Re: [Mission 7.1] Universe at War - Battle of Nataria
Aboard the Tivurthrinth...
It frowned, so much as it could.
And then It waited.
The scans came back. There were sensor jamming technologies all over the place now. In the edge of Its consciousness, It heard these things humming their absurd little tunes. Radio frequencies. Fake ships. Real ships. Like the melting of a glacier, gradually It pursued, through many avenues, Its next course of action.
Under the strain of Its heavy thought, several of Its crewmembers began making disgusting, high-pitched whining sounds, from pain. With an undefyable will, It silenced them. It tore into their minds, rooting around, digging up their past experiances fighting the Empire and each other. It opened doors mostly sealed.
And then It Understood.
The destruction that It had ordered had been delayed. There had been a ship, clearly moving away from the combat zone. The target ship had taken hits. It had been damaged, but it was not destroyed. There were no victorious explosions. No suspiciously Nadeshiko-colored debris were littering the space in front of Its vessel. The ship had just flown off. And that, frankly, was not correct. It was not logical. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever. It made It angry.
It knew the extent of Its own ship, better than that.
BRING UP THE SENSOR ARRAYS, It screamed into their minds, viciously, I WILL CAPTURE THAT SHIP WHOLE. I WILL FIND THAT CAPTAIN. I WILL RIP HER APART!
Several of the crew collapsed, kreening and flailing their limbs, but the ones that survived the onslaught immediately moved to obey. The Tivurthrinth came to a hault. Its sister ship, the Yzonvl, pulled alongside it.
Closing Its eyes, It prepared itself for the search. It ignored the sensor drivel; disregarded the mechanical chaff that buzzed by Its subconscious. There was but one thing it could use against this clever enemy, with any reasonable certainty.
The enemy itself.
It reached out, and to Its delight, found something that It felt that It could work with...
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On the Irim-Class...
Taii Hamada checked over each of the people who had come along with her. She paused when the shuttle pulled into the bay and stared at it for a few moments, uncomprehending, before swearing under her breath. The sound of it was muffled by the helmet and the suit's natural reaction to her language, which was to block it from being transmitted over any communications network, anywhere.
It probably had something to do with the 'bleep'. There were a lot of bleeps.
But the Taii, regardless of whether or not her own personal plan had been followed, nevertheless moved to the door to the ship's main passageways and addressed the away team.
"Here's what is going to happen," the Taii began, "There are seven decks above the one we are standing in, now. Our goal is the main deck - the bridge. Once there, if possible, we will take control of this vessel and activate the self-destruct procedures for the rest of the fleet in stasis around Nataria. Jalen-Hei, you-"
All hands man your battlestations - this is not a drill, repeat...
The general quarters alarm began to sound and the hangar doors slammed closed.
The great, impenetrable metal shields were impassive. Aside from the alarm, which died away quickly, nothing else so much as sneezed. Theoretically, mice would probably have also fallen silent, if mice were aboard Star Army Vessels. They weren't, but it would have been a nice touch.
When the Taii tried the main vertical passage door, she swore. There were more low, muttery fuzzed out words over the communciations channel.
"Someone," she said, stepping back away from the door, "See if you can cut this..."
The channel fuzzed.
"...open. Otherwise, we're going to have to find another way up."
------
And in the engineering space of the Eucharis...
There was one of those little red lights come on.
You know the sort; the ones that mean something's just a little off kilter. It wasn't a big light. In fact, it just seemed to be a loss of coolant pressure in the portside shield array, and a sudden decrease in current resistance along the power run. Neither of which were terribly deadly or dangerous on their own. All it meant was, the shields were beginning to overheat.
There had also been a problem closing the door in the Shuttle Bay automatically, after the away team had deployed. It was a yellow light. It clearly said 'Open'. It should have said closed.
Every engineer in the Star Army knew that they worked in the Jungle. It might not be anything like a dangerous foreign planet, and it might not be in a particularly adventurous way, but ships killed people.
Most of the people ships killed were engineers.
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Over the communications channel...
There was silence.
It was not the sort of silence that indicates a lack of activity. PANTHEON was always active. She, if such a system may be given a gender, was always actively watching over things. She was very diligent in that regard, connecting to all the ships in the fleet, making sure that everything was running smoothly.
But there was now something else.
It was a whisper on the edge of existance.
Hanako, connected into the system, would be aware of a particular whisper. This was a resonance. It was a tickle in the body that traveled up the spine and felt around all the extremities in-between, before leaving a little message in the very top of the brain.
You, It said, quietly and secretly, a voice weak and very far away, but present and searching, Are Going To Be Mine, Oh Darling. I Know You Are There. I Know You Are Listening. Believe My Word. For I Will Find You. I Will Have You, Run As You May. Run As You May.
And then the voice was gone. It had passed. Distinctly, it seemed as if it had moved on, but that was probably not entirely true. The presence, at least, was gone.
The resonance remained.