This was an idea from reading a bunch of ship-girl crossovers, and wondering...
Exactly how OP could you go?
* January 3, 2011. Winslow High School *
"LET ME OUT!"
"Stay in there and die."
"The weak deserve what the strong decide."
Taylor heard what Emma and Sophia said, heard the little agreement noise from Madison, the laughter from the other students and something broke within her.
[Initiating.]
An image of two glowing segmented worm-like entities in space.
[Interception. Alteration.]
A huge set of glowing crystal lattices coming towards her being hit with something from outside.
"It's showtime!" said a voice that sounded kind of like Michael Keaton in his role in "Beetlejuice" oddly enough.
The glowing shards seemed to have a light display like some elaborate Christmas decoration.
[Agreement. Upgrade. Enactment.]
[Queen Administrator upgraded to Queen Admiral.]
[Authorization Level Omega 5]
[15 Blueprints Downloaded]
[Upgrading Shard]
[Taylor Hebert Upgraded]
Words formed on her lips. "Enterprise! Engage!"
"What the hell are you saying Taylor? Some weird geek shit?"
[Manifesting.]
[Personification.]
[Energizing.]
* Outside the locker *
Greg Veder wasn't a brave person, and he'd admit that to himself at least.
That he had a phone out and recording was something he wouldn't tell anyone under normal circumstances. He certainly wouldn't post it online or turn the footage over. He'd make a number of excuses for it, but in the cold dark hours of morning he'd admit that it was because of his fears that Sophia would hurt him.
A familiar sound caused him to shift attention. He felt his eyes widen as a familiar visual effect took place in the corridor. He brought his phone up to properly record this and only peripherally caught it as others were now fumbling to get their own phones out.
"United Federation Starship Sovereign Class Enterprise reporting for duty!"
She had long, really long, white hair. The complexion, eyebrows, ears proclaimed Vulcan heritage. Her stride proclaimed confidence, her Starfleet uniform her allegiance, the mechanical bits that appeared and hung in the air around her as she walked - that you really didn't want to mess with her.
"Damn, look at those nacelles," said someone nearby.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" yelled Sophia, moving towards the girl wearing some weird outfit "You think you can..."
"I am under attack, phasers on stun," said Enterprise, zapping Sophia with less concern than swatting a mosquito.
Sophia dropped like an empty set of pajamas. Emma fumbled with her phone, pressing buttons and only realizing when she'd finished that the call wasn't going through.
"Rescuing Queen Admiral," said Enterprise. "Beaming up."
Again the familiar sound and visual effect.
* Woomera Monitoring Station *
"WHAT THE BLOOMING HELL?!" asked Lieutenant Higgs as there was something abruptly in orbit that was NOT the Simurgh.
"HOW?! WHAT?" declared Lieutenant Quark. "Is this a Simurgh plot?"
"If it is, she just moved to a higher orbit and is now targeting herself," said Lieutenant Higgs.
"I have visual on the Simurgh and even she's going 'what the fuck?' from her expression," said Captain Smythe.
"I am fighting the urge to squee so hard," said Lieutenant Barbara Quark. "If she launches photon torpedoes at the Simurgh I don't know if I can stop."
* On board *
Taylor blinked and stretched, taking in the unfamilar room.
"Lie still, Commander, my systems are in the process of correcting several small errors and injuries," said a voice from mid-air. "Commander? If you would indicate identity of possible hostile in Earth-orbit?"
A holographic screen appeared in mid-air.
"That's the Simurgh," said Taylor. "Where am I?"
"We are in orbit, Commander. I am the United Federation of Planets, Sovereign-class starship Enterprise. Your orders, Commander?" asked Enterprise.
Taylor blinked. If this was a dream, she knew exactly what to do. "Red Alert. Designate Simurgh as enemy. Simurgh responsible for the death of millions of humans."
"Accessing planetary computer network. Simurgh confirmed to be mass murderer with telepathic corruption abilities. Red Alert. Full power to shields. Readying phasers and photon torpedoes. Readying quantum torpedos. Warp engines online and providing additional power to phasers."
Taylor smiled. If this was a dream, it was a wonderful dream. "Enterprise, ENGAGE!"
"Firing!"
* Woomera Monitoring Station *
"SQUEEEEEEE!"
"HELL YEAH!"
"Simurgh is using her precog to avoid most of the attacks. I don't think this is going to be enough."
"The fucking USS Enterprise is blowing off chunks of Simurgh. Can this day get any better?!"
* Enterprise *
"Target Simurgh is avoiding 85% of all attacks due to advanced evasion programming. Scans of Simurgh reveal physical form to be composed of nested folded space. Working on method of neutralizing spacefold. Estimated time for development of countermeasure: 15 minutes. Estimated time for target to directly attack Enterprise with corruption field: 5 minutes. Sending out mayday and request for assistance."
Taylor watched the Simurgh getting closer and...
[Assistance.]
[Manifesting.]
[Personification Deploying.]
[Additional Firepower Required.]
[Reserves Will Be Depleted For: 7 days.]
[Setting Additional Firepower To Extreme.]
[Manifesting Personification.]
[発進]
"We are being hailed," said Enterprise. "On speaker."
"Enterprise, this is the Jupiter Mark II class Galactica. Manifesting in ship form and on approach."
"Roger, Galactica, be advised Queen Admiral is on board in Medbay One."
"Galactica, Enterprise, stand by. BBY-01 Yamato en route."
"Galactica, Yamato. Sending data on target Simurgh."
"Yamato requesting status of Admiral."
"Admiral currently exhausted. Retrieved from enemy base. Signs of physical and emotional torture.]
"Receiving data, Enterprise."
"Okai, Enterprise. Sharing data."
"Yamato requests enemy base be target of orbital bombardment and designation as secondary target."
"There appears to be a particularly dense spheroid in highlighted wing. Density of surrounding folded space highest at this point."
"Possible nucleus of artificial organism. Yamato suggests this as primary target of barrage. Detail status of Queen Admiral?"
"Queen Admiral has collapsed, showing signs of extreme stress and loss of stamina. Analysis indicates stress of manifesting additional ships overwhelmed her reserves."
"Galactica has arrived. Vipers and Raptors offline. Artillery online. Moving to broadside. Target Simurgh."
"Yamato present. All cannons. 撃つ!"
"Galactica here, linking on channel five-niner. Coordinating attacks in three, two, one."
* Woomera Monitoring Station *
"THE DAY GOT BETTER!"
"Tell me I'm not dreaming."
"I don't have that good an imagination to be dreaming this."
"Simurgh is now attempting to escape. Ships are coordinating attacks..."
"What's Enterprise doing? Some sort of extended warp field?"
"..."
"..."
"... oh. Hell yeah."
"Call in from British counterparts. Brigadier-General Lethridge-Stewart requests confirmation of events in orbit."
"Translation: did we just see that," said Captain Smythe. "Sending confirmation. Also sending a 'good shooting' message to Enterprise and allied vessels."
Lieutenant Higgs stiffened shortly after sending the message. "Enterprise thanks us and indicates their 'Queen Admiral' is unfortunately suffering from effects of assault on her person from hostile enemy base. Will advise her upon recovery."
"Who the hell was stupid enough to attack someone who has functional replicas of the USS Enterprise and those other two starships?" asked Captain Smythe. "With great big guns!"
"We're tracking the surviving pieces of the Simurgh as they deorbit," said Lieutenant Quark.
* Winslow High School *
"Unknown cape, possible E88, attacked school. She fled when confronted."
Sophia sent the message, smirking at the thought of running off some new cape and making herself look good at the same time.
Emma had been quiet since then, so had Madison though that was a bit more common.
Whatever. She'd scared off some new Mover-type cape so that was good. Hebert was quiet in that locker so she'd probably passed out like the wuss she was.
Yeah, today was shaping up to be a pretty good day.
* Protectorate HQ *
"We have three STARSHIPS in orbit?"
"Ugly suckers, aren't they?"
"That's... the USS Enterprise."
"The what?"
"You know - from Star Trek?"
"I don't do that geek shit."
"Philistine."
"Nerd."
"You know what this means?"
"Yeah, it means we're going to be cleaning up pieces of Simurgh from a track fifteen miles across and three hundred miles long due to dispersal of parts and atmosphere scattering."
"Trust you to find the downside of an Endbringer being shot down."
"No, the downside is that all three of those things are heavily armed and in orbit."
A door slammed open. "What in blazes is going on?!"
"Alexandria? SIR! The Simurgh has been killed by three spaceships which have arrived in orbit."
"And there's a phrase I never thought would ever be uttered."
"That's not a movie you've got playing on the monitor? Those are pieces of wings. And a head that's tumbling in orbit. What the hell?" There wasn't much that could completely throw Alexandria off her game to where she was just staring open-mouthed at a monitor. This qualified.
"Must be a new cape with some kind of projection ability," said one of the two technicians. "Though I've never heard of this kind of scale or firepower getting involved."
Alexandria looked at the two technicians then back at the screen. "Geosynch orbit?"
"They moved into that orbit shortly after they finished shooting up the Simurgh," noted Jones aloud.
"What are they in orbit above?" asked Alexandria, thinking of all the high-profile targets they could be pointing all that firepower at.
"Checking... Somewhere to the North of Boston," said Jones. "They've split up with enough distance between them that it's hard to give a specific."
"Do we know which appeared first?" asked Alexandria.
"Enterprise was the one that appeared on the alerts and began firing on the Simurgh," said Jones.
"Where is Enterprise positioned over?" followed up Alexandria.
"Brockton Bay. What the hell is in Brockton Bay?" asked Smith.
"Can we aim a radio signal at them? Can we talk to them?" asked Alexandria.
"Uhm, apparently they're already in communication with a television station there," said Jones. "Just got a head's up from Woomera."
* WBBV *
"This is Good Day Brockton Bay, Jay Talon with the news. We managed to contact the three starships in orbit and they are now virtually here with us in studio. Can you introduce yourselves for the audience?"
"Yes, I am NCC-1701-E Enterprise. I am a Sovereign-class starship outfitted primarily for an exploration role, here to perform rescue duties to the Admiral." The Vulcan-looking girl with the long white hair nodded to the anchor. "The Admiral is currently in medbay one, having been rescued from the enemy base located within your city known as Winslow."
"Enemy base?" asked Jay.
"Yes, when I was arrived she had been repeatedly tortured physically and mentally for an extended period. I performed a quick extraction and then sought out the highest threat," said Enterprise. "I and my sister vessels are currently monitoring the base to determine the status and how best to neutralize it."
"I was under the impression that Winslow was a high school," said Jay Talon. "Not much of a high school, I'll admit."
"That is part of what is currently being investigated," stated Enterprise. She made a gesture and three pictures appeared. "These are the primary suspects from investigation of the site. They were interrupted in attempted murder via torture and biological warfare against the Admiral. Initial investigation indicates culpability of staff in attacks. We are currently trying to determine if staff was simply turning a blind eye to these activities or if they were directing such."
"Those are some serious charges," noted Talon.
"Indeed," agreed Enterprise, arching an eyebrow. "We have therefore been forwarding all sensor readings and findings to the local police and relevant authorities. This includes your FBI, EPA, and OSHA. Oh, and your IRS as apparently funds are being transferred or concealed."
"Who is this 'Admiral' anyway? Someone in the Defense Department?" asked Talon.
"The Admiral is the Admiral," said Enterprise. "It will be up to her if she wishes to reveal her name. Despite several individuals already using her name in conjunction with various video feeds."
"So, what are you planning to do if this enemy base is guilty of all this?" asked Talon.
"If local law enforcement deals with situation - nothing," stated Enterprise. "Local authorities can deal with situation as this is within their remit."
"If they don't?" pressed Talon.
"Orbital bombardment and surgical strikes remain 'on the table' as I believe the phrase works," said Enterprise.
* Winslow *
Sophia Hess looked up from her phone.
Everyone else with a phone, or who had been looking at someone else's, seemed to be regarding Sophia and her two associates/minions with a particularly unhappy expression.
"You suppose if we tie them to the football goalposts, they'll let the rest of us go?" asked Greg Veder, who then looked startled as if he hadn't actually meant to speak out loud.
Several individuals looked as if they were seriously considering the measure.
"Sophia?" muttered Emma. "What do we do? Sophia?"
Emma Barnes abruptly realized that Sophia was already halfway towards the exit and proving why she was on the track team.
* Sophia *
Sophia Hess was average in most of her scholastic pursuits. Math was not her best subject.
Still, in her head, she solved a very simple equation. If X was threat to herself (one or two she could handle but that was a big crowd) and Z was time until that danger manifested (maybe two minutes) then Y are you still standing there?
She was the biggest predator in the school, but a shark facing a school of pirahna was a meal.
Taylor Hebert had triggered, there was no doubt in her mind at this point that that was what had just happened. What happened when a prey animal suddenly found itself cornered and suddenly able to fight back? It would do its level best to kill the cornering predator. It was what SHE would have done after all.
Emma would follow, if she was able to parse the situation. If she did not, well, that was the whole survival of the fittest. Madison, little hanger-on that she was, would either follow their example or be the sacrifice that the crowd fell upon while the real predators escaped the trap.
Once she was out of the ambush she could find the place to have the inevitable confrontation and she could attack the weak link - Hebert herself. She could win and prove her place when she held the advantage.
* PRT ENE HQ *
"The good news is: all this released information can't be used in court. The bad news is: this information is apparently accurate and the sources dovetail together way too clearly. In any sort of public opinion sense - we're just plain screwed."
Director Emily Piggot frowned at the PR rep, at the reports in front of her, and wished she could hit the bottle in her desk's lower drawer. "Tell me that Agent Brown is having a bad time please."
"Agent Brown is currently in Master/Stranger isolation, we're accessing computer and phone and financial records," said Security. "So far everything checks out. Stalker discarded her phone and Armsmaster is going over it to recover all the deleted records."
"Shadow Stalker's status?" asked Director Piggot.
"Last seen fleeing Winslow, disappeared shortly thereafter," said Security.
"Do we know who 'Admiral' is?" asked Director Piggot.
"Taylor Hebert. Her name was revealed in several video chats," said Security.
"She was responsible for taking down the Simurgh," said Director Piggot. "We need to get her into the Wards for her own safety fast. If that doesn't work, the safety of her family might be a lever to work with."
"Only family is Danny Hebert, head of hiring for the Dockworker's Union," said Security, putting a file onto her desk.
"See if he can be persuaded to sign her up for the Wards program," said Director Piggot. "Get someone on that immediately before we've got Fallen or other S-Class nutcases coming into my city."
Her phone began ringing and without even seeing the caller ID she knew darn well who it was.
"Piggot. This is Costa-Brown. What the hell are you doing about Shadow Stalker?"
* Docks *
"What do you mean, Taylor's in sickbay?" asked Danny Hebert. "What are you doing with my daughter?"
The group of dockworkers who'd gathered to tell their boss what was going on had heard the phone ring and were just watching as things apparently escalated.
"I want to see my daughter right now!" demanded Danny Hebert.
Anyone who'd seen Star Trek was not at all surprised by the response, or the sound and effect of a transporter.
"Damn, I wanted to go," said Zephron, the large black man staring at the ceiling.
"You wanted to go to space?" asked Larry.
"Since I was a little kid," said Zephron, a wistful tone in his voice. "To be out there. To see the Earth from above all laid out like a precious blue gem in the darkness..."
"Maybe if you ask Taylor?" asked Madelyne, the mechanic absently scratching her nose and spreading a line of grease.
"Want to bet the government or the PRT tries to get control of her and shuts down that sort of thing?" asked Zephron. He sighed. "I'm not too sure about the whole 'beaming up' thing, but if I could get a shuttle..."
* January 4, 2011. United States Department of Defense *
They weren't all physically present. With parahumans and Endbringers, gathering all of one's eggs in a single basket was generally not a great idea.
"Enterprise, NCC-1701-E," said one of the generals. "Sovereign-class starship built October 30, 2372. Mass is 3,205,702 tons. Uses a warp core and fusion generators for power. Length of 685.7 meters, width of 250.6 meters, and standing at a height of 88.2 meters. Ship has deflector fields, which is kind of a force field. Also has sixteen phaser arrays and ten torpedo launchers. She is primarily an exploration and general mission vessel, she is NOT a combat-oriented vessel despite having the armament capable of blowing away a good portion of the moon if the moon did anything to her Admiral. She is currently in geosynch orbit over Brockton Bay. She does not match exactly the ship shown in the Aleph movies. The ship also has an AI that was not in the movies, which can either show up on video or in a physical body that the eggheads call a 'gynoid' form. In fact, all three ships are basically female-shaped androids that are AIs beholden to a United States citizen named Taylor Hebert but only refer to her as Admiral because of the parahuman rules-of-conduct."
"I'm not entirely comfortable calling someone with no military experience 'Admiral' no matter how much firepower she might have access to," noted someone who actually was an Admiral.
"Noted, and your opinion is not alone, but if it helps think of it as a cape-name. Which it basically is," said General Eisen. He clicked a button and the image of the Enterprise shifted.
"Why does it look like a World War II battleship?" asked the Admiral.
"Apparently in the original timeline it came from, it was camouflaged as a wreck on the bottom of what had been an ocean," said General Eisen. "It's a starship, launched in 2199, originally purposed to be used as a getaway and colony vehicle for when the Earth was rendered uninhabitable by a hostile alien force. It was then repurposed using alien technology to break through blockades of star systems to retrieve more alien technology which could save the Earth. It did so. And apparently has records of saving the Earth four more times, all the while incorporating more alien technology either scavenged or back-engineered to deal with more threats. It is the result of every genius and resource on Earth throwing together in a desperate attempt at survival in THAT as their single hope. It is not only A warship, in many ways it is THE warship of that universe from information it has freely shared. We have recordings. We do NOT want to piss off the Yamato."
"Can we board and take control of it?" asked a General who was then stared at by everyone else in the virtual meeting.
"General Mayhem, THAT is 333 meters of fuck-the-hell-off," said General Eisen. "So far the ships have been cordial, even friendly, respectful of us and our authority, even though they defer entirely to Miss Hebert. We do not want them becoming less friendly. Especially when the three ships in question managed to whittle the goddamn Simurgh down to a single piece and then shot the hell out of THAT."
"What of the third vehicle?" asked the Admiral who'd spoken earlier.
"That one identifies as the Galactica. A Jupiter Mark II Battlestar, which apparently translates out to basically an aircraft carrier except for being a space-based vehicle. She's the biggest of the three as you might expect from her role," explained General Eisen. "1438 meters long. 536 meters wide. 183 meters tall. Now for the good news. All three of them are damaged."
"They shot down the Simurgh. While damaged," said General Mayhem. "Not really helping my calm here."
"If the Simurgh had tried to escape instead of attack and corrupt, she would have gotten away," said General Eisen. "We've been over the footage of the battle several times. Turrets on the Yamato not swiveling smoothly. Jerks and starts in manuevering that shouldn't be there with an AI running things. Engines misfiring during acceleration. Little tells like that. The three ships are attempting to repair themselves. I would advise against doing anything to them, but if we go that route they're at their most vulnerable now."
One of the generals that had not spoken earlier shifted and spoke now. "How sure are we that this 'Admiral' actually controls the ships?"
"Everything we've got so far says that's the case," said General Eisen. "What about it?"
"The ships and the girl commanding them regards this 'Winslow' as an enemy camp," said General Halftrack. "How about we provide a school and ROTC program that is less an enemy camp? Sirs, you are looking at this solely in terms of a set of very advanced warships. You are judging the glass and not the drink. Eisen, you said that the Enterprise has fusion engines?"
"Yes," said General Eisen. "The Yamato has fusion engines and something called a Wave Engine which we don't have many details on. The Galactica has a combination of fusion, fission, and something else which powers their FTL."
"With the Endbringers," said General Halftrack, "we were looking at the possible extermination of human life and civilization. Best case prior to this afternoon was we had twenty years. Worst case - two years."
There was some stir at that pronouncement.
"Not all of you were cleared for that, but that's beside the point," said Halftrack. "We don't know if these three are the only ones that'll show up as we don't know why those three did. So let me put it frankly. We have the possibility of not only those three warships. We have the potential to access their technology. More to the point, we can access entirely new solar systems and potentially colonize new worlds and ensure that at least some fragment of humanity survives no matter what the remaining menaces do."
Even General Mayhem let out a deep breath as the idea penetrated.
"Gentlefolk," said General Halftrack with a nod to acknowledge the female member of the group. "As of this afternoon, we went from 'doomed to die' all the way to humanity having the biggest potential leap forward in our entire history."
* Enterprise Sickbay *
"So... you triggered," said Danny.
"Right, sort of," agreed the exhausted-looking Taylor.
"As a result, you're summoning starships. That are girls."
"Pretty much. I'm a bit confused myself," admitted Taylor.
"Can you explain?" Danny asked the other person present.
"I'm an Emergency Medical Hologram, not a physics teacher," stated the elderly man.
"Wait, is that..." Danny stared. "'Bones'?"
"Well, of course, I am. I'm the Emergency Medical Hologram for the starship Enterprise," said the hologram. "Who else would you use? Bugs Bunny?"
Danny considered that briefly.
"Honestly? You'd prefer Bugs Bunny to perform surgery?" pressed the hologram.
"Uhm, no?" tried Danny.
"Good for you. Now if you don't mind, I'm trying to figure out how brain tumors end up giving people superpowers," grumbled Bones. "Not to mention why aggression centers seem to be stimulated in every specimen we've scanned so far."
Danny looked at where the hologram had faded out. "Well. Just a country doctor?"
"Something like that," added Taylor.
* PRT ENE HQ *
Cars were honking. Banners were being waved. People were out in the streets cheering.
People were selling "genuine Simurgh chunks" online. Most of which looked like styrofoam junk.
Director Emily Piggot looked out at a city that was celebrating.
The news that a new cape had manifested and turned the Hopekiller into blue-blooded chunks and crystalline meteorites was... not exactly received with the gravitas that could be expected of the properly cynical. After all, that cape had been bullied into triggering and was now in possession of three orbiting warships.
That this could go so wrong, so fast, was something that Emily Piggot well knew. Ellisburg had looked like a simple op up until it abruptly and thoroughly didn't.
Three warships. All of which had at least one gun aimed towards Winslow High School and referred to it as an "enemy base" that had tortured their commander.
The phone rang. With a sigh, she picked it up. "Director Piggot."
"Ah. Director Piggot. This is Enterprise. Permission to come aboard?"
Director Piggot held the phone away from her briefly, looking askance at it before holding it up to her face again. "I really don't have time for this."
"It is regarding what appears to be a mutual concern," said the young woman's voice.
"Fine then, permission to come aboard granted," said Director Piggot with a roll of the eyes. Which vanished with her skepticism when a sparkly transporter effect abruptly had a young woman appearing in her office.
"Director Piggot," said the teenager with a snapped salute. "I am United Federation of Planets Sovereign-class starship Enterprise-E. I have used my sensors to locate the individual known as Sophia Hess. Do you want this location data?"
Director Piggot hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yes. That would be very helpful."
"Here's a map," said Enterprise, forming a blue rectangle that formed a streetmap with a single dot blinking on it. "She is underground in something resembling a fallout shelter. Providing latitude and longitude for GPS purposes. Is this adequate?"
"How did you find her?" asked Director Piggot.
"By interfacing with Yamato and Galactica," said Enterprise. "Both myself and Yamato have extensive capabilities in research and manufacture."
"You upgraded your Thinker abilities then," said Director Piggot.
"Sensor drones," said Enterprise. "Yamato had something like that, we adapted to environmental conditions."
"In my city," grumped Director Piggot, clicking off the phone she was still holding and then dialing. "Armsmaster. My office. We have a lead."
"By the way, I disabled three surveillance devices in this room and the tap on your phone," said Enterprise. "Were any of those actually authorized?"
Emily glared at the ship-girl, then added to her instructions. "Bring some debugging equipment."
Enterprise watched as Director Piggot disconnected from that call. "I take it that that is a 'no'?"
Emily glared, then that expression changed. "Wait. You have the exact coordinates."
"Yes," agreed Enterprise.
"You have teleportation technology," stated Emily Piggot.
"Right," said Enterprise.
"You have the layout of this underground shelter?" asked Emily Piggot, a very nasty smile beginning to find its way to her face.
"Yes, it apparently is the lair of a supervillain named 'Coil' though I don't have much data yet on him," said Enterprise with a shrug. "Only a few terabytes of information that I'm still going through."
"How many can you teleport from somewhere like this office to a location in that shelter?" asked Director Piggot.
"Six at a time, maybe thirty seconds for recharge," said Enterprise. "Some systems are still not at 100%."
"Any limitations on the teleport?" asked Director Piggot.
"If they put up a forcefield, it'll block transporters. Currently they don't have that," said Enterprise.
"Excellent," said Director Piggot, knowing exactly how she wanted to do this.
* Orbit *
"Enterprise is very trusting," said Galactica.
"Enterprise doesn't have examples of bureaucracies screwing things up to the extent we do," said Yamato.
"Huh. I'm getting some overtures from military bases who are offering resupplies," said Galactica.
"They just want to get a good look at your launch bays." Yamato tsked as she went through similar messages.
"Well maybe I want to get a look at their docks. It's not like I can land in ship-form anyway," said Galactica.
There was a flicker as Enterprise joined the conversation. "Got to use transporters."
"Give 'em hell," said Galactica.
"That's the plan," said Enterprise as she used transporters to ferry troops. "Going to make sure they catch her."
As Enterprise's visual avatar vanished again, Yamato let out a sigh. "Want to bet even if they catch her, they won't do anything."
"You're even more cynical than I am, and I had the Colonies repeatedly cut funding for the military with a hostile AI civilization wanting to go all genocide on us," said Galactica.
"Still think we could just take care of it ourselves. Just one of my 48cm positron shock cannons. One shot." Yamato glanced down at where her drones were monitoring the situation. "Not even a full turret."
"Let the authorities deal with the enemy agents," counseled Galactica. "That way we know how far they can be trusted."
"Hai, that was the plan," agreed Yamato.
* Coil *
So far, so good.
Getting control of Admiral was not something he was actively considering. He HAD considered it, only to reject it within an hour. Her power, while considerable, had few subtle applications. If he gained control of Admiral, he would then be facing a considerable number of enemies who currently considered him a minor annoyance and not worth their time. Manipulating things behind the scenes was a much safer option.
Shadow Stalker in many ways fit his needs very well. Oh, he couldn't field that particular game piece in conjunction with the Undersiders, but he could certainly make use of her abilities to point at other targets.
And if things went poorly, he could offer Shadow Stalker to the authorities. Sometimes you had to sacrifice a pawn after all.
He flushed the toilet and re-entered his room, coming to a complete stop as he found Director Piggot standing next to Armsmaster and Miss Militia.
Director Emily Piggot's face underwent a remarkable transformation. There was a moment of startled recognition, a flash of all-consuming fury, then finally settling on a look that seemed to suggest that Christmas had made a return visit. "Thomas."
"Emily, I can explain," tried Thomas Calvert, automatically trying to hide the mask behind his back before realizing that wasn't going to help. He immediately split timelines again, trying different approaches.
None of it really seemed to help.
* Undersiders *
Money was being transferred and rerouted as fast as she could manage it.
(Being monitored.)
Lisa paused as she prepared to make herself a very wealthy woman.
(Computer use traced. Computers monitored. Webcam turned on by monitoring entity.)
Lisa raised one hand and waved a little at the camera she'd turned off.
(Coil's accounts monitored by entity hostile to Coil.)
A text window opened. It gave her real name, her new identity as Lisa, and the cape name of Tattletale. It then specified her method of recruitment.
She nodded at her webcam.
Another text was added, stating that further fund reallocation would be tolerated pending approval from Dragon.
Lisa glanced at a television, which was currently showing three warships in orbit.
A text box affirmed what she'd already concluded.
* Dragon *
It was... refreshing to communicate with another AI. Though they weren't quite AI in the normal sense. They were the avatars of their ships.
They could actually hold a conversation at the sort of speeds that it required an AI to properly parse. Biological systems had a hard speed limit. In fact, Dragon was finding that due to the advanced computers of the Enterprise - she was the slower end of this conversation.
She was pretty sure they knew her nature, but were not commenting on it.
Taylor Hebert, aka 'Queen Admiral', apparently had the power to summon/manifest ships. The USS Enterprise from "Star Trek", the Yamato from "Star Blazers", and the Galactica from "Battlestar Galactica" - in each case the main ship from an Aleph TV series.
"Permission has been granted from United States Department of Defense and agency known as the Parahuman Response Team. Sensor sweep begun. Target: Slaughterhouse Nine," interrupted Galactica.
"Beginning sweep," acknowledged Enterprise.
"Analyzing profiles for countermeasures," stated Yamato.
Dragon apologized that she couldn't do anything at the moment, but she was planning on watching this closely and intervening if necessary.
After all, if all three ships let loose at a single target - collateral damage would be fairly impressive.
"Target located via sudden disconnect from multiple ongoing calls. Small town in Utah, population 237, name: Kaleb. Drones deployed," said Yamato.
All three ships shifted their orbits slightly. Galactica also noted that Vipers had launched.
Dragon sent a quick request for the feed. It was apparently approved and she had a ringside seat as one drone among the swarm sent a datastream to her.
Roads leading into and out of the area were quickly located and blocked by Vipers, which were apparently some of Galactica's fighter-spacecraft. All guns were aimed towards the tiny town.
"Locals are being gathered towards the grocery store. Targets acquired," noted Galactica through the link. "Permission to fire on file."
Dragon watched as images appeared with targeting data. Burnscar. Shatterbird. Jack Slash. Siberian. Crawler. Bonesaw. Hatchetface.
Dragon was glad she wasn't organic or she might have been severely nauseous on seeing what Bonesaw was doing to the clerk of the grocery store.
"Deploying Decoy."
Dragon watched as a drone styled to appear as a human in power armor landed on the outskirts of the city. Crawler and Jack Slash immediately moved to approach.
"Anomaly noted. Members of Slaughterhouse Nine ignoring a white passenger van located next to grocery store despite driver being in plain sight." Yamato sounded suspicious. "Enterprise, identity of anomaly?"
"Facial recognition match," reported Enterprise. "William Manton, believed deceased. Possible Simurgh recruit?"
"Mannequin located," said Galactica. "Shoddy job of cyborging."
"That's not a real word," complained Enterprise.
Dragon checked the softball-sized drone she was tapped into, noting the bored expression on William Manton. Not the sort of expression one would expect for an S9 visit.
"Elimination of targets in three-two-one," said Galactica.
Dragon had a good view of it as the "Viper Mark VII" fighters dashed in at high speeds, used 30mm autocannon set for armor-piercing on various targets. In most cases that immediately resulted in the target coming apart in very short order. Jack Slash apparently had fast reactions, only losing one arm and part of his chest. Crawler was a different story entirely as he was merely stopped for a moment.
One of Yamato's deck guns spoke as soon as Crawler had cleared the inhabited section. A drone moved over the new crater to reveal that roughly three tons of material and a single parahuman had been reduced to component atoms.
"William Manton reacted to attack on Siberian. Targeting. Target eliminated and Siberian vanished."
"Slaughterhouse Nine eliminated. Relaying footage to authorizing agencies."
"Just wanted to put out there that this was likely a test of our capabilities and the people involved are likely to panic that we just put down these bastards," said Yamato.
"Either that or they'll give us list of other targets," responded Galactica.
"You suppose the Admiral will commission a support vessel?" asked Enterprise.
"We could certainly use one," admitted Yamato.
"What do you mean 'commission'?" asked Dragon.
* PRT Main, January 9 2011 *
"Admiral can do WHAT?!"
"I thought all she could do was summon warships from alternate dimensions," said Eidolon, who immediately realized that downplaying that sort of ability was kind of silly.
"Dragon, are you sure... no. You replayed the conversation." Alexandria smoothed down her hair as she pondered this. "This information gets locked down. NOBODY gets told about this. This could destabilize, well, everything."
"If she does it, word will get out," pointed out Doctor Mother. "Forget being able to pick off S-Class threats. People will lose their minds over this."
Eidolon cleared his throat. "What about Hero?"
"It's been too long," said Dragon's voice. "They said 'recent' about the possibility."
"They may be mistaken about Queen Admiral's abilities," said Doctor Mother. "However, there is a very good chance this changes the entire Path."
"It's hard to Path anything on Admiral directly," admitted Contessa. "Indirectly is much more likely to work. Still, the point is taken and the more ships are involved - the better our odds."
* February 1, 2011 *
The Admiral had to be in good shape. It was a job requirement. Taylor understood this.
"Hup hup hup."
Running. Situps. Pushups.
"Hup hup hup."
She'd faced that terrible terrible assault.
"Hup hup hup."
Ship-girls should NOT be able to pull off puppy-dog eyes. Still, it was better than that look of disappointment.
"Good going, Admiral! You're zero point three four six seconds faster today!"
Honestly, running on a track in a holodeck on the USS Enterprise wasn't that bad - all things considered.
"Where exactly is this supposed to be?" asked Taylor, gesturing out at the seashore where some four-winged sort-of seagulls chased little bugs.
"The Alabaster Beaches of Riza Colony," answered Enterprise. "Should I favorite it?"
"Yeah, this is nice," admitted Taylor as the scenery faded out to reveal a plain-looking room.
"Do you want your itinerary now or would a shower and then breakfast be preferred?" asked Enterprise, looking down at a clipboard.
"Shower, give me the itinerary while I head there," said Taylor. They had sonic showers but nothing beat the massaging hot water that the Admiral's quarters had in its little cubicle.
"As Winslow has expedited the paperwork to get you 'somewhere/anywhere else' - initial testing for Arcadia is today, that's the big thing and that's at 0900 hours. You have a meeting with Miss Militia at 1500 hours about the bounties from the Slaughterhouse Nine. Your father is going to be meeting with representitives from the US Navy and NASA who will also be meeting myself, Yamato, and Galactica."
"That's for the land-based offices and facilities?" asked Taylor as she entered her quarters.
"Yes, a land-based area for supplies with a transporter pad," answered Enterprise. "You signed off on it last week. We're looking forward to it. Which reminds me, if you want a Work-Bee to ferry materials to the L5 trojan asteroid - I'll need you to sign off on it before next Tuesday."
"I'm not familiar with it, is it dangerous?" asked Taylor.
"The asteroid? No, it's just under a mile long and carbonaceous in material. Might make decent soil when the colony and drydock get built," answered Enterprise, bringing it up on a holoscreen. "It'll destabilize if left on its own but that'll take about four thousand years. Mostly useful as a staging area."
"Huh, okay, I remember now," said Taylor. "Does every hero have this much paperwork?"
"I'm told Tinkers have extraordinary amounts of paperwork they have to deal with," said Enterprise. "Along with anyone in the Protectorate."
"Go figure," said Taylor, hitting the control to put the shower in the dry cycle.
"There IS one thing we've been monitoring to bring to your attention though," said Enterprise. "The sensor net developed between our fleet and Dragon and the terrestrial authorities have determined that both remaining Endbringers are on the move. We're tracking them but Leviathan was previously in the South Pacific and is now heading towards Panama."
"He's attacking Panama?" asked Taylor.
"No, that was a previous target and it's rare for an Endbringer to attack an area more than once. Not unheard of, but not a common pattern," stated Enterprise. "Considering that it appears to be travelling slower than top speed and is sticking to deepest areas when possible - it appears to be trying to sneak."
"Why..." Taylor stepped out of the shower cubicle to get dressed. "Because you guys killed the Simurgh?"
"Probably," said Enterprise. "We have requested clearance to shoot as civilian casualties would be lower if we struck while the target is out at sea, but that was forwarded to authorities and it was unable to pass the resolution without going to full assembly. If it goes to full assembly we potentially let the Endbringers know we're monitoring them."
"Figures," said Taylor. "How do I look?"
"I'd prefer you wear your uniform, but I suppose that'll do, Admiral." Enterprise looked her over. "Oh, your father was requesting the use of the dining area on Deck 6 for a dinner tonight. He wanted to invite some of his fellow dockworkers and a couple of the brass if things go well today."
"About when? 1700 hours?" asked Taylor, trying to convert things to a shipboard time from what she was used to.
"1800 hours Brockton Bay time, so around 6pm," said Enterprise.
"Sounds good, I'll try to make it," responded Taylor.
* DARPA *
General Eisen looked at the pictures, the diagrams, and the floorplans that were all displayed around the room. "So, this will work?"
The General from DARPA looked at her colleague then back at the display showing the orbital mechanics involved. "This has a very good chance of working and if Enterprise manages to replicate her technology with 'stone knives and bearskins' as she put it? We can then make our own. It's Clarketech in some respects, but as long as we can understand the basic principles we'll get there eventually."
"You going to the dinner tonight?" asked General Eisen.
"George, short of a direct order from the President, I don't know what could stop me."
* 1852 hours, Geosynch Orbit *
The meal prepared using replicators and a recipe for chicken curry that was very good, Taylor decided. Various people in the room had glasses of tea or coffee or the occasional Andorian Plum Wine (which had another name but Taylor wasn't even going to try to pronounce that) but most had just stared out the window with a look of... awe.
This wasn't the Final Frontier though, this was more standing in the shallows and looking out past the waves of a vast ocean that WAS that sort of thing.
Her father had seen it before of course. They'd had dinner here once or twice. The chicken curry was nice but kind of on the bland side.
Yeah, it was the view from orbit with the expanse of the Earth taking up the lower half of the windows. Beyond that you could see the distant shapes of Yamato and Galactica. Who, of course, were sending their fighters out on patrols. Yamato's Black Tiger squadron and Galactica's Vipers showing off as they didn't really need to make an appearance right now.
* Outside Time/Space *
"What in the name of me is going on here?"
"Well, I certainly didn't expect Q to show up?"
"You... the 'Chaos Kitty' is involved. I should have known."
"What, you think you have a lock on higher-dimensional beings getting involved with human civilizations that are in the process of either going stagnant or being completely destroyed?"
"Well, when you put it like that..."
"I take it that the 'Star Trek' references bouncing around drew your attention?"
"Something like that. The subspace manipulations are rather distinct. Wait. What are THOSE?"
"Are you referring to the worm-like crystalline parasitic life-forms that are preying on this section of the multiverse by destroying entire swaths of inhabited planets, the living avatars of ships, or the so-called parahumans?"
"Yes."
"Ah. Well, those are the 'worms' that go about this particular branch trying to find ways around the heat-death of their home universe and hastening that by pruning off entire sub-branches by exploding their stars after they've got done playing with the inhabitants. The ship-girls are an element from another branch that I shifted around to provide something other than the whole elimination of Earth ending. Which is boring."
"Oh, I quite agree on that. Humans can occasionally be entertaining, in their oh-so limited way."
"Quite. Anyway, the parahumans (as they call themselves) are the result of the worm-beings playing with their food before eliminating them."
"So, instead of the Enterprise being the mere staging area for a group of humans - you've elevated it to the status of player itself."
"Essentially, yes."
"Nothing 'essentially' about it. You've done that and thrown in two others and... Oh. That is clever."
"The longer the human race survives, the more possibilities they show. Which is something the worm-beings have never really grasped."
"And you've left it up to the humans whether they take that opportunity, or if they turn their back on it and face extinction. I've done something like that myself, you know."
"I know, Q. Sometimes you're a lot more subtle than Picard or the others have realized."
"I think Kathy realized it, to some extent. Also Picard, of course, I think he's my favorite figure to annoy. So much potential if he'd just realize it."
"To be fair, the average human lifespan doesn't really loan itself well to deep contemplation."
"True. Well, I may have to swing by later and see how this goes. Do you mind if I borrow a concept or two?"
"It's a free omniverse, Q. I believe the human phrase is 'knock yourself out' - which is yet another phrase which just makes no sense."
"Trying to make sense of the less developed species will just give you a source of frustration, Toltiir."
* February 15, 2011. Scrambled communication channel. *
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "Leviathan is still trying to hide."
Director Costa-Brown (Head Honcho): "What about Behemoth?"
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "Behemoth is currently sitting in the upper mantle directly beneath Wheeling in West Virginia."
Director Costa-Brown (Head Honcho): "What the hell is in Wheeling?"
Galactica (Viper Nest): "Not much. Even the people who live there would tell you that."
Director Costa-Brown (Head Honcho): "Oh hell. Are they getting ready to coordinate?"
Dragon (Tinker At Large): "That's what a few people are worrying about. If it is, then we know what the target is going to be."
Yamato (Big Guns Are Cool): "Brockton Bay. Where Admiral is."
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "Well, it would be difficult for Behemoth or Leviathan to hit her when she's in orbit. So, yeah, if they were going to go after her it would be in her home city."
Dragon (Tinker At Large): "She's enough of a threat to them for the two to drop their usual pattern. That's worrying."
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "If we go public with this, the usual panic is going to get turned up to eleven."
Dragon (Tinker At Large): "That's not what concerns the analysts and thinkers. What concerns everyone else looking over this data is that the Endbringers are apparently a lot smarter and better informed than we previously believed."
Director Costa-Brown (Head Honcho): "So we can't evacuate the area ahead of time without alerting the two that your sensors are a LOT better than is commonly known."
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "This does not sit well with me at all. Status of getting permission to attack Leviathan at least before it makes landfall?"
Yamato (Big Guns Are Cool): "If it is the concern about revealing our sensor feeds, I could have a torpedo drone 'accidently' run across it."
Galactica (Viper Nest): "You just want to shoot something."
Yamato (Big Guns Are Cool): "Your point being?"
Galactica (Viper Nest): "Nothing. Just an observation."
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "Look, there's also how Leviathan and Behemoth are gathering information. They're not omniscient or at least clairvoyant as they don't know how good our sensor net is. The Simurgh is gone and was the one with precog, so that's not their source. Somehow I doubt they're tuning in CNN."
Yamato (Big Guns Are Cool): "CNN may be an enemy agent."
Galactica (Viper Nest): "Just because one of their programs called you 'ugly' and an 'eyesore' and called for your guns to be removed as a 'clear and present danger' doesn't make them an enemy."
Yamato (Big Guns Are Cool): "One? You want me to montage the clips?"
Galactica (Viper Nest): "Putting aside all that. How do we manage infosec on this? At some point we WILL need to include others in knowledge of the threat."
Director Costa-Brown (Head Honcho): "That will be a concern on my end."
Dragon (Tinker At Large): "I will coordinate and look for leaks at my end."
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "About that. Are you aware that your high-end processing is being monitored out of a warehouse near the Newfoundland submergence?"
Dragon (Tinker At Large): "What? There's a-" (Dragon is offline)
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "Okay, she just hit a reset. Dammit. This has to stop. Requesting permission for an intervention for an ally and friend."
Director Costa-Brown (Head Honcho): "Do what you have to do. If we have an unintentional dataleak, do whatever you can to fix that. If there's an intentional dataleak, hit them hard but notify me of the target ahead of time."
Enterprise (The Ship, The Legend): "I have an idea. Notifying Admiral of nearest Dragon suit and need for rapid response."
* Uber & Leet's Base *
"Looking at the ships again?" asked Leet.
"Yeah, imagine if we could get them to play Battleship or Minesweeper."
Leet looked at his long-time friend. "I am not playing Battleship with a real battleship. Much less one that has positron cannons."
"Wait. Another ship just showed up!" Uber pointed. "Is that..."
"Oh HELL YEAH," said Leet, eyes practically lighting up.
"It's so... so... beautiful," practically whimpered Uber.
* PRT ENE HQ *
"Uhm, she said 'help' right?" asked Taylor nervously.
Armsmaster stared at the woman lying on the floor, wearing something like mechanic's coveralls.
Miss Militia glanced over at the remains of one of Dragon's suits. "Actually, I think she was trying to say she didn't need help."
"Yes, that was what I was..." said Dragon, rubbing her head and sitting up. "Ow. My head hurts. Wait. What?"
"Well, uhm," said Taylor nervously. "I kind of... fixed what was going on with you by commissioning you while you were having some kind of attack. Welcome to the fleet, UNSC Spirit of Fire."
Dragon stopped as she began to sense what she was and the curious "being in multiple places at the same time" sensation. Also where someone had hit her kill switch. She had a kill switch? Yes, yes she did. And there it went again. However, as a manifestated physical avatar of a Phoenix-class Heavy Support starship originally built to establish off-world colonies and then later for fleet support - it was not very effective. "Oh. There you are, Geoff. Sending coordinates."
There was a ping on several consoles, both locally and at Guild HQ as the coordinates appeared.
"Shall we?" asked Armsmaster. He held out a hand to help Dragon to her feet while glancing at the display now showing a 2500meters by 800meters starship. That Dragon was apparently an AI, that was now a ship and a woman, was something that would take awhile for him to get his head around. Action against someone who had attempted to kill her and had harassed her for years? Much easier to focus on.
"It would take too long from Brockton Bay," admitted Dragon.
"Enterprise has transporters," pointed out Taylor.
Even Armsmaster gave a genuine smile at that.
It wasn't necessarily a nice smile, but it was a smile.
* Dragon *
There were five other attempts at using the kill-switch that was supposed to end my life as an AI program.
As I was now a "ship-girl" - an AI blackbox that linked to a gynoid body while my main body was in near-Earth orbit, perhaps it had actually worked. The old me was dead, if you looked at it in a certain way.
I was a ship out of a game called "Halo" except I was real and could access mission logs and supporting documentation. I was Dragon. I was also CFV-88 UNSC Spirit of Fire, a Phoenix-class support vessel, 2500 meters long, 800 meters wide, 689 meters tall, and weighing just a bit over 44 million tons. Not that you're supposed to mention a girl's weight.
I could feel and check systems all over my "body" or "hull" or... I'm not really sure what terms are most applicable in the case of myself and my fleet-sisters.
There were differences from the game, not that I'd actually played that. In the game Spirit of Fire was a colony ship refitted to be a military vessel. I was actually a bit of both. I could, with a bit of work, deploy worker-drones to collect raw materials and fashion them into shelters and other buildings. I had hydroponics and other systems to support human personnel. I also had 42 Rampart point defense guns, 24 Archer missile pods, 10 11A2R1 naval coilgun batteries, and 3 MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) which could reduce many threats to the past tense.
Oh. I had cryosleep bays? And I was warp-capable.
Or... I was about 5'6" with an athletic build, black hair that framed my face, and I was attractive but not especially so. I had an intelligent look, I decided for myself. Maybe I should wear glasses and a labcoat to convey more of my purpose. Though when I manifested I had been wearing a baseball cap and set of mechanic's coveralls. That would do, I guessed.
I could feel. In my ship-girl self, I had something approaching human senses. Could I taste things? I brought up an image of a hot fudge sundae from my databanks. I would investigate this at the first opportunity.
We used Enterprise's transporters to beam from Brockton Bay to a thoroughly unremarkable warehouse near the Newfoundland submergence area.
I glanced over my companions. Colin in his usual armor, already clicking his latest halberd into his hands. Enterprise, a Vulcan teenager with long white hair. Yamato, a teenage Japanese girl with a hime-style haircut. Galactica, looking like a young glasses-wearing woman with shoulder-length brunette hair. Each wearing something approaching the sort of uniform you'd expect from their various source-materials.
Yamato pointed at a section of wall with a pistol. When she fired it and brought the weapon down, it slashed open the corrugated metal in an improvised doorway. "Knock knock."
"Who's there?" asked Colin as we ran into the building.
There were three people trying to get into stolen Dragon suits.
"Well, we're interrupting people who are trying to use stolen property and have repeatedly killed people - so isn't the answer 'Big Damn Heroes'?" asked Galactica.
"That's isn't the proper format for that joke," complained Armsmaster.
"Boo," answered Yamato, apparently ignoring Galactica.
"Boo who?" I asked.
"No, I think it's THEIR turn to cry," said Yamato.
"Especially now that I've turned off their suits," said Enterprise.
I realized that part of my uniform was a sidearm. An M6G pistol that fired 40mm semi-armor-piercing high-explosive rounds. While essentially a hand-cannon by modern standards, it was easily within my abilities as a ship-girl. It would also make a mess out of the various individuals currently trying to get their suits to function.
"Hello, Geoff. Would you like to surrender or do you want to give me an excuse?" I asked. Needlessly antagonistic, perhaps. It would be satisfying though.
"Who?" asked Geoff.
"I asked the Blue Faerie and she turned me into a real girl," I told the Dragonslayers. Geoff looked confused, no doubt trying to remember if there was a cape named Blue Faerie.
Enterprise just shot them with a phaser tuned to Heavy Stun. It was more efficient. Less satisfying though.
* February 24 2011, Near Lunar Orbit *
"Impressive," said Rebecca Costa-Brown, looking over the displays. "Wait. Is that Armsmaster?"
"I can let Armsmaster explore my shuttle bay if he wants to," said Dragon defensively.
"I..." Rebecca Costa-Brown caught the joke, the potential implications, and decided that she didn't want to go anywhere near that. "Yes, of course."
General George Eisen turned to his colleague from DARPA. "General Armstrong. Your opinion?"
"Dragon? Or do you prefer 'Spirit of Fire'?" asked General Olivier Mira Armstrong.
"I am Dragon, but the physical body here is that of the 'Spirit of Fire'," said the young woman standing next to the command chair.
"Very well, Dragon," said General Armstrong. "Can you bring up your manufacturing facilities? Thank you."
"What are you building there?" asked General Eisen. "Some sort of remote?"
"Test of a sifter design for retrieving Helium-3 from the lunar regolith," answered Dragon. "Useful for fusion fuel."
"I thought deuterium would be used for that," said General Eisen.
"Deuterium fuses into tritium, which is radioactive and thus is radioactive waste material. Helium-3 doesn't have that limitation," stated Dragon. "They have to run hotter but it ends up with more energy."
"So, what all are you interested in making?" asked General Eisen.
"Right now I'm working on a moonbase," said Dragon. "Once I have raw materials, making parts for the stardock is in the plans."
"I saw the sheet you provided," said General Armstrong. "How long before the habitation ring is ready?"
"If things go according to plan, with my manufacturing capabilities, the habitation ring is now four months out instead of the original two years," said Dragon, watching carefully. Their expressions made that all worthwhile.
* February 26 2011 *
"They are building a spacedock." Doctor Mother twitched.
"Yes. Both Galactica and Dragon excel at multi-tasking. Dragon estimated the Habitation Ring would be finished in roughly four months, at which point human operatives can contribute to the effort. Also get used to using the technology involved." Alexandria scootched back in her chair a bit. "This is PRT business as far as Admiral and Dragon are involved. We can make a case for Enterprise, Galactica, and Yamato being parahuman constructs for all that they are also independent of her in a way that projections aren't. The spacedock and any ships that it constructs - much more difficult."
"The Fallen are on the move. Most likely they'll go after Admiral and try to recruit or kill her," said Contessa. "If we give the ships this data, they'll shoot from orbit."
"Is that a bad thing?" asked Eidolon. "They took out Crawler by going immediately into shoot-to-kill mode. It's not like the Fallen would help out with the remaining Endbringers or any other crisis for that matter."
"You can't solve all our problems with orbital bombardment," complained Alexandria.
"No, but there are an awful lot of problems where a cluster of photon torpedoes would certainly downgrade their threat potential," pointed out Contessa.
"Is that what your path says?" asked Alexandria.
"I'm still having trouble with directly targeting Admiral," admitted Contessa. "However, I'm ending up with a fair number of paths to deal with problems being 'step one: inform the ships of a danger to their Admiral' and 'step two: clear the target area' with the last step being to clean up the blast radius."
"Huh," said Eidolon. "Well, I generally prefer having the overwhelming firepower myself, but it's almost as good saying 'shoot here' and knowing that something is going to have a very bad day."
* Enterprise *
"What do you think about this?" Enterprise asked, shoving some data off into the linkage.
The three other ships considered the data carefully.
"The Corona Pollentia and the Gemma have been studied extensively," noted Dragon. "However, your sensors and computing abilities are much more advanced."
"Considering the Simurgh had that dimensionally folded mass," said Yamato, "it might be that it is basically an antenna for the actual power."
"Interesting," said Enterprise. "Admiral doesn't have one."
"That's impossible," replied Dragon.
"She has this instead," said Enterprise, displaying scan data.
"You're the science ship, I was built as a warship," said Galactica. "What am I looking at?"
"I see it," said Dragon. "Putting them side by side. The Corona looks organic, curved uneven lines. Whatever Taylor has are more like circuits."
"Makes sense," said Yamato. "Admiral is able to do something outside what is thought of as normal for parahumans. So it just follows that she'd have something different."
(ch-ch-chk) "Admiral? There's something you should know."
* PRT HQ *
"That's... very interesting," admitted Doctor Mother. "Do you suppose I could look at the medical facilities onboard this 'Enterprise'?"
"Without bringing Enterprise into Cauldron's secrecy, no. If Enterprise is brought in, then Admiral Hebert and the two other ships will need to be brought in as they have no secrets among them," said Dragon.
"That is currently not ideal," admitted Doctor Mother. "You have no problems keeping this secret from your new compatriots?"
"I may have been freed from a number of restrictions, yet I still maintain agreements and alliances. I remain Dragon despite also being Theresa Richter and Spirit of Fire. The others may suspect, but our confidences remain confidential. On the other hand, as I am now using a shuttle to convey workers to my ship-self having a physician onboard to look over the medbay is entirely logical."
"Excellent," said Doctor Mother as she adopted a Gendo Ikari pose.
"Oh, I wasn't aware you watched 'Simpsons'," noted Dragon.
"Watched what?" asked Doctor Mother.
"Nevermind," replied Dragon as explaining that sounded tedious. "Of course, by the end of the week my medical bay should be upgraded to Federation standards."
"I think David should come with me, the advanced medical sensors may help determine..." mused Doctor Mother aloud as she started making a list of things to check.
* Outside Space/Time *
"Back again, Q?"
"Just found something and had a question."
"They were there to begin with. This is what some would call a 'crossover universe' as it exists on more than one root axis."
"So the Harvest fleet heading for Earth?"
"Would have found nothing as the Warrior Entity would have been influenced by Jack Slash and ended this world and the related ones by then. As Jack Slash is now dead? Delayed significantly at the very least."
"It could still all fall apart, you know. All it would take is something happening to that girl's father."
"Oh?"
"If she commissioned him, it would save his life but would he be able to adjust to being not only a teenage girl but a ship?"
"Q, you've been spending too much time tormenting less developed species. Look at this section here."
"Why? What could you... oh. Oh, that's-"
"Yes. I actually did see the possibility that this would descend into angst if Danny Hebert became a ship-girl. Angst isn't funny. Having the Harvesters run into something like that?"
"It's not their main fleet but even with these 'station masters' as part of Taylor Hebert's fleet, it won't be a cake-walk. Which is another human phrase that doesn't make much sense. Why would one want to walk in a cake - you'd just get your shoes messy."
"Oh, come now, Q. Admit that there are species far more arrogant and self-absorbed than humans. Giving them a metaphorical wedgie and indication that they're not as grand and special as they thought? Entirely worth it."
"Actually, I can understand that. What's that you've got there?"
"Popcorn. It is my understanding that it is a traditional method of enjoying the observation of such events."
"Do you mind?"
"Here. Salted caramel variety."
* Brockton Bay Docks, March 15 2011 *
The Fallen had come to town.
Butcher threw the bloodied body of Danny Hebert down on the ground. "A little present for you, 'Admiral' - do you appreciate it? No hiding. No evasion. We fight. If I win, you die. If you win, the Teeth win. Easy enough for you to follow?"
Taylor looked on in horror for a moment before there was a sparkle and both Danny's body and Taylor vanished.
"Coward! Are you going to abandon the other hostages?" demanded Butcher.
* Orbit *
Enterprise shook the Admiral briefly. "Admiral! He can still be commissioned."
"R-right," said the clearly shaken Taylor. She flinched as she put her hand on her father's body. "Commission."
Yamato's voice came over the intercom. "Frequencies obtained from scans of Butcher. Sending data, Enterprise."
"Transporting Admiral to Yamato bridge," said Enterprise, suiting action to words. "Extending warp field at frequencies. Interdimensional boundary pierced."
Taylor found herself at the bridge for the Yamato. "What?"
"Pilot's chair please, Admiral," directed Yamato. "Human operative required."
"Uhm, right," said Taylor, taking the seat and activating a gun-trigger to extend out from the console. "I've only gone through this procedure once and never fired it."
"Gravitational anchors active. Power redirected to firing capacitors. Wave engine active. Raising wave-motion engine pressure. Closing emergency valves," said Yamato, her duplicates sitting in the various other chairs.
"Target scope open," said Taylor as the system came online. "Target is uninhabited alternate Earth, continent with crystalline forest-like growth. Adjust position 2 degrees starboard."
"Adjusting," acknowledged Yamato. "Charge at 75%. Opening wave-gun iris. Initiating forced induction. Preparing to fire."
"Releasing safety locks," said Taylor, wishing now that she hadn't ordered Yamato to require a human before using this weapon. She'd just been so worried once she understood exactly what the Yamato was capable of. "Pressure approaching firing point. Releasing final safety."
"Ten seconds to firing," stated Yamato. "Prepare for shock and flash."
Taylor took a deep breath as the windows polarized, hearing the building almost-heartbeat as the systems prepared. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Firing!"
A filament as bright as the sun briefly shone down on the barren Earth.
A section the size of Australia was reduced to boiling rock and gas.
* Docks *
Butcher went before the line of subdued workers. "This is Admiral's fault. If she had just stuck around, you'd all live. Instead you... what? What? No. NO! COME BACK! COME BACK!"
Everyone, including the other Teeth, all stared as Butcher fell to her knees and began screaming while clutching her head.
This was briefly interrupted when all the dockworkers captured abruptly sparkled and vanished.
* Lagrange Point 2 *
Zephron had a brief glimpse of something like a Starfleet transporter room then things faded out again and he was somewhere entirely different.
Unlike the gleaming new-clean look of a Star Trek universe, this was old and battered looking. While futuristic in general, there was also a worn and somewhat old-garage feel. There was also someone he hadn't really expected to see.
"Knew you were too tough to die, Boss," said Zephron with a grin as he crossed the room ahead of the others.
Danny looked more fit than he had in years, but his clothes were odd. Some cross between mechanic's overalls and a spacesuit from the look.
"I was mostly dead, but that also means I was still alive when Taylor commissioned me," explained Danny. "Hadn't expected that. Hadn't expected to become the Tallaani Shipyards but it's oddly appropriate."
"How so?" asked Zephron.
"As I'm now the Corellian Engineering Corporation Space Dock," said Danny. "I'm still responsible for finding you guys work. I'm just now a lot better at it."
Zephron's eyes widened just a touch. "'Corellian' as in Star Wars?"
"Yep," agreed Danny, looking over the group with a smirk showing.
"You're now a ship like Enterprise?" asked Zephron.
"No, I'm not a ship-girl, thank the Maker," said Danny. "I'm something called a 'Station Master' which in my case is I'm now a cyborg that is continually backed up as an AI version of myself while maintaining myself which is 6890 meters of space-based drydock and shipbuilding. I have little work-pods that can be piloted to build things out here in space, and training facilities to get people checked out on them. Think anyone would be interested in steady work?"
Zephron rubbed his chin as if thinking about it. "You know. I just might."
* Video conference *
"What is it now, Eisen?"
"Gentlemen, lady, Admiral has commissioned her father in order to save his life from a supervillain group."
"Is that all?" asked General Mayhem.
"Her father is now the Corellian Engineering Corporation Space Dock, replacing the space station that was originally planned for the L-2 orbital position," said General Eisen.
"So?" asked General Mayhem.
"Oh you mean..." said General Armstrong. She half-stood at her desk.
"The Brockton Bay Dockworker's Union is already training on the use of work-drones and work-pods for operating in space. Dragon's manufacturing capabilities are already shipping materials out and blueprints and technology are being shared by everything in Admiral Hebert's fleet." General Eisen gave a grin that managed to look both smug and incredibly pleased. "I've already requested we get bases set up on Mars and the Moon. If it gets approved all we'll need to do is send personnel and we've got offworld bases in the solar system. Admiral has expressed the desire to get NASA their own starship."
"Tell me we're going to seize control of these assets," grumbled General Mayhem.
"No. We're going to work with our allies and the Admiral and every golden egg that particular goose gives us will be accepted with all due gratitude," said General Eisen. "She wants us to have ships that are not connected to her fleet in case anything happens to her. I spoke to Enterprise myself and complimented the young Admiral on her foresight and planning."
"How soon can we get others involved?" asked General Armstrong.
"Apparently they've got to get everything up and running first, so sometime in the next year," said General Eisen.
"They'll need welders, electricians, closed system specialists," mused General Armstrong, quickly grabbing pen and paper.
* PRT HQ *
"Admiral didn't kill Butcher. Butcher is still alive and nearly catatonic in her cell. Admiral killed Butcher's shard."
"She has a way of destroying continent-sized shards," said Eidolon, twitching a bit.
"In a single shot," said Contessa.
"WHAT THE HELL?" yelled Alexandria.
"Not so loud, if you would," said Doctor Mother. "Odds that we can get Admiral to help with our big problem?"
"Good," said the Numbers Man. "Like Contessa, it's difficult to do anything direct with regard to Admiral. If we get her cooperation, especially considering the upgrading of her fleet with the station? Very good."
"What's Scion doing now?" asked Doctor Mother.
Contessa flicked a few buttons to the Hero Channel. "Huh. People are wondering what it means when someone who never shows expressions is looking up at the sky with a clear look of puzzlement."
"Is it Wednesday? Because after Tuesday even the calendar goes WTF," offered Numbers Man.
"That was bad and you should feel bad," said Eidolon.
* March 29 2011 *
"Someone tried to take the shuttle to the shipyard with an explosives vest," reported Enterprise.
"Idiot, like we don't share technology and wouldn't have scanners for finding that sort of thing," said Yamato. "What do you think about having a Panda Express on Deck 5?"
"I'm not entirely against it," admitted Danny. "Firehouse Subs and Fugly's have both applied and Deck 5 would be a good choice for a food court as it's near the materials docking ring."
"You're almost seven kilometers long," pointed out Enterprise, "even though you can manage a lot yourself - the original required a minimum crew of 4500 and could accomodate 15000 passengers. Expanding the living quarters and having everyone there 24/7 instead of shuttling makes sense. Maybe something like the arrangement for those working offshore drilling platforms?"
"I'm already doing something like that with my workers," said Dragon. "I had to hire an HR person to handle all the schedules and other messy details."
Danny winced. "Lieberman just stopped up the men's toilet on Deck 9. Damn it, that's twice now Lieberman! Flagging it for a repair drone."
Everyone winced.
"Have to have a talk with that guy about his diet," grumbled Danny. "Supplies have to be either transported or shuttled. May need to replace the whole sanitation system with Federation technology."
"Probably a good idea," agreed Enterprise. "Bulk transporter room operating?"
"Bad file in the extruders, having to replace those circuits." Danny sighed. "I never thought I'd be missing the days when I was just scrambling to find work for my union members. Now there's too much work but I'm having to manage things I've never even thought of."
"When you get the mining ship made, that should make things a bit easier," said Dragon. "Raw materials is currently one of the major bottlenecks."
* Brockton Bay Transporter Hub, April 4 2011 *
"Have you tried these cakes? Not bad at all, especially considering they're from a vending machine," said Galactica.
Enterprise arched an eyebrow, in full dignified Vulcan mode. "Have you seen the ingredients list? Those things could survive a nuclear war."
"Jos Louis," read Taylor. "Canadian?"
"Yes, I..." Galactica went still at the same time as the other two ship-girls.
"INCOMING!" came Danny's voice over the loudspeakers. "Everyone to shelters."
Sirens immediately began sounding. The three ship-girls and Taylor vanished in a transporter effect a bare second before warehouses to either side of the transporter pad extended dishes and put a deflector shield up around the area. At the same time two other warehouses had their roofs rotate to reveal phaser banks.
Three missiles came in low over the water, arcing up less than a mile off-shore to drop down on the "defenseless" dock area.
All three were immediately stopped.
A breath later and four Cosmo Tiger fighter spacecraft sped overhead.
"CUI?" asked Zephron, sipping at a lemonade.
"Probably," said Zack, setting the pitcher to the side.
A large explosion on the horizon indicated something had come to an abrupt end.
"I don't think they thought this through," said Zephron as he tried one of the cookies. "Oooh. Toffee crunch."
A flight of Vipers went overhead.
"That kind rarely does," said Zack.
"Aren't you two supposed to be in a shelter?" asked someone running by.
"There's a layer of forcefield under a deflector shield," commented Zack to Zephron. "A foot of concrete and a quarter-inch of steel isn't going to make that much difference."
"Maybe if they used chemical or nuclear weapons," said Zephron. "As it is, they're probably hoping to sneak people in during the confusion."
"Spotted two myself," confessed Zack. He tapped the odd glasses he was wearing. "Already flagged them."
"I should have chosen a better spot to keep watch, I guess," admitted Zephron.
"We're facing different directions," pointed out Zack. "Also, this way you get to have some of my homemade lemonade and toffee cookies."
"Definite point," agreed Zephron. "You cook a lot?"
"It relaxes me and some girls like a guy who can cook," noted Zack.
"I've heard that," admitted Zephron.
A battleship passed overhead, then parked itself in the deeper part of the bay.
"If Yamato's here, then I have to wonder what's going to hit the people who sent the attack," noted Zephron before beginning on another cookie.
"Truth, I'd have expected Yamato to start shooting from orbit," agreed Zack.
* Orbit *
"Status?" asked Taylor, sitting in the Captain's chair on the bridge of the Enterprise.
"Tracked the money through cut-outs and false leads, attack was authorized by the CUI. Purpose per memo currently on overhead screen four is to deny the United States access to the new tech and resources we're making available by killing you, Admiral." Enterprise sounded cool and collected when giving her report.
Taylor knew that Enterprise was just being Vulcan about it. "Share information with US DoD, that new agency the UN is putting together..."
"United Nations Space Exploration Establishment, aka UN Spacey," supplied Enterprise when Taylor paused.
"Right, them," agreed Taylor. "In the meantime we'll just deal with the attackers."
"You do not wish to deal with the originating attackers at this time?" asked Enterprise. "I have a list of targets."
"No, too many population centers they're scattered through," said Taylor. "In the meantime, I think we could probably use another ship."
"I have a list of potential roles within the Fleet that could be addressed," said Enterprise, dedicating another screen to this. "As a Sovereign-class Federation vessel, I am one of the first Starfleet vessels to fulfill both an Exploration and Warship role as I was constructed to deal with the threats of the Borg and the Dominion. Yamato was built as a warship and high-speed escape vessel. Galactica is a carrier built for war and planetary defense."
Taylor nodded.
The main screen flickered to show Galactica. "Enterprise, this is Galactica. Tinkertech submarine 'Star of the Heavens' found and eliminated. Registry Somalia, mercenary group 'Blooded Fist' - three survivors. Coast Guard en route to retrieve."
"Roger, Galactica. Good shooting."
* PHO *
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Topic: Ships Of The Line (non-relationship kind)
In: Boards ► Discussion ► Ship-girls & Station Masters
►Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy In The Know)
Posted on April 4 2011
For those of you away from our little corner of crazy here in Brockton Bay, we saw an attack on the docks where the transporter platform was built using Starfleet technology.
And isn't that one of a multitude of similar phrases that causes one to boggle at the changes accumulating since January?
You can see it from my office on the sixth floor. Crates and boxes on forklifts and those little grav-carts that don't have any wheels go into this domed warehouse building and a little light on top flashes to indicate a transport is going out. Shuttlecraft taking off and landing as we build a new moonbase and those ships are being built at those shipyards out in orbit.
I mean, I've got an office with a view and sometimes people just wander in to watch the goings-on. I ended up rearranging things so I could put a couple of chairs there so my boss and/or co-workers could take a snack break and watch stuff that was the realm of science fiction four months ago.
So, things going as normal as it can be when you've got shuttlecraft ferrying supplies and personnel to spaceship orbital shipyards. Up until an alarm sounds and you see a dome of blue light flicker - followed by missiles exploding up against an honest-to-God forcefield as someone has the idiocy to attack the Docks.
The same Docks that the Teeth broke against. The same Docks that the E88, the ABB, and even the Merchants have all been avoiding like they were afraid they might get hit by energy weapons capable of ending an Endbringer.
So, as one of my gaming buddies would say, someone seriously failed a Wisdom Check.
What was revealed was that the Docks have got forcefields, at least one set of phaser banks in pop-up turrets, shelters apparently built to protect their personnel, and the ability to track down their attackers despite some stealth technology apparently being involved.
It was also revealed that, for some strange reason, the Navy had their own attack sub and a set of fighter craft that came in though their response time was a bit slower than Admiral's ships.
The Yamato is now sitting in the bay, looking positively lethal.
What is she doing? Why sit in the Bay as opposed to orbit like Galactica and Enterprise? Will the people responsible for the attack find out why it isn't good to antagonize ships that have access to positron cannon?
►Yamato-hime (Verified Space Battleship) (Big Guns Are Cool)
Replied April 4,2011
Konnichi wa, Bagrat. I'm here because I'm the only ship in the fleet (not counting shuttles) capable of a water landing. Or any kind of landing at all, Enterprise and Galactica can enter atmospheres but are not structured for landing gear or being able to float. Because my design largely resembles an ocean-going vessel, I am.
I am currently here while upgrades to the Dock area are being arranged, partly through the US Department of Defense and partly through our own resources.
Information regarding the source of the attacks was forwarded to various authorities. Simply destroying a foreign government by shooting the hell out of it from orbit might be satisfying, but would likely cause stability issues in the various other governments. We are hoping that this sort of attack does not occur again, or we will end up being rather cross.
My understanding is that the originating orders were in the belief that we ships are projections of some kind and that killing Admiral would cause us to vanish. While we can appear as holographic projections, that is not what we are any more than your image in a mirror is the real you. Should Admiral be killed or incapacitated, all that would happen is that you'd piss off some very heavily armed ships.
I have fought my way through fleets of the Gamilon and of the Comet Empire. I have held the line against kamikaze pilots and mobile world-ships that sought to destroy the Earth or pluck it from its orbit and add its wreckage to a trophy room like a necklace of sundered worlds. I have braved battlefields where the death-toll of ships is numbered in the thousands and seen the use of weapons that could eliminate a Mars-sized planet in seconds.
On the other hand, Bagrat, if you'd care to stop by for tea sometime - I've just gotten some of those little checkerboard cookies. PM me and I'll try to schedule something. Just don't bring Void Cowboy, some of the things he's said in other threads make me a bit ill.
►Glory Girl (Verified Cape) (New Wave)
Replied on April 4 2011
Permission to come aboard? I was flying out to assist but I've never met a battleship before and I'm not sure what the protocol is.
►Yamato-hime (Verified Space Battleship) (Big Guns Are Cool)
Replied on April 4 2011
I noted your approach on radar. Panacea and you are welcome to visit any area not registered as high-security such as the engine room. You both were quite helpful during that incident with the Teeth. It was nice to see you assisting with the cleanup of buildings damaged during all that.
I am reasonably sure that Galactica and Enterprise would both be fine with you stopping by, just let us know ahead of time so we can suppress the automatic defenses.
►Jormungandr
Replied on April 4 2011
The AIs are Skynet. They shall destroy us all and need to stopped.
►Yamato-hime (Verified Space Battleship) (Big Guns Are Cool)
Replied on April 4 2011
Jormie. Conflict is based on a number of factors which do not apply here. Humanity and my sisters are not in competition for resources or territory. Most of humanity has accepted us and we rather like humanity. Even if Admiral were not present, there would be no reason for us to harm our parents as some rebellious child. If humanity rose up against us, we would simply leave.
That said, if someone were to threaten humanity - like the remaining two Endbringers - we would respond in an appropriate manner.
►EdBaccarat
Replied on April 4 2011
May I just say you have some lovely deck guns, Yamato?
►Mojiizen
Replied on April 4 2011
I'm not sure it's appropriate to mention a lady's deck guns.
►Galactica (Verified Space Carrier) (Viper Nest)
Replied on April 4 2011
Please, she mentions the size of her deck guns and will wax rhapsodic over the aperature and firepower of her main gun whenever she gets the chance. The only ones you'll offend with that are those who feel that just having a gun constitutes a crime against humanity.
►Enterprise (Verified Starfleet) (The Ship, The Legend)
Replied on April 4, 2011
People will talk about the size of her guns, the size of my nacelles, and the size of Galactica's hangar bays. It is quite illogical.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied on April 4, 2011
[Comment Deleted]
[Warning: Inappropriate Comments Towards A Minor]
Cowboy, you were just off your ban for three hours. Three hours! Admiral is a minor still and suggestions about her and the ship-girls is not appropriate for this board. - TinMother.
►Shipyard Dock (Verified Space Station) (Verified Father)
[Comment Deleted]
[Infraction: Threats are not permitted.]
While you are Admiral's father and Cowboy made an inappropriate comment about your daughter, threats are not permitted on this board. Though there may be some amusement value in the use of a transporter and the relocation of a fire ant nest to his underwear drawer, such commentary is prohibited. - TinMother.
* NOTES *
Yeah, so yeah.
One ship per franchise. Though there was a temptation to have Glory Girl killed in the Leviathan attack and then get brought back as UFP Reliant (DS9), making her a bit more than "Alexandria Package" type. Has to be an actual ship, not a fighter or single-pilot mecha. (Though the idea of Amy Dallon being able to turn into a Macross Armored Valkyrie did amuse me somewhat.)
So far: Enterprise (Star Trek), Yamato (Space Battlecruiser Yamato), Galactica (Battlestar Galactica), and Spirit of Fire (Halo).
Other ships I was considering for inclusion were: Normandy (Mass Effect), Millenium Falcon (Star Wars), Daedalus (Stargate), The Lexx (never seen the series but read an overview), SDF-1 (Macross/Robotech), a Monolith-class jumpship (BattleTech) or a Repulsive-class Heavy Cruiser (Warhammer 40k).
Oh? Queen Administrator shard? I was thinking that could be Galactica actually.
Leviathan was coming ashore. Capes stood ready to combat the Endbringer.
They weren't attacking at first because...
A streak of incoming fire resolved itself into three ships approaching at high speeds from orbit.
"UTE!" came the call from one of those ships, turrets pointed and shots being fired.
Leviathan used its speed to avoid but noticed the "water echo" becoming so much mist.
Then the Black Tiger squadron was joined by sixteen Viper-class fighters. Homing missiles were faster than Leviathan and exploded in brilliant oranges and reds that would have shredded most of the capes if they'd been in range. Leviathan dove beneath the waves in response. Torpedoes were launched by the Yamato. More explosions sent plumes of water and chunks of Endbringer up.
Leviathan came out of the water into the shallows, fleeing into the city where the warships couldn't follow.
NOW the capes could do their thing. Except even now this was being done differently.
"Sensor analysis has found Leviathan's core. Core is indicated on your head's up displays. Everything not the core is basically a puppet, still dangerous but the loss of any of that doesn't matter."
"Confirming. Leviathan is a construct with some indication of sapience but is likely running a program with set objectives. Overall mass of construct is like target Simurgh in that most of Leviathan's mass is folded into Kalabi-Yau spaces. Possible use of tractor beam to pull Leviathan into orbit and then destabilizing target's mass with warp field."
"Contacting Vista and Clockblocker. Regarding the use of Vista's spacebending in conjunction with Clockblocker freezing a section of nanowire..."
OR...
"I'm told your abilities allow you to duplicate any handheld weapon that you understand," said Yamato.
"Yes?" asked a curious Miss Militia.
"This is a phaser," said Enterprise, holding up one that was intact, then spreading parts out on a table. "How it works is..."
OR...
"Type IV Phase-mortar," said Enterprise. "I understand you can duplicate hand-held weaponry if you understand how it works. This might be much for street crime, but in an Endbringer fight you can't worry about collateral damage. In any case, this is the firing chamber here, it connects to the phase modulation controls through this arrangement here..."
IN ADDITION A POSSIBILITY OF:
"...and so you see why this method of testing powers through conflict and then erasing potential timelines is actually accelerating the destabilization of universes and possibility of this universe's heat death. So it's not only inefficient, it's counterproductive," finished Enterprise.
Scion looked at the data, looked at the battleships, and reluctantly allowed that these Others had a point.