Haze Gray 95
"Imma get on that?"
Tyrone nodded "You got this."
Whirlygig sighed and walked down to the ramp and onto the flying ship.
Haze Gray
Legend jerked awake and rubbed his butt cheek "Must you?"
"I must," his husband answered grinning. That slap didnt hurt the big baby. "Come on, get dressed. We have to be down at the picnic point pier in half an hour. Get dressed and pull the cart I have Keith."
Paul groaned and sat up "How did you get the contract for Mare Island."
Arthur shrugged "Low bid, plus doing Brocton Bay's dock, and working with the girls."
Paul sighed "It's a hell of a commute."
"That you can do in under an hour."
Paul nodded as he stood acknowledging the point. "Plus, it gives me a base out there for what's coming. Busy summer I think."
Arthur nodded "For all of us."
Shortly they were at the pier watching the enormous flying boat come in to the pier and stick out a ramp like a tongue.
They boarded and their luggage was stowed cart and all. Paul looked at the girl they were sitting next to. She sighed "You're Legend."
Arthur nodded "At least in his own mind." By the time Legend got over that Arthur and the girl were jabbering away, and the girl was holding his son.
He got back in the conversation "Cleveland."
"Yep. Have to go have the bosses bless me."
Paul nodded "Get integrated into a task group I suspect. Looks like a busy summer coming up."
"You've been around them on mission. What's that like?"
Paul chuckled "Brockton Bay is never not on mission." The conversation continued as they got to altitude, settled in and the plane droned on. Quietly. It was pretty amazing. And burning the 'greenest' fuel, plus not having to have runways built of pure death as far as the environmentalist were concerned. Yeah, this was going to turn to gold as well.
He chuckled wondering whether Taylor would inadvertently start her own airline or just sell the airplanes.
Haze Gray
Alina sat up. She looked around in wonder as she felt of herself, finding none of the injuries she knew she had to have, and opened her eyes. She blinked. Mandy sat in front of her. "Surprise! You're a boat!"
"Bwah?"
Several girls who were ships, some she recognized, appeared. Things didn't get any less strange. Then Legend showed up. It was an odd dream. Made even odder still when they rode the helicopters out to the ocean and stepped off the ramp onto the surface of it.
At least she wasn't naked in this dream, and in fact could change her clothes basically however she wanted.
The tiny people living and working in her had to be the single worst case of split personality whatever ever though. Or some kind of symptom of being... no she wasn't thinking about that. Ouch! "Hey!"
Mandy rolled her eyes "Pay attention Alina. Leslie is trying to show you how to do things with your airplanes."
That was another thing, all the girls were all here and were right on top of her. Well, the water, but all in arms reach?
Juggernaut, the small Asian girl who had sort of attached herself to her and was one of the ship girls who were on the news constantly nodded at her "Different world. Take your time, then we'll go kill them."
"You never killed Lung."
"He wasn't the one turned me out. And you should add a 'yet' to that. Jury is still out on him. Emiko is cool though."
Alina scowled "Who?"
"His daughter. Why he turned over a new leaf." Juggernaut shrugged. "Or something. I mean he still runs strippers, but they want to be there. Gambling, but rich young white guys, so living on the wild side. A little blow, a hot chick on their arm and being a high roller. He plays to that bullshit.
"His organization isn't trafficking anymore. Well illegally. Now they are straight up with the girls. They know what they are hiring into. From what the girls in it say everyone involved is making more money. We were sex slaves too, we check, and talk to those girls. Most of them are straight messed up in the head, but not forced, as far as we can tell. And they are all of age now.
"Now pay attention to Leslie and let's get your air wing settled. We can compare horror stories later." She yanked her blue work shirt up with her right hand to expose a huge ropey scar running from her arm pit into her belt line "Your pimp was less effective at trying to kill you than mine was." Alina blinked. "Yeah, Lung grabbed his head and burned his face off when he found out. Did it in front of me. I was pretty high but I checked. Cho got killed. The cops found him in the middle of the road." Juggernaut shrugged and poked her then pointed to Leslie who hugged Alina when she looked at her.
Alina nodded and when she let go drew the pistol from her port hip. Leslie nodded "A southpaw."
Alina wriggled "Why is there a pistol in my butt crack?"
Haze Gray
Whirlygig looked at Taylor "What?" Taylor smiled and hugged her. Whirlygig rolled her eyes. These were some handsy girls. She had been passed around like a party favor. So had the new white girls though. Even the other Latina the Asians and the Black had gotten in on it. She sighed and made shooing motions "Come on boss, let's get with the bang bang. I'm fine, Panacea said."
Taylor nodded smiling "We will and good job on that. You need to thank the yard."
Whirlygig grinned "I know right? Especially if this two hundred and fifty rounds a minute thing works. That's about the theoretical limit on my hoist though. Even with more horsepower on them, the timing gets a little too pinchy."
Taylor grinned "OK, give it a minute and let's let everyone get their legs and then we will start with some stationary gunnery."
Whirlygig nodded and stared at Cassidy. "Stop looking at my aft."
Whirlygig grinned "It is a nice one, but was more looking at your fourth turret, or rather the lack of a fourth turret."
"All the missiles though." Cassidy grinned.
Whirlygig nodded "Yeah, thinking about it. Though I do have forty cells already and thirteen minutes of ammo."
Cassidy frowned and looked at the smaller girl "Where the hell do you keep it all? I mean your rate of fire was already ridiculous, and twenty-four K range was good, before the yard got a hold of your design. Plus, your class already had like a thousand rounds per gun. You aren't that much longer or beamier." Taylor watched as the two steamed off talking.
Amy shook her head "No, you would look goofy, like some British failed experiment or a Russian that copied them flaws and all. You leave my aft alone. Besides you already have half your hangers full of missiles."
Taylor looked at Amy and arched a brow. Amy reached over and grabbed a handful. "Amy! There are drones everywhere."
"Good."
"Corpsman! I need a testosterone check over here!" Taylor looked around. The other ships were all watching her and Amy and snickering. Even the dogs were doing the doggy smile thing.
Haze Gray
The Dragon suit with Colin landed. And she followed him out in one of her mobility suits after shutting the transport down. She looked at his pinched face as she followed him on his HUD targeting drones from their drone's data. He huffed. She giggled. "I fail to see the humor. People are watching these video's nearly continuously and will know the Kanmusu's capabilities. As well as their personal relationships. What if someone targeted Panacea to get to Brockton Bay?"
Tess shrugged and highlighted the strike package, ASW flight, Hawkeye, and CAP orbiting the exclusion area, and then the Coast Guard vessels patrolling it. "Amy would have some subjects for some of the more esoteric procedures she has wanted to perform. And Taylor would have moving targets? If she beat the dogs to them, who would have dinner. Or the cats." She highlighted twenty-three cats, some as far as a thousand miles out. "No one really has control of them, they are cats and do what they want mostly."
Colin worked on every resource he could get into including a lot of the non Kanmusu drones "How are they invisible?"
Tess shrugged the shoulders of the suit "Cats."
"Is that a technical term?" Tess laughed and laughed. Colin pouted a bit.
Haze Gray
Alina went through every pistol firing off twelve aircraft apiece and then reloading and doing it again. Then she started landing the aircraft this evolution had replaced. Leslie watched her. "Good. One more and then we can catch a helo back. Everyone else is finishing up gunnery."
Alina sighed "My girls can't hit a bull in the ass."
Leslie snorted "Hey, you got them all up and down. One thing at a time grasshopper."
Haze Gray
"This isn't a very tactical formation."
Amy skating along with Taylor, with their arms linked, chuckled "And that dance Tess is doing isn't at all approved maneuvering. We're having fun, and the girls wanted to cruise under the Golden Gate. Its one of those things you only get one first time at."
Taylor nodded and leaned closer to her "I still don't get what she sees in Armsmaster. I mean he looks ok, but he isn't like barely on the spectrum. He's way on it."
Amy shrugged "He makes jokes now though. At least around her."
Taylor sighed "So less socially retarded?"
Amy cracked up. "Be nice."
"You don't have the Yard run wild to deal with. Or the people who are going to want Castro executed, or the damn Russians. And how did we not know about them? How did anyone not realize?
"I'll tell you how, they knew. They just didn't spend the resources to root them out. Or misapplied their resources."
Amy shrugged "Or are using them in their own little parochial worlds. Watchdog is mainly working on Parahumans and the PRT and Protectorate. The FBI has been focusing on terrorist, foreign and domestic, so have the ATF. The US Marshals had the most and best data but are mainly for the Courts.
"These guys slipped in the seams. Apparently historically it's what they do. These ones just got cocky and we got lucky. Now they have a bunch of people with thinker abilities and big ass cannons coming after them.
"Everyone realizes now, so we will wrap these up, then the ones in Alaska then we can wait and see what Russia and China do.
"Lisa pretty much crippled them already here in the US."
Taylor grunted "Which left the ones in Russia."
Amy shrugged "Which we can use then toss. We don't have to let them on an evac boat."
Taylor nodded and sighed "Those boats. Another thing I have to have a meeting over. And I can't wrap my head around them holding three hundred thousand people apiece."
Amy nodded "Sorry babe. I know you would rather be out with the fleet. Maybe we get one up here and load it full of containers."
Taylor nodded and looked internally at her charts. Then at some progress reports. She shrugged "Alameda will be ready in a couple days; about the time we get the leases sorted. The containers are building now. We can load one in a day if we get the sequence right."
Amy nodded "Get some of our people to ride them to Johnston to get the systems primed and the bugs worked out."
Taylor nodded "Cooks, stewards and security crews of our folks will be on them anyway but yeah. The systems won't get really loaded up until we stuff them full of people containers. They'll be burning our gas until then. Not like we don't have it though. A bit amazed the yard just has to change the heads on the engines. It will cut their power but not enough to make a real difference. Sort of wonder why the shipping lines haven't switched to now really."
Amy shrugged "They would have to change the bunkerage to LNG. It's a lot more dangerous to store and handle. They don't have our caps."
Taylor nodded "Speaking of which we need to get a look at the program that is running your killer killer drone. I think we made an AI by accident or something. That thing has learned to be very efficient. It just does the head waters and lets the thing do the rest. Although it sprays its way there sort of."
Amy nodded like a bobble head "Yeah, it and the bug are pretty amazing. I can't believe it hasn't gotten shot down or had a mechanical failure. The one doing North America is no joke either."
Stefanie chuckled from nearby "Neither can the governments involved. Even after buying molasses and paying for fuel the things make us about a million dollars a day apiece. We should build one for each continent. They've paid for themselves over and over. The portals don't care about distance. We could put in another tank for the bug.
"Probably ought to put one in for redundancy anyway.
"I meant to ask, why undulant fever?"
Amy shrugged "Brucellosis. It used to be rare, but with declining budgets departments of agriculture have cut back on testing and inspecting and not all producers are as honest or as careful as they should be. It's like anthrax, there is a cure for it but why go through the hassle. And its effectively native to North and South America. Another surprise from the Columbian exchange probably.
"Hantavirus and Valley fever aren't though, and it is going to take care of those. Actually, proud of it, it takes down fungi, viri, and bacteria."
Taylor hugged her. "As you should be. Saint Amy."
"Please don't start. The Abuela are bad enough."
Tammi snickered "And you else could La Dona be with other than a saint?" She asked in a reedy voice.
Amy glared at Taylor "It's all your fault."
Taylor laughed "Yeah, sure it is. I'll wear the shoes to make it up to you."
Cassidy blinked "Is Amy drooling? I think we need to see these shoe- never mind, hey no pointing guns! Hey, no, stop I can't speed in the channel! Taylor! Do something about your girlfriend." The others blinked as Amy ended up riding on Cassidy's shoulders.
They got her off by the time the dogs and escorts darted into the Berkely marina and they all went in a Japanese seafood and steak place. They stayed until the press caught up then shoved off again. The press could pay people for cell phone footage.
Kevin Yamada the owner smiled so much his workers called the PRT. Then they watched five news teams book tables all day every day for the next six months and grinned at what old Kev charged them. They had jobs for six months at least on that alone.
Haze Gray
The girls came in the man door on the caisson and shook their heads at the cheering. Danny motored up in a boat "They all have phones watching Calitube or whatever. They like shooting." He grinned "Wait until you all get to moving target moving own ship."
Alina blushed scarlet "My girls didn't hit anything."
Danny hugged her one armed from the boat "First day, you got out there, didn't sink, and you got them all up and down. Then you got back without sinking." Alina huffed. "Guy named Robert dropped by. Might be a little old for you." Alina spluttered then glared at Danny who put his hands up palm out "Sorry, dad reaction. He left you a note." Danny handed it to her. The girls gave her some space.
Danny turned to Taylor "About a million people want to talk to you."
Taylor nodded "Chaos still around? Admiral Painter?"
Danny nodded and sighed "So big then. Going to take a while to set up. Might not get to sail up to Alaska for a while."
Taylor shrugged "I'm thinking fishing trip in a couple weeks."
Danny grinned "I'll talk to Tyrone. Get the Blue Water club notified."
Taylor grinned "Wonder if he knows a guy out here."
"Aren't you the guy out here?"
"Maybe. Maybe we just bring the people. The yard here is churning out hundred ten footers. We can set one or two up for long lining. Salmon and albacore seem to be the most likely."
Danny nodded "White shark." Juggernaut grinned. Danny sighed. Taylor flopped on the water and the work boats came out with booms and hoses on floats. The conveyors swung over.
Haze Gray
Admiral Painter sat in the operations room looking at the huge monitor. Or the one section of it focused on Asia. Chaos sat beside him "Never get involved..."
Admiral Painter nodded "Still a good idea. I was just thinking if I was a Chinese flag officer, I would want to do something about my southeastern exposed flank."
Chaos nodded "And since we are already pretty committed to that flank, I would want to feel us out diplomatically at least."
"But if my enemy suddenly up and took down my enemy, or the assets he could easily reach, it might mean he was busy elsewhere even if he wasn't signaling me." Admiral Painter finished.
Chaos nodded "It goes against every fiber of my being to leave women and girls in the hands of these creatures."
Admiral Painter nodded "And you don't even have children, much less a daughter. Yes, we aren't stopping this. I believe we should point out the possible signal it will send."
"Who are we pointing this out to?" Chaos asked with a smile.
Admiral Painter shrugged "Everyone."
Chaos nodded "John Johnson is a good man. Infantryman. Not a marine. Still, probably ought to get him some help."
Admiral Painter nodded "Convenient you are in Alaska. One MEF should be available. An Army division comes to mind as well. Maybe three of them."
Chaos nodded "I heard the oddest thing about ships able to transport a lot of people today."
