Chapter Four
….
700 CE (Citadel Era)
"Goddess help us! Goddess help us!" Lysinrae Iaci mutters beneath her breathe as she tries her best to drive the Singing Pride out of the hail of Mass Accelerator fire of the Krogan Warships.
The Singing Pride is a commercial Asari Vessel delivering industrial supplies to outward Asari colonies. It mostly skirts the edge of the core worlds once controlled by the Rachni, then by the Krogan. Lysinrae herself takes great pride in her work as a pilot. For her it is a good way to spend her life in her maiden years. As a pilot she would be able to have the life of adventure that all Asari Maidens crave while at the same time fulfill her personal desire to do some good on the galaxy.
That all changed however during the past few years with the start of the Krogan Rebellions. Sure with the help of the newly found Turians, the Krogan rampage is being slowed, emphasis however on slowed, not stopped. Numerous and powerful, the Krogan warlords deploy their forces on the outer colonies striking one planet at a time, nuking those that put up a heavy resistance. The fallout would cause the survivors to struggle whereas Krogan physiology would put the invading Krogan soldiers on a higher advantage seeing that they are barely, if even affected by it. The Turian Hierarchy as disciplined and militaristic as they are can't be everywhere at once and more than one outer colony had already fallen this way.
Private companies and ship owners like her on the other hand are usually volunteers delivering much needed food, medical and technology caches, sometimes even military equipment to the colonies still untouched by war. It is not unusual for Krogan Warlords to target said ships at times, ignoring the pleas that they are civilian, and not warships.
The Krogan are brutal in that way; looting destroyed ships for weapons or supplies.
"Mayday! Mayday! This is the Singing Pride to any Citadel affiliated ship we are under attack by Krogan ships. Requesting immediate-," Lysinrae's call for help is brutally cut off as a powerful explosion racked the entire ship nearly sending her crashing on the window if not for the straps at her chair.
"Rear engine hit, critical failure, we are losing ship control ma'am!" half calls, half shrieks Saleen, the Salarian tech expert sitting behind her. "We are going to die!"
"No we're not, hold on!" Lysinrae grits her teeth as she tries to pull the ship together to prevent it from cartwheeling. It is like pulling meat away from a starving varren as the controls fight her at every turn.
"We are almost there to Eltris!"says Saleen, her overlarge fingers trying to typle on the crackling and sparkling console. "It is a Citadel controlled colony and has its own private security force. We could land safely there,"
"And avoid the Krogan," points out Lysinrae.
"And avoid the Krogan," nods the Salarian.
To say the least that the next fifteen minutes is the most nerve-wracking that Lysinrae manages to experience in her life. The Singing Pride is a commercial trade vessel which means that it can be crewed by up to ten people at full capacity. Currently it is just her and Saleen. It is however at the end a commercial vessel whose designs are for luxury of travel. Sure in this time of war, it is retrofitted with extra armor and plating. It is not designed however to withstand direct mass accelerator fire from battleships or even outrun them.
"Mass Accelerator grazed our side, the ship can't take anymore ma'am," squeaks Saleen frantically as she holds on for dear life console all forgotten as it is literally on fire.
"We're almost there at the planet, starting reentry. Element Zero drive activating," Lysinrae says through gritted teeth as the entire ship rattled at planet fall.
It is a tricky thing always when it comes to atmospheric entry. Sure ships are basically designed to survive it. Putting a damaged and burning ship however through it; suffice it to say that Lysinrae is not at all surprised when alarm warnings blazed on her console about parts of the ship tearing itself apart on the descent. As it is there's only one thing left to do…..
"I've set the ship to auto-pilot. We need to board the escape pods now else we will burn alongside the ship itself," she says to her Salarian partner who needs no more urging as she abandons her own console unstrapping himself off before bounding after her to the pods.
"Get in!" the Asari maiden urges pulling Saleen just in time as a gust of fire cooks the back part of his pilot suit.
"Hot! Hot! Hot!" Saleen yelps patting frantically the fires off the back of his leg before throwing himself off to one of the spare seats.
"Lock engaged. Pod launching," the female VI voice declares before Lysinrae finds herself shaking as the pod exists the ship with a THUMP nearly setting her teeth on edge before free falling towards its intended destination, the colony belonging to the Republics at this planet.
"Impact in ten…nine….eight….," Saleen begins counting but Lysinrae ignores him as she watches the Singing Pride descend into a fireball towards the side of a mountain.
"And there goes my entire life as a pilot of my own ship," she morosely thinks to herself.
"Threee….Two….One….., Pod systems compromised, we are landing at the middle of the colo-," The Salarian never manages to finish his words before the Pod slams down on the ground with a powerful impact sending the few remaining consoles inside it to explode. Outside she can hear the pod crashing into buildings judging from the tearing sound.
And miraculously its over as everything becomes blessed silence.
"Well, we're alive," she comments as she looks at her Salarian partner at work who is panting as if he has just run a marathon.
"We-we're alive," pants the Salarian frantically patting himself with his hands. "I'm alive," he repeats before laughing in relief.
"Come, let's get out of here and hope that the locals aren't too mad of us," Lysinrae says unstrapping herself from her harness. "Judging from the sounds before; I believe we had managed to hit more than one building on the way down,"
"Can't we just shout to them from inside?" asks the Salarian though he follows suit after her. "That way if they're mad enough to shoot us, we are not going to be filled with Mass Accelerator rounds,"
"They need to know that Krogan ships are in atmosphere above their planet," the Asari says grimly magnetic locking unto herself the safety defense pistol from the emergency hatch of the pod. "They need to be warned at least,"
"Alright, alright," Saleen looks nervous but he pulls himself together before the two of them with a heave pushes the latch of the escape pod open.
Lysinrae expects shouts of "freeze" or "identify yourself" the moment she pushes the latch open. What she doesn't expect is the eerie silence that greets her. With an unspoken nod from her Salarian partner, the two of them fully opens the pod entrance to be greeted with the sight of greenery everywhere. She's not surprised. Eltris is an arid world, which means majority of the planet weather here is tropical. Among the shades of green she can see the white color of prefabs, housing units used by either the poor or new colonists, quite famous in usage on outer worlds like this one. There is only one issue.
"There is no sound," comments Saleen nervously, his large eyes darting left and right in nervousness.
Lysinrae nods in silent affirmation. Usually a colony even new such as this, one can hear the sound of civilization; machines whirring, people talking, the sound of a power grid thumming in the distance through generators. But right now? There's nothing. It's as if there is no one here, not even birds or animals.
"Hellooooo!" Saleen suddenly calls out loudly making Lysinrae smack him at the head in annoyance and no small amount of alarm.
"What did you do that for?" she scowls heavily at the Salarian who rubs the back of his head in both pain and embarrassment as the realization of what he did caught up to him.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to-," his apologies however is cut off mid-sentence as a powerful BOOM echoes on the skies nearly rattling both of their eardrums.
As Lysinrae looks to the sky, she can't help but feel her heart sinking as she registers the large square and blocky design that is quite prevalent on Krogan ships.
"Goddess, we are about to die," she whispers to herself as she observes the Krogan warship that had shot her ship down slowly descend down from the atmosphere.
…..
Jorgal Baruk snorts as he looks at the rather pathetic excuse of a colony. Personally he and his small warbands' purpose is to hunt down the private ships and companies supporting the Citadel territories. It is both degrading and an annoyace to a chief of his stature and power. He has been assigned this menial task of his warlord due to the simple fact that he lost a pitched engagement to a Turian patrol group. Thus his shame until he has proven himself competent once more.
It is also the reason why he is here right now making planetfall on a small Asari Republic's colony. He was less than pleased when he was informed that a small ship managed to escape his blockade and crash landed here. Thus to rectify his annoyance and his impatience on proving himself worthy back to his warlord, Baruk is right now making his warband make planetfall and subdue this small colony. Certainly his warlord would pull him out of his pittance of an assignment and would let him join the other groups earning glory.
"Everyone on me! Remember, kill everyone that holds a weapon. Capture the rest. They would be good loot in exchange that the Hegemony will surely appreciate,"
His men needs no further urging as they roar their agreement in glee before jumping off the ramp of the ship before it even hits the ground. Dust flies everywhere as at least a hundred Krogan takes their positions in a perimeter around the drop ship as it touches down.
"Bron, status report, what's the view from up there? Did the colony see us," Baruk asks through the communicator inside his helmet.
"This close, they would certainly have seen us chief. That's weird though, I don't see any movement on the colony,"
"What do you mean you don't see any movement? They didn't notice us?" Baruk asks feeling a little insulted. He is Krogan, a demoted Krogan yes, but still they should be in awe of him. The colony's lack of action seems to be a mocking reminder of his less than stellar position currently on the Warlord's favor.
"They surely should have noticed us already warchief. What I'm saying is that there is no movement whatsoever on the colony, nothing at all," replies Bron from the ship.
"What?!"
"He's right warchief. It's quiet, too quiet in fact," says one of the Krogan beside him making Baruk look around.
Now that he notices it, his pilot and right hand is right. The area surrounding them is quiet, eerily quiet. A dense lush forest like this should have been filled with noise from the disturbance caused by a ship landing. Silence usually is because of a possible ambush. However there are always that something present even in such tense atmospheres. Right now however there's nothing, not even the sound of birds. It is as if someone pressed the mute sound at Mother Nature. Krogan or not, Baruk can feel something cold tingling at the back of his spine at the face of such silence. The old primal fear of the unknown creeps upon his back and it takes all of his courage and pride not to order a retreat. As it is, he waves his men forward.
"Bring the boys around and bring out the tanks for the invasion," he orders as the other Krogan nods making way for the larger tomhawks to unload.
As Baruk looks around though, for a split second, he thinks he sees something on the eaves of the silent undergrowth.
…
"All that being thrown around inside the escape pod, I must be mad," Lysinrae thinks to herself as she and Saleen silently creeps from one rock to another in order to make a good viewpoint of the colony and the Krogan landing zone below.
It had been the most nerve wracking thirty minutes of her entire life. The escape pod despite apparently bouncing off the prefabs of the colony had managed to land and skid itself at least two miles away. This as a result forced the two escapees to leg it fast towards the colony in order to warn them of the upcoming Krogan invasion. Of course they immediately knew that theyre too late when they saw the large Krogan landing ship already sitting on the outskirts of the colony. It didn't help that the familiar sound of heavy mass accelerator fire that Krogans favor can be heard even from where they were then.
After thirty minutes though, it stopped and was instead replaced by this eerie silence on the eaves of the night which is worse.
Thus here they are trying their damnest to creep on the raised outcrop in order to give them a view on what is happening below. The sight that greet them is not something that Lysinrae expects. She has been imagining seeing the large silhouettes of the Krogan walking around, or bettering dead Krogan due to the silence. What she does not expect to see though is nothing.
Crates and materials are all scattered and about as if they have been set up as barricades. Empty thermal clips are also all over the place with weapons and broken glass. Even the large landing craft that the Krogan used are still turned on. All in all it looks like a fight has broken through only with the fact that there is simply no bodies to be seen.
"What is going on here?" Lysinrae mutters to herself picking up one of the assault rifles. She almost drops it immediately in disgust as her fingers makes contact with the orange blood at its handle.
"Here take this," she gestures at her Salarian companione one of the fallen shotguns at the ground.
"But I've never held a gun-," he starts to protest only to be silenced by the glare from her.
"Okay, okay, gun ready," he murmurs as low as he could gingerly picking the bloodied shotgun nearly dropping it in his shaking fingers.
"When things get heated, pull the trigger at the direction okay?" she instructs him noticing the very wrong way of handling he is doing at the weapon.
"Okay, okay, pull, trigger, enemy direction, simple, easy, got it," he rambles non-stop making Lysinrae roll her eyes. If not for the fact that he is the only friendly she knows in this planet, she might have left him.
The next five minutes the two spent exploring the "landing site". The more they explore however, the more Lysinrae feels unnerved as she sees no corpse but only signs of immense struggle. There are empty weapon caches, heavy munitions left behind, and even a dozen empty flamers on the ground that is all scorched.
She had seen her fair share of battles of course. As the Krogan Rebellions blazed throughout the galaxy, they are being met by everything the Citadel Council can throw at them alongside the numerically powerful Turians. She had seen many aftermaths, countless dead strewn all over the place like marionettes whose strings have been cut off. Never has she seen however a battlefield that is so…empty and devoid of life.
"It's quiet," the sudden whisper from her companion brings the Asari out of her musings.
"Not shit," she replies sarcastically.
"No, listen to me! It is too quiet. There's no sound of birds, or any kind of animal whatsoever,"
Now that she notices it, he's right. There's no sound whatsoever. She looks to the clearing surrounding the landing zone. The place Is surrounded by trees and plants seeing that this is a garden world. With this kind of ecosystem in place, it should be teeming with the sounds of flora, fauna and the local wildlife. Saleen is right however. There is no sound around them. It is as if someone turned off the mute button of the air and that also of nature as if the world is waiting with baited breathe. In Lysinrae's experience in her long life; this kind only happens when you are either hunting or you are being…..
"Ambush!" she hisses through gritted teeth, eyes looking wildly around for any possible attack. It is as if eyes, no…multiples of eyes are boring themselves on the back of her skull.
A sudden crashing sound make the both of them nearly jump out of her skin as out of the foliage, a Krogan emerges running. Normally a sign of a Krogan running means it is making a full tilt charge. This Krogan however is anything but charging.
"Ruuuuun!" it bellows in a broken hoarse tone as if it's voice has been used up as he espies them.
"Ancestors, what happened to him?" Saleen says in horror and wonder with Lysinrae agreeing to his words all the way.
The Krogan is missing half his face with his right eye dangling. Someone also has ripped off the armor on his stump for it is open showing the brownish bloody flesh on it. His entire left arm is gone to the shoulder and he is limping badly. The once ornate grey armor is stained with orange, courtesy of the numerous scratches around it.
"Ruuuuunn!" it bellows again hurrying on its wobbly legs. Lysinrae is ready to break cover and help him (Krogan Rebellions be damned, he needs help), when out of nowhere a black blur rushes past the clearing and slams into the Krogan like a freight train knocking the large warrior of its feet and into the ground.
Lysinrae can only watch in abject horror as she watches the grey figure tear into the bloodied Krogan in a savage frenzy. In all her long life, she has never seen anything like it as claws tear into the flesh of the Krogan ripping apart the alien like a piece of paper. The attacking creature is something she has no idea what is however. It looks humanoid but crouched like an animal with no eyes. Jet black in color it is hissing and spitting with drool all over its body and a whip lash tail which is also tearing into the Krogan.
"Lysinrae we got to go!" the panicked voice of Saleen snaps her out as she now sees at least a dozen of those black things staring at them from the darkness surrounding them.
"Are these the things that took out the Krogan invading force?"
"What do we do? What do we do?" Saleen asks in utter panic shooting a couple of times with his shotgun in terror. Of course at this range, it does literally zero damage and results to anything but pissing off their ambushers even more.
Eyes roaming wildly, Lysinrae notices the cage that the Krogan brought with them. Prisoner cages meant for any asari or wildlife they might is their only chance.
"Inside quick!" she pulls the panicked Salarian with a squawk as they made a rush for the nearest one. At least even though they might be trapped inside, it would prevent them from being ripped to shreds by these unknown creatures.
Their assailants might have also put two and two together for they hissed and charged with astonishing speed, easily breaking the distance between the open field and their prey. Lysinrae only manages to open the gate when the first of them are upon them. Saleen this time gets lucky as he explodes with his shotgun point blank at the chest of the nearest one sending it flying if not dying, yellow green like pus blood splattering everywhere.
Immediately she sees that something is wrong as Saleen screams hands all over his body in the ground. She watches horrified as the blood that splatters unto him at the buckshot are now smoking all over his body.
"Acid!" she thinks wildly before the rest of the aliens now catch up, bowling over the screaming Salarian. His screams turned high pitched for a second as he is torn apart by claws and she watches in horror as one of the aliens opens its mouth and out came a rod like something that heads straight to the head of Saleen making it burst open like a piñata.
Her self-preservation however saves her. Despite the horrifying scene she is just introduced to. Her body moves in automatic, closing the cage doors and locking herself within. Just in time to for the aliens done with now turning Saleen's body to chunky ribbons slam themselves towards her. She winces as they crash to the cage bars nearly bending some of them inward but they hold precariously.
Fingers panicking, she clutches the Krogan rifle and empty it at the nearest alien clawing and screeching at the cage. It hises in pain as its entire frontal head disappears in an explosion of green pus blood splashing some of them in her pilot's uniform. Panicking as her outfit starts to smoke, she kicks them off frantically while mentally punching herself for making the same mistake as Saleen did before. She pants tiredly though as she looks at the lounging and hissing aliens surrounding the cage, their limblike hands through the bars trying their damnest to get to her at the middle.
"Goddess help me!" she prays in desperation.
Lysinrae has no idea how long she has been sitting there at the middle of the cage but the beating heat of the three suns above soon wear her down faster than the monsters around her. They never stop, never stop, never shut, never never made any indication that they have lost interest on ripping her apart. Never….
"DUCK!" her groggy mind barely manages to pull itself together to recognize the threat of the flying hand sized parasite looking thing flying towards her head as she moves. Decades of experience as a pilot gave her motor reflexes that sharp edge where one moves without thinking. As a pilot it is a much needed skill in the case of avoiding unknown space objects like asteroids crashing unto your cockpit after all.
She ducks and the parasite fleshy thing sails over her head before a blue taser rips through it like paper sending yellow acidic pus everywhere. Lysinrae screams as some scratches her skin but most lands on her shirt making shed it off as fast as she could. She barely manages to peel it off to avoid the acid eating her skin when the sounds of gunshots surround her. Blue tasers come from every direction tearing through the gathered aliens like mincemeat. Not one of them however is aimed at her direction preventing her from being showered by alien blood and body parts. As it is Lysinrae can only watch as the majority of her attackers are downed one after another. Of course with the arrival of a new opponent, they immediately turn to the direction of where the tasers are coming from and charge wildly in a way that would have confused any predator. They are caught out in the open though and the sheer volume of taser fire brings one down after the other.
However an ear splitting screech made Lysinrae turn her attention from her fallen attackers to the source of the sound. What she sees makes her blood dry. An abomination of a being stands looming over her cage amidst the taser fire. It is twenty feet tall and fifty-three feet in length. It's body structure has two small arms at its chest, a large inner jaw and two sets of dorsal spikes and a very long tail like the smaller ones. It also has something akin of a crown on its head.
It screeches loudly amidst the chaos only to be greeted by a rocket launcher at the face sending it staggering a few steps back but relatively unharmed. Whoever is taking down these aliens must have also noticed the threat big, bad and ugly for most of the taser fire is directed now at it. None of it is taking enough damage though despite the fact that its body is being chipped away. It would be like chiseling a small walking monument bit by bit.
It does the trick however of angering the creature even further for it screeched angrily before focusing its ire on the nearest (or only) target possible.
Her.
Lysinrae shrieks as those secondary chest claws strikes the cage ripping apart the steel bars like plastic. The rifle at her hand spews its bullets with the same result as the dozens of blue tasers also firing. The alien shrieks again before whipping the cage this time sawing it in half and throwing the asari off of it into open ground, rolling once or twice before stopping.
Groggy and rid of her senses, Lysinrae barely manages to pull herself together as she sees the giant of a monster lunging towards her directly. Only to be stopped by a grey and silver figure on its tracks by a giant warhammer that cracks the carapace of the face of the alien, forcing it to stop on its charge as it wobbles a few steps back.
Lysinrae can only stare in awe at the eight six foot humanoid encased in full metal with overlarge pauldrons and greaves. At his right hand is a giant warhammer crackling with azure energy while a pistol the size of her body is strapped at his left leg. A golden bird of prey sigil is at his chest with golden engravings on it while at his pauldrons is a black overlay of a tower rising to the sky. All in all his armour and its ornaments looks like it would cost an entire colony to make. His head is covered in a helmet with a winged design on its mouth and its slits blazed with blue energy.
"Get her out of here!" the voice that speaks out of the giant being is deep and almost robotic in tone.
Lysinrae can only gawk as hands start to pull her up while at the same time throwing a cloak over her to cover her nudity to see the giant man almost dwarfed by the humongous creature facing it down, the warhammer on its hand cracking with power.
"Come on ma'am let's go!" the voice pulling her calls out making Lysinrae blink at the sight of white armored troopers with blue trimmings slowly retreating on what seems to be landing craft.
"They must be the ones shooting the blue tasers before," she thinks to herself as she is ushered at the direction of one of the space ships.
It is not like any landing craft she has seen in Citadel space though. They are more angular with wings and an open belly where the troopers are getting on. Two rockets are atop it with two circular crystal balls at each side manned by a trooper each. At the forefront she can see the windows where the two pilots are.
"But what about the giant?" she thought feverishly, the ordeal slowly catching up to her. She turns back to see the giant fighting the alien monster in melee combat and surprisingly slowly pushing it back.
"Wait…..," she croaks despite her sore throat from all the screaming; but it's too late. The side doors of the landing craft closes leaving the interior draped with green light.
Sighing, Lysinrae lies down tiredly on the soft stretcher where she has been lied down by the white armored troopers. She can't help but wonder if they are Asari commandos. They certainly have the form but lacking the chest extensions that can be seen on any Asari armor. As it is, she just asks what has been bothering her ever since her rather crashed arrival on the planet.
"H-how many are t-there?" she croaks barely making the words audible even as she can feel the ship straining to escape the atmosphere to outer space.
"How many are what ma'am?" one of the troopers replies, still with his helmet on. She idly notices that instead of blue, this one has a dark red patch on his shoulder unlike the others. (In her groggy state she does not even notice how he seems to be able to understand her.
"S-Survivo-vors. C-olony, d-down belo-ow," she replies.
The soldier pauses for a minute and she can idly feel him looking at her through the helmet. "You're the only survivor there is ma'am," he finally says.
"Of the colony site?"
"No…..of the planet," the soldier replies simply.
Tired, and as in pain as she is, Lysinrae can feel tears brimming on her eyes. There are almost ten thousand Asari on this colony, now they're all gone. She barely even feels the injection at the side of her neck as she slowly lose consciousness.
…
Atlantis, Unknown Location
The sound of the doors opening makes is the only sound can be heard amidst the sound of the waves of the great ocean surrounding the silver and grey city.
A figure in extremely form fitting white and blue bodysuit can be seen walking towards a tall woman dressed in a white dress sitting on a veranda overlooking this side of Atlantis. In her point of view, one can see almost the entirety of Atlantis in over three hundred years of expansion.
Thousands of ships litter the sky with hovering cities used as space docks. Hives, smaller balloon cities rise from the ocean, there slender but firm fortifications keeping them afloat and firm. Ships of every kind can be seen, all in wonder, all in glory. However it is Atlantis, the first city of the Everqueen made to rise out of the ocean is the center of it all. It is the birthplace of the Advent, the City that Rose from the Depths and the home of the Advent and the Clones which together forms the citizenry of Atlantis, the Lanteans.
At the middle however of Atlantis is the High Tower, the only building more important than the cloning pods and the home of the Everqueen and the Phoenix Servant which serves the Everqueen. She is the sole leader of Atlantis and one that connects with the goddess herself, as their primary religion say.
As it is the figure sits beside the Everqueen whose beauty seems to be gleaming golden before it dims turning the glowing figure with black hair but still retaining incomparable beauty to turn her attention to the one sitting at her lounge.
"You have news for me?" her voice is melodic and perfect making the other figure bow her head in respect and wonder.
"Yes, my Everqueen. Word from our Southwestern borders reports that they captured an Asari after a colony world of theirs is invaded by those Xenomorphs,"
"I see," the majestic woman replies looking far off in the distance. "These must have prompt immediate action from the Grey Knights. It is their calling after all to hunt down and eradicate these Xenos on whatever world they have," she says more to herself.
"What is your orders my Everqueen?" the kneeling figure asks. "First contact has been made on this Council, as you have predicted so long ago,"
"Yes, yes I did," the Everqueen hums. "Bob!" her clear voice calls out like a bell and immediately the figure that most Lanteans respect other than the Everqueen herself appears. A circular ball machine ArtificiaI Intelligence with a blue lens hovering from the ground. The constant companion of the Everqueens through the ages.
"Vivori?" the floating AI asks.
Vivori only smiles at the ball. "Give the order for General Wolffe to start extending Clone influence on this so-called Krogan Rebellions currently ravaging most of the well-known galaxy,"
"Yes, Vivori, sending out messages now," the ball replies before idly floating away leaving the two figures alone at her reclining chair.
The Everqueen however raises an eyebrow as the other woman does not leave and seem to be struggling to say something. She can't help but sigh as she pats the space on the cot beside her.
"You want to do it again?" she asks the other woman who raises her head, same face looking back at her only with a different hairstyle and makeup.
"May I, my Everqueen?" she asks nervously as if unsure.
"Fine, I do miss you though," Vivori replies with a grin even as the Fourth Resurrection of Lyn rushes forward claiming her lips feverishly, hands trying their damnest to pull the dress off.
This high up, no one will see, except mayhaps a pervert AI.
….
Prelude to the Culture of the Lanteans and a lot of History talking next chapter.