[@Rai][@Verticus][@Claghorn Tull]

[center][url=https://fontmeme.com/futuristic-fonts/][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/180218/081fd86a6750a67ecdc715f77f4ad307.png[/img][/url][/center]
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[center][url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Callisto%2C_moon_of_Jupiter%2C_NASA.jpg]Orbital View Of
Callisto[/url][/center]

Niki was in full Multitasking mode watching Aella, listening to Paladin, Savis, local space, and the beautiful moon far below her. It was both an internal function and inherent in her mental makeup to be able to do so and why she was top of the line in her function as a pilot even if she lacked practical experience.  

It was because of this latter issue that she was always performing tactical drills and even competing with other pilots on the Sol-Net server where she was one of the top competitors going by the Handle Bluemoondreamer. It was in Systems of Fire where she was considered one of the Goddess of that game with a score only exceeded by HarrowedSoul, StainlessHawk, TyrantofStars, and Willowbranchdancer all of them seasoned competitors and pilots of ships that even now move in the darkness between the planets. It was a competitive game that had been designed by a former War college Professor for use by that school in the training of naval personnel in practical ship’s tactics and in its present 17.15 issue considered as more than reality.

Her ship was personally designed and tested by herself and had never been destroyed in any engagement lending her the keening Queen of the Escape clause which meant she was only one of 42 such craft in the system wide game to be able to claim that state. Named the Sky of Terra Nikki’s ship was like the Carrion a Stealth ship and one which used special weapons mostly centered around the use of area interdiction mines which were stealthed Torpedos that lay in wait in hidden positions listening to space around them till the electronic or weapons signature of target ships caused them to go active  and attack. Her defensive systems were self designed and proven in the engineering simm and included modified sandcasters to ablate energy weapons with a cloud of reflective crystals that either dispersed the effects or required burning through for the weapons to strike; she called them Teuthida shields in honor of the Squids ink clouds. 

She smiled as she remembered her last Sortie in SOF and how her Sand casters had been used to destroy a squadron of fighters which she’d drawn into the shadow of Titan at low orbit. The small and deadly craft had been at full burn so when they struck the silicate cloud trying to cut the angle of attack to intercept the Sky had been holed so thoroughly they lost half of her adversaries experienced pilots setting their user back nearly 1 million credits he’d paid unit developers and caused him to issue a bounty on her in game.

Slipping back into actual space Nikki checked her various monitoring sub routines to make sure they had not missed any tidbits of information between Aella, Savis, or Paladin; then she did the same for her sensor sweeps and overlays. 

It was so exciting not being alone aboard her ship but in some ways Nikki couldn’t shake the old fish and friends quote wondering when they would all be gone.   

[@Perpenheimer]