Anarion

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

The Aeteline, a manufactured machine, does not know the thrill of the hunt. But you do. Even here. Even against a crab not fully evolved. Even though it is slow. Even though it is vulnerable. No matter what, part of you knows that this is still a god. Part of you knows that if you stood upon the ground with your own two feet, you would struggle to stand against the shuddering of the rocks as it stomped past. Part of you remembers that ascending it would take the better part of a day without assistance, and even that only if you could have managed not to take a lethal tumble should the beast have gyrated the wrong way on uneven terrain.

In the Aeteline, it is a matter of moments. The proto-crab is heavy enough you can’t simply walk in and take the leg, but you can circle it easily, identify several structural weak points, disable its motion, and then walk in and take what you want. And even still, you have completed the hunt.

The attachment structures are fundamentally the same between crab and Aeteline. In this, you can thank the quirks of mechanical standardization, no matter the ages of drift. Nanobot attachments are a thing that can be optimized. There is a right answer, multiple independent sources concluded on it thousands of years prior, and that was that. Mechanical evolution does not follow the same processes as biological evolution and mechanical experimentation does not involve trying out thirty mutations of the simplest possible connecting structure only to throw out twenty nine in the way biology might.

The integrated leg feels unavoidably like a prosthetic though. Its own internal joints are not the bipedal joints of the Aeteline. They easily support your weight, but they don’t bend the way that you bend and so it feels less like moving your own leg and instead like a separate contraption that has its own set of movements that can be observed and correlated with the movements of your leg.

Some amount of practice may be in order.

***

Dolly, Mirror, Isabelle, and assorted guests

It’s not a raucous party like the fashion show turned into by the end of the night, nor an elegant affair like the Crystal Gala. Instead, the celebration for the Goddess Smokeless Jade Fires sees her high priestess sprawled languidly on the couch, fizzy drink in hand, staring fixedly at a series of candles on the table.

There are candles everywhere now, lit by the crew and by each guest as part of their entry, and the lounge glows in ancient firelight. Someone had the good sense to turn the lights off, giving it that strong goddess cult vibe.

But it’s a goddess cult with a couple of big comfortable couches that can seat ten if they get snug and a fridge with a light that keeps coming on as people get out more drinks that reminds everyone that it’s still a Hangar lounge. The Hybrasilians around Dolly are giddy. There’s a TV in one corner (far from Dolly) where some of the girls are freeze-framing the match for highlights. And in the rest of the room, the cult and believers (and Angela) are chattering in small groups, sipping drinks and eating snacks and relaxing. Ksharta is the only person who seems high energy at the moment, and that because she’s zipping back and forth from the little kitchen constantly bringing out new snacks and checking multiple pots that she’s got running.

It’s a chance to relax and pass an evening that was full of all sorts of stress. Tell us how you pass the time at the party, what you enjoy, what you discuss and with whom.

Jade

When do you join the party, and how?

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

The gods cower, and the swift ones flee. The slowest one is a half-crab, its transformation into an evolutionarily perfect form not yet complete. It walks on four legs, evenly spread, and it is heavy and lumbering, needing at least three on the ground to maintain its weight and balance at all times. You must take care in approaching it directly given its weight, but there are a hundred thousand options for an effective approach against such a creature situated as you are in the Aetline.

You can understand how a design like this might come to be though. The creature clambers and metal clanks as it moves over rocky terrain and you can see how the additional legs add support to a heavier chassis in uneven terrain. A typical design, especially absent particularly strong thrusters, might struggle on the rocks and with the wind, but this is relatively immune to the contours of its environment. A few more decades and it would turn its weight into pincers and begin to prey on its own lessers.

If you take it, of course, it will not have the time. Unless you’d rather leave it for speedier game?

***

Dolly

It is more than Nine Forests who greets you. More than Silver Ripples, and Six Stones, though the latter for once wears a face that has not trace of laughter. Angela Victoria Miera Antonius is the one who lifts you from the cockpit once the idol straggles into the Hangar with help. She is holding a glass of something fizzy and sweet that she places in your hands. It is strong and fortifying and makes your head spin at the same time when you take a sip.

The hangar break room dedicated to your cult is already decorated: the bright fabrics from the pirates’ offering have, in the intervening time, been cut into blankets and draped about the space and there are streamers and party decorations that the crew has been gathering to celebrate. Ksharta is just finishing laying out some plates of lightly seared meat, a small blowtorch in her hand to do the finish right there at the table.

Angela lifts “To dual victories for the goddess!” she cries, a grin on her face, and around her the collective room bursts into a cheer.

Jade

You escort the jackal to the intersection of the great tree, and there it meets Kachtenkirya who gives it her special wine to lap up and Mu Ysha who hangs it about with garlands. She bows with all six of her weapons stowed. Yet you are left with the thought that she never yielded. She met defeat but not surrender and rage was her companion. What freedom do you see in roaring so proudly that you refuse reality?

***

Mirror

Maelia takes a deep breath. Lets it out. She couldn’t talk during the last move. She had screamed “fire fire, get her get her get her” over and over, deeply into the moment, tail wagging beside you with full abandon.

Then she blinks and yawns. “That was…wow, I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. That match was intense.” She grins and shakes her head, trying to shake off the stress. Looks like she might fall asleep if she sits still too long. “You seemed really into it, but maybe too…nervous.” She glances, nervous herself, at the claws you’ve bitten, at the blood you wiped off. “You don’t have to cast any more matches, this is just something of a tradition for the first round because of the seeded slots I guess. I’m not sure, this is only the second time I’ve done it, I was in [goddess chakram made of suns] nebula before that.”

She gives an awkward shrug. “Well, it’s not my place to judge how you do on commentating a match anyway. I just…well you knew I was staring so I thought I should say something instead of just pretending I wasn’t thinking anything at all. I’d do it again with you, for what it’s worth. You matched the type of commentary I like to do really well. I think people learned a lot from this back home. Well…anyway, the goddess’s crew let it be known that they were planning a victory party for this round if she won, something about a capstone for all the pirates. We’re invited if you want to go.”

***

Isabelle

“Shantri will keep, especially after she sees this match.” There’s a grin in Kiriala’s voice.

“Besides, I already made a promise for the moment to join Mirror’s crew and she’s counting on all of us, you included to help finish out this tournament. Though you’ve got to fight the champion Zaldarian first, right? She won the tournament a couple back so don’t take her lightly.”

There’s an invitation there, if you want it. To go celebrate with Kiriala, to go find Mirror and celebrate with the Hybrasilians more generally. It’s on offer if you want it, or you may want to go back to the hangar and your own more private celebration. Or perhaps you’d like to check in with your mother. She has been oddly distant and while that has given you space to breathe, it’s also pretty worrisome in its own way, right?

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Jade and Dolly

Jacinta’s power presses in on you. She advances steadily, carefully. When you twist, the black hole does not follow your heart, but shifts to rend your arm, your shoulder, the ribs of your chest.

[Take Hopeless]

“That’s it?” Jacinta’s voice rings out even above the roar of air, above the rending sound of crushing metal, reflecting and rebounding as she broadcasts it past her own attack. “That’s all you have to offer? A few jackals, a good thruster, and a spear managed to win you all but one match? You laid low the Fist of Dishai with this?!”

She laughs, incredulous, disbelieving, the sharp report of clipped laughter. Careful laughter. Her shoulders ought to be heaving and her body rising up and down, but her arms are still, precise, the attack unrelenting even as she mocks. Following you as you fall until she’s sure that she’s won, not letting the center move away from your body.

“I guess you never learned to take a proper punch, goddess. Not even from the stone fist of Dishai herself.” She snarls out a growl. “This match is over then. Pathetic.”

[Take an XP if either Jade or Dolly rises to this taunting despite everything.]

***

Mirror

“She is. I actually attended school with her, and she’s a better mathematician than I’ll ever be.” There’s a blush on Maelia’s cheeks. It’s quite a thing to admit on-air that one of the finest scientific minds of Hybrasil doesn’t think she can compare to a pirate queen when it comes to math.

“I consider that a triumph for our people, even given her..defection. This match footage will be closely studied for certain, and I suspect we can match the technique. Improve on it even. Dolly and Jade will be a hero to Hybrasil for forcing this move and giving us the benefit of Jactina’s stolen skills.”

She smiles, but it’s wistful. You can tell by how she’s narrating it that Maelia has already given up on the match. She’s filling the time while Jacinta completes her finish so that it doesn't get too boring. A weapon like this is many kinds of powerful and beautiful, but watching someone just keep pressing in until the match ends is not exciting sport. She doesn’t think that Jade and Dolly will find a way out of their predicament and so she’s honoring them as she thinks appropriate.

Do you think she’s right?

***

Solarel

Behind you the air shimmers and breaks as you take off. The pure energy of its crystal drive warps the arena, leaving it less than it was. Though you may not know it, the nanobots can’t fix this damage. Instead, Akaithon slowly works her way out of the slag and wreckage of the dead Kathresis. She’s healthy, but still dazed. Still processing. She saw things she had never before realized when she boarded the Kathresis, and more when you defeated it.

But defeat it you did. The core of the Kathresis was cold. You know how cold it was intimately within your heart. Yet the Aeteline felt nothing. The cold could not touch it. It revels too much in its own power, in the raw heat of its drive. Or perhaps you do? The Aeteline itself has no interfering AI personality, after all. But it does monitor sensation, control it, limit it, engage protocols to avoid the forces at play in its motion and actions harming the pilot.

What now, then? Your ship, for all its power, is missing a leg and will at a minimum need new materials for itself. Who can you visit to fix the Aetline? Where do you go?

***

Isabelle

She takes it. Not consciously, of course. But you’ve pulled Kiriala into a lot of contemplation and memory, into thinking about her life, into thinking about Mirror and Shantri, and what it means to serve Mother Hybrasil.

You’ve been there, in fact your sympathy for her plight is what made this as easy as it was. So many different mental Isabelle’s running around trying to decide what to do all at once, it’s a lot. Brings you back to plenty of stressful moments and you have to work on your own focus lest you blush too much thinking of the way Asil can pull YOUR focus just as much as Shantri got Kiriala’s.

Even with distraction, this match will go down incredibly. It’s not a simple thing to finish off someone who’s got their talent drilled into them with this tier of muscle memory and precision. Kiriala’s been on a hundred hunts and spent thousands of hours in the workout room and the training simulations.

So you have to work her to an opening. Your blade pressing into a series of strikes, blocks, her arms tiring just a hair, her stance shifting in response to your movements so that you can change them, and then change the way you change in order to stumble her and finally create a break in the guard.

To an external observer, it’s a thirty-three move sword duel that nearly goes faster than the eye can follow and then you land the decisive blow and cleave the upper quarter of her mech clean off. You have to stop yourself from an unnecessary follow up blow so deep are you both into it, and she almost lurches forward anyway as she realizes the damage is done and finally stops.

“Holy shit!” she says, finally focused on you again. “That was hot!”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Jolly

Jacinta is a fierce fighter. Stripped of her weapons, she focuses her full power on strength and speed. Each block makes your arms shudder. Each dodge of the claw can be felt as the air against your metallic skin breathes in tension. Her blows are fierce, unrelenting, and precise.

But even so…even so it’s clear you have the better of her. One opponent with a mere two arms cannot fully defend herself against two well-coordinated combatants no matter how puissant. The small arms fire distracts her, scoring her armor. The dance is a step ahead of her, her claws never connecting cleanly against you. You can feel the elation, the strength. You can feel, even, in the tone of her roars and howls (for Jacinta Niares is many things, but silent is not one of them) a growing respect, a shift from fury to frustration to begrudging admiration. You’re impressive, you’re beautiful, you’re hot, and she wants you.

It is only then, as you see her growing desire within her, as she finally allows the jackal to close from behind and land a clean, unblocked blow, that you understand her insecurity. Jacinta, no matter how furious, calculates every angle. She understands her people, her power, her resources. And she must acknowledge now that she cannot handle every angle, that she cannot match you.

[Jacinta Niares takes Insecure]
And it is only now that she focuses her whole attention upon you, Jade. You and you alone, no other angles matter, the jackal doesn’t matter, the whole world is a pinpoint and it’s on your heart. “I know the prize I want. I know it, and I will take it. I’ll have you, goddess. You and everything that comes with you.”

You don’t understand what has happened. Her claw does not touch you, but there is a sudden roar. Not the roar of Jacinta. No, a roar a thousand times louder, a roar of warping steel and rushing air, as though reality itself has been rent in twain. And perhaps…perhaps it has. For upon your heart Jade, near enough to Dolly that it sounds like the entirety of the bottomless ocean is about to fall upon her, there is a crushing pressure pulling at your chest. Her claw has not touched you, but you have been struck all the same. Had you not dodged this blow, you feel as though the metal core within you might have instantly been crushed. But at least you have this moment of intense pressure to react. The jackal is entirely ignored. She does not move from this blow. Her hand is steady, held before your heart, and everything is the sound of roaring.

[Take the frightened condition]

***

Mirror

It looks like the air at Jade’s chest is boiling. That’s the best word to describe it. It roils and it swirls. Automatic hearing protection kicks in for the feed, reducing the volume, but the battlefield is consumed in the roaring of winds like a hurricane or a tide.

Maelia’s eyes next to you are fixed on the screen and they are so, so wide. “Goddesses, that’s a vacuum. She’s created a sustained, localized vacuum. But there’s no pump, and it’s perfectly spherical, no direction of displacement. The only way to do that is localized compression, which could come from…intense…mass. [Hunger’s gouging claw!]" She sucks in a breath, the phrase a curse that refers to the terrible pain that even the most modern and pampered cat understands when hunger spears at her from within.

***

Solarel

It is frustratingly slow. The Kathresis is driven by a directive that looks only to your destruction. As it takes structural damage, it tries a variety of tactics.

A desperate rush, easily dodged but that must be dodged lest it take an opportunity for a self-sacrificing blow.

It detects the pattern of avoiding Akaithon and attempts to disrupt your attacks by putting her in harm’s way. Though this is easily anticipated and led, it nevertheless requires stuttering fire, further slowing the process.

It feigns a more severe injury in the hopes of luring you to a quick finish that it might try for a surprise attack. A feint easily detected with the most basic of scanners, though a powerful trap for the lazy who might prefer to be less methodical.

In the end, it ceases to move and you pour fire into it until you are certain that it cannot move, that no functionality remains. The small arena is left in ruins, parts of it shattered, others frozen, some melted from the heat of your drive, the air left to shimmer from the dancing heat of the weapons discharge. Having completed your victory, the match is declared in your favor.

Akaithon begins to stir as recovery equipment begins the process of moving the wreck of the Kathresis out of the arena and into the Hangar for repairs. “Solarel? Solarel! When did? The match is over already! Call me. After, call me! I need to tell you what I saw. What I was seeing!”

***

Isabelle

“We’ve kissed” she says, and she’s proud of it. She’s still fighting, still strong, kind of in a flow state, but it’s a relaxed one, not as intense as the fighting was when her flow was concentrated on beating you.

“It’s like, the problem isn’t always confessing your feelings, you know? Sometimes it’s about how strong those feelings are, about loyalty and duty. Even more so if you both care about other things, other people, about causes and trying to do good and be strong and be reliable. It’s one thing to think that it’s good to kiss someone, even have them agree. Another to figure out how to be together all the time when mother Hybrasil has so many calls. We share a case and then we’re apart. There’s always work, always missions, always needs. I’m the pilot, Shantri’s too slow, and she doesn’t have the knack anyway. So Hybrasil called me for this fight, but not her. She’s got other work. There’s always a murder, always a new organization, a new problem somewhere. She’ll have a different bodyguard or maybe she won’t need one for what they have her doing.”

She swipes, pulls her spear into a backhand, a tricky but predictable pattern, a tier 1 feint, the kind you’d learn in school.

“I mean, you’re right though. I do need to think about how I can get to her. I guess that’s why I joined up with Mirror. She’s so much like her, I figured I’d learn something. I dunno what.”

If you want to win, you’ll need to take advantage of this opening. It will snap her out of her reverie, so make sure it counts.

***

Angela

The fight is over. You can hardly believe it. Ada seems to have a penchant for this kind of fight, win or loss, based on her match footage. It reminds you of both her fight with Dolly and of the one you saw with the Terenian, Isabelle. There she is standing over you. The Barn Owl is half crumpled in, the arms feel like they’re going to fall off and you can barely support your own weight with how imbalanced the core structure is. You half wonder if your own spine is going to snap off.

But there she is, standing right in front of you, raging impotently because your shot hit dead center. The core crystal fire drive was overloaded and shut down as a safety measure. Systems are fried and the core circuits will need to be completely replaced. Ada Smith, for all her fury, is stuck inside a statue. And since you’re still standing and you can move, however barely, you’ve won.

Her voice crackles over a lower power emergency comms system. “Well struck, Antonius. I underestimated you, and you got the win out of it. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again. And be sure to contact me if you have work for the Snow Geese. We’ll gladly take mercenary work and you won’t find us lacking.”

You can hear her smile in that crackling voice. She lost, but she doesn’t feel so bad about this one. Breath a sigh of relief and try not to topple over until they can get someone out there to pull both of you out of the arena.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

You can tell that Kiriala is surprised by your combat form. She knew that TC had mechas to match Hybrasilian models and maybe even outperform them in some ways, but it’s still a shock to her to see someone just keep up with her directly. It’s different than Mirror’s match where Mirror demonstrated an unmatched ability to simply do the impossible. This isn’t unexpected, you’re performing a parry and riposte that could have been a textbook illustration (and might well be for the coming generation). You’re just doing it with a grace and speed that Kiriala hasn’t yet seen in this tournament.

[If you haven’t already, mark your Legendary Skill]

She continues the exchange of blows, feet planted and plowing large furrows in the grasses as the sun glints off both your weapons. You can tell she revels in the flow of it all, spear turning and spinning, speed and precision actually increasing as she maneuvers against you, both ends of it being used to keep you on the defensive as she steps, thrusts, and constantly adjusts. But your last question, too, takes her aback.

“I…oh…I guess, I mean um, Mirror didn’t mention and I haven’t said anything. I um…” She’s obviously blushing, and apparently has her own version of an Asil in one form or another. “Well, I um…I mean my main work is investigating smugglers so it’s kind of like detective work. And a few times I got to partner with Shantriala Hunter, Six Thunders. She’s um…she’s like sort of famous for solving crimes on the Hybrasil capital system. Just figures people out just like that, but she’s pretty small and not that fast, her descent is one of the smaller phenotypes for Hybrasilians, so she needs a partner sometimes. She also really likes her coffee.”

You can tell this is getting her mind off of things. She almost misses a block, takes a grazing blow from your sword on the arm, shoves it away, tries to recenter herself and resumes the assault. But she’s daydreaming about Shantriala and really that’s the answer to all your questions.

***

Solarel

Days ago, a minor official helping to manage the logistics of the Akar tournament decided, after watching the footage of the Aeteline departing the Crystal Gala, that its next match would be most exciting in a contained arena to prevent it from withdrawing to extreme range. As a matter of both fairness and doubling down on excitement, this official ensured that the newly formed arena would also match the aesthetics of several species and provide a central, open area for combat with no places to hide and no possibility of being entirely out of weapons range for any participant.

When your small arms fire damaged the cloak of the Kathresis, this further meant that it would be a dark-colored target against light-colored stone, its features and appearance easily spotted relative to its background. When you cut off your own leg, it ensured that you had no blindspots for a maneuvering appointment to add statistical uncertainty into the calculations.

As the burning heart of the Aeteline races in tune with your own, you briefly understand that these factors transformed a shot that might have been impossible into one with at least one successful firing vector in all possibility spaces.

The shot streaks through the air, into the chest of the Kathresis, force blasting it past Akaithon’s cheek like a kiss, drawing a blushing line where it passes. The bullet impacts at the base of the mind impulse cable.

“Oh” says Akaithon before the sudden surge of her own body rushing into itself knocks her unconscious and the sound of her slumping onto the floor can be heard over the open comms line.

In this, the Kathresis is powerless to change things. The AI takes over for an incapacitated pilot, and the machine readies another lance charge. But without the pilot’s reflexes and link for the AI to support, overall functionality is slower, more sluggish, less flexible. Nor can it speak at all. The Kathresis, now, can only be understood as it tries, desperately, to move through the bindings that enveloped it.

***

Jolly

“Good!” Jactina shouts over the comms, another low roar rumbling within her beneath her shout. You can feel it reverberate through the air itself. “You’ve very right, if you’d have accepted, you’d have become my slave just like that. But that does mean, goddess, that you’ve made the prize for taming you even greater!”

She smiles, and she shouts, and she rushes you and the jackal both. Above the water, there’s now only a mild spray as the steam jets are settling and the sun shines down on you as you clash above the roiling lake. Jactina is all fists, all ferocity and power and cruelty. But underneath it all, there’s a precision to her movements, a calculation that applies the most power to every blow, that constantly makes you feel like the box is tightening around you and you have less and less room to maneuver even though you’re in an even fistfight in midair. There’s no more avoiding this confrontation.

[Roll to fight Jacinta]

***

Angela

“Good” says Ada over the comms and she means it sincerely. She sees you as a peer in that moment, you can hear it in her tone. You stand for something. Not the same as what she does, but it’s something real, something worthy, something of value. You have your own pride, your own expectations, your own heart to prove.

Blows shower down on you and the critical moment where you stand on the brink of victory and defeat and straddle them thin as a thread comes swiftly.

What happens?

***

Mirror

Maelia flicks her tail in excitement. She had, for a moment, flicked off her mic to look at you with concern, but had thought better of it, said nothing, flicked it back on, and then you had relaxed and she had relaxed and as far as she was concerned, that was good. At least until after the match.

“[The spined beast whose quills are merely to sow fear]” she is referring to a prey animal on Hybrasil. It’s known for having extremely sharp quills that it can flick its tail to throw at attackers. They’re quite painful, but the animal itself doesn’t value them. They’re there as a ward and if it’s actually attacked, it throws them all right away and switches to a different strategy reliant on its claws and rabid ferocity.

She looks at you with a smile as the combatants close and the fighting begins in earnest. “Ah, this really feels poetic doesn’t it? Jackals circling a lioness. This is the stuff of new mythology even before the goddess involved herself. Still, Jacinta is fighting with measured ferocity, isn’t she? Utterly in control of herself. I’ve never seen a pilot that confident even after being struck several times.”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Jade and Dolly

You dance faster than fire. The shots buzz past you one after another, and you move through them somehow, impossibly. They brush past you so close that you can taste them. The heat upon Jade’s skin, the heat upon Dolly’s tongue. It’s like Ksharta’s spiciest stew and a carbonated drink all together, hot and bubbling and promising pain at every angle. And yet they are only a brush, an instant, a thousand instants that you move through and past and you are upon her.

To most observers, the patterns would be difficult to follow. For someone like Mirror, the key routing is the way that jackal two’s path arcs low, forcing the Roar to re-adjust itself to maintain fires on all three approach routes (being unable to fire directly below its feet with currently visible weapons). That movement creates the spaced opening that the real idol uses to close and cut the lines. Amid the steam and the roiling water, the suddenly failing lasers create a rainbow across Dolly and Jacinta, a backwards light source splintering itself through the water onto the surface of the two machines. So close, so brushed.

“You know, I didn’t believe the reports.” Jacinta is laughing, loud and long and interwoven with her speaking. She is rerouting power to her thrusters, letting the cut ammo lines and useless lasers fall below her. “AIs aren’t known for being the best pilots and the priestess has no proven record. I’d never give you a job in my business. Well, not before now. Now, if you want, you can join me and I’ll give you your own hoard, an independent station segment, and two support ships fully crewed.”

She takes a punch at one of the drones, flying higher above the water, the rainbow fading against her tan metallic skin. Around her neck, though, a sizzling electric main bursts into life and she headbutts the second jackal as it flies in close to her, sending electrical feedback flying through the system, even though it stops her motion too.

“My power is that I can give you these things. The space, the equipment, the crew. They are mine to use as I please. You’ve felt it, haven’t you goddess?” She says the word with a certain mockery. “Yes, the way you chased after Valynia, the fights you had before. You need to control them all, control everyone or else you have nothing at all. You understand what it means to truly be free. That’s my freedom. It’s the only real freedom.”

Her confidence tells you that as far as she’s concerned, the fight has barely begun.

Angela

“Stupid. Do you really think that you get worse because you have support? Because you have backup plans and people to help you when you’re down?”

The elbow slammed into the chest of the Barn Owl is so strong that the feedback from your mesh makes you double over. Metal crumples, and Ada uses her strength to push herself out of the headlock, leaving your vulnerable to her fists.

“I am strong because of everyone who supports me! Every hand that helped give me the time to train and customize! Every word of encouragement! I want to win for them! It may not be the only way to provide, but it’s a damn good one and damn it, I have my pride girl!”

Blows rain down upon you and they hurt. This really was an overmatch. You’re not entirely out of options, but the Barn Owl can’t last through this for very long so it’s already time for pulling out all the secrets and last ditch efforts. You thumb your ion cannon nervously. The trick hadn’t worked on Solarel because she’d never given you the chance. It still grated. Over an hour in that miserable strom and you never even got to take a shot. You really do miss all the shots you don’t take.

But that did mean you have it now, still available, still an option. But if Ada catches wind of it, if she dodges your only shot or even manages to take it on the side and only lose non-critical systems, you’re finished.

***

Isabelle

“Oh good se it is then” she copies where you cut off with a blush, but then lets it go.

“My wish? I’m planning to wish for an infinite supply of the best coffee from Calysil. They make it incredible there, like you have no idea, it’s literally got some kind of drugs in addition to the stimulant that just make you happier, but like, without losing your edge. Wish I had a cup now but it’s prohibitively expensive to export out of the Hybrasil star cluster and it’s not even on the beaten path for black market piracy.”

She chuckles, pulls her spear out. “You probably think it’s dumb, but like, the thing with wishes is that even all the power of intergalactic empires can’t really give you what you want. Like, if I wished I were a better detective, what would they do? Give me some really expensive cybernetics and the top of the line AI assistant like that one that got inhabited by a goddess competing in the other match maybe? But would any of that actually make me a better detective? Would I be happy with it even if it did?”

She waves her spear around, tests the balance, cuts a few blades of grass. “You’re making me think maybe yes. Maybe I could get the same nanotech as you and I’d be just as excited as the experiments you’re talking about. But even then, I’m not sure I want to become a better detective that way, if that makes sense? Like, if I get it because I wished for it, then it isn’t actually what I wished for anymore. I know, I know, that’s dumb. But that’s why I figured, hey, the coffee is where it’s at, absolutely no way that one goes wrong.”
“Alright, good enough, you’re getting me all jazzed up thinking about this, so I’m gonna stab you now. No saying you weren’t ready~”

She sets her spear and comes at you. Like she did with Mirror, her real talent isn’t in the technology (though Hybrasil tech is very good) but in her handling. She’s got perfect form. It’s a flexible charge with options to adjust depending on how you respond and yet committing in such a direct way that’s already put you on the back foot to make a response even with her warning. Hurry!

***

Solarel

The Kathresis told Akaithon the truth. It simply withheld some information. For example, the fact that the Kathresis places functionally zero value on the life of its pilot beyond the relevant capability to achieve operational objectives.

Akaithon uses her particular brand of puissance to put as much power into her forward-facing shields as possible, blunting as much of the small arms fire as she can. And then when she’s close enough, she puts the power into the spear and she simply takes the rest. Indeed, she takes it directly, centrally, right through the center of mass to ensure that the Kathresis’ small frame does not have its momentum arrested or lose an important grip or connection on that powered lance.

The match would be over right now if the Kathresis were a little taller. And you might be dead. But it isn’t quite tall enough, and it didn’t have the luxury of a more exposed attack vector. The blow is to the leg, and with it, your entire left leg feels as though it vanished. It might as well have, the spear has completely severed its connection to the rest of the Aeteline. It hangs limp and useless and a cold sensation runs up your waist near it where the particles at the edge still have enough energy to vibrate at all.

You’re forced immediately to direct power to thrusters to avoid toppling, reducing some of the weaponry by necessity.

Even so, the Kathresis can’t maintain its position or it will simply be ripped apart, and so it retreats, all power split between thrusters and defensive shields to maintain itself intact in order to be able to deliver another blow.

With the damage sustained, it will be harder for it to land another blow, though it now has an angle on attacking you where your own leg is blocking the ability to direct fires.

The Kathresis is certainly still active though, so Akai didn’t die either despite the fire directed at the pilot’s cabin. But you have to consider that if you repeat the tactic for your victory, it could kill Akai in the process. The Kathresis clearly doesn’t care.

The way the Kathresis used Akai, it’s exactly how everyone imagined you in your legends. It’s why neither of two empresses would accept you. But now none of them will intervene on behalf of Akaithon. None of them thought she was worth ensuring her own protection before she went into this match in a new and untested machine.

***

Mirror

“[Claws out only for show]” Maelia murmurs, still wincing from the claw bite and trying to bring herself back from her own daze as a result. Neither of them has tried to land a decisive blow yet. They’re each holding back. The Roar, despite its reputation for intensive weaponry, doesn’t seem fazed at all by switching to melee combat, and Smokeless Jade Fires has moved decisively but without truly penetrating the armor, she’s only cut lines and external cables.

“Gosh, isn’t that beautiful though? The way they crossed over the water, and the rainbow effect (caused by concentrated light diffusion not previously seen due to the laser being held coherently until its source was destroyed), that’s not something you’re going to see in most matches.”

She nods, fluffs her mane to think. “[The legs poised to pounce] make me think the favor is still tilted towards the Roar. She has yet to truly strike.”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

Akaithon is a puzzle solver and a fine pilot. In this light, her attack approach is the “correct” solution to the Aeteline, to the extent such a solution exists. She has a power core in the Kathresis to match yours, and a light frame that can emphasize speed and shielding. If the pilot is adequately quick, adequately precise, and adequately in tune with the machine, they can switch power over to the attacks just as they connect, defeating even the defenses of the Aeteline. It demands intense focus, precision control, and split-second reflexes. But then, that’s the best possible solution that Akai could offer you: she has made herself the point of failure in her attempt to beat the Aeteline.

She has, also, though she rides in your shadow, chosen a different approach to this fight than the last. “Sol, I think you’re up to speaking on more than one level” she says, making any attempt an approach, looks for your response, and then cuts her speed and changes her angle. “And I want you to hear why I’m in this machine. I was only going to pilot it back from the crystal hangar originally, but once I was tied into it, it spoke to me. It spoke of you and the mistake we both made. The Aeteline is evil, Sol. It was made broken, the fires it channels ruin things, break things. It breaks the world. The Kathresis begged me to bring it down and it showed me how it could be done. I know…I know you won’t be able to see that from within it, I can only imagine the rush of piloting it. Which is why I’m going to have to show you in the only language you really speak.”

Her lance is coming, a single blow could be a deadly strike nod her speed is a match for the Aeteline. What do you do?

***

Isabelle

“Oh wow, you’re really upbeat compared to the gala!” You can hear Kiriala’s smile as she answers you. “Must have been a good prep week! Whispered Promise is fine, I think. She’s been doing some really intense stuff to prep for her next matches and uh…some other stuff, I think. She told me she’s working on her promise to you, too. We’ve all been trying to help, she’s got a lot of ideas and doesn’t always think about how to share that with other people, you know?”

Similar to her prior match with Mirror, Kiriala isn’t going for anything underhanded. She’s not the type to try and cut your head off in the middle of a casual conversation and she’s perfectly fine taking the match at her own pace. She keeps to the ground as well. The wide space offers free room to maneuver and she’s taking a stance that says she’s ready to react to you if you get started, but at the same time she’s not going to be the one to make the first move before you’re both ready. This isn’t naivete, it’s just an approach to fighting that she likes. The patient hunter.

“Oh but don’t think you can go prying any info out of me. First off, I wouldn’t give you details during a match where anyone who wants can hear and second I don’t know them anyway!” You can absolutely hear her sticking her tongue out at you in the way she ended that sentence.

“So, what’s got you all upbeat? I hope it’s our help? Give me some clues though. I’m not a good enough detective even among Hybrasilians to hear your tone of voice and distinguish whether you’ve got the good exercise glow, or the good food glow, or the good sex glow, so help me out here!”

[There’s a generic string XP in it for you if you open up to Kiriala to start the fight]

***

Dolly and Jade

The water bursts around you like a thousand spears thrusting in formation. Laser blasts from Jacinta strike the foam and burst into steam, sizzling with heat. She lets out a primal roar all her own, deep and low that rumbles through her whole body. A challenge and a war cry all in one.

As she does, the Roar, crazy as it sounds, is doing its best to strike all three targets simultaneously, splitting its cannon fire among auto cannons and lasers to avoid presenting any completely open front. At the same time though, the split means that no front is completely impassible. Instead, you’ve got a difficult but manageable bullet hell Fromm each approach.

And here, you can see a piece of Jacinta Niares as a character. She’s not willing to leave herself open. The Roar is full of surprises still, don’t let your guard down, but you have this insight that the way she reacts is that she’s just not willing not leave any opening in any direction. [Take a string on Jacinta]

She’s also rising, moving herself above the level of the water and steam, but you’ve created this much opportunity: until she gets clear and can take in the various jackals you’ve unleashed, you have the situation in hand and a chance to act.

Angela

“Please, I saw you at the party, you’re hardly one to talk” comes the chuckling response over the Comms. And Ada does indeed launch her attack, wasting no time in closing the distance to her preferred fighting range. She’s careful about it though, damn her. She uses every bit of natural cover to close and avoid shots, and she’s got a reserve booster to dodge suddenly if you pull out a secret weapon. It’s a little like being smothered, but instead of in a hug, it’s in an inescapable net as she comes at you and you’re forced back.

“I told Jade the same thing I’ll tell you now though. I’m about providing for my family, tournament or no. And you, backwater Terenian daughter, does that mean anything to you? Do you understand how I might feel? The way your people forget about you ring any bells, huh? Win, lose, or draw, I’m open to anyone who wants to work together.”

And therein lies her fire. The pride of being the provider, the pride of protecting.

You’ve got to come up with something before you’re forced back into the forest or the rocks and have nowhere left to cede ground. It’s lucky that the Barn Owl is a workhorse model and can take a lot of glancing blows without losing any core functionality.

***

Mirror

“Oh, uh, gosh, wow” Maelia says, trying not to look too closely at all the different ways you’re disheveled. She doesn’t want to look like she’s judging, but she also doesn’t want to look away because that would be embarrassing for both of you, so she’s settled on looking at you, but kind of awkwardly past you without looking at anything in particular and hoping that works for everybody.

“I mean, wow, um…who knew my co-caster was such a dedicated go-getter? I mean, a lot of people probably did if they watched your matches because that mecha of yours is something else and you must have trained just as hard to pilot it without passing out from the feeling of cutting off your own arms, right?” She laughs, nervously.

“Well, um, anyway, let’s get on air. The match is already starting.” She hits a button and a light goes on. You’re on a slight broadcast delay, but current with the monitors and there’s Dolly and Jade blasting above the lake with several duplicates against the raining firepower of the Roar.

“So, I’ve got a um, new caster with me today, and we’re going to have to jump right into it because Smokeless Jade Fires and her pilot Dala Hunters looked like they drew the short straw but instead of the match ending before it started, they’ve made a brilliant move and shifted all their power to a terrain and multi-unit simultaneous distraction! The use of the water to absorb laser fire in particular is inspired. As a medium it will both dissipate heat (folks at home, did you know that water has one of the highest specific—heat absorption ratios of any commonly found substance?) and deflect the blasts from their intended target. Jacinta isn’t letting up though and she refuses to offer a clear approach vector! Mira, what do you make of this fight?”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

You’re set up to face Akaithon not in the darkness of space, but in a tight arena within the planet. There’s room to fly, but there’s a reinforced dome ceiling that even the Aeteline would need focused effort to destroy. The walls are light tan stone sloping outward and the floor is flat in the center and then curve up in steps so that it’s like fighting at the base of a great amphitheater. Akaithon has the lance that you wielded in your last match. But something is different about it…

A short while earlier
…It was Charon himself who took your call. Dressed now in a navy blue suit that contrasted his cybernetic implants with their red glow. You were somewhat distracted at the party, and of course now you were seeing him through the viewing instruments of the Aeteline, but even so, there was a chance to focus on him and it was an odd sight. The cybernetics ran their own AI, but to a Zaldarian it would be quite a hard one to place in the hierarchy of spirits. It’s subservient to and interacting with Charon’s own brain, but he’s chosen to allow it to run more freely than most AI assistants on personal equipment would run. It’s actually most comparable to the Kathresis or to Smokeless Jade Fires, if you’ve been following her activity. Essentially, this man is running two functional brains on the same overall physical platform, and in a much smaller space than the sort of gods you’re used to.

He was all business when he took your call. “Solarel, my dear! We haven’t met properly, but you’ve been a fine associate already, well worth the upfront investment!” His smile was genuine, and when he heard your request about Akaithon, he was quick to check references, quick enough to even stay on the line with you as he made a few inquiries on his own terminal and then put one of his dock workers on speaker for both of you to hear.

“…I was working with the Kathresis as ordered. What I heard was that after the theft, Akaithon piloted it out of the gala. She came to us first, the Kathresis had information on its own dock, and the Zaldarian cult immediately followed it to a new berth in a different dock that Akaithon had assigned. A few of us went as well, but weren’t allowed in the new dock, since we didn’t have the same permissions and the deal was with Solarel and not the empress of Zaldaria. That’s what they said, and it meant we couldn’t come in. But I saw some of the work they were doing. It was…mmm I dunno how to say it, Akai seemed a bit how Solarel seemed before. I think being hooked direct into the Kathresis ain’t good for you. But anyway, they were setting up the lance that had been used before, but to link with the Kathresis core somehow. I could tell based on the lines they were using. I think it might work like how that freeze pistol worked. One touch of that lance and anything would go to nearly absolute zero. Probably make it shear right off of any other material from the sudden change in molecular motion if I had to guess.”

And there you have it. Charon smiled with the satisfaction of immediate information. Of course, since you still have your same dock and his crew just lost their access to the Kathresis from your last deal, you’ll be giving them access to the Aeteline now. It’s only fair after all.

***

Isabelle

You’re deploying in the open plains. This is similar to Kiriala’s last match with Mirror: an open, grassy field full of tall brush but little cover big enough to fully obscure you or the Ginger Tiger. Perhaps the match organizers liked how that fight went and thought that for the semifinals, seeing Kiriala in a similar environment against a different opponent would be illustrative. When she fought Mirror, she used the ground to her advantage, since it offered additional maneuvering angles compared to relying strictly on midair thrusters.

Though, there’s a question how much of all this you really studied, isn’t there? After all, a lot of your prep went into yourself. The Zaldarian nanobots change how you see the world. There are spirits of some sort or another in everything. Mostly little heists, automated functions. But to the Zaldarians, these are existing things, animated and acting, even if they have only a single function such as opening a door or operating a memory weave. Having the nanobots offers you a new perspective on these things. They’re not nearly strong enough in just your body to shut down an opposing mecha or anything that grand, and indeed even things like tapping in facilities security were only possible in the Trak’tho facility because they were already keyed to it and had the right passwords and access levels. But what you do have is the ability to see these things in a new light. That vision is something you never had before and it might open new doors of combined Terenian and Zaldarian (and Trak’tho!) engineering principles. You’ve had just enough time to scratch the surface there.

And of course, there’s the other sort of personal time. Asil has taken advantage of this opportunity to actually get you somewhat on the regular without causing problems. She hasn’t had to sneak around as much. And what you have found is that she’s a hungry, but gentle lover. She wants, always. She wants kisses. She wants your touch. On her neck, on her chest, on her ears, her cheeks, wherever she directs. And she wants to touch you and make you feel her. But she’s got the sense that you don’t want her to be too aggressive. That you’re a little bit like a wild cat and you might start if there are too many sudden movements. So she works gently to find the right spots, goes carefully over you, probes, asks questions and then asks them again, always listening, seeing how your answers change over time until she finds the right ways to touch you just so.

And this too is important match preparation because this may be one of the rare times you come into a bout not totally stressed out of your mind.

What sort of greeting does that lead to?

***

Dolly and Jade

You are deployed amidst running water. A mountain lake. Broad and deep, surrounded by alpine trees and snow-capped peaks. Clear weather, cool and crisp, a handful of clouds. In another time, this would be an idyllic vacation spot. Incredible as a show-piece of what the Akar Arena is capable of producing.

Jacinta deploys visibly across the lake. She’s not known for using a cloak, though she has one if you lose sight of her. But she’s already training cannons on you, setting up a firing solution to end the fight before it’s even begun.

She’s got an open comm line immediately as well. “How unlucky for you, goddess. Here, I am the mistress of all fires and your deployment was directly in my sights.”

She’s not waiting to fire while she banters either, autocannons are starting up already, and so are the first lasers, which she can fire with abandon without even worrying about ammo unless you force her to reallocate her power to defense.

This is, without a doubt, a trap for you. Though of whose devise exactly, it is not clear. There are many suspects including random chance among them. Perhaps it’s simply bad luck that you deployed at Jacinta’s best range with a clear firing arc. Or perhaps this is how Jacinta Niares likes to play it. Her freedom is that the rules and laws of others don’t apply to her, after all.

No matter which way you cut it though, you’ve got to claw yourself out of this hole before it’s too late.

***

Angela

This is a bad matchup for you and there’s nothing you can do about it. No amount of frustration or pride will help you. The anger that you often feel at being a backwater branch of the second most powerful family in all of TC space doesn’t matter one tiny bit when it comes to the fact that you’re just not up to specs. It’s doubly infuriating because Ada Smith is an “independent free trader” and so her access to superior technology including from the Hybrasilians, rankles with you and your limited access.

And that’s the thing, you have limited access. You can get any weapons you need, but Ada isn’t beatable with better weapons, not even a surprise ion burst. She knows those tricks, she wrote the book on those tricks, and has given herself the speed and strength to work around that. It’s an outclass of mind as much as it is of technology.

She’s wary and she’s motivated and god in another context that would be so goddamn hot. It’s one of the things you like about your relationship with Dolly and Jade. You get to be their villain, to make them think about you all the time, even when you’re not there. To loom large in their life, for both fear and revenge. If that means sometimes you have to accept a little humiliation, that just gives you cause for further strikes and them cause for renewed attention, does it not? That makes you smile to consider. The games they play are something special and you’re glad to have found them. They help you think more creatively too. Which is why you’ve done nothing special for Smith at all. Let her see nothing and thus expect everything. If she looks for you at every corner, then when you strike her in the face, you might just land a blow. At least, that’s the hope. You still have to worry that even without seeing it coming, she’ll have the reaction speed to block it anyway.

***

Mirror

It is Maelia who picked you as a partner. Apparently she was really excited to co-cast with another Hybrasilian. Something about understanding each other’s cues better. When she joins you, she’s wearing a fisher cat station suit in a light yellow, a far cry from the fancy dresses of the ball and instead something comfortable and easy for her. She has a lens in one eye, feeding her information, giving her one regular golden eye and one that’s glowing with a blue-green tint from the text being fed to it. Her shaggy mane is tied back in a neat bun that won’t get in the way of someone examining equipment. She is known for having lived long stretches of her life in border space stations (one of the things that led to her getting so good as a mecha pilot).

“I picked the match with Dolly and Jacinta for us to commentate, I hope that’s okay. I uh, figured the match being all Hybrasilian would get everyone back home kind of excited. Plus, Jacinta comes from basically the opposite end of the galaxy from me, and I’m really hoping to see some new tech. I’ve studied up a ton on her weaponry and its balance, but the Roar’s got something special up its sleeve and I think Dolly can at least get her to use it!”

She blinks, looks a little bashful at already having gotten into the tech side of things. “How about you, Mira, any particular standouts you’re looking for here? I hope I didn’t presume too much.”

Huntresses of Hybrasil

All

Not even the sudden departure of the Aeteline can fully end the party aboard the spiraling crystal shell space station. But it does take the energy out of the room. The Zaldarians, nearly all dazed and enervated after the brawl and the rush, slowly filter out of the hangar, not knowing what to do, none able to properly give chase. Other guests eat and dance, they spread, the Terenians and the Hybrasilians discuss trade and piracy and all the myriad matters of bureaucracy and delicacy that ultimately boil down to how many fish everyone will wind up getting.

Still, even among five such grand festivities so far, this will be one to remember. The grand theft of what is debatably the greatest mecha known to exist. Though "known" and "debatably" carry much weight in that description.

Kimri Blessed daughter of Grandmother Night may, perhaps, have offered the best observation. Watching from just outside the hanger, she commented to the delegation: "Hunger is with that one."

***

Even so, time passes. Food and drink run thin, the music stops, and the guests depart in their turns. And after that there is rest, training, tune-ups, and all the myriad ways that one might prepare for the finals. For now, every match counts. No more round robin, no more friendly competition and wondering at the cutoffs. The elimination stage is prepared and the fights will be coming so very soon.

In the first round:
Match 1: Ada Smith will face Angela Victoria Miera Antonius
Match 2: Jacinta Niares will face Dala Hunters
Match 3: Isabelle Lozano will face Kiriala of Maeahu
Match 4: Solarel will face Akaithon, Knight of Zaldaria

In the second round:
Marcina Villajero will face the winner of match 1
Mira Fisher will face the winner of match 2
Marna Kerne will face the winner of match 3
Maelia Dala will face the winner of match 4

***

Dolly and Jade and entourage

Ksharta chose cooking first. It's not what she wanted. You could feel her heart rise when you offered her a knighthood in the house. And she said as much, she's not so utterly blind to her own feelings. But then she had said "I can't see how that looks yet. It sounds right, but...I can't see it. So I'll cook first, and get you all prepared for the matches and then we'll find out what it means to be a knight."

And, well, it may not have made her heart soar, but she was honest and it was stable and that made her happy in a different way. It's good to see this, Jade. Happiness can be big and small. It's not always fulfilling someone's fantasies. Sometimes happiness is feeling safe, and the happy little twitch of a girl's tail when she tastes her curry and she got the spice mix just right.

That's what she's cooking now. Angela needs it after a grueling tiebreaker that she barely scraped out, and you all need it to cheer for her. She still plans to play the villain in a sense, but for now with everyone else involved, there's something of a united front and everyone cheered for her in her final matches to qualify.

[Ksharta chose to accept emotional support in her way.]

As for Valynia...

"You think I hate her, but you're wrong. I see her." She had smiled then. "Just be extra loud when she's seen me back and I'll come find you, little Dolly."

And then she had glided out of the room, leaving behind the scent of spice before you could stand under your own power.

And now, you've got one more pirate to face before you can go up against Mirror (Mirror!!!). The boss (maybe) of the whole Red Band (question mark) and one of the most feared lionesses in the galaxy. Jacinta Niares. This one is probably real, but after everything you've been through with Valynia, what sort of power do you think her boss wields?

What you know about her mecha, The Roar is fairly limited. Statistics are listed as
Power: ****
Speed: ***
Defense: *****
And it's known for its overwhelming medium-range weaponry. There have been a lot of imitations though, so if it's the real Roar and the real Jacinta, expect surprises.

***

Isabelle

It is a funny thing, but after the party, you find that your schedule isn't quite so booked. This is not to say that Almira Lozano didn't hear everything. It is not to say that she isn't plotting something. She has certainly not disappeared, and her advice is available whenever you wish to seek it, with the same skill and judgment as always accompanies it. No, it's just that your training schedule is a bit more open and sleep might just exist in small quantities.

Perhaps it's simply that you danced with Adriana and met all the superficial goals your family had set? Perhaps it's the unusual business deal you struck. Perhaps it's the deal you struck with the Fisher cat and the fact that for the first time your mother might view you differently than the daughter she so often cowed.

Though, this is not to say that you shouldn't be very busy. Kiriala won every match she fought except for her match against Mirror. Her mecha sports the latest in Hybrasilian technology: perhaps not the match of the most esoteric mechas out there (again, Mirror herself seems to deliver the unusual) but at least the equal of anything the Terenius Consortium can manage to field at the moment. Meanwhile, Kiriala's skill and focus have been top-notch. A steady hand and a calm mind are her hallmarks, the exception of Mirror yet again notwithstanding.

The Ginger Tiger's ratings are slightly upgraded from before as well (or perhaps merely updated based on the range displayed in the fight with Mirror)
Power: ****
Speed: ****
Defense: ****

You'll need to do a lot to prepare for her.

But then, competing with that are other things. You still have a Zaldarian nanobot connection and they have been positively shrieking warnings at you (insofar as a vague mental sense of unease can shriek) since the end of that party and the reactivation of the Aeteline. You still have Quar as a prisoner in some sense. And Asil is still there and she's going to call for you as many free evenings as your stamina is prepared for. And you did promise to come when she called, didn't you?

Tell us what your life is like as you build up to your match.

***

Mirror

Congratulations! You had the best record in the round robin (officially at any rate, and notwithstanding your own description of the matches). You thus received the one bye extended from the tournament, putting you in the illustrious ranks of the three prior faction champions. You're even slated to face Marcina in the semifinals, which as it turns out was the soonest you could get unless she had decided to forego her own bye (perhaps possible if she's seen the bracket keeping you apart, but she seems content for you to face one opponent at the least). On top of that, if you're lucky, you'll face Dolly first, and of course Jade as well. Assuming they don't both melt in embarrassment the second they see you.

In the meantime, you, along with the other three will be commenting the first set of matches. You even get to pick your co-caster. Marcina, you've met: keen intellect, analytical, thoughtful and caring, but absolutely a sub in conversation. Maelia is also known for being analytical, being a keen scientists, but with more of a humorous and passionate streak and of course her own Hybrasilian deep space background. Or Marna, who is loud and teasing, with a keen ability to read people quickly and focus on the emotional heart of matches.

***

Solarel

Travel in the Aeteline is a unique feast for the senses. It presses against the universe, it warps the space around it with its vicious furnace. A small part of you may realize that the Kathresis would find the Aetline offensive, perhaps even filled with irrational and vicious hatred for it in its active state. Its Trak'tho masters would have believed such a thing to be an abomination. That said, the one thing you will not hear news of in the intervening time is the location of the Kathresis, which was taken by someone else from the crystal hangar and is either not known to the cult it had attracted or they will not say.

But what matters is that now that there is a host of new tactics available to you? Tiers of strength, speed, and energy control that you haven't touched in a long time. You don't need to land in the days before your scheduled tournament match if you don't want to. And even if you land, you hardly need to leave the mecha or its dock.

If you look for news about your match, you'll find you're facing Akaithon again, though apparently she has unregistered the Makhaira and the briefing has no details of what mecha she plans to pilot the face the Aeteline. Her own statement about the plan you two executed together, in its way.

What will your tactics be to face Akai again so soon?

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel
The door is open and it is full of fire. The threshold is made of light. The spirit of the Aeteline is the spirit of fire. A nuclear furnace. It is yours, it has been yours, it remains yours. What is the burning of your blood to a silver sword in the face of this cursed spirit? What is pain when everything is already consumed?

The Aeteline is ready. Connection lines extend freely to take you. All the explosive energy waits to be commanded. Protection routines snap into place, nanobot reconstruction systems throwing thin but regenerating walls to separate you from your attackers in nothing more than a reflex.

To join with the Aeteline is to be so much more. Is this not your true body? Was everything you were before not merely a scouting system to collect data to return to the core? Is this not the true scale of the universe?

It would not do to remain here. Nor to crush the small things beneath you. They are unworthy of such attention. They are nothing but the dust before your eyes obscuring the universe. Your calling is to ascend above such things and see that which is beautiful. Is this not also truth?

***

Ksharta and Jade

“You did” she says, and smiles, but her eyes are sad. “I…worry that I’m broken. I look at the great Hybrasilians and they are all so…so wild. Look at your pride, at the abandon that Dolly seems to so easily take on, how willing she is to give herself to something greater. To…someone greater.” She blushes despite herself, as she certainly has felt the connection all night.

“Look at Mirror, or Kiara, or the many priestesses. The heroes and goddesses in the myths. Did Irtana grow despondent because her tribe was defeated and she was left alone? No, you rose to the goddesses and so gained her own godhood through boldness and bravery. Mu Ysha did not give in to despair when she shattered her sword on the rock of Hunger, but instead she meditated and sought penance, and in the hunt she drew her sword of blood for the first time and fought with Hunger as an equal.”

Ksharta sniffles. “I thought maybe with your blessing that I could be strong like them. But I couldn’t. So I thought that maybe I’m the one who’s broken.”

You know, Jade, that as a faithful Hybrasilian, it would never cross her mind to consider that you are in any way the problem, it’s either her fault or some other goddess who overruled your authority. She isn’t crying very hard though, and she isn’t done talking. “Maybe I just set my sights too high. I’ve always relied on the others, I’m a good cook, I make people happy. Now I get to experience these other feelings too through your favor and I can stay here where it’s safe. Do I really need my own victory or my own knight or my own pirate?”

She sniffles again and tries to smile because you did help, Jade, and she loved this, and she’s glad to be here, and it’s even more special that you came and gave her all her attention so gently even though she knows how much you’re hurting too. It’s just that even with all that, her heart is aching and so things are very hard.

***

Dolly

“You know” Valynia says quietly, “I’ve half a mind to rip that sleeve back off of you. I didn’t think my feelings were for sharing with the whole group. But…I see your choice and I won’t take it from you now. Not…not right now.

She breathes, and you can feel her taking in your scent, the feel of your body and your hair and the headdress pressed against her.
“You smelled like this when I jumped on you the first time” she says, and breathes again. “Like prey and excitement. Ready to bolt but so so hungry all at the same time. It made my heart beat then, and it does now. It’s why, at the little station…Whispered Promise is her own goddess, but I don’t want a goddess, I want you, little priestess. I want you. I’ll take the goddess you come with if I must. But. I. Want. You. Dala Hunters.”

She breathes again and her claws are sharp against you as she quivers, and her muscles harden.

“Personally, I think your goddess is being jealous and petulant and you’re too willing to go along with her. You say I have the Red Band and you have her. Well, fuck you. I’m a pirate, Dala Hunters. I’m greedy. I want everything I want.”

She smiles then, twisting you just sideways enough that you can see her face, her grin with her teeth out, ready to bite. “But I don’t think I want unfairly~ I think you can have me, and you can have her, and she can come gallantly to your rescue, but every time in the meantime I get to have you. ♡”

“So there you are, little Dolly. Do you think my offer is fair? If you want it, your face is right here. You don’t have to say anything at all. All you have to do is nod, just a little, just the tiniest little motion.”

***

Mirror (and Isabelle)

There are eyes for your dance. Eyes for Mirror’s impassioned speech. In the center of it, Adriana nods to herself. Perhaps she agrees. It would certainly match with her manner of choosing a successor, something she chooses by merit despite her family name carrying the greatest weight of any blood in the entirety of the Terenius Consortium.

But now the music is ending, and soon the party will be as well. Also there’s probably going to be a warning klaxon going off in the hanger presently as a result of Solarel’s particular door smashing talent.