With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
17:24 G.M.T.

And there's the dig site.

Mongul's type seem obsessed with manual labour, possibly because giving labourers who hate you advanced equipment is just asking for the intellectual sort to either engage in the hard to detect sort of sabotage or build weapons sophisticated enough that they might actually be able to succeed in liberating themselves. So it's an opencast mine, a pit dug down with shelves in the pit walls for labourers, equipment and excavated earth to go to and fro. Digging is being undertaken with shovels thrust in the earth with the assistance of powered frames, a small number of workers carrying sonic lances to break up rock.

But if this world is anything like the one in Salvation Run, they'll be an underground facility somewhere around-.

Ah.

Yes, there it is. There's a tunnel… And they're excavating the area around it, They're definitely breached it, not 'found the entrance', but forced entry through the metal it's made of. And now they're… Following it from the outside. I… Think there's also a crew-. Yes, they're entering the tunnel too, and…

Yellow crystal. And the people moving it are… Trembling, and the overseers are keeping their weapons handy.

In terms of species… It's a mix. Not a lot of Mongul's own species, just for a couple of overseers. The others are an eclectic mix of species from across a dozen Sectors where Mongul's known to have travelled. And-.

And those are tamaraneans. Carrying the crystal by the barrowload. Might be because they don't suffer the same long term consequences from exposure, or it might just be that the overseers like seeing their open reactions; they weep as they work.

I'm not seeing anything I couldn't destroy or anyone I couldn't kill. The guards are exclusively from physically robust species, wearing thick armour and carrying both electrified whips for those too lazy to learn how to use whips properly and plasma carbines to be used in the case of a camp revolt.

As the man I spoke to previously said, there's no wall.

I'm not seeing a sensor network capable of detecting me. And while the ships above us could easily roll and point their weapons downwards, I'm not seeing any weapons that are a threat to me. So long as I avoid the yellow crystals.

Except… I wouldn't be able to. They'd just need a conventional bomb in one of those barrows and my rings would lose the ability to affect things externally. And my armour… Okay, with crumbler gauntlets I could punch my way through eventually, but… Ships, hostages.

Constantly monitoring my environment, and with my stealth systems very much engaged, I float down into the pit towards the tunnel entrance.

Been a while since Salvation Run. Wasn't Selina put into a simulation where she had to fight the Justice League, or… Something? And she won, which-.

I'd have thought that Apokoliptian training would be more about unwinnable scenarios than power fantasies. Maybe Kalibak was having a hard day and wanted an easy workout session, and forgot to reset it when he left?

Not seeing a Green Lantern. Only limited structures on the surface, mostly what looks like a landing ground and a couple of foxholes. Which-.

Are they lifting off the entire work detail when the sun goes down? Depending on the frequency of attacks, that might make sense. No shuttles sitting on the ground. To prevent escape or to prevent local creatures infesting the fleet? The crystals are being loaded into actual shipping containers, barrows being wheeled up a ramp and the crystals being dropped in to the open top. The crystals are… There are only a couple of sizes and they're clean of earth and rock.

They're not mining them. They're just taking them out of something.

No sign that they're detecting me… And there's the tunnel entrance. Ah, they've got a force field set up over the entrance. Perhaps they're living in here? But while I don't want to try my phasing system against the Apokoliptian metal, getting in just requires that I wait until they let the next barrow convoy out…

And I float through.

I've seen Apokoliptian technology; Canis uses it, and I've seen Grayven's command ship a few times. But this it more… Workmanlike. A utility tunnel or a transportation tunnel… There's only so science fictiony you can make it. The area around the breach doesn't have functional lighting, but only a short distance away line of some sort of luminescent… Paint? Start glowing, and providing enough light for the workers to see by.

The concentration of guards is higher in here, I note.

Alright, the barrows are coming from that direction, so that's where I'll go.

A few crystals appear to have fallen on the floor, broken and-.

Ah, no, they're probably there to extend the construct nullifying effect here in case the Green Lantern escapes. They're the only broken crystals I've seen so it's probably deliberate. I wonder how the effect changes, broken versus whole-.

Idiot. Mongul is the sort of person who would be aware of the Reach, and who they would be aware of in turn. I'll have to notify Dox about this-. Ring, is it possible to transmit a data packet?

Connection unavailable.

Thought not. Send it the first moment it's possible.

Compliance.

Alright, there's some sort of chamber coming up. Can't… See any workers or guards, but there wasn't a turnoff that I saw…

Well this feels like a trap. Power to crumbler gauntlets and slow ahead…

And duck and scan because I'm not in Kansas anymore! This is-. Apokolips? Grim industry, metal and stone everywhere, giant Darkseid statues, prevailing aura of despair and desolation… Yep, yep, all present and correct! Some sort of stealth boom tube? Or-. Wait. Catwoman's virtual reality simulator. How would.. I tell-? Not the most important thing right now. Just stay crouching in this chimney, and-.

Parademons. Actual mutant soldiers, not those weird animal thingies from some of the recent D.C. films. They're taking positions in the spires and chimneys around me, aiming… Aiming in all directions. Waiting for something.

I look away from them and at the rest of the arena, trying to see what else is happening. None of the buildings are moving, and below… Below, I can see Lowlies-.

No, wait, those aren't Lowlies. Lowlies generally look human. Those are more of Mongul's slaves. And they're… Waiting. What are they-?

A nearby guard tower explodes in an emerald mushroom cloud! A glowing green figure descends as the parademons raise their blasters. Ah, great it-.

Wait, that's… Not Lantern Gaart. That's Green Lantern Raker Qarrigat, the First Lantern who led the Green Lantern Corps' attack on Apokolips. That was a long time ago, but I don't have good data on how long members of his species can live. They would have said something if he was still alive, wouldn't they? I mean, the Justice League attack that liberated the Forever People wasn't subtle.

Lantern Qarrigat makes a construct barrier around himself as the parademons open fire, their shots plinking impotently off the outer surface. And then-

"Yaagh!"

Lantern Gaart comes in, precise shots slamming into the distracted parademons and knocking them from their perches. Good? Great? Freeing a ancient hero of the Green Lantern Corps wasn't on my bingo card this morning, but I'll take it. And then-.

Then the ground shakes, and the structures hum, and the surface of the buildings the parademons and I are holding on to sort of… Glowing tron lines, a New God is doing something! Small brackets extrude from the walls, each supporting one of the yellow crystals. Lantern Qarrigat looks around in alarm, the intensity of his glow already decreasing, while Lantern Gaart takes cover in a ruined tower block.

"They found us quickly!"

"Yes." Kalibak strolls down the central pathway beneath us. "I did."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
17:28 G.M.T.

Would-? What?

Kalibak charges the ruins the Green Lanterns are sheltering in, beta club pulled back like a baseball bat ready to knock a ball out of the stadium!

Now-. Okay, Darkseid letting Lantern Qarrigat out for the parademons to play with, yes, I could see that happening. Dumping another Lantern in here on the other hand looks like a potential security breach. Darkseid wouldn't exactly be distraught if he escaped, but he would be annoyed. So Kalibak might have been allowed to bring him here… Or he might have come through the boom tube on his own initiative. I doubt that Kalibak would call off a fight just because a Sector Lantern showed up, though that might explain why he's using parademon beaters.

But Lantern Gaart was stuck in here by Mongul II. Kalibak would consider aliens interfering with an Apokoliptian world far more important than beating someone Darkseid already beat. And I already know this place can make replicas of people and places.

There's a tremendous crunch as Kalibak smashes the beta club through a supporting wall, the side of the building cracking and crumbling as it loses the power to hold its own weight upright. The Green Lanterns pull back, pulling themselves along with constructs under their clothes. The parademons aren't shooting any longer, presumably because their master wants to handle this himself.

Other option is that this is all fake… Probably except for the Lowlies and Lantern Gaart. A creation of an artificial reality generator. Not sure why the scenario has these particular characteristics, but I don't think it was ever really explained why Selina was made completely O.P. and then pushed to fight the Justice League.

A purple blast lances out from the rubble, striking Lantern Qarrigat-

"Aargh!"

-and knocking him out of the sky! Lantern Gaart immediately reverses course to pick him up, Kalibak leaping out of the dust cloud a moment later to intercept him!

Beneath me, the slaves begin gathering up the yellow crystals, the parademons completely ignoring them.

So… The crystals mess up constructs. Mongul II wants the crystals. And… They only deploy in response to Lanterns. So.. he.. captures Lantern Gaart, shoves him in here… And starts collecting. And… Lantern Gaart recognises Apokoliptian technology, the place generates this from his mind… Except I'm pretty sure that the Guardians damnatio memoriaed the whole Green Lantern Corps-Apokolips War. So he wouldn't know him, or his face, so maybe that comes from the system here? Just in case they ever got a Green Lantern in here?

Response..? Mongul II wants the crystals, so he can't really afford to hit the site from orbit. Grabbing Lantern Gaart would slow the rate at which he can harvest, and give us someone who can help deal with his fleet. Destroying this chamber with an anti-matter bomb would prevent him from harvesting it ever again, but it would also kill the slaves. Evacuating the slaves and then bombing it increases the chance of Mongul II obliterating the site in a fit of pique. Have to leave them until the fleet either leaves or is destroyed.

Fly to an area where the crystals haven't been extruded yet.

"Weakling." Kalibak has grabbed Lantern Gaart around the torso and is holding him up to his face. "You Lanterns are just as pathetic as you were-"

Drop stealth, railgun, x-ionised sabot rounds.

"-when Father killed-."

Open fire and don't stop.

Compliance.

Woon.

"Gragh!"

X-ionised railgun rounds slam into his chest, arms and as he turns to look at me, his face. The armour isn't affected in the slightest, but small cuts appear on his exposed flesh.

"Another Lantern? Father smiles upon me thiskkugh?"

That one went into his mouth. Didn't appear to do much, but I thought it was worth a try.

"Yreagh!"

He tosses Lantern Gaart side, and his environmental shield flickers on just before he hits a reinforced wall. That'll still hurt, but without it, someone Kalibak's strength throwing him into a solid structure would be instantly fatal.

Now, drop construct, engage stealth and-.

And just in time, because here are the crystals. Move.

A beam from the beta rod blasts passed my sniping perch, and the parademons begin swarming around. Now, what basis does this chamber use for determining how the characters act? Because Apokoliptian or not it shouldn't be able to detect me now. If it's just reacting to me, then that should stop immediately. On the other hand, if the characters have their own memories, then Kalibak should keep searching for a little while. And if this place is using New God powers…

Uh. Don't know.

I manoeuvre towards Lantern Gaart, not approaching him directly but getting to somewhere where the crystals have already been harvested-.

"Where are you?!"

Oh, good. Still going to have to abandon my stealth to grab Lantern Gaart, and Kalibak's supposed to have fast reflexes. I don't know; if all I had to worry about was brute strength then I'd trust in my kinetic barrier, but his exotic abilities aren't something I've been in position to measure. If this version even has those-. No, wait, I could feel emotions coming from Lantern Qarrigat, which means this place is probably replicating them.

Right. Kalibak's tearing down that chimney, I'm down here where he can't see me. Phase in, keep regular stealth systems going, and message Lantern Gaart.

"Who is this?"

"I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. I'm here with Honour Guard Lantern Harold Jordan. We're here to get you out and deal with the Dread Horde."

"The crystals-."

"Disrupt constructs, we know."

"It's more than that. He's made some sort of deal with Sinestro so he can overthrow his father."

"Tempting as it is to let them kill each other, we still need to deal with the fleet before we can do anything else. I need to get you out."

"We can't leave without Raker. Do you know what he's survived?"

"Unless he's given you some sort of secret Green Lantern Corps handshake I'm pretty sure he's part of this illusion. The chance of Darkseid letting him off Apokolips is minimal."

"But-!"

"Is he mobile?"

"Yes."

"Did he believe you when you told him this was a simulation?"

"I think so?"

Ugh… "We can try bringing him, but if he disappears when we get to the exit, you know why. I'm-."

"FOUND YOU!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
17:31 G.M.T.

Darn-.

I transition as the beta club swings through where my head used to be-. And come up short, because the yellow crystals are deploying. Right, tether a slab of concrete, pull it into my hands before the tether fades away-.

Purple energy erupts from the end of the club-! My kinetic barrier flares, and I feel a weak tingling in my hands as a small amount of the nerve beam bleeds through, but that's about it. Throw the concrete at his face-

"Ragh!"

-and use my armour's flight system to fly upwards before-.

Uh-?

BOOF!

"RRAH!"

Oof!

Right… Kalibak's fast and agile. Right leg armour is buckled, though my actual leg feels more or less alright. Back… Ah, yeah, kinetic barrier doing a hero's work there. Brick's a bit shredded-.

"Hshhahhkhakhk!"

Oh, I've got yellow crystal dust inside my armour. And now I've got no translation.

"Do you feel fear, Lantern?!" Kalibak shoves what's left of the wall aside with brute force, grinning at me as I pick myself up. "Do you see that you cannot stand against a New God?"

And… I can smell my environment, just about. Mould, burned petrochemicals, and… Just faintly, rotting flesh.

I trigger my armour's radio. "Gaart, head out. I'll hold Kalibak's attention."

"Hkhhkskkkhshh!"

"Is your spirit so weak?" Kalibak points the end of his club at me. "Or will you meet your end on your feet?"

Fine. Fists raised, march towards him. He grins, turning his club to the side a little, clearly indicating that he'll use it as a melee weapon rather than a ranged weapon. Set crumble field to maximum intensity and minimum range, and brac-.

Ooohf!

He bull rushed me! He's pinned me to his -ohf!- chest, charging -ohf!- through the walls! My kinetic barrier doesn't -ohf!- know when it's supposed to trigger!

I bring my fists around and smash them into his ears!

"Mnrh!"

I see the smoke emerge as the crumbler -ohf!- field starts eating through his flesh and hair! Can't reach his eyes from -ohf!- here-. Lower the right one to his neck-

"Gah!"

-and deactivate the left, deploy a x-ionised knife and stab-.

OOF!

"RRAAAAAGH!"

And pick-. Oh dear. Can't see the rear of my armour, but my power assistance appears to be acting up. Kalibak's sort of twitching from the knife I jammed into his skull, hands trying to reach-.

I'm not sure if it's the effect of having a bit of metal in that part of his brain or if he's just that muscle bound, but it looks like he's having trouble reaching it. Okay, is the armour's flight system working? Yes, sort of-. Okay.

Fzzzm!

Ah, right, the parademons. They fell behind a little in Kalibak's charge, but they're trying to get line of sight-.

Oh, he dropped-.

I lunge clumsily forward and grab Kalibak's beta rod. He manages to focus on me a little as I raise it up, but he can't coordinate his hands well enough to block it as I swing it down…

"Nuuuuugh!"

Right onto the knife. Which sinks further into his head, the handle flattened against his scalp.

Okay, good. Can't work out how to switch it to ranged mode and I can't risk crumbling it in case it explodes…

Toss it aside, turn and run!

Fzzzm! Fzzzm! Fzzzm!

Armour might not be working properly, but its mass is alright at preventing the shots from the parademons hitting anything vital.

"Gaart, I don't know where I'm going. Can you throw up a sign?"

"Hshhks?"

I crumbler-punch my way through a wall, then flick my eyes upwards. A few parademons are perched on the walls above me, but it looks like they weren't expecting me to come in this direction. Slow off the mark. Okay, is the stealth system working..? Uh, sort of. Phasing is a pipedream, but the holographic system is… Kind of working? Might give me a few extra seconds. Add in the kinetic belt's flight system… Alright, jump system, it's letting me go a little faster without drawing fire.

And then I see a shot from one of the parademon's weapons going straight up… Good work, Gaart. Okay, I'm running along… Some sort of old… Loading dock? Cover's a bit sparse, but nothing's trying to shoot me right now-. Ah! I see! There's where I came in, and there are the scattering slaves, who aren't fleeing so much as taking cover. No guards-.

Fzzzm! Fzzzm! Fzzzm! Fzzzm!

They're swarming, but they're just guessing at my location.

"Hk-kk-ksk?"

"Sorry, translation system is still out. I saw the shot-" I jump down, back onto the road I first entered by. "-and I'm heading your way."

A couple of slaves stare at the me-shaped blur as I run past their hidey-hole, and I start to see the glow from either Lantern Qarrigat or Lantern Gaart's dome shield construct. A couple of parademons are firing on it, but-. It's Gaart, and he's keeping it up well.

"Okay, go!"

Gaart glances towards me, and then alters the shield to only block shots from above. I dash past him, and-.

There we go, back in the tunnel. Step aside, and prepare crumbler gauntlets just in case the objects in there are capable of existing outside-.

Gaart darts out and then freezes, staring at his own hands. He glances back at the start of the projection area-.

"I told you. He wasn't real."

He focuses for a moment, and then nods.

"Right, now I need you to help me clean out my armour before the mine security get here."

"I'll get right on that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
17:35 G.M.T.

Gaart's construct pump sucks the air out of my armour near the breaches, and then fails as the powdered yellow crystal that was trapped inside gets sucked out along with it. And… Yes, I'm back in business.

"Good work."

Repair my armour, and… Uh, add an external positron beam projector mount. Not worth making it a standard thing, but this situation rather demands it.

"Illustres to Lantern Jordan. Still alive?"

"Yeah, still here. Find anything?"

"Found Lantern Gaart and I found where the yellow crystal nullifying our constructs is coming from. They're collecting it from part of the Apokoliptian training equipment."

"So, what..? Apokolips can just make as much as they want?"

"That would be my fear. Or there might be something here that allows them to make it, or it might require particular materials that are in limited supply. We should ask-."

Jordan's face winces and the image is disrupted.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Too close and they can actually hit me, too far away and they lose interest." He looks around where he is for a moment. "Ask Scott and Barda, right?"

"Or New Genesis. I do not want Grayven getting his hands on this."

"Not worried about a repeat of Mannheim?"

"Earth can handle something like that, but if Grayven gets serious about disrupting the Orange Lantern Corps' activity, not only will that severely mess up our war fighting ability, but it also-."

"The Reach will get it, and that's bad for everyone." Lantern Gaart's ring glimmers for a moment, and then Jordan's head appears over it as well. "Gaart, good to see you're in one piece."

"Yes sir."

"Any idea where Lantern Niiniini got to?"

"They were taken prisoner at the same time as me. If they're not here and their ring hasn't chosen a new bearer, I don't know."

"Paul, is that the only mine on the planet?"

I nod. "It's the only one I've seen. I haven't explored the whole place, but as far as I can tell they're focusing on expanding the digging here rather than exploring new sites. The important point there is that the training area only produced yellow crystals in response to Lantern Gaart's presence. Just removing him is going to make them useless until they dig down a lot further."

"Okay. Don't have a fleet laying around, do you?"

"There's the Doomsday."

"Could it fight this whole fleet?"

"It wouldn't win, but we could charge up a bunch of kryptonian volunteers. They could. Or we could let Apokolips know they're being burgled. Does the Green Lantern Corps have a fleet?"

"Yeah, but it's not that big, and all the ships work off green batteries. How about Legion?"

"Even if we could spare a fleet, I'd have to drag it here myself, so it wouldn't get here all that quickly."

"Alright. Can you get back up here?"

"Easily."

"Gaart?"

"I could use a recharge. But I can fly around to the far side of the planet, and escape that way?"

"You didn't bring your personal lantern with you?"

"I always thought it was a risk. Especially on a planet owned by Apokolips."

Jordan sighs. "What are you on now?"

"Fourteen percent."

"Okay. Paul, can you bring him up faster?"

"Yes. Easily."

"Gaart, you can recharge from my lantern. I've got an idea for the fleet."

"And the slaves?"

"I don't have anywhere to put them. Do you?"

"No. But this place is dangerous enough that they evacuate the slave workers before the sun goes down."

"If this takes more than two hours I'm handing in my ring."

I nod. "Alright. Be with you soon." His face disappears from Gaart's ring. "Gaart, do you think it would risk attack by the native animal life if I killed a few dozen of the overseers on the way out?"

He licks his left eye in confusion. "Kill?"

"I know that the Green Lantern Corps prefer to maroon pirates, but in this case-."

"I was planning on handing them over for trial. I-. Is that not how your Corps does things?"

"In the case of minor crimes, it is. In the case of interstellar warlords, I don't see the advantage."

"The Dread Horde is meritocratic. A lot of the officers who command their ships started out as labourers in places like this, and rose up the ranks."

"Right, but I imagine that to do that, they had to do some pretty unpleasant things."

"Yes, but the regular soldiers haven't. If they're helped to get away from it, they can eventually be returned to normal society."

Right. Green Lanterns are police, not soldiers.

"So, leave them alive?"

"If possible, yes."

"Fine." Right. Be a little awkward to sneak out with him hanging around… "Hold still a moment."

I scan him. Nothing about his physiology that would make stealth armour dangerous or risky. Since he doesn't know the controls I'd have to slave it to mine, but that's not a problem. And there's no problem with him keeping it afterwards.

"I'm going to give you a lighter version of my armour, and then we're going to sneak out. You'll need to keep your environmental shield around your body and not around the armour, or you'll still glow. Can you manage that?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. Let's get out of here."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th April 2258
16:56 G.M.T.

"I am humbled by your presence, princess."

My gaim passenger is faultlessly well-behaved. Even though they're in control of my physical actions, they asked first and haven't cut me off from my senses. It would be simple for me to retake control. But I won't, because this is what we agreed to.

And because I suspect my passenger's sense of contentment is the main reason why I'm not panicking right now. Gaim royals are… Um. Not humanoid. And they're large. And they're… All the worst parts of sea anemone, caterpillar and assassin bug, with a little tyranid thrown in for good measure. The princess I'm speaking to is basically a senior civil servant along with a genetic engineer and brood mother, and completed eggs are being continuously taken away as she and my passenger speak.

There's a gaim diplomat on standby, but since I can understand the pure gaim language perfectly well they're mostly staying out of the way.

"The queen remembers you, Koh'dak. The gene strands used to give rise to your mind found much favour in our creative genelines after your disappearance. It closes the book in a pleasant manner to know what became of you."

Because it turns out that my passenger was a great inventor from the gaim's total war period, and they mostly wanted to come back here in case they were supposed to receive punishment from their goddess-mother.

"I-. I am-. I am relieved, daughter-of-our-queen."

"There are not further matters which require your attention. No further duties for you. You may… Rest."

"Thank you." / Thank you.

And… They're gone… I suppose that having their princess tell them that they were allowed to die was… What they wanted.

Huh.

I stand up, trying… Not to look at the princess more than I have to.

"Thank you for agreeing to speak with my former guest, princess, it-."

"I have decided not to eat you."

…

Scan nearest escape route. Ah, okay, that's not too bad.

"I… Have decided not to eat you as well."

The ambassador gaim makes a choke-hiss noise which the ring doesn't translate. The queen -who is quite a bit bigger than me- doesn't really react.

"You are not aware. Gaim are materialists. Our queens are our absolute sovereigns, and they are physical beings. We reject all religious concepts. We believe in no gods, no afterlife. The last time a gaim suggested changing this policy, they were punished with consumption."

"And… You just spoke to a dead person."

"Yes. That will have to be… Discussed. Do you have more information on how the soul hunters 'harvest' souls?"

"Sorry, no. I've been trying to avoid them."

"Is it a copy of the mind, or something else?"

I shake my head, realising as I do it that she probably can't even see a gesture that small. "I've wondered if they're just engrams myself, but I'm afraid that I haven't been able to find out."

"I am grateful for this new evidence. Often, species attempt to proselytise with make believe. That is irritating."

"I will bear that in mind."

"Should you discover new evidence, we would be interested to review it."

"If I proved the existence of the soul, I assure you, I wouldn't keep that to myself."

"Good." She… Er… I'm not exactly sure what that is, but she's rubbing it. Since I'm not getting a translation I'm going to assume that it's not an effort to communicate something to me. "You have not mentioned remuneration."

"No. Koh'dak already paid. They assisted me with a personal matter, and I delivered them here. Nothing more is necessary."

"But we have an obligation, in addition to what you did for Koh'dak."

"Ah… Thank you? There's nothing that I need at the moment. But… If I could bank the favour, in case there's something the gaim can help me with in the future?"

"A commensurate favour would be acceptable." That's a relief. "Then if there is nothing else, I declare this audience over."

I bow. "Thank you, your highness."

And then I turn and leave, a group of other gaim already filing in to discuss… Something. Yeah, I… Know that now they've abandoned their state of constant interhival warfare they're actually pretty easy to get along with, but looking at them is… A… Little off-putting.

And I'm out, and I'm hurrying along the corridor in the direction of my shuttle. Ring, contact ship.

"Are we leaving now?"

"Yep, yep, can't think of a reason to stay."

"You usually say that you want to see the sites."

"N'chak'fah has a chlorine atmosphere. I can't see anything."

"Ah."

"Is there something..? You want to see?"

"Narns on this world are marked for death. I have been keeping away from the windows."

Something sharing the corridor with me sneezes at me, and I nod politely back. "Oh? Why's that?"

"We invaded them forty years ago. At first, we didn't realise the planet was inhabited."

"Reasonable. I can barely see my hand in front of my face."

"And then we didn't realise they were intelligent. I understand that they didn't realise that the rest of the universe existed until they met us. I suppose it was nearly as unpleasant an introduction to other species as we had."

"Yes, a giant black spaceship digging a canyon through a major settlement must have been a nasty surprise."

"…" … "I was talking about the centauri."

"Oh."

"What black ships?"

"They're in the Book of G'Quan?"

"I haven't read it. Narns generally only read the sacred text of their own faith."

"I haven't read any human holy books. But the historical parts are interesting, if only because it explains what happened to your telepaths."

"We killed them all."

"If the Book's accurate, you only killed most of them. And to be fair, we nearly did that as well."

But you did not. And I do not think that you would have gone through with it.

I don't know. Future people are weird.

I reach the shuttle, and… Airlock, because magicing the chlorine away with the orange light would be a little obvious.

"I'll be up soon."

"We're ready to leave. Unless the hyperspace currents are unusually vicious, we will be back in time for your date."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
17:41 G.M.T.

"…not safe, but it should let you hold out until the fleet either moves on or gets destroyed."

Grum the Escaped… Ah, Walked Off Slave taps the wall of his newly fabricated bunker, and glances back at the NEMO-brand ration packs I dumped on the floor.

"It's the nicest place I've slept in seven years."

"Ah, you're welcome. Try not to die in the next half hour."

His eyes move from me to where Lantern Gaart is studying a map of local space. "You know? I think I will. Thank you."

"Thank me by not dying. I hate wasting effort. Gaart, ready?"

He dismisses his construct. "Yes."

"Right. Activating armour-" We both vanish, though I can still see him with empathic vision. "-and up we go."

The ground falls away beneath us, nothing like as fast as we can fly with constructs, but certainly faster than, say, a rocket launch. We're both undetectable by most forms of sensor and hard to detect by the really exotic ones I know about, and our armour is sufficiently tough that what I don't know shouldn't hurt us. A direct hit with a spatial charge would probably kill us, which would be too bad for Lantern Gaart but is the reason why Grum's bunker came with one of my spare bodies in an under-floor compartment. An Apokoliptian world should be at least a little thaumically active, if only due to their presence.

Of course, that shouldn't be possible. The battleships all share the same orientation, though they've spread out a little, presumably to increase the volume of space they can cover with their weapons fire as they try to kill Jordan. Advanced stealth should mean that they still think that I'm around the mine, so hopefully they won't be looking… If they know that I'm heading up the most efficient course of action would be to do a saturation bombardment of the upper atmosphere. That would cover the area with crystal remnants, create dangerous pressure waves along with whatever's in the charge, and would generally give me a bad time, but…

Yep, we've made it into the vacuum and-.

I was going to say that the fleet hasn't moved, but I can see assault shuttles heading down from two of the battleships. And for a moment I feel the instinct bred into me by a dozen battles with the Reach: board the ship at once, kill or assimilate the Reach commander while the best marines and Beetles and whatever experimental weapons they might have are somewhere else. But with an anti-construct silver bullet… I don't think that's a mission I can complete with power armour alone.

So we fly past the battleships, their tenders and close-support escorts, and then the… Huh. Sensor buoys? They don't seem to detect us but I don't want to risk an active scan. And then the cruisers…

And we're clear. Track the orientation of their weapons, likely response times of the crew… Just have to get a little further away…

And warp.

"Jordan, we're clear. Do you want to rendezvous?"

Next to me, Gaart appears as he deactivates his stealth system.

"Just a sec."

Right. Teleport jammer, big ole' construct wall, and… Hope Jordan pulls his finger out because I want to add in a spatial stabiliser construct just as soon-

A green spec appears several miles away, and then starts rapidly growing

-as possible.

"Okay." Jordan slows down as he reaches us, and I add in the stabiliser construct… Yeah, I see that battleship repositioning. "Paul, I think I'm reconsidering my position on body armour."

"Glad to hear it. Roy and I can do a fitting when we get back to Earth." I give him a once-over. "Any injuries I can't see?"

"I'll get checked out for radiation damage later. Lantern Gaart, you okay to fight?"

"Yes sir."

Jordan nods. "Good. Paul, can you build missiles with the same stealth tech as your armour?"

"Sort of. Without the magic element they won't be quite as good. And whatever propulsion system I gave it would probably have some sort of detectable emission. And their gravity shields would probably deflect a missile to a degree anyway…"

"Does NEMO have missiles with magic stealth?"

"Probably, but if so, LEGION's saving them for a major Reach target."

"Okay. That black hole gun thing you do."

"They've got gravity shields. I could probably damage them eventually-."

"Could you-? Work out the frequency of their shields if you shot them long enough?"

"The frequency?"

"Yeah."

"Of… Gravity shields?"

"Yeah. What, wrong word?"

"Didn't you.. study physics for-?"

"I'm a pilot. I studied aeronautics. You wanna talk about drag coefficients, I'm your guy. You wanna talk about black hole guns, I'll go get Atom."

"It's more likely that I'll lock them on blocking my singularity beam, which would mean that they couldn't deflect the missile. That still leaves point defences, assumes that the ships can't cover each other with their gravity shields, and that we can actually hit them."

"Got a way around that?"

"Don't use missiles. Use ballistic projectiles with warheads. With the three of us firing, we can cover enough of their potential location volume to be confident of hitting-."

"Lantern Gaart, you know how to make a railgun construct?"

"No, sir."

"That doesn't matter."

"If it's just the two of us-."

"Grand Admiral Thrawn taught me that if they can't track the projectiles, they have to assume that each observed firing is a real firing."

He frowns at the name, but he gets it. "So he just pretends to fire a bunch of times, and they'll have to evade."

"Or fire along the projectile's calculated approach vector. Depends how good they are."

"Can you shoot these things and fire the black hole gun at the same time?"

"Why would I need to? They're going to be ballistic."

"So fire them, wait until they're about to arrive and then shoot the ships?"

"Yep."

"Okay, it's a plan." He claps his hands together. "Let's get to work."

 

[Mr Zoat]

30th April 2258
19:28 G.M.T. -5

Given that I've been on a grand total of one date in my entire life, I don't think this is going too badly.

I'm rich, but I'm not super rich. And most of my money is liquid, rather than being tied up in shares or property. I do have some investments, if only to assuage revenue protection officers, but I'm working on the assumption that if the ring keeps working then I can always get more raw materials to sell. I really only need enough money to pay for top quality health insurance (and the lawyers to make sure that the insurance company provides the agreed upon service) to make sure that if I'm comatosed someone will look after my recumbent body until I recover enough to fix myself. And in case it stops for some reason, I've put enough to live on in a high interest account. But honestly, that's not as much money as you think it is.

More than I could have acquired conventionally, but.. not.. rich money. It's the Sam Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness. If you don't need a mortgage and don't need a huge house, it's far cheaper to buy outright. Heck, installing your own fusion reactor is cheaper than buying grid power after about eight years, if you can stand all of the checks and inspections required to get it built in the first place-.

But my point is, I'm nouveau-riche. I don't have any experience in how rich people actually live, especially when interacting with… Ah… Middle class people. I could afford to take Kelsey to a ridiculously expensive restaurant… But is that too much for a first date? Or a cheaper restaurant, but is that implying that I'm cheap? And then there's the actual entertainment; I looked, but there are very few actual cinemas left, and those show arty films. There are hologram places, but I took a look at those when I first arrived on Earth and they're… Honestly not that good. Transparent, glitchy, and they don't really mesh with the environment due to the projection equipment. Maybe I'm being a Luddite, but I prefer 2D and a normal screen.

But does she? Don't know. I asked Mayan, but she was surprised that we weren't being chaperoned by clan elders. I asked the peanut gallery-

Yes. You asked us.

-and… They tried their best.

So I rented a small cinema and found a copy of The Matrix. I don't know if it's actually a good idea, but… I just have to find out more about her. For dinner, it's a family owned and somewhat famous fast food restaurant that's high quality and characterful enough that I think it's a decent bunt.

Quick check that Mayan is in a secure location…

Working on her next piece, in a room whose walls I've reinforced enough that it would take heavy ordnance to penetrate them. Okay.

Ah.

We agreed to meet here at half past seven, and I don't think that scanning for Kelsey would be a good idea, either in terms of my increasingly implausible deniability or in terms of building a healthy relationship. But if I misunderstood and she's expecting me to pick her-

A taxi pulls up on the curb, and Kelsey steps out.

-up.

And to my relief we're dressed at about the same level of sophistication. Jeans, blouse and a light jacket for her, and tan trousers, t-shirt and shirt for me. She looks around for a moment, then raises her right hand and smiles, and… I waves and smile-. Walk up to her and say something.

You can do this.

I estimate the chance as no better than two parts in seven. / Just give us a warning before you actually start mating with this female. / I'm rooting for you. / You should get someone more fertile. You are too old to take risks with fertility.

Why do I talk to you people?

What was your alternative?

"Matthew."

"Good-. Ah, good evening-. Kelsey." Keep going. "You look-" Not lovely, she's dressing down. "-nice."

"Thank you. I wasn't sure if I was…" She looks passed me to the restaurant. "Matching the location?"

"I'm not sure either, but we match each other, so we can be wrong together."

That earns me a smiles and a brief head-duck-chuckle.

"Ah, shall we?"

We walk towards the restaurant entrance. The exterior and the surrounding seating is well-lit, and there's some sort of space heater keeping it warm. I'd make a global warming reference but I don't think she'd get it.

"How was The Nest?"

"It's… It was somewhere I hope that I don't ever have to go again. Hours in a spacesuit in an unbreathable atmosphere, meeting with individuals I haven't seen before in my nightmares because my name isn't 'Giger' or 'Lovecraft'."

"Maybe that's how they see us."

I nod. "It would explain why they hate leaving their homeworld. If anyone in the universe looked like them, I wouldn't want to leave Earth."

"But minbari are okay?"

"Sure, they're basically bald humans wearing weird hats. Whatever issues you've got with their society they don't look weird. But, to be clear, the princess was perfectly polite and helpful while I was seeing her, and saw me promptly as well, which I really appreciated."

"And they're going to.. give your friend a proper burial?"

I shake my head. "I have no idea. They're hardcore materialists. They don't believe in souls or ritual funerals. I'm not even entirely sure why he wanted his body returned there. The princess said something about experimental mind-related genes, so maybe he didn't want to risk the other hives getting a look at them?" I shrug as we enter the restaurant. "Or-."

"Maybe he was hedging his bets?"

"Heh. Yeah." But no. I know instinctively that gaim don't hedge their bets like that. "Except… Apparently, last time a gaim developed religious faith, their queen ate them."

"If your friend was dead anyway, perhaps he was prepared to risk it?"

"That would be logical, but I don't think he-." The server working the booking station looks up. "Underwood. I don't think he was being that logical. I think he just found the idea that he would in some sense be at home was.. comforting."

"This way."

The server leads us to a table which is.. against the side wall? Reasonable lines of sight but no window. We could have gotten an outside table but I thought that might be a bit chilly in April.

"But that's enough.. morbidity from me. What have you been up to?"

"Ugh." She slumps slightly, elbows on the table and head resting against her hands. "You ever get the thing at work where you're waiting for someone higher up to make a decision, and you can't really do anything until they do?"

I nod. "I think that everyone who's ever had a job has gone through that."

"And there's nothing you can do until they do it, so you're left hanging around? And I'm a highly trained professional. The company invested a lot of money in getting me to where I am, and where I am is sitting around a staffroom when I could be doing literally anything else."

"With my last employer, it was debt chasing. I had to get someone to sign off on every legal action, and they just didn't. What's holding yours up?"

"I think my boss wants more information before he makes a decision-"

I'm grimacing sympathetically. "Which you can't get-."

She nods back. "-until he makes a decision. It's ridiculous!"

We share a chuckle as the server brings over the menus. I think this is going okay.

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th October 2013
18:53 G.M.T.

Gaart stares wide-eyed at my singularity beam projector construct. "Sir, is that something we can all learn to do?"

Jordan nods hesitantly. "Yeah. In theory. How good's your knowledge of gravitational physics?"

"If it lets me create a construct weapon like that, I could begin attending university."

In my mind's eye I see several hundred vector plots as the macro railgun rounds close in on their sluggish targets.

"You'd be better off attending a spacecraft engineering school. You need to understand the machine which creates the effect so that you can replicate it, you don't actually need to understand the physics which underlie it."

"Is that what you did?"

"No, it's just way easier to create complex constructs with an orange ring, as long as you really want to. Okay, ready?"

Gaart's ring splutters. "I'm not sure that I can do this."

Jordan shakes his head. "Gaart, did you hitch a lift here, or did you fly yourself?"

"I flew here myself."

"And did you do that by warping space, or did you use some other technique?"

"I warped space."

"Then you can do it." Jordan gives him a reassuring smile. "There's no real difference between warping spacetime to move yourself and warping spacetime to move something else. If anything, this is easier, 'cause you can see what you're doing."

Gaart's nasal cleft undulates in satisfaction. "Thank you, sir."

"No problem." His ring flickers. "Okay, places!"

They both vanish, hauling the final barrage of macro rounds with them. The Dread Horde's corvettes and frigates have more or less abandoned pursuing us… Not sure what Mongul II is thinking. He must know that Gaart isn't at the dig site any longer… Or does he? Given how much fighting goes on in there, it's entirely possible that they haven't realised… The slaves may well have not told their supervisors, or they could still be gathering the crystal that's there because, well, I'm a little sceptical of the meritocratic credentials of someone who named his civilisation 'The Dread Horde'.

Okay. Aim at the dreadnought… And fire.

Huh. I don't usually fire at targets this far away. It's actually a little pretty-. Yeah, there we go, gravity shields engaging…

Generate a second singularity projector-. Yes, that's it, start to move-.

The dreadnought shudders as the first stealth missile hits, crumbler warhead striking the ship's plasma screen and viciously disintegrating it! I can't scan the interior of their ship, but an impact like that should blow out the emitters along with destroying the shield bubble.

I fire the second singularity projector at the battleship closest to one of the incoming missiles-. Hm, it's got gravity shielding, but it's not quite as effective. I'm seeing vibrations throughout the hull plating-. Ah, they're all activating their point defences, but just as it's hard for us to hit tiny targets in the vastness of space when tiny changes in vector can result in large relative movements, it's even harder to hit small invisible objects with millimetre-wide maser beams.

Another hit.

Escorts change formation, shifting to maximise their sensor and point defence coverage-. Oh, whoops. The capital ships aren't really aiming their point defences, because they're closest to each other and those little microwave beams aren't going to do anything to capital ship armour if a little friendly fire happens, right? But corvettes are a good deal more fragile, and that ship's shields weren't up to the task.

The others continue moving into position anyway.

By my estimations, a few macro rounds have missed. We knew that was going to happen, and there's nothing around here that I'd actually mind hitting, so I guess that's-.

The dreadnought takes two further hits, and begins listing.

Promising, but not a victory just yet. Its gravity shields are still working and for all I know its spatial charge weapon is still working. I'm still-.

Somewhere off to my right, a spatial charge goes off.

Not 'scanning space sector for replacement', not 'scanning space sector for replacement'…

"Report."

Jordan's face appears for a moment. "Not it. Gaart?"

"I'm o-. I'm okay. Got too focused."

"When you say 'okay'-?"

"I'm.. not great."

"Come to me and-" Three more macro shell impacts, two against the dreadnought and one against the battleship. The other battleship nearly takes a hit, but manages to deflect it with its gravity shield. "-I'll stick you back together."

"Uh. Right. Coming to you."

"Hey, Paul." Jordan's face looks thoughtful. "Is this how you usually fight the Reach?"

"No. If this was a Reach fleet, they'd detect the missiles, they wouldn't trap themselves in a gravity well like this, they have higher acceleration and agility, and we'd be knee deep in Scarab Warriors by now." And hopefully they wouldn't be able to form construct nullification rays. Those things have increasingly turned Orange Lanterns into artillery pieces who need Effigy bodyguards. Fortunately, even the Reach can't refit their entire fleet in a couple of years. "On the other hand, their ships aren't quite as durable."

"The Dread Horde do build their ships to take a pounding."

"The capital ships, anyway."

"I don't think they built the escorts. I think they just grab whatever they can-"

Another two impacts on the dreadnought, and it begins to break it two as the remaining internal structure can't handle the torsion.

"-when they raid someplace. And there she goes."

"Shall I switch target?"

"Nah, with a Mongul I wanna be sure."

Several more missiles are turned aside as the battleships try to cover their master.

"Do they have teleporters?"

"Nothing on file. If we didn't hit him, he'll probably take a shuttle to one of the other ships. Or just jump. It's not like vacuum will hurt him."

Over to my right I spot the glow of Gaart approaching me.

"Gaart's nearly back. Do you need to contact Salaak regarding transport for the prisoners and sending the slaves home?"

"Already notified him, but he can't do all that much until he knows how many people-"

"Warning! Fear detected!"

"-he's dealing with."

Construct shields and gun mantle! And scan!

"Jordan did you-?"

The speck of green marking Gaart's location jerks sideways!