trans_9 | born to be kings, we're the princes of the universe [open]

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born to be kings, we're the princes of the universe [open]

Lafiel floated in the great chambers, weightless and warm as a great womb. Organic docking clamps (T-shaped with surfaces like teeth) held great shadowy shapes, sleek and metal. They were curved, beautiful and deadly.

The first clamp held a ponyu class, the only fighter in the Abh fleet. Its split tail and rounded body gave it the appearance of some great metal sailfish. As Lafiel pushed off the wall to float close to it, she remembered being pursued by the corrupt Baron Febdash in one of these crafts. He, a fellow Abh had been her first kill. At the time she had not understood why it upset Jinnto.

Now, after having suffered wounds and faced down things like humans that called with human throats in the thick and humid night, she thought she did, at least a little.

She climbed inside to inspect it.

When she was done, she moved onto the next ship. It was much more squat than the ponyu, flattened, round body with a smaller cockpit that poked out like the head of a turtle. An assault transport class, designed to ferry troops to ground worlds in the rare event the Abh needed to become involved in lander affairs. Inside, however, she would find an uglier shape: bulbous and spherical, it filled the hold. It was a hoksath or antimatter mine, a weapon capable of turning a continent into a skin melting inferno.

And it was fueled.

Unsettled, she double and triple checked the security on it, before floating away.

[OOC: If weapons of mass destruction are against the rules i'll happily change this post.]

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Rob had taken a wrong turn somewhere. He was certain of that. Because he honestly had no idea how he had gotten into this huge chamber, packed full of vehicles. Everything from what looked like biplanes to what he could only assume were starships of one kind or another filled the space. He pushed off into the zero gravity, flailing uncertainly as he floated across the bay. It was a new experience, this weightlessness. He looked around, spotted another moving shape.

"Hello?"

From the side of the ponyu, Lafiel recognized the shape of a lander flailing in zero-g. She waved and called before pushing off the side to catch him. "Mr. Donovan!"

Robert grunted as the smaller woman caught him. He was amazed at how well she handled herself in this environment, the easy way she grabbed onto him to stop his pointless movement.

"Oof. Thanks for the save, Your Highness." That was correct, right? She was an emperess after all.

Lafiel was completely in her element and floated along side him as they waited to contact the other bulkhead. "It is the least I can do after what I put you through the other day."

"I managed. Wasn't the first time I had to help a drunken friend home. It was just a bit of a shock, really." He kicked his legs in the air, idly watching as they floated backwards.

"This is so strange...I've never been weightless before. I guess this is what the astronauts feel like..."

"It's my natural environment." Lafiel replied as she positioned herself for another leap. "Push gently from heel to toe. There's nothing to stop your momentum here." And she demonstrated, pushing off toward the ponyu.

"I can see that." He did as she instructed, carefully pushing off and following her path. Okay. This wasn't too bad...better then his first attempt, anyway.

"Whoa...okay...almost got it I think."

"Do not think in the directions you are used to on land. You will only make yourself motion sick." When she caught the side of the ponyu she waited for him to catch up.

"Right. Just 'forward' and 'back' I guess, huh?" It was hard not to think that way, though and he found his head spinning a bit as reached the ponyu himself.

"If it helps you might also think of those directions as 'up' and 'down'." Knowledge an Abh child would be familiar with. Suck it, Ender. "This is one of the smaller vessels in the fleet."

"Oh. Right." Now that she mentioned it, it seemed obvious. He looked over the vessel they were clinging to, blinked.

"Huh. So this is one of your starships? For war? How do you fight a war in space anyway? With rayguns?"

"This is one of the smallest classes of manned vessel we have. It's hardly a ship, more a shuttle used for police actions. It's armed with two cohesive beam guns, one of the smaller loadouts available. And we do not just fight in space. We live there. We Abh are the kin of the stars." She patted the vessel's side affectionately. "Would you like to look inside?"

"Certainly! It's fascinating." He motions for her to lead the way.

Lafiel enters a code into the keypad on the side (covering that hand with the other, ever mindful of military secrecy) and the doors slide open to reveal an interior studded with delay screens and a comfortable command chair. Another person could fit in here but they wouldn't be very comfortable. "Were you a soldier, Mister Donovan?"

Robert poked his head inside, examining the interior for a moment before he answered.

"I was. I fought in the war. Probably the largest war our world ever saw. It wasn't pretty." He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, flinching at some memory or other.

"I did what I had to."

There was a look of empathy. For all her waifish appearance, the look said I've been there too.

And the interior was enough to take both their minds off it, filled of fractally shaped button sensor things and dominated by a large command chair on the left side of which protruded a sheath into which the captain could plug their arm.

Robert floated lazily around the interior of the shipping, examining the various surfaces with curiosity. It was really quite amazing, thinking about it.

"Wow. We've only put men into orbit around our planet where I come from...but President Kennedy said we're going to get to the moon by the end of the decade or bust." He chuckled.

"Seems a bit...trivial, compared to this thing."

Holly was exploring, trying to get used to the layout of the ship. It was complicated, sure, but nothing was a bad as the miles and miles of caverns that made up Haven city.

She shouldn't have been surprised to find a shuttle bay, but she was. Lightly floating into the chamber, she reached out and gently touched the hull of the ponyu. Always a flyboy at heart, Holly was certainly interested in this ship.

Hello other our-elves-are-different girl. Lafiel appeared from the other side.

"Greetings captain. This is a ponyu class fighter."

"Lafiel," Holly greeted the not-quite-elf with a nod. "Is this a type of shuttle from your world? As in, for space?"

"Yes, this is a ponyu class. It is the only vessel in the Abh fleet that could properly be called a 'fighter', though it is used more for police work." She patted the metal hide affectionately.

Holly smiled, studying the ship. Oh yes, she wanted to try it out. "A fighter vessel, huh? The LEP doesn't have any fighting shuttles. Ours are just for transport. I really wish we had some sort of fighters, though."

"The use of space-time mines has made fighter vessels, if not obsolete in my universe, at least prohibitive in cost of life. That's why the ponyu class is mainly used for policing, when such destructiveness would be unwarranted." Or by crazy, perverted backwater barons. "The one over there..." She pointed at the flat but rounded shape of the assault transport. "...Is an assault shuttle. If it's true you have to live among the landers yet stay hidden, I do not blame you for not developing an extensive air force." She entered a code into a keypad and the doors slid open. "Would you like to see it from the inside?"

"The People are meant to fly... or at least three of the eight families are. Mine is one of them," Holly said with a sigh. "I enjoy piloting magma shuttles, but riding magma flares isn't like flying."

A smile spread across Holly's features at Lafiel's offer. "Absolutely," she said. There was something a little worrisome about that smile. Eager, and a little bit conniving.

"Oh? There are forty families of Abh." That smile sure did freak her out though. It wasn't the same smile Abh gave to an enemy they vowed to kill but it was a close enough cousin. She entered a code and the doors slid open. "Magma shuttles?" The interior was covered with display screens but the controls were rather simple looking: just a strange technological looking sheath the arm could fit into on the left side of the chair.

"Well, 'family' is more like 'species'. Only the Demons really function like the old clans. Most of us have transitioned into the nuclear family unit."

Holly was impressed by the ship. It was a lot simpler then the LEP's dilapidated old shuttles that had wires sticking out of everywhere. "Magma shuttles, yes. The People live in deep underground caverns. The quickest way to get to the surface is to pilot shuttles through magma tubes and ride the heat from magma flares to the surface."

Kelly had stepped into the vehicle bays to check and see if there were any familiar craft she was certified for. Stepping into this bay however, she felt herself lifting off the floor as the gravity disappeared. That being the case, she kicked off with her toes as hard as she could toward one of the ships. It would be a great help if she could just grab one.

Then she spotted the Abh. A small smile flitted across her face. Figured Lafiel would be here.

"Getting your hands greasy, Empress?"

Lafiel turned towards the source of the sound with a movement of the hips that caused her to rotate around her central axis. She waved to the Spartan. "Abh ships do not use grease!"

Kelly stopped her momentum by hooking a foot in an overhead handhold and hanging upside down as she greeted the empress. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with a little grease."

She smirked slightly. It should be noted that her hands and face are smudged with the aforementioned grease. Looks like someone had been busy.

Lafiel was completely comfortable with this seeming reversal in motion and talking to Kelly as if she were facing her right side up. "Were you cleaning your suit?"

Kelly didn't seem to mind it too much either. She wasn't quite as quick as the nimble Abh in zero-gravity, but she adapted fast. "Oh no. I did that right after the last mission. I was in engineering, trying to make some modifications to some components I found."

A pause as she tilted her head. "What were you up to?"

"Components?" She patted the metal hide of the ship affectionately. "I was searching the vehicle bays. These are Abh ships."

"I was thinking of ugrading my suit's HUD. But we'll see how the components take." Still doesn't explain why she was that greasy though... "Abh ships, really? Hmm. They have a interesting shape."

"I don't remember the Chief's helmet being that...Nevermind. This is a ponyu class, the only craft in the fleet that could be considered a 'fighter'. The other's an assault transport. Would you like to see inside?" A military person would appreciate the level of trust that implied.

Spaurh floated effortlessly in the zero-gee of the chamber. This was blessedly familiar and after a month or two of high gravity, she felt free and light again. She pushed off of a wall, peering through the massive collection of vehicles as she searched for Lafiel. She tapped at her comm ring, _<< Highness? I'm trying to locate you. _>>

Lafiel tapped hers twice, sending a homing beacon. << In the assault transport. Come in, there's something I think you should see. >>

The pilot doors sphinctered open with a hiss.

Spaurh floated over, bracing herself as she ducked through the doorway. She paused, letting her eyes adjust as she glanced over the room. She'd been about to ask what it was all about, but she fell silent as she saw the anti-matter mine. A grin slowly spread over her face as she drifted closer, "Well. This is certainly an interesting find."

"But a more problematic one than it first appears. With this in the hold, we can't use it as a transport and we don't have the almfac hookups to control the mine directly...Not to mention the danger should it be hijacked. I'd trade all three in a moment for Basroil...or your Futuune for that matter." Lafiel was deep in concentration, hooked to the pilot controls. Numbers scrolled past on the displays. "It's fully fueled."

"I only wish I had my beautiful flagship here... then again, we haven't the crew for it," she sighed softly, "The Basroil would be easier to crew or at the very least teach some of these landers how to use."

She brushed a hand carefully over the hull of the mine and turned back to Lafiel, tapping her chin, "Well... I'm sure Stacy has the schematics for some of our technology. We might be able to jury rig something to move it with."

"Come to think of it, they would all be worth less to me than a single birthing tank and set of genetic equipment. What you and I have been tasked with is essentially reconstituting an entire nation. That requires more than war machines." And in her voice is a hint of the immense weariness.

Spaurh nods slowly, dropping her hand away from the mine and turning back to Lafiel, "...surely our engineering team can do that. We have enough materials and information on this ship to get something that simple built."

She frowns, drifting over to Lafiel, "...but where are we going to get the necessary genetic material?"

Finished with her checks, Lafiel pushes back in the chair. "It is a problem I have been thinking about. We cannot wait to see if more Abh are revived from storage, as we could be killed in battle before then. We will have to perform gene grafts with individuals whose genetic code is similar enough to our own...which excludes most landers." The unspoken thought is Meluly but Lafiel doesn't want to skew the results and the idea makes her feel funny in an oddly familiar way.

Spaurh shrugs and drifts over to the command chair, peering over Lafiel's shoulder. Despite the knowledge that Lafiel is the Empress now, she's not inclined to be horrifically formal unles Lafiel demands it - as far as she's aware they're the last two Abh left in existence.

"I think most base-line humans would be compatible. The genes would have to be modified, of couse, to allow for true Abh children. It's no different then with Landers who become Abh."

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born to be kings, we're the princes of the universe [open]

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