universal, unless they're tapping directly into the Dream, magic users are generally manipulating pre-existing structures using pre-existing power flows. Out here there's no system and no ready power source. Ritual sacrifice won't work because there's nothing to respond to it; you can't ritually violate arcane taboos which don't exist.
"
"You sure
they know that?"
"This wouldn't be possible without specific preparation.
"
"You willing to bet their lives on it?"
I shrug, though the armoured plates covering my shoulders don't move.
"There's nothing stopping them ordering their thralls to kill themselves anyway.
"
"Illustres Paul?" Koriand'r is looking back through the open hull towards the still-enthusiastically erupting Pluto. "Should that planet be behaving like that?"
"There was a theory that it had subterranean oceans. Depending on their chemical composition and location, that's certainly within the realms of possibility. If you want to see something
really impressive, I'll take you to the Rao system when we're finished here.
"
Major Adams shakes his head.
"No one's going to fire a giant laser at a planet for no reason. The hostages take priority, but we need to find out what that reason is." He looks at Lantern Khan. "There a good place for a command post through there?"
"Yes? Several.
I command from wherever I
am, and I need to be-"
"That's fine. Just take us to the closest."
"-
seen and
heard to my best advantage, that I may
inspire-"
Major Adams looks at me. I just shake my head.
"-my serfs-. I mean slaves-. I mean thralls-. I mean scum-. I mean
valuable employees-. No, wait, that's completely wrong. I don't even know why I said-."
"How about you go inspire them right now?"
"
Yes!" He
flies towards the closest doorway, a
construct butler forcing it open for him and a potted plant being thrown out by the air pressure shift and hitting him in the face. "
My people!
I come for you!"
Major Adams gives me a low-level glare as we fly after him, and I'm forced to catch the remains of the plant as it slides off Khan.
"
Why does that guy have a power ring?"
I repot the plant and set it aside.
"Not all Orange Lanterns are supposed to be combat-orientated. He's a surprisingly -
very surprisingly- skilled economist.
"
I accelerate after Lantern Khan. No other members of the crew are immediately in sight. I can see where they ripped out a dividing wall, presumably to make moving materials to the mining laser easier.
"
I feel a corporate motivational speech coming on!"
The automated defences deploy as we cross what I.. think was a raw materials store room. Pulse laser batteries this time. I generate a shield construct for Major Adams while the beams reflect off Lantern Khan's shiny armour and burn slashes across the inside of the room.
Khan
makes an identical line of pulse lasers and
destroys their metal cousins in a single volley.
"There's a factory oversight centre just up-"
He
creates giant hand constructs and
pulls the door -and a chunk of the wall-
open.
The Star Hunter in the middle of the room blinks, then red lightning leaps from the tips of its tentacles and reduces Khan's armour to smouldering slag! The thralls around it are armed with-
Major Adams fires a scintillating beam of energy from his forearms at the Star Hunter, and I see the circuit runes embedded in its skin light up as it works to shield itself.
-some sort of arcane gun, though they look somewhat
bodged. The Star Hunter's red lightning continues crackling out, passing though my construct barrier and striking my armour before being soaked by my spell eater. I form railguns and fire mage slayers as the facially mutilated thralls rouse themselves and-.
Alan's
drawn his purple healing ray and he uses it to shoot the closest thrall in the face. The cuts
steam and vanish and the thrall collapses.
**Will not stop us.
Can not stop us.**
The wards around the room-. No, the entire ClusterShip fail, and I see the trapped desires of the people the Star Conquerors are puppetting
twisting and
writhing,
unable to express themselves-.
Alan shakes me, and I blink as I see that we've pulled back into the cargo area. He backs off slightly as I come to my senses.
"
You feeling yourself again?"
I nod.
Clever starfish.
Lantern Khan's gaseous form is lurking near the ceiling,
orange ring glowing in cover while he
takes shots at the thralls with Alan's purple ray. Major Adams is going all out in his assault on the Star Conqueror, trusting Koriand'r to
shield him from small arms fire.
Why did that-? My spell eater is dripping down my cuirass, overwhelmed by whatever the Star Conquerors did to try and take me down. I replace it and generate a coilgun as Alan goes back to
pulling injured crew out of the line of fire.
**All will be one.**
Message to Batman: Star Conqueror presence confirmed. Engaging.
Message sent.
Major Adams suddenly stops shooting, arms dropping as he lolls in the air.
His spell eater has gone into meltdown, and-.
Tiny pieces of debris hurl themselves at his face, only to be defeated by his dilustel epidermis. Trying to cut a star shape? So it doesn't require
contact.
I tag Major Adams with a replacement spell eater -need to emphasise how they aren't actually a replacement for a field magician- and then fire an ultraviolet laser at the Star Hunter. Kind of a shame I didn't melt down Nabu's helmet to make an Ace of Order, because that's clearly chaos magic it's using. The laser does nothing but make it realise that I'm mobile again, which means that its shield is general purpose rather than specific.
Brute force and ignorance it is, then.
I don't even bother with a construct. Thick orange beam from my ring to the ward, just enough kinetic force to make it activate and a
whole lot of effort draining it. Because-.
The Star Hunter collapses to the deck, the runes in its body flickering out. The few remaining thralls-
"
Aaaagh!"
-drop their weapons, staggering as the bleeding wounds on their faces are suddenly a pressing concern. I scan the Star Conqueror, and… It's
barely alive, but it is still functioning.
Major Adams appears to have recovered, and Lantern Khan
reconstitutes his armour and raises his arms high.
"My people! I have returned!"
Most of them don't throw anything.
