The Red Hawk is much like Orous. It is familiar and not quite nostalgic, but it is perhaps more beautiful.
A giant ship of bronze-colored metal, armed to the teeth, much to Stinger's pleasure, capable of functioning as the Alcazar of the once Great Queen. It held all those ridiculous rooms that Seraphi had used so often, and Jupiter was really looking forward, when she had a moment, to strip down the ship as much as she could to make a little less… Over the top. Knock out so many walls and give rooms purpose. House Abrasax had actually maintained the ship luckily enough for her, as it had been a joint inheritance between Balem, Kalique, and Titus for family events. So its engines had been kept up to code, its rooms and halls and even its enormous garden the size of central park, was in perfect order. All dusted, polished, and watered.
It was going to be an excellent home base.
It wasn't quite considered socially acceptable to live on a ship, but it was acceptable if you had a separate, planet-bound Alcazar. Funny enough, she had three Alcazars, so her being mobile was seen as practical, not scrimping. The fact that Seraphi had given her The Red Hawk was bittersweet. Opulent and large, much too large. A bit too much beauty. Seraphi had favored decoration and function, gilded beauty and opulence with brutal efficiency. The ship is a beautiful example of it. It was modern too- one of her last acquisitions at the end of her life, only about twenty-five years old when Seraphi had died. It was not considered old, and though the members of House Abrasax had only maintained its decoration, they had modernized the engines and defenses extensively...
They were working understaffed, but that is because Jupiter needed to man her ship with people she can trust. Eventually. As of now, they are working with as minimal a crew as they can get away with to reduce any internal threats. The Red Hawk is working mainly on automatic, and the crew they had hired from the Aegis, war veterans, manned by the lovely Captain Diomika Tsing were well equipped to handle what was considered a heavy warship masking itself as an Entitled pleasure vessel with that minimal staffing. She and her crew had been specifically chosen for their acts of valor and morality within the Aegis military, and because they were one of the most diverse crews in the Orousian government working without a set contract. A curious mixture of free splices and lower-class humans. Stinger had chosen them, a couple of years ago, out of a small selection of candidates that were up for a contract renewal and sale by the time of her Ascension.
So far, Jupiter liked the Captain and her crew. The fact that Captain Tsing was open to negotiating a further expansion of their tentative contract was promising. The fact that they seemed to approve of her actions thus far, proved interesting.
And Stinger liked them, and that was more of a character reference than anything else.
"We are now entering the Jupiter Refinery space, your Grace," said Captain Tsing, voice steady and firm.
Jupiter in the throne that Seraphi had made millennia ago on the observation deck overlooking the controls of the ship, shuddered.
The Jupiter Refinery is startling the same as well.
Does Balem not understand the concept of innovation? Well… This will be stupidly easy then.
She wanted to weep at the sight of it. It was one of her most frequent nightmares, the Jupiter Refinery. It didn't help that Seraphi had died on one of the moons orbiting near it all those years ago.
"Take us in, Captain," she said, hands clenching on the armrests.
They disembarked, and Jupiter was hit with the fact that the enormous entrance hall is the same as her nightmares. Austere, dark monoliths of dark metal and glass function. And standing there, ready to greet her, is a familiar face.
Mister Chicanery Night.
"Chicanery, loveliest of mine," Seraphi cooed, "How do our numbers fair?"
"Exceptionally well, my Queen," a happy young voice, and the manager of her Refinery, frightfully young Chicanery Night, beamed at her, keeping an easy pace to her floating vehicle, "Your latest triumph has been exceptional. The stock is perfect, much as you assumed it would be. House Abrasax will once again lead the market."
He was an ugly little thing. Dreadfully pale, beady eyes, mouth too toothy. But he was exceptionally good at what he did. Even as young as three-hundred, barely older than a teenager, the rat splice had shown amazing aptitude. His predecessor had needed replacing- and the once assistant she had recently acquired had shown much promise. In the near hundred years since she had done away with her previous manager, Mr. Night, her sweet Chicanery had been a good investment. No matter how much of distasteful sight he is. It is a good thing I keep him here, away from the public.
"Oh, well done, loveliest of mine," she said, a cool smile appearing on her face.
Chicanery smiled so largely in response. Good splice, so simple to please.
Strangely enough, Jupiter had thought he would be dead. Balem had done quick work of anyone who had been even the slightest sympathetic to Seraphi's last failed cause… Chicanery, of course, hadn't been even in the know, Seraphi hadn't wanted to distress him. He had been the manager of the RegenX Refinery, after all and his pride had been in that work. Seraphi had planned to bring him eventually. During her death he had been busy maintaining the Refinery in the House's name, even as Seraphi had prevented any Harvest from being processed.
Jupiter blinked, slightly, at his face. Slightly aged. Not wrinkled of course, he was only about seven-hundred-years-old at this point, but older. And the fact that she had to look up at him. His hands, closer to paws, twisted in uncertainty, and his face was crumpled and strained. He was trying to maintain his composure, she could see.
She smiled. Cool and easy, even as her heart thundered at the first familiar face from Seraphi's life she had seen in person.
Now. Time to make a mess of things. Let's do some more gale-force winds, shall we?
"Mister Chicanery Night, I presume?" she said, pleasantly.
The poor man jumped.
"Welcome, Queen Jupiter Jones of House Abrasax," his voice was raspy and agitated.
His eyes, small and watery, stared down at her, his pale brow further crumpling. They roamed her face, not quite hungrily, but in faint disbelief. Jupiter gave him as kind of a smile as she could. Seraphi had liked Chicanery Night, in an offhand, disinterested way that one liked something so ugly it was cute to them. She had also loved his effectiveness and utility. In life, before she had found her consciousness again, he had been one of her favorite assets she owned. Because Seraphi had never thought of him as an equal, as a person.
Jupiter didn't quite like him as a result. He had been perfect in the Verse Seraphi had cultivated, and perfect in Balem's service if his being alive told her anything. Legally, she owned the effective and miraculously alive Chicanery Night just the same, and he was her responsibility.
"Liteneute Robin," she said pleasantly, to the aforementioned bird splice, her squad a step behind her, "Round up the aforementioned assets from your debriefing, Mister Night, I believe it is time for you to relocate your sentient staff to The Red Hawk."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Linteneute Robin was off, her squad easily following their mission.
"I had believed you were meant to tour the Refinery your-" started Chicanery Night.
"Mr. Night," said Stinger, voice abuzz with his displeasure, "My Queen has given you an order, and you do well to follow her order. Grey the Keeper will direct your staff."
Everything was done as they planned. All useful assets were boarded to The Red Hawk with brutal efficiency, and all personnel were allocated to monitored rooms. Only Chicanery Night was brought to the bridge, and he was increasingly nervous as Jupiter settled into Seraphi's ridiculous throne. Captain's chair, like on Star Trek.
"Mister Stinger?"
"All Warhammers are ready and operational, Queen Jupiter."
"YOUR GRACE?!" Chicanery Night was rightfully startled.
Jupiter, on her oversized throne, laughed. A little burst of giggles she couldn't quite suppress.
"Captain Tsing, take us to the right distance to watch the fireworks."
"Right away, your Highness."
When they were at the right distance, Jupiter slipped off her throne.
"Stinger, if you will direct our warhammers at the points I specified in the Refinary's atmosphere generator?"
"Locked and loaded, Jupiter."
She beamed.
"Fire at will, Stinger."
It was a beautiful, beautiful sight. The Refinery fell into nothing in a collapse of Jupiter's thousands of years old hurricane. Seraphi had been too afraid to do this. And Jupiter was too. But she was brave enough to act, where Seraphi had not. The colors were so pretty, and that at least will halt the production of Regen-X for the next hundred or so years. Considering Houses have to also use our facilities, that means for an enormous shortage in the fucking market. Time to take a new product to market. TAKE THAT BALEM!
"Well done, Stinger. Impeccable aim and demonstration of my point. Grey, do me a favor and start cataloging our newly acquired assets within the cargo hold, and our new personnel. Kiza, send a disciplinary action suit to the Orousian government on the behalf of Queen Jupiter towards Lord Balem for his faulty handling of my Holdings before my Ascension. Specify his mistreatment of my new Harvesting planets and his lackluster upkeep of the Refinery. To be fell by a single calculated strike is an embarrassment."
Captain Tsing was blinking rapidly, a curious smile on her face. She had been debriefed of Jupiter's intentions, if not her actual reason just yet. Chicanery Night looked like he was choking on nothing. Jupiter eased back in the throne and looked at the former manager of the Refinery.
"Is something the matter, Mr. Night?"
"You- Do you have any idea of what you've done-"
"Oh, Chicanery, loveliest," she cooed, watching cooly as his already pale face drained of all color completely at the nickname Seraphi had used so frequently on him, "I am very much aware of what I have just done. Stinger?"
"Yes, Majesty?"
"Kindly escort Chicanery to his room. I believe we are done for now."
"Queen Seraphi?" Chicanery voice's was even raspier, his eyes wide and wobbling.
Jupiter smiled softly, even more, gentler than before.
"No, Chicanery, loveliest of Seraphi. Queen Seraphi is dead, I'm Queen Jupiter Jones."
AN:
Anyone else think that Chicanery Night looked absolutely WRECKED when he went to fetch Jupiter? Like it always struck me at how devastated he looked. I might be overly reading into it... BUT he was cool as a cucumber when he had to test things out to make people goop, but getting Jupes fucked him up. I think the official explanation given is that he was stressed because of how CRA CRA Balem was acting, but he seemed more emotional and out of it when he went to Earth and convinced Jupiter to go to the Refinery. Like drunk and strung out, as if bring himself to do it. Yeah, there's some malicious glee in there from the actor's smiles when Jupiter went, but I always thought it was more of a 'I'M FUCKED, YOUR FUCKED, WE NEED TO GET THIS OVER WITH' than true maliciousness. This is my characterization as to WHY, ya'll can disagree, but I think it's interesting to remember that Seraphi Abrasax more than likely affected a lot of fucking people, not just her fucked up kids when she died.
ALSO.
Yes.
Jupiter destroyed the Refinery. Girl has to take petty revenge somehow, right over what Balem did to the Heart of the Earth, remember? And she did say a surprisingly large amount of things in the Verse are set to blow up on a dime, right? Right. *Balem foaming at the mouth in the deep reaches of the Verse*
OH, and tomorrow:
*WOLF HOWLS IN THE DISTANCE*
I've kept you lovelies waiting too looooong~