trans_9 | Battle of Lobnas Sord [Open]

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Battle of Lobnas Sord [Open]

Spaurh had found the sensoriums. At first she'd merely been curious, recreating a few places from memory, trying out the zero-gravity simulation. She'd even dabbled in the piloting program (and found that she was almost as good as she had been out of training). And then she'd recreated her flagship. It had been perfect - almost too perfect. The crew acted like the real crew. Her Chief-of-Staff was so real that she'd almost thought he'd materialized next to her. Of course, that's when that worming little thought had burrowed into her head - what if? Could the battle at the Sord have gone differently? Could she have saved more of her men, her ships?

Despite her rather smug exterior, she honestly had cared for those under her command, even if in some abstract way. And even though she'd achieved a "victory" of sorts at Lobnas, the defeat had still stung. She was supposed to be rebuilding her squadron. Instead she was here. So, at a loss, she'd replayed the battle in the Sensoriums. And then again. And then again. She lost less ships, she lost more ships. But every time the losses had been crippling to her little fleet. And now she was doing it again. The ship rocked from a nearby explosion, "Looks like the enemy is stupid..."

She had made it this far into the fight - the retreat from the Sord, breaking enemy contact. But just as the first time, they were following her. Her crew, her wonderfully trained crew were giving it there all. Reports continued to stream in from the fleet. Another ship had exploded. and then-

"Mine! Incoming!"

"Evasive-"

The ship shuddered for a moment from an impact and a frantic bridge officer begin yelling as information scrolled across his screen, "Impact! Our engines are disabled! Another-"

The ship shuddered underneath her again and then the deck plating seemed to rise to meet her as the entire room turned into blinding white light. It faded out a few moments later, leaving Spaurh standing on an empty bridge. The words "Ship destroyed" burned across the viewscreen. Spaurh bit back a curse and stalked back to her command chair and slumped, sulking. There had to be some way to get a better result out of the fight....

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"Well, we are able to interface directly with the ship," she taps a finger against her forehead, against her "tiara", "We have... a built in computer interface. All we have to do is plug in and we can process information directly from the ship's computer."

"Huh... kind of—kind of like the Side Effect, I guess. But I guess you don't really have that, either... what's the Lashkau's power source?"

She resettles a little in the seat she's in, leaning over to the side to look down at how it's put together and attached to the deck.

The consoles are quite firmly attached and well-situated. The user would probably be fairly comfortable for some period of time and it most definitely won't explode in a shower of sparks at an inconvenient time.

"Anti-matter fuel."

Alright, so Luly's poking and prodding is starting to amuse her. A bit.

Comfort is important to her! For a moment she's confused by the lack of restraint harnesses, until she starts thinking that the bridge must be gravity-controlled or something.

"That sounds dangerous, but... well, I guess you must not have D-Engines." Her face drops into a heavy-thinking expression as she tries to puzzle through all the implications of this, as if it were some massive, world-changing thing.

"Mmmm, no. What are... D-Engines?"

She idly picks herself up and wanders over to lean on the chair next to Luly's. It's easier to converse from here.

"N-dimensional point source energy extractors. They've got a usable life at full operation something a little longer than the predicted life of the universe. A ship like this, I'd guess you'd need a... three-degree class-A cascade, maybe," she says, face scrunching a little as she wildly guesses. "A-pods for primary maneuvering, you'd still need some reaction fuel for the kick-in-the-pants-right-now work..."

Yes, she just described free energy on a large enough scale to power a flagship. If not more.

"That sounds... impressive."

And it is. Most Abh ships use anti-matter fuel reactors. Energy certainly isn't free, but they're not facing dire shortages either. Still...

"...although, I didn't catch some of the technical terms."

That's the part that bores her, really.

"Plug in the boxes with the blinking lights on them and you get free energy and gravitic propulsion," Luly says dryly. "And there's the Side Effect... it's kind of like your thing. It's a natural consequence of active D-Engines for a vehicle's pilot to... synchronize with it somewhat."

"How interesting," she responds, equally dry, "You would have to talk to a engine expert. I don't know all that much about that sort of thing."

"Die machinerie mit das blinkenlights is nicht fur fingerpoken und mittengrabben," Luly comments with a smile, forgetting that the joke might not survive translation.

She turns to examine the headrest, and those little slots in it--huh, those funny tiaras make more sense now. "I wonder if," she murmurs, but she's alrwady starting to run through the complex chains of thought directed outward at the Sensorium mechanisms. "Make me like one of the officers here," she whispers, but that's just the trigger for the dominoes already set up in her mind.

The change ripples up her arms and legs just slowly enough for her to look a little seasick before it finally hits her completely. She's changed, physically (in the altered perceptions the Sensorium provides)--body more compact, endurance-muscle melted away into the grav-protection Abh bodies provide. Her skin color is the same, and her tattoos remain, but there's something subtly less Nazzadi and subtly more Abh about her features. And she finds herself in a bridge officer's uniform, tiara and all.

"Oh, this is," she says, and then the sensation of the froce finally hits her, and she falls out of her chair.

The universal translator in her clyuno chirps at her - an old Earth language. German. She thinks about it for a moment, and then shrugs idly. She's still not entirely sure what that means.

As Luly examines the chair, Spaurh's lips quirk in a small, amused smile, "What are you-?" And then Luly changes. If Spaurh hadn't been looking straight at her when it happened, she doubts that she would've entirely believed it. The ripple of skin, the entire facet of the body changing shocks her and even she is rattled by the look of it. She stands up, taking a half-step forward, not quite sure if this is real.

And then Luly falls out of her chair and Spaurh drapes herself over the formerly occupied chair to get a better look at her, "...are you quite alright?"

"Just a minute," Luly croaks from where she's lying on the floor. Even her voice is subtly different--an artifact of the different build to her torso and lungs. Slowly she arranges herself into a sitting position. She looks rather queasy, though she's quickly regaining control of hersef. "That thing is... wow." A hand slides up to rest against the officer's-grade tiara-thing she's wearing.

Wow. Spaurh hadn't realized just how far this place could take a simulation. It's a bit frightening. She reaches out a hand and brushes it over Luly's new tiara, "It really is something, isn't it? It allows us to sense what's going on around us - and when we're plugged in to a ship's computer, we sense what the ship senses, we feel what the ship feels. Your brain is probably a bit overstimulated - it's not built for it, after all, even with the simulation."

"I think I can handle it," Luly says faintly, wobbling her way back up to a somewhat wobbly standing position. "it's, well, it's not that much like the Effect, but it feels like kind of the same sort of kick..." She shuts up as she realizes she's babbling a little.

She glances down at herself, obviously disappointed by how her previously-average-by-human-standards figure has been slimmed down a little.

"If you say so," there's just a hint of patronization in her tone, but not enough to make it obvious, "What exactly is... the Effect?"

She pauses, eyes Luly for a good few seconds, then smiles and cocks her head upwards slightly, her tone teasing, "Give her the correct skin tone and hair color for an Abh."

Then she sits back to let Stacy handle the rest.

Luly lets out a little 'yeep' as her appearance changes again, though there's no physical sensation to it this time. Her tattoos stay, though, as silver-white as they started--even looking like a normal Abh otherwise, they give her an interestingly exotic quality.

"It's the synchronization process with mecha--well, anything powered by a D-Engine," she says, flustered by the change in skin color, "but it works best if it's shaped like you." She stares down at her hands. "You kind've become part of the machine. Mind and body."

Spaurh doesn't even try to hide her appreciative smirk as Luly becomes even more Abh-like. She settles her hands on her hips and takes in the new look. Rather unorthodox, but...

"You do make a rather elegant Abh, Lieutenant."

She listens to her slightly flustered explanation and raises a brow, "Now that is something we don't have. We don't really become part of the machine, it simply allows us to process information much more quickly and efficiently."

"I feel ridiculous," Luly complains, pinching her arm. "Like somebody left me sitting in a cave too long." She slides her way into another chair a little unsteadily.

"My Engel, it's got the same kind of system, but... better. A lot better. It's hard to go back to anything else once you get used to the feeling of being forty feet tall."

"It's not ridiculous. It's just our natural skin-tone," Spaurh is finding this way too amusing. She slides in the seat next to Luly, watching, "Besides, there's not a terrible amount of natural light in space."

"Forty feet tall? Impressive, for a ground vehicle."

"It still feels ridiculous. All Nazzadi have dark skin." She rubs her arms a little, as if the change in coloration will flake off.

"Colo, he's a heavy weapons mech. Limited aerial capacity, but it's mostly a mobility backup... guided rockets and a plasma cannon built-in, but there's the possibility of scaled handheld weaponry, too." She sounds just a bit prideful about it. Well, maybe more than a bit. "I'm pretty good with stacked maser array anti-aerospace guns."

"Think of it as the full experience of being an Abh," Spaurh replies.

"Fascinating. Can you really take out orbital targets with it? Or simply low flying atmospheric fighters?" She drums her fingers against the console, chin in one hand.

"Well... it'd be possible to hit something in high orbit with a big enough Engine array, but you'd light up like a Christmas tree to anybody who wasn't asleep at the wheel. And the Migou are good at deorbiting disposable raiders straight on the heads of anybody they feel like. It's not an unlimited supply, but if you light up and don't get out of these real quick... Works sometimes with the right weather conditions, though." For just a moment she was lost in thought, but now she comes back to herself.

She pulls lightly at the officer's uniform she's wearing. The fit seems so weird... though a big part of that is that she's physically different under it, she's sure.

"Well, I'm sure you know more about grand tactics than I do. I don't think I've ever actually set foot on a planet in my life..." Spaurh muses on that for a moment and then shrugs, "Still, it's not like I've ever needed to..."

She eyes Luly's discomfort and laughs, "Something wrong with the uniform? I've never heard anyone complain before."

"It's a different cut from ours... the weight sits all strangely." As if to demonstrate, she tilts her head, eyes going blank... and silently, the uniform she's wearing suddenly transmutes into one of the NEG duty outfits she's familiar with. The basic design is somewhat similar in that it's a bodysuit, but it's obviously more reinforced, with a paneled design across the torso—probably at least somewhat bullet resistant. Much more drab, too, in olive and black with the only real color coming from the rank insignia on the shoulders.

"Mmm," Spaurh makes a noncommittal sound. It's different, that's for sure, but she prefers her Abh uniform (and she'll be wearing it as long as she's in here). She leans back again, eyes falling shut.

"What bring you here, anyway?"

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