Anarion

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Epilogue: A planet

On the edge of the galaxy, to the galactic west of the NC-301 system, there is a yellow star. For many, many years, this was all there was in the system. Eons ago, the yellow star had been a part of a great nebula within its sector of the galaxy, but it had drifted from that nebula, a wandering child of dust and gas all gathered about itself like a blanket. It had drifted off to sleep all on its own and that sleep had lasted until it was small and bright and burning. No great asteroids or strange magnetic fields disturbed that sleep, and so it sat whole unto itself, with no celestial bodies around it to speak of. Around its weight gravitated only loose rocks and debris, at its edges some larger bodies that drifted towards it, a distant outer shell.

So empty was this system, that as the Hybrasilians and Terenians passed through it on their wayfinding, they never gave it a name. Because it did not have a name, it remained beyond the touch of the gods.

Until now. Now, there are new gods. Gods who live in steel and titanium. Gods who live in flesh. Gods who build with dreams and paper. Can you call them anything else when they have combined their will and their arts to make a world?

The planet that the powers of the galaxy have made is unique.

It is not like Akar the Arena, which was a fully formed barren world filled with nanobots to ever shape and change its surface to the whims of a public demanding spectacle.

It is not like the secret worlds of the ancients, upon which the Zaldairans settled, worlds that had lived for so long that the work of hands and the work of nature had combined together with their automated industry and incomprehensible mechanical deities.

It is not like the great cities of the Terenians, that have eclipsed the way their worlds once appeared, replacing the surface with glass and steel that ever grasp for the sky, creating a view from space of oddly straight lines and circles of blue-gray metal woven together.

It is not like the shaped worlds of the Hybrasilians, that have combined the powers of nature with the craft of biochemistry to sustain their populations and their industry amidst their vast tree dwellings carefully cultivated by artisans.

It is not like the dead worlds that so many try to mine and fight about, their surfaces glorious but barren, settlements forced to be in bubbles meant for temporary extraction by small groups of workers.

No, this planet is alive and it has been left to its life. Left to be wild. To grow without constraints, to take shape as it pleases, in both the small and the large. The madness of a weaver and a mosaic maker at cosmic scale. It is not finished. It may never be finished.

***

The planet did not start this way. It began its life as a small, barren asteroid built around a strong iron core. Like the arena, it was shaped through the efforts of the great Zaldarian shamans who can sing to the nanobots and cause them to work and shape at speed. For raw material, it received resources from the Terenians, the bounty of the greatest miners of the galaxy combining their efforts to bring together materials from within the system and from across other systems to provide the planet everything that it could need to take shape. And for life, it received the gifts of the Hybrasilians, the seeds of the great trees, wildlife from megafauna to microbes, and the waters of their worlds.

Each empire turned their greatest resources, their unique talents to the task: Hybrasilian bio-shapers crafted designs and Terenians offered powered labor and their massive fleets to provide supplies as the Zaldarians set the nanobots to work. From an asteroid’s metallic core, they built layers upon layers over it, each exposed to the light of the system’s yellow sun that watched with avid curiosity. Layers of rock, of dirt, of soil, and finally of crust upon which land and water could rest, compacted together until they could be strong enough to hold themselves together. And when that had its strength, they brought atmosphere: the gasses of nitrogen and oxygen, and just a little carbon, and above them ozone held to warm the surface and capture the light of the little sun.

And then they shaped what had been formed. They took natural mountains that had arisen through the shaping and cut channels for rivers that did not yet exist. They carved beneath great and dusty plains, still bereft of life, that they might have reservoirs and aquifers. Water was foremost in their plans for it was water they needed first, water that might allow life to take root.

And when they were ready, water they brought in spades, great blocks of ice from the asteroids of the Terenians, carried on their transport ships. With water, Hybrasilian seeds, and Zaldarian, and Terenian. A mix of life from many planets across the galaxy.

A mixture of this sort had never been tried. Some Terenian planets cultivated crops that had originated on other planets, and Hybrasilian crafters had much experience carefully altering the biology of local flora for their needs. But a truly combined planet had only been theorycrafted, never implemented. The Hybrasilian shapers worked to make sure that everything was carefully cultivated. They created planned symbiosis, shared nutrients, a complex nitrogen cycle and bacterial processing and reprocessing that would in turn sustain the composition of the atmosphere and the clarity of the water. Once planted, they rapidly grew the seeds of life using the power of technology. Running through generations: accelerated and accelerated through the plans of the greatest scientists that the three empires could produce all collaborating in their vast efforts.

***

But then, the true magic. With all these things in place, they let it go free.

Unlike the Arena, which had its nanobots remain, this planet had them removed when they were done with its crafting. At least, mostly removed. Even the greatest Zaldarian shapers could not entirely remove the integration of nanotechnology with the fundamental life cycles of the planet because they were too integrated with the environmental and evolutionary systems that had been cultivated. What could be said then is that the spark of nanotechnology runs through the soil of the planet and life has evolved to work with it. But it is no longer shaped or even capable of being actively controlled in such a way as happened with its shaping. Instead, the planet has a stable surface and the evolution of the technology is left to its own devices.

Unlike the heartland of Hybrasil, the Hybrasilian shapers stopped their work once life was present and reproducing. The trees are not shaped into great homes for cats to live in multiple tiers. No fields are cleared for agriculture or industry. Life is not managed, and there is no promise that all things will be sustained no matter their own foolish choices. All they have left is the shape of their work, the plans for symbiosis and coevolution that they must now trust will endure.

Unlike the Terenian mining worlds or their great cities, they have removed their generators and extracted their mechas and their ships. They did not leave piles of unused equipment, nor massive settlements empty of their people, nor active generators full of crystal fire to each life for new arrivals. What remains, in rare places, are the leftovers, bits of scrap metal, of old parts, of crates and boxes and mecha feet that showed a little independence in the course of the upheaval of such heavy work. They can be found on occasion, overgrown with plants among the terrain.

In the place of the three great civilizations, life has been left to thrive wherever, and however it might. Conditions are good for this. The distance from the curious yellow star is correct for water to shift from liquid to vapor. The tilt is right to go from hot and muggy at the equator to cool at the poles. The planet has been formed with three small lunar satellites that orbit in sync, so as to pull currents and windstreams to create pockets of temperate zones and pockets of extreme weather, with variation over a twenty (20) year cycle and what scientists estimate will be a two hundred and forty (240) year cycle still to be experienced.

***

What lives here is not kind, but neither is it cruel. It is what came of rapid growth that was then left to its own devices to survive.

Low, hardy trees that cling to stone where they must, while the hot zones are full of tall graceful trees that sway and bend, but do not snap even in the strongest winds of the storms that sometimes sweep through them. The midland zones are full of all different sorts of tall trees, great forests of mist and canopies that hide who knows what. They all know how to scatter their seeds far and wide, to spread and change.

And within these lands there are animals that burrow and save for the seasons. Animals that hibernate. Animals that know how to pounce without hesitation. Some are small and numerous. Some are large, territorial, and powerful. Some, perhaps are even greater than that, titans hidden in the deep places and the tall places who have claimed a land over which they are lord in all but name. Perhaps even a few, integrated with the remaining nanobots, who represent an ecosystem unto themselves. The rumors of the Hybrasilian shapers are that it’s possible that whole islands could rest on the back of giant turtles if the conditions turned out just right.

And above them all, clouds that fly rapidly and carry rain near and far. Warm tropical rain and cool boreal rain that sticks to the mountains and the plains and flows to the seas. The clouds move quickly, and they leave gaps and parts for the curious yellow sun, burning so brightly, to peek through. And so, high and low, this planet is a world full of rainbows.

***

There is a single spaceport, built south of the equatorial zone, where it is still warm most of the year, but far enough out of the fiercest storms and inland from the waves about fifty kilometers. It is built in a solid plain, and south of it there is a moderate plateau with caves and changing tree types as one climbs. Above the plateau is a great mountain range, stretching inland. Down from the mountains, a river runs, making great haste to pool in the plateau, and then running down its sheer sides in waterfalls to strike the plains where it happily slows and ambles its way past the port city built on its banks to the great oceans fifty kilometers away.

This port was built last of all, after everything had settled, after the nanobots were gone, after everything else was removed and the scientists extracted. It was built with more traditional methods, with earth shaped by working mechas and a handful of transport ships planned to remain so that the planet would not be entirely isolated.

The port as it now stands is a mix of prefabricated units made of metal and plastics and some hand-built buildings of wood, stone, and brick, stockpiled with enough food and fuel for a few months. There is space for up to a thousand new arrivals (if they don’t mind double bunking), spare parts, tools, clothes, and various odds and ends in plenty. About a hundred souls, all vetted with Mirror, work the port. A mixture of a few people ready to explore, and several people who want to build something of their own and have no intention of going far until there’s a safe road.

The rest is left to the people who come here, the people who choose to settle such a place. The surface is unmapped beyond a rough orbital topography scan. The places that are rich or poor are unknown. The beings who inhabit the world, the gods who may dwell within, they too are unknown. What grows well, what is best to eat, what would make the best clothes. These are things to be discovered.

***

Around the planet, there is a special perimeter. The system has only one jump entry route and in order to be admitted to the system past the guards, you must send word first and be permitted entry from the planet. You must be permitted entry by Mirror or those she delegates to the task. Otherwise, the perimeter guard will turn you back, offering enough fuel to get to the nearest habitable system two jumps away if you’ve arrived in error and cannot gain entry. If you arrive and make foolish demands, you will get less than that.

This, then, is the manifestation of Mirror’s wish. The wish for a planet. The wish for a home. The wish for possibility. The final thing it needs is a name.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

“You know I’m enjoying this too,” Marcina says as she stands before you in the face off. “I’m not just Adriana’s lackey, and you all are making for a good workout. I love learning about people like this.” She listens as you try to reason with her. “Yes maybe you’ve got a po—fdsffgfagdsaf” she says as the muffin hits her right in the mouth and you’re breezing past.

You race down the hallways with Asil and Kiriala comes loping beside you, slipping into a Hybrasilian huntress run that uses all four limbs to stay low to the ground and maintain a speedy pace that lets her run beside you without needing to pant.

Your footsteps are eaten up by carpet, and your turn the corner to find Adriana already out the door.

She turns to look at you as you barrel out of the building. “We’re not fighting in the streets, I’ll be writing this entire incident up as a planned stunt for the finale done in collaboration with Mayze Serpaws as part of her big reveal. A soft spot for skilled finalists I think. Besides, the priestess is already away along with the Antonius girl, who frankly has given her family a better reputation than at least two thirds of her much wealthier cousins. I’m biased of course, the Teresio family has always been of the opinion that we did more than half the founding of the Consortium and having to mix the name was a concession we can never get back.”

She smiles at you as Marcina comes racing up behind. “Well, off you all go, I know you’ve got things parked around her somewhere. Or I can give you a lift if not. Say hi to Mira for me when you see her.”

***

Dolly

You are indeed rescued. You and the two girls and Angela all squeezed very tightly into the Barn Owl and well clear of the whole thing. It’s obvious in retrospect that they didn’t want to turn this into a public incident. Station staff will all sign NDAs and they’ll turn the Mirror broadcast into being part of the show. It certainly stunned.

Where do you go to unpack and cooldown? To see the end of the match announced properly as they finally get camera drones to cross miles to inspect everything? What do you do with the two station attendants you’ve obviously kidnapped (because surely if they went willingly they’d lose their jobs. No, no, it’s obvious that they were coerced and kidnapped by the goddess, it’s the only explanation).

***

Mirror, Solarel

Wishes shared amidst a battlefield that will be remembered for generations.

You stride out of the radiation zone, to a world where time behaves in a linear fashion and where camera drones can create a proper feed. There is a hoard of them, carefully organized from miles away to rush across the battlefield to be here.

You signal the end of the match, there are no more ships left to fight. You signal victory for Mirror and defeat for Solarel.

You are together. Together to appear on camera. Together to leave the battlefield, slowly. Together as they fetch a shuttle for you. Together returning to the Hangar.

What more is there to do?

***

Matty

You are shirtless, soaked, and exhausted. You loll back in your chair, splay out your arms and relax. You’ve been an incredibly good girl and you get to bask in that feeling.

Or you would, until you hear Slate’s suppressed giggles from behind you. “Finally had myself a good nap. Guess the match went well, kitten?”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Jade

There was calm. Before you turned to your Dolly. The presence faded as quickly as it rose, and the spirits you have eaten are strange, but they are not deadly on their own. You can hold them, digest them, do with as you please. Perhaps that will be an adventure for another day.

Dolly

You burst out with your new crew in tow, Jade cheering you on. You have enough time to see Isabelle holding Marcina at swordpoint, and Kiriala trying to catch her breath as she rolls around to get off the floor. Other staff at the station are too stunned to do anything, all standing in shock after coming from a job that does not typically entail violence.

You skid over the servers, land on smooth floor, and the Terenians behind you start running out of sheer inertia. And then, then Ksharta pops up in the middle of the hallway and shouts “this way, Dolly!” and unlike the others she’s a little late in coming but this means that she’s not tied up or fighting or otherwise in the midst of chaos herself. That makes hearing her voice a wash of relief. There’s an exit route, there’s someone who knows where she’s going.

As you get further out and the crowd thins, a few employees try to stop you, at least to get in the way and ask what’s going on and where you’re running off to so fast, but Sam shouts something garbled at them that sounds like “fire drill!” and they get out of the way.

And finally, as you round a corner, you see Angela, who’s guarding the entrance with the tripcaster crossbow you once used to capture her.

“You’re lucky, little priestess, that I still think this is fun, ay. You wish for a gallant escort. So I will be forced to carry you out I think.”

She grins and, before you can quite realize what’s happening, she once again hefts you unceremoniously over her shoulder, right in front of your new Terenian friends!

“Hm, everyone here will not fit in the Barn Owl though, we’ll need to get some additional transport” she adds almost as an afterthought.

***

Isabelle

“You know, Isabelle” says Adriana. “One of the mistakes I think business leaders use is comparing their work to combat. I’ve done both so I think I have a good sense of the two.”

She grins, a grin that says she’s enjoying herself immensely. “Business works best when it’s handled methodically, and, for my taste, openly. Do you know, while I’m on this…” she steps a bit to the side and takes the coffee that one of the useless employees is holding up for her. “...one of the best ways to gain power in business is to give it out. Be the person that helps other people succeed and then they’ll be happy to help you when you need it. Doubly so if you’re earnest and actually do that out of friendship without telling them you expect the quid pro quo. It’s one of the grand ironies of these things.”

She takes a sip of the coffee, sniffs, wrinkles her nose. “Ugh, a cut rate distraction to boot. I’m shocked you lured so many people with treats this poor. Next time, tell the Fisher cat I expect a Murzon blend or I’m not coming.” She grins, takes another step around you. “At any rate, the things people think they need to do for business, all that cunning, deception, decisive action and sudden strikes to annihilate anyone who threatens you…”

She tosses the coffee, lid flying off, right at Kiriala, pulls out a rose from her outfit that was actually a knife and uses it to parry your sword out of the way, and begins sprinting down the hallway, calling behind her “...those are the things you need for a fight! Marcina, distract them!”

For her part, Marcina gives you an apologetic grin and simply stands in the way with the opening provided by your sword, ready to dodge or go for a body hold if you thrust inexpertly.

***

Mirror and Solarel

At first, there is uncertainty. Time dances tantalizingly before you, the strike is done and undone, the core pierced by the needle and then restored, pierced and then restored.

But even within a realm of ghosts and broken laws of matter, there is change. With every cycle, the energy of the remaining crystal fire drive leaks and wanes, merging with the surrounding radiation. With every cycle the animating force behind the Aeteline weakens. It moves less. The arms slump and cannot raise themselves. The legs collapse. And at last, that baleful green light fades to nothing amid the wind, the water, the leaves, and the nanobots.

It is right that ancient hate lay itself to rest in the face of unrestrained love.

Moreover, around you, the camera drones are stilling, falling to the earth and working inexorably to rest even as they fall up and down in ever smaller cycles. Was that truly all connected to the Aeteline, or was there help from Jade within the network?

The world is not normal. What has happened here will not easily be undone. The power of combined crystal fire drives will make this a place where physics becomes exceptionally exotic for years to come. There are rumors of crystal fire accidents that are still sealed centuries later, though they are usually small, shipwrecks and crashes and the like.

But the world is no longer filled with malevolent will. There is no place for it to rest, no center of power for it to congregate. Only a broken hulk and a strange, shifting world.

A pressure you did not know was present is released, and you can breathe normally for the first time. The wind is gentle, the hum of change calmer. It is not safe to linger long, but you should celebrate your victory.

***

Matty

You take the claw you had nervously been chewing on out of your mouth and let out a sigh as you let a big shudder take your whole body and then stretch.

You had to pull out the audio feed for a bit. The fighting was a bit too stressful to listen to, and there were too many people doing too much. But you can see Dolly rushed out while Isabelle still hasn’t moved. And, more importantly (you admit guiltily to yourself), the camera network is starting to come back. Everything in the blast region is dead still, completely gone in fact, but camera drones from other parts of the planet have been moving inward and most have reached the edge of the blast radius and are prepared to show some feed of the result, though nobody seems keen to move anything from outside the blast inside it.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Dolly

“Did you not watch your own broadcast that you worked so hard to hack, little kitten? Oh, or perhaps you were not fully told of your own plan. Mayze Serpaws herself invited me here to your little station right before she launched her broadcast. Why, I’m sure that an upstanding citizen and masterful pilot as herself didn’t want criminals to escape unscathed.”

Adriana laughs and punctuates it by slicing a piece of server equipment in half and then kicking over the bottom, forcing you all to scamper out of the way. Sam shrieks and the tall woman crosses her arms from a safe distance.

“Well, come on then. I’m sure she expects you to make a daring escape, or some imperious demands. You are the priestess are you not? I expected you to curse me with the fury of your goddess if I took one step further!”

This, though, is perhaps the wrong sort of fate to tempt. For as she finishes and strides into the room while Marcina covers her rear, the whole space shakes again, with yet another mecha landing.

Angela Victoria Miera Antonius has arrived.

***

Matty

“She’s here, go go go go go!”

You shout into the mic, and only after your enthusiasm, do you hear the sound of Slate groaning in the other room and quickly toss your coat over the door to help block sound. It’s fine, the room is hot anyway, you don’t need to be wearing anything on your top half. And you don’t want to wake Slate in your enthusiasm!

***

Isabelle

You are left with that uneasy feeling, which you can tell is linked to your nanobots. But it’s growing lighter, not heavier. And whatever you might have pursued on that matter is interrupted by Adriana’s speech. Which is followed by the station suddenly shaking from a mecha landing and then a moment later a hissing tornado bursts out of the ceiling and kicks the gun out of Marcina Villajero’s hands as Matty shouts “go go go” in your earpiece a little too loudly!

It goes flying down the hallway, and Marcina begins engaging with the catgirl that’s suddenly jumped her. Rather calmly to her credit, she doesn’t scream or fall over, and instead she’s got her arms up to protect her face and neck in a defensive posture as she backs herself up into a wall to try and stun Kiriala.

The other staff are not sure what to do, and one of them stupidly holds the coffee like it’s a sacred talisman that will protect him.

You’ve got a chance to try and take control of the situation.

***

Jade

You are playing a game of hunting. You are the hunter. You were always made to be a hunter. The drones scatter from your bite. And the malicious intent that you had touched is concentrated on something else. And so you become the hunter and the net all at once. That nothing will escape. That nothing will break free. You are to be served, and each bird, each foolish, idiot bird, must be taught to bow in turn.

***

Mirror and Solarel

The skeleton that was once the Aeteline roars as the metal is rent. It is not a loud roar, but a deep one, a roar of grinding metal mixed with the buzz of impossible energy. A crystal fire core exposed to a crystal fire explosion that defies the way that atoms and molecules are meant to work.

The brush of its flame blade creates strange winds, air currents that want to rise only to be pulled back down. The radiation of the drives is unhealthy, incompatible with the regular universe.

But that radiation, aids the skeletal beast. Energy flows through it fron the strange baleful core, stitching the metal back together as Solarel lands on the ground. But it is no more instant than the changing nature of time in this place is instant. It grows and flashes, the damage coming and going as things shift from creation to destruction.

To Solarel, it raises its flaming blade once again, and takes a step to bring it crashing down with all the thunder and fury that it can muster. If you are struck, you will die and be reborn and experience the blow a hundred thousand times until eventually the radiation of the drives fades over the years and the space becomes safe and sane once again.

But to Mirror, the back of the beast that was once a god is exposed. Its core is open and freely flowing to sustain what metal alone could not bear. While you, you hold a golden knife in your paws. You have but to walk the mountain.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

You and Asil arrive to see Adriana using her sword to cut the door out of the wall, she’s almost done, half of it is off and the hinges are cut. Marcina is standing nearby, and she’s got a handful of workers. There’s a big server rack in front of the door though, so even with it being removed, she’s still got to cut her way through that as well.

Marcina gestures for one of the aids to take the coffees you bring, but Adriana and Marcina themselves have their hands full with the scene. This definitely didn’t go according to plan.

Though, thankfully, you do suddenly get some help. “Isabelle, Dolly?” Matty is on the comms now, after an extended silence. She sounds a little sheepish. “Um…it seems like Mirror actually invited Adriana to come stop her, based on the cockpit feed I have. But um…Jade also invited Angela to come help, and I’ve set Ksharta and Kiriala to come help you as well, Kiriala is actually above you right now. But I’m not really sure what Mirror wanted, so I’m asking everyone to wait I guess? Maybe she wants the broadcast to come back in at the end, now that her big attack is over? Or maybe not and she just thought this would be fun. I’m…not sure, but I don’t want anybody to get hurt, so we’ll try and get you out when the moment is right.”

***

Dolly

Sam gives you a hug back, with a little squeeze. She’s also blushing profusely!

You see one of the doors come off at its hinges, and from behind the server rack you’ve set up, you can see half the body of Adriana Teresio, the most powerful woman in the Terenius Consortium! You may also recall her intoxicating flower dress from the Crystal Gala. Behind her are more vague outlines of several people, and what looks somewhat like Isabelle arriving in a rush from around a corner.

You get the same message as Isabelle did from Matty. So help is on the way, some of it very close. But you need to create the right opportunity to set it up.

***

Matty

Mirror told you that you would need to “play soldiers” to get everyone out, but you’re not quite sure what that means. You think it means something like playing with dolls combined with Hybrasil super spies, which is why you’ve got Kiriala positioned in an air duct above the hallway. You’re waiting until Angela arrives, which will be a few minutes and will shake the whole building like Adriana’s arrival, which should probably create an opening.

You fidget impatiently though and sit up on your feet in your chair. Is that too long? She’s already got a door off, and you’re not sure if Isabelle can slow her down again with the whole crowd of people there too. And who knows what Dolly can do, you’ve only heard her squeaking so far and it sounds like she got really distractedly.

***

Jade

The camera drones whisper and chant. But they do not speak in response to you. Their spirits are too simple. Like jackals, but also unlike any jackals you have ever met. They feel old to you, old and heavy and not at all like Hybrasilians. They move like birds. You catch a few, tear them apart, and the spirits within are feathered, simple and ancient. They are feeding data to something else. Something full of animating force.

Within the depths, something stirs. An amalgamation of spirits. It looks at you with its burning heart and its burning eye that glows white and green like your own smokeless fires.

“We are Trak’tho. What was left. What will be. We have been given a vessel. You will clear the way for us.”

***

Mirror, Solarel

You fall together, you fly together. Beneath you, something stirs.

The world, free of time, nevertheless changes. The pattern shifts, concentrates, coalesces. A pile of dead nanobots rises, and as it does, the nanobots stream off of it in cascading waves.

What was left of the Aeteline is a skeletal mess of the original. The outer armor has been utterly disintegrated, the purple highlights entirely wiped out in the blast of pure energy at the heart of all matter. The remaining body, the interior exoskeleton, the core protections, and the internal systems turned to plasma and then cooled, leaving it malformed and broken. Joints that have run together in a mess of metal should not be able to articulate. Thin, narrow limbs that are barely a wisp of solid matter should not be able to support it. And yet, a single, baleful eye of green-white fire stares at you from a gaunt, skeletal frame formed around its unchecked core drive. Its blade of flame forms in its hand.

It hums in tune with the camera drones, but larger and deeper. Slowly, it forms words that reverberate so deeply you can barely hear them. “With…power…there is…no need…for tactics.”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

“Sad attempt at a distraction. I’ll take the coffee, bring it with you.”

She kicks you out of her way. Not hard, actually, all things considered it’s more of a nudge and relatively gentle for the situation, then strides through the hallway. She snaps a “follow” at several staff, and then she and Marcina break into a sprint straight to the control center. Though right before she rounds the corner, she glances over her shoulder and shouts: “cream, no sugar, and make it snappy!”

And then she’s off.

***

Dolly

Tall girl stares at you with her mouth hanging open. Too much whiplash too fast. You were a cute tech fixing something and hitting on her extremely deserving co-worker and now you’re…blocking…the…door?

But, luckily for you, the bonds of adoring fangirl love and whispered secrets (a completely distinct category from whispered promises, which you would never mix up) conquer all. And so Sam is moving a server rack into place, helping you with the lifting, and in a moment the tall girl comes to help too because the immense social pressure of being out of the loop while two people cooperate is way more than she can bear.

You’ve got the door barred, the servers in place to hold it, and two people who are game to go along with you and ask questions later, or at least while helping to hold the door shut.

Nevertheless, this is going to hold for a lot less time than you expected. You know this because after two loud thumps on the door that make the server shudder, the next thing you see is a molecular edge ionized saber blade cut through the door around your barricade!

Jade

“Aye, I’ll get your cargo, goddess. But I get a trophy picture as a keepsake before you get her back.”

The transmission comes through a small part of you still in the hangar, while the rest of you is focused on controlling the systems. This wouldn’t be hard, normally. You were in the heart of the control center, completely connected. In fact, until Mirror fired her ultimate attack, you were in the process of setting everything up for more automated control to extract yourself.

It’s just that…now…there’s…um…ghosts? You’ve read a lot of mythology in Hybrasil, and from Terenian databases and what Zaldarian records are available. Furthermore, you are a goddess with the perfect recall capabilities of the most sophisticated technological systems ever created by any Hybrasilian. You would not describe yourself as limited in your galactic knowledge.

Nevertheless, what you’re working with here is that you’ve lost direct contact with every camera drone in a two mile radius vicinity of Mirror’s ultimate blast, but they are not shut down. They’re operating in the network, independently, while closing themselves off to you. So, uh, they’re haunted, you guess? They’re not currently broadcasting picture to your network though, which raises a question as to where they are broadcasting, exactly.

***

Matty

You’re locked out. The Nine Tails is systems down, the regular match feed is cut, and you’re not getting anything through Jade’s network. Mayze happily poses for the cameras of the rest of the world.

You sit back in your chair, and squeeze your legs and your eyes tight together and then just let out a long, long sigh and relax out into your chair. You’re not sure whether to be worried or satisfied, but you have done your part.

In a moment, you’ll get back on to seeing about the rest of the space and maybe extraction for the station team. But in a moment, you saw Jade had already called for Angela, so you need a second, then you’ll signal Ksharta and Kiriala to come support. Kiriala is already close by and was quietly disabling various aspects of the technical security of the building while Dolly and Isabelle handled the social work.

***

Mirror and Solarel

Within the heart of all things there is the infinite. Within every object lurks the whole rainbow and far, far beyond. Exotic energy that defies the nature of reality as you understand it.

The Nine Tails is consumed by its own attack and fades within corruscating energy. And the Aeteline disappears from view. Everything around you shimmers and the light narrows. You feel as though you’re viewing the whole world through a fencepost, a tiny, narrow slit through which to view things as they truly are. And yet above it, you fly, above it, there is still the sky, still the distant stars. And you are falling together, falling towards each other.

As the energy fades, the world below you is, and is not. If you only glance, nothing has changed. Trees and rivers and streams flow. But hold that glance, and everything has changed. Water flows backwards and forwards. Trees bow and rise, the wind cannot choose its direction. Slices of silent nanobots dot this landscape, giving shape to the lie of it. Segments that have ceased to function. But they are not still, the dead spots shift and move without any source of movement, without a clear line from place to place. Time, the axis on which the universe wheels, has broken here, and you are seeing creation and destruction swap with one another as easily as balls rolling about a field.

From beneath you, from all around you, the camera drones still move, rising and turning to gaze upon your fall. From them, there is a low moaning, a humming song, rising and falling as though a chorus, long asleep, struggles to come into harmony as it wakes from its eternal dream.

And yet, still, gravity remains, and you are always, always falling towards each other.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Jade

The control center beats in time with your heart, which rises and falls as smokeless fires. Here, you are a goddess, and with this new hacking array, you can reach out everywhere. The feeds of thousands of camera drones comes through here. Each one a tiny little pebble in the grandest of castles. Your castle, that pulses with your flame. You could change the view to any of them, thousands of feeds and you could pull the attention of the whole world, decide the location of each and every window and door.

Or, as Matty is now beaming to you, you could blind them all, and replace them with something else of your choosing. A new tower, a new turret, a blazing flame in whose heart shines a mirror that cannot melt. That refuses to melt. The adamant of will can outlast any fire.

Matty has you close on the line, she's counting down, her signal will come in seconds, be ready.

***

Dolly

"I...o-of course" she mouths without sound, her lips mumbling around your paw so quietly it's hard to tell the words apart from her breathing. The flutter of it just taps the edges of your fur and caresses it. [Take a string on Sam the audio tech]

She blushes, but moves back to her station. Turns to the taller woman. "Maybe she should just stay till the show's over. In case there's any more problems?" She gives the taller woman big puppy-dog eyes, which earns her a mildly disgusted sigh, as both of them turn back to the desk.

And really, that would be that. You've got things set up, Sam would totally cover for you when Jade takes over, probably even give you another opportunity to get down there first. You're the absolute best and greatest priestess who ever lived in all of Hybrasilian history probably. Or, well, at any rate you did a good job today and you're all set.

That's when the sudden loud clang hits and you hear the metallic noise and thruster roar followed by the whole tower shuddering as two mechas land directly outside your broadcast area. The huge cool blue of the Jormungar, newly repaired since Mirror's last fight. And the bright red of the Stellar Rose, the mecha of Adriana Teresio herself.

It seems she took Mirror's call seriously. They'll be inside in moments, better think of a plan.

***

Isabelle

Asil makes a startled noise, but she doesn't fight too hard. You can almost feel her full body shrug as you hold her close in fact. But hey, the plan worked well enough. Vicky lets out a nervous giggle, Asil a pleasured grunt, and the onlookers are in fact paying you lots and lots (and lots) of attention and not going back to their posts. It's not like weird steamy injury romance scenes happen all that often in real life. This scene reads as though right out of a Terenian telenovella.

And maybe that would have been that. After all, you and Asil could have had a moment, gotten a few polite onlookers to help you up, gallantly apologized to Vicky even though she knocked into you in order to demonstrate your nobility and generosity of spirit. However, it is at this moment that the whole tower shakes as two mechas land directly next to it. You don't have an exterior view from here, and so from your perspective it could be anyone, or even an injury earthquake as you cling to Asil. At least until Adriana Teresio herself kicks in the door, dressed in a rose-colored suit with lace sleeves, her gold-hilted saber drawn. And with Marcina Villajero behind her with a small pistol looking quite sheepish.

She lasers in on you the moment she sees you on the ground. "Isabelle Lozano" (shocked gasps from Vicky and several audience members. "What are you doing here, and where are your accomplices?"

***

Mirror

"Launched personally the second you called. Call it woman's intuition. I'm bringing Marcina too, we'll give you a good show at the station, don't worry. Thanks for the call in the middle of your match!"

***

Matty

Okay, she's got the tube out, deconstructed the sword. The bullet hell is mesmerizing, you barely notice your own anxious squirming in your chair as you watch it.

And Jade's in too, you need to focus on her, you've got her on comms and you're counting down and...Meep! The sound of the thruster landing coming through the audio along with the building shaking almost makes you jump onto the ceiling! You slump back into your chair, check the surrounding travel info. Special launch from Adriana Teresio, keep all airspace clear! What? Was that, did Mirror do something? How did they know? Did someone rat on Isabelle???

No, no, you have to focus, Mirror is going to give the signal any second now, you can't pay attention to anything else!

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Jade

“Hurry, hurry we need to be ready. It could be anytime now, the way the fight is going. You need to take it over and pass on the control. Hurry Jade!”

Matty’s voice cracks and you can hear the strain in her heart, the poor girl. It’s not really from you, you’re a goddess and it really can’t be from you. But she’s worried about Mirror, she’s worried about the fight, she’s worried about every fraction of a second of hesitation and the need to be able to move exactly when her big sister needs her to move.

For you, the beat is steady. The rhythm of stone, you’ve played this game before, haven’t you? Twice now in fact. Stone has been your foil, the strength against which you’ve broken. But then, too, there’s a comfort in stone. Stone doesn’t change quickly, stone doesn’t surprise you. Even its tricks and its traps, its sudden twistings and carved runes, these are things you can understand, can wrap yourself around. Pillars rise and twist, but the beat is steady and you can feel it as it’s coming. The heart of the system glows with its own rhythm, the beating clock that is the heart of every digital being. It’s close, so close. Steady, so steady. You just need to pick your moment within the flow.

Take it.

Dolly

“Huuuuuuu” the breath is drawn into Sam’s mouth, breathing in like she’d breathe in forever. She was almost done with the zipper, but her hand stopped moving. You’d think she was petrified except that her heart’s beating in her chest so loudly that it makes your ears twitch with it.

The other tech, the tall one has turned back to the board. The fight is moving in unusual patterns, spiral-shaped evasions that require adjustments to the camera, angles, the drone controls, the audio feeds to get the best view.

But Sam’s frozen. She reminds you of Mu’Ysha on the lily pad, so still and silent is she as her blood thunders.

When she has taken all the air that she can, she holds her breath. And then there is a whisper. “You’re her, aren’t you?” and in her voice is awe. More awe than anyone in your cult has ever shown you. Perhaps this is what it’s like to be Jade. Because for her, it’s like one of the performers stepped off the stage mid-show and started chatting with the lighting hand.

***

Isabel

“No that’s okay I…” Vicky tries to move past you quickly and suddenly. Too suddenly. Thud!

You lose your vision for a moment, and then you’re seeing stars and you don’t quite remember when you fell over.

First thing back to your head, the table’s at the wrong angle. You’re on the ground, the table top shouldn’t look normal to you. Oh it fell over. Asil’s standing next to you, she must have jumped over. She’s waving a wet cloth over you that smells faintly of coffee. Not bad, though it’s not the best you’ve had and the coffee smells a tad burnt. Slightly acrid, makes you want to move your face away from it.
Several of the workers have cleared out space and most of the ones at the fringes are starting to drift away. That’s probably okay?

Matty crackles in your ear. “Isabelle? What happened, I was…I heard an impact but I wasn’t watching. It sounded like someone hit you.”

No, that’s not quite right. Vicky was just a bit cornered and then she moved too fast, and she has a very strong build and thick bones and you probably just ate a rib or something in an awkward collision. She’s standing near the ring of onlookers, not too far away, looking extremely worried.

You’re fine, probably? Well, you’re going to have the most hilarious bruise across your face by the end of the day. But probably fine.

The situation’s a mess though, and everyone’s paying very close attention to you. What do you do now?

***

Matty

You turn your attention back to the fight, and somehow even though the Whip should have been torn apart, it’s got the Aetline bound. She could go for the kill shot.

“Let’s fucking goooo!” you shout and then clamp a hand over your mouth with a sudden flush and rush to the door. You pop it open and bless every goddess you can think of when there’s a snore out the other side. The soundproofing was good enough, you didn’t wake Slate! You’d die if you woke Slate now because there’s no way she would go back to sleep and she needs her rest. Otherwise they’ll all be a mess after the match.

You turn back to the match and there’s still taunts going back and forth, and you can see the evasion patterns, attempting to break contact and reestablish distance and engagement. Solarel is running. But she’s also running and Mirror had better hurry it up!

No breaks for you, you’ve got to keep focused on the match. Jade’s nearly done, and well, you can worry about helping Isabelle and Dolly with information once Jade’s done and your job is done. So much to do, this is such a big responsibility!

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

Here’s the thing. You’ve done an extremely good job at lying poorly.

Vicky adjusts her glasses again, shifts her stance, stands up straighter. You can see she’s giving you a slightly wider personal space. And, well, all that training from your mother wasn’t entirely wasted. This is a sign of respect. You’re important now.

And suddenly you know exactly where you stand. All that travel information, obviously true, you lied too poorly to have made it up. And so she knows that you’re someone with wealth, someone who would travel like that. Regular people don’t do that unless they’re ship crew on a freighter run, and even then, most freighters are going to run one route back and forth forever. Maybe a route with two stops, max. It’s boring, sure, but it’s also a safe and very simple profitable trade. You go to one planet, buy whatever’s cheapest and best at a value per weight and value per volume that works with your ship, and then you go to a second planet where you offload your goods, buy what the first planet needs to refill the hold and just go back and forth. Medical goods from Alcard sold on Terenius Prime then load up on luxuries from Terenius Prime and sell them on Alcard.

Well, that was a tangent on interspatial shipping, but it’s all to say that when you told her that you’ve been doing business on at least four different, separated star systems, you told her that you were rich. And so now, whatever you’re doing, she’s not going to press about who you really are. Because pressing the rich in a weird dalliance like this is dangerous. You’re dangerous.

“Well…that all make sense then” she eventually manages. “I can’t say that I have, of course. Intra-system, to be sure. The uh…sunsets on Akar II are lovely during its fall. But um…I should be on my way, I’m sure I’ve wasted enough of your time and your partner is obviously recently at having to do all the work giving away free baked goods while I bother you.”

So, that’s a problem solved, right? Maybe?

***

Dolly

The smaller Terenian continues to sputter, blushing furiously as she tries to inspect your jumpsuit only to turn her head away.

The taller one, now, clears her throat though. “Listen, if you want her, her name’s Sam, and she’s a pushover.” This is followed by an indignant squeak from Sam, but not coherent words. The tall one continues. “Like, I tease her normally about her favorite pilots anyway, and you’re the spitting image of that Hybrasilian priestess that pilots the mecha that think it’s a goddess, so, like, congrats on that, I bet you get a lot of attention at parties.”

She chuckles, brushes her hair. “But, it’s going to have to wait until after the show’s over. This is only the most important broadcast of the season and you’ve basically disabled one of the two techs overseeing the master controls. So how about I give you her number and you scram? If that jumpsuit’s actually stuck, I’ll fix it for you.” Sam gives another indignant squeak that says that she’s perfectly capable of fixing the zipper herself and how dare her co-worker intervene like this. It’s a very communicative squeak.

What do you do?

***

Jade

It’s twisting itself like a maze. This isn’t the absolute cutting edge of network security. You’ve actually seen that, back on Hybrasil, where the maze would be like trying to navigate the swirls and rings of a vast and ancient tree that would trap you within its sap. They know there how to keep out even a goddess. But this isn’t that good. It’s the cutting edge of ten years ago from a civilization that’s somewhat less good at computer programming than yours.

That said, it’s still secure. This is an important broadcast and they certainly don’t want anyone getting into it as a prank, so it’s at least fortified against script kiddies. And so it twists like a maze. Stone slabs angle and shoot out, risking a fall that would crush you if you don’t twist out of the way. The angle requires that you work with the gravity of the space and the shape of the walls to direct yourself, shifting your momentum. Carvings speak of chains and cages and the walls close, narrowing the space.

You’re getting a transmission from Matty, who’s getting a signal routed from your idol. “Be careful, Jade. None of the staff know there’s a network intrusion yet, but there’s some kind of automated program. If you hit anything too hard, it will trip and alert people that someone is trying to access it and they’ll start locking it down. You should have some freedom to manipulate it yourself though, since you’re in the actual console and they expect the attacks to be coming from outside. It’s kind of like being on the backside of a gun emplacement, so as long as you don’t hit it so hard it starts firing anyway, you can disable it.”

***

Matty

This is frantic, you wish you had a break. You’re worried about Dolly, and about Isabelle, but they’re…well…they did their jobs technically and they’re kind of on their own. Since now you need to be watching Jade’s hacking attempt and monitoring her networking equipment until she’s properly in control and ready to act. And you need to be watching the fight with Mirror and Solarel so that you know when to act and can actually make sure that Mirror’s plan goes off. Especially since she doesn’t seem like she has a lot of spare room to pay attention to anything else right now.

In fact, you take your eyes off Jade after your last transmission because you’re transfixed by the fight. The series of gold and silver blows is beautiful, and you squirm uncomfortably as you watch each one get closer and closer to cutting into the main body of the Whip. It will all be for nothing if Mirror loses here. If she…but she’s not. Why isn’t the blow landing? What are they both waiting for?!

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

For what are probably entirely unrelated reasons, Asil audibly groans over at the refreshment stand.

“The…parent company? Teresio space mining industries, like nearly every mining settlement. Even I’m not old enough to remember what space looked like before the corporate consolidation. I mean, I know Teresio leases out equipment deals, shipping, and supplies to all the smaller families, but that wasn’t my job and frankly, as long as the food shipment has the cinnamon rolls with the good frosting, who cares how they got there?”

She’s eyeing you again, leaning her glasses dangerously over the perch of her nose. “Name’s Vicky, which you can call me and ask all about my manufacturing kit if you tell me where you’re actually from…Belle.”

***

Dolly

“You’re in!” Matty’s excited voice echoes over your earpiece. “Jade will need a few minutes, can you um…make sure that nobody interrupts her work?” Well, nothing’s happening immediately, but it’s not like you’d want the entire console to turn blue or green to indicate Jade controls it, since that would also give it away to everyone else. Not everything can be like the Terenian animes after all.

You get everything wrapped up and you’ve replaced the cover as you come out from underneath the desk. Since Jade does need a few minutes and they could notice her before she has total control, maybe you could play the role of key distraction.

You’ll at least need to fix that zipper before you go anywhere, your jumpsuit is going to fall off your shoulders at the slightest twitch!

Jade

You’re in! This new hacking system is really something. What does hacking feel like to you? Is it like cutting through the primordial jungles of Hybrasil? Like dancing from star to star in the night sky? Like feeling your way through a cave to the underworld?

Whatever it might be, your goal is to establish control over your immediate equipment as stealthily as possible, then use that equipment to take over control of the network in time to execute on Mirror’s precise directions.

***

Matty

Oh gods, the fight exploded! Mirror could have cut off the Aeteline’s arm, but instead she tickled it! You have some idea that she must have a plan and that if she didn’t do it, it was because it was a bad idea, but you’re not really sure of the details. If you had time to sketch it out and run some tests, you’d be able to figure out that the thruster limitations from that position meant that the arm cut offered no safe exit route, but for now you’re just going on the gut feeling that Mirror’s got a plan and she’s executing on it. Why else would she start burning down the arena?

The announcers are wildly excited though. Two top of the line mechas deploying all their equipment in dueling laser light shows as they speed over the landscape surrounded by explosions is exactly what the public wants, and everyone wants to try and predict the advantage with each little display.

Okay, okay, you’ve confirmed with Dolly. And Isabelle is…not failing? You’re not really sure what she’s talking about anymore, but the area is still pretty clear from what you can gather, and yelling at her not to screw up while getting questioned will probably just make her more nervous. Which you figure is true because it would make you a lot more nervous and you wouldn’t do that to yourself. You mean, unless it was a scene you were doing and you wanted to get nervous and have the big Terenian push you further and further up to a wall. B-but probably that has nothing to do with Isabelle and she’s fine!