[b]Isabel[/b]

The clouds part, and you see that you have indeed gained Solarel’s attention. Perhaps more even than she realized. Though she could resume the system again, and there is much danger to you from an approach, the motion of the wind, the cloud, and the swirls and eddies through the city means that one of your drones could reach close range without it being possible for it to be separated out from the fog until it’s close. 

Answer two questions. First, what are you most ashamed of? Second, what are your feelings towards Solarel? Answer both truthfully. Answer one through words, and one through action. 

[b]Solarel[/b]

You stand as a goddess questioning the toy that has been held up to you in offering. Remember, however, the myths of Hybrasil that you learned from Mirror. A goddess who is too proud and unwary can still be bound, though her wrath will be fierce indeed.

The initiative is to Isabelle for the next move. 

***

[b]Mirror[/b]

“I fear I will yet fall short of your demands, Mira Fisher, whose star name is Whispered Promise, whose mercenary call sign is Mirror, whose title is the One Day Defender. These are the things I could research about you, the records of your deeds that were left from your work among my people and the tellings of your people that my staff were able to contact in the time that I realized you were entirely honest with me in the bar.”

There is a sadness in her voice at this, a feeling of fear that she doesn’t believe that simply reciting the names and titles of your people and your work will answer the question you’re really asking. But nevertheless, a sign of respect. Showing her work, offering to you the time and effort she has spent.”

At the same time, missile lock warnings start to sound. She hasn’t moved out of the mist, not yet, but she’s activating a substantial part of her payload, using her targeting software for the lock without needing to exit the water. Tricky to do, superheated water and steam would stop most wavelengths of energy. She’s probably scanning for you via high-radiation sensors of some kind, maybe specifically tuned to a Crystal Fire energy source distinct from the weapons fire. 

“As for your secret. I suppose I must disappoint you there as well. It lies in my hands and yet I cannot grasp it. You are not piloting with a neural mesh interface. I know you are not. I’ve watched every one of your fights in detail. Certain actions you have taken were not merely unlikely but impossible with such an interface. Your last fight guaranteed this to me, when you defeated Smokeless Jade Fires. You’ve strained past all known physiology of a Hybrasilian body, and if you were numbing feedback to the level that would be possible without knocking you unconscious, you would not have been able to act in the reaction times required to make that fight look flawless. It crossed from something that could, perhaps, be explained with the most cutting edge technology to the realm beyond the possible. But what are you doing instead? How am I to get my hands around that?”

At last, there is the hint of a smile in her voice. “Well, I thought perhaps you’d give me more data in this fight. In my opinion, though the fight with Jade Fires was most informative, it was not the one where you were most pressed.”

The missiles have taken to the air, but as they approach you, they do not remain as one missile. Rather, each one splits into a burst of cluster missiles, some going directly at you in a cloud, others diverting to fly above or below you and then home in on you together. The exact strategy that Solarel used when she was piloting the Bezorel, but deployed much faster. While it was ssable only once on such a small mech as the Bezorel, it’s possible depending on how much space the Jormungar has dedicated to this that she could manage two or perhaps even three waves of this burst missile attack. 

***

[b]Dolly and Jade[/b]

Slate smiles. She does not speak as she watches Dolly’s head tilt and her cheeks blush. She does not speak as Jade caresses her, but she tilts her head and she watches without blinking. And she does smile. 

When Dolly stops, when Jade releases her to focus, then Slate speaks.

“Are you saying that you want these things more than you already have them? That you wish to further optimize an already light chassis for stealth, speed, and ambush tactics?”

She laughs then, not hard, not long. A quick spit of a laugh that makes her turn her head and arch her neck before it comes out like a bullet. Then she turns back to you. “Which of you does this request come from, I wonder? It’s a request that requires either the highest confidence or the desire to someday lose. Do you know what the tradeoffs are for a chassis like the one you describe? Let me tell you. Acceleration is a factor of energy output and mass. Particularly in space. In an atmosphere there are also matters of aerodynamics, wind, and vectors to consider, but in space, acceleration is strictly energy output and weight. Now…” 

She pauses, and gives you a serious look that suggests you ought to know this already, but she’s giving the lecture anyway. The kind of lecture she’d give a novice pilot who was first deciding on their practice specifications. “Your energy output is a fixed number, we’re not getting you a better drive than you got from Hybrasil. So we need to entirely focus on weight for your desired results. That makes the question one of trading offense and defense. If you want communications jamming software, disabling weaponry, stealth generators, and enough overall power to actually win a fight on the ambush, you’re going to be maxing out your weight on offense. So, let me spell that out for you as clearly as I can. If you run a chassis like that and you’re ever taken unawares, YOU will be the one instantly knocked out. The Red Band, as I understand their methods, usually follows that up by trussing up their prize and dragging it bound and gagged back to their headquarters. In fact, if memory serves, you’ve already experienced that once? So, let me confirm. That’s the kind of body that the Goddess Smokeless Jade Fires and her High Priestess desire?”