The gas giant spun on through the empty void, as it had done for billions of years. Its moons orbited as they always had… and who could say if they noticed the absence of a certain artificial ring structure that had traveled among them for far less than a million years. An eyeblink of time, by comparison.
"Any update from Anlace?" Colonel Jardin's voice sounded from the rear of the cockpit.
"Pinged us a few minutes ago." Alex answered. "They're still nailing down the wake echoes. Didn't say how soon they'll have something definite, but they have confirmed the earlier trajectory estimate that it ran off into Hierarchy space."
Talon nodded along. She had mostly followed Alex's explanation for how the human ships could track the slipspace route which the Soia's Ring had taken out of the system. At least, she got the general idea; Beryl had no doubt understood the underlying ideas better.
That said, it was interesting to finally learn something negative about the strange drive system used by the aliens and their ancient loroi allies. Imagine being able to track a vessel so long after it had left the system!
Although perhaps that was only the case for a 'vessel' as gigantic as the Ring.
A brief 'ping' emanated from Alex's station. "Ah, there we go. Anlace's opening a channel." He tapped a single command, and a box sprang into view on the display in front of him. It was written in Human, but Alex summarized it aloud. "They've got the track. Looks arrow-straight; I guess something that big pretty much generates its own threads. Anyways, the next system it intersects is, uh, one-hundred-sixty light-years distant, off to galactic rimward and a bit spinward. On the anti-spinward fringe of the old Empire, catalogue code USC-6307165."
Talon brought up the navigation system on her own console and carefully tapped out the code which Alex had spoken. After realizing just how much the aliens loved using nonsense-words to designate things — and what was wrong with real words? There was no such thing as a 'usc'! — Talon had asked Beryl to help her memorize both their alien letters and peculiarly-separate numeric symbols.
A skill which became now let her navigate the bizarre architecture of the prowler's computer system. "This is perhaps the correct star?"
Alex leaned over the center console. "Yeah, that's it."
{I earlier finished transcribing the Union's map of local space onto the human computer network.} Beryl sent, leaning past Talon to enter a brief command. The nonsensical alien star labels were suddenly joined by nice, familiar Union identifiers.
Looking at the highlighted star now labeled, both loroi froze for a solon. Then Talon let out a snort. "It seems that this system is known to the Union. And I think maybe it is most appropriate for the Ring to go there."
"Oh?" asked Alex. A rustling of the strange cloth-like material the humans wore under their armor indicated that the Colonel had also leaned in closer to listen.
"It is the 'Ukko' system." Talon spoke. "Where the war against the Shells began, when they fired on our ships there."
It made a sort of sense, really. The war started in Ukko, and it now seemed that soon enough it would end in Ukko.
"Huh. A two-for-one deal, then." said Alex. "You put the final nail in the Hierarchy, and we take out the last reminder of the Soia Empire, all in one move."
{Nail?} asked Spiral.
{A human saying, I assume.} replied Beryl.
It didn't seem to make much sense to Talon, but then again they were aliens. "And perhaps maybe we even capture the Ring instead!"
And what a prize that would be. Even so many nanapi later, the sight of that white-blue beam of energy that had leapt up from the Ring to smash apart Strike Group 51 was still burned into Talon's mind. What could weapons like that do in loroi hands? After teams of gallen had had their chance to crawl over its workings and reverse-engineer the device?
"That would be optimal, yes." came the low voice of Colonel Jardin behind her. "But I would not be too hopeful." His arm rose above her, pointing at the map. "If that system is as close as it looks to the front-line, we can expect a strong enemy presence around the Ring already. We can get a team aboard with scuttling charges, but I wouldn't predict that we could hold the Ring against an enemy with orbital control."
"It is not then possible for you to 'turn off' the Ring when you land?" Talon asked. "If it is no longer holding Slipspace most closed, even Dreadstars could arrive and defend against the Hierarchy attack response."
The Colonel chuckled lowly. "Even dreadstars aren't invincible, especially when they've got no real screening force and are as under-crewed as the two Legions are. They'd have to have a very good reason for them to jump straight into a fight like we're likely to find in this 'Ukko' system. I can probably talk them into being on standby 'above' the system waiting in slipspace as an emergency reserve, but only if we need cover for our withdrawal after destroying the Ring." He let out a sigh. "And we do have to destroy it. My team can override a small system like a single STO battery, but the main computer systems are certain to be locked behind Council-level access codes. Only a living Soia of that rank could have just 'turned it off.'"
And so, just like last time she'd 'visited' the ancient Soia structure, Talon would be sneaking in right under the chins of the Shells. At least she would be making the approach in an advanced ancient alien 'prowler' rather than a crippled, out-of-control shuttle.
{It still seems a pity that we cannot wait until a Union fleet could attack the system with enough force to capture the Ring rather than destroy it.} Talon mused.
Sanzai slightly muted by distance, parat Tempo explained from the crew compartment {It was judged too risky for a fleet to penetrate that deeply into Hierarchy lines. Even concentrating the forces needed would take several nanapi, and would require allocating the entire remainder of the reserve flotillas.}
Talon grimaced. The reserves had already been largely depleted in order to blunt — and eventually, force back — the Shells' Lotai Offensive. It would do the Union no good if they grabbed hold of the ancient weapons aboard the Ring, only for the Shells in the meantime to strike deep into the heart of Loroi space.
But just because it made sense didn't mean she had to like it.
{Look on the good side, Plunger!} Spiral joined in, {we get to deliver the Shells on the Ring a big, explosive present for a second time!}
{And using a most interesting weapon.} Beryl added eagerly. {We will see a human Nova bomb in action!}
That did promise to be an exciting observation. Although… {I do wish that they had told us about it earlier, though.} Talon grumbled.
Beryl raised one eyebrow. {Would knowing that there was a planet-killing superbomb sitting in the main weapons bay no more than eight paces below you all this time have made you feel more comfortable, earlier?}
{Well, yes.} Talon blinked. {Of course.}
After a moment, Beryl broke out into laughter. {Tenoin.}
"Hmm?" Alex glanced aside at Beryl, before turning his eyes on Talon with a grin. "What did you say?"
"How are you certain that it was me? Not instead Spiral?" Despite her protestations, Talon couldn't keep her own smile from breaking out.
"Because I know you." His grin shifted into a warm smile.
Talon's heart skipped a beat. No wonder that the Union kept males far away from the warriors at the front — that smile was distracting.
But pleasantly so.
A low cough from the rear of the cockpit reminded her that they had company. "Did the transmission from Anlace include further orders? A route plan, perhaps?" Colonel Jardin interrupted.
"Yes, uh, of course." Alex whirled back to his controls and brought up a map of the local system. "We're closing the formation now, ready to depart once all craft are within sync-jump range."
The icons indicating the four human craft crawled across the screen. Talon was still adjusting to just how slow the ancient warships were. The humans may have advanced weapons and nigh-unlimited strategic mobility, but the in-system speed of their vessels left much to be desired. Had their gallen just… 'forgot' to develop engines to match their fantastically-destructive weapons?
Then again, she well remembered the heavy armor plating that she had seen personally on that crashed human transport ship in this very system, what felt like so long ago. The armor had been incredibly thick — over six paces; she had measured it when they left!
Perhaps the ancient human ship-designers had simply had other priorities besides speed.
"We'll be in-formation and aligned in two minutes." Alex announced.
"Good. Pipe any further messages from Commander Yao to my cabin." A few footsteps, and then the door hissed shut behind the human warrior.
"He does not wish to observe the jump?" Beryl asked.
It did seem strange. Usual practice in the Union was for a vessel's captain to be present on the bridge for each faster-than-light jump. After all, there was always the chance of something going wrong, and the captain was the one who the Union had entrusted with the warship and his crew.
"Synchronized slipspace jumps are… uncomfortable for the flight crew, anyone directly observing it." Alex explained. "Where the entry portals overlap, they..." he held up one hand and wiggled it. "… I'm not sure how to say it in Trade. But it hurts to look at." Before any of the loroi in the compartment could say anything, he continued "Doesn't seem to mess with loroi, though. You're lucky."
Or Soia-engineered, more likely. Perhaps it was similar to how lesser— to how alien species who were not also Soia-Liron experienced sickness during hyper-jumps.
Although… "Will you be feeling well during this jump, Alex?" Spiral asked, before Talon could do the same. It was strange to hear the Maiad speak in such a serious tone. "I and Talon can most certain do piloting for you if the jumping is unpleasant for you."
"Thanks, but I'll be fine. I… uh, got used to it. All pilots do, or we find another specialization."
The two diral-sisters exchanged a glance, before turning back to their stations. Well, if Alex was certain… at least it spoke well of his determination that he chose to sit through it.
The vessels had now drawn close enough that Talon could track them visually through the prowler's windows. One prowler nestled among three 'frigates' each as large as a Union cruiser or battleship.
She eyed the flagship of their small squadron, the odd vessel out. As a fighter pilot, Talon had spent more time looking at ships from the outside than most other warriors, and so the 'small' frigate stood out from its two brothers. With the flowing lines of his hull, Anlace seemed to be born of an entirely different design philosophy than the Savannah or Mortal Reverie that crowded in at his side.
Maybe once they were underway, she'd ask Alex about it.
Once all four warships were in position — close enough that Talon could count the weapons-turrets dotting Savannah's flank — Alex keyed the intercom and announced "Prepare for synchronized slipspace jump. Sixty seconds to entry. That's fifty-five solon."
It was considerate of him to translate the timing, but the human 'second' was close enough to a proper solon that they seemed interchangeable enough to Talon.
Hopefully the bridge crew of Anlace were as mindful of their Union passengers. Teidar Mallas Deepline was no Stillstorm, yes, but one look at her as they were being shuttled over to the human vessel from Seren's citadel had made Talon happy that the grim teidar was not on the same ship as she was. Definitely not the sort of person one would want to irritate.
Then again, what other type of warrior would have earned such a high rank within the Azerein's own Guard?
Perhaps thinking along similar lines, Spiral mused {You know, it would have been simpler if we could have just dropped this nova bomb onto the Ring. No having to sneak it down inside before exploding it.}
Talon sent a sub-verbal pulse of agreement. Although there were some positives, such as—
{But it means we get to have one last look at the Soia architecture!} exclaimed Beryl.
As predicted.
The listel continued {The route to the optimal detonation point will take us deep into the interior of the Ring, through maintenance tunnels. Just imagine what we will see there, away from the decorative nature scenes installed on the surface!}
{More of that sanzai-blocking gray metal?} deadpanned Spiral.
{Well, yes.} Beryl admitted. {Almost certainly. But maybe also some of the machinery that has successfully maintained an artificial ecosystem for three-hundred-thousand years!}
{And the whole slipspace-blocking-field too.} added Talon. {Which is why we're going there, after all.}
But once that field was down, just imagine the looks on the Shells' faces when two dreadstars dropped in on them! Well, technically their ugly faces didn't actually 'show' anything, but still. The peculiar light-dampening nature of slipspace had meant that even in their docking earlier Talon hadn't actually seen the ancient moon-ships in their entirety, but the sight of massive hull-plates stretching out past the limit of vision out to each side had been impressive enough even so.
She was definitely looking forwards to whenever she got to see one in realspace.
"Huh. That's unexpected." Alex said, staring at the display. Did Ever Plummet Sound floated deep in the Ukko system, observing the Ring below them in its new home.
And with its new addition.
"You can say that again." his uncle agreed. "How that got there, I'll never know."
"Tugged along in the slipstream wake, maybe? Could've been picked up just as the Ring was leaving the system."
"Then where's the impact crater? No, that's been set down there, deliberately."
Talon interjected into the rushed human conversation "But what is it?" The display highlighted the gigantic chunk of metal — clearly a starship fragment of some sort, to her eye — that now sat atop two mountaintops on the Ring surface below.
Looming over the underground central control facility, where their team had planned to put the bomb.
Because of course.
But anyways, while the display labeled the object in nice Trade lettering, the actual words and numbers meant little to Talon. She was a tenoin, not a listel!
{It is part of a Soia construct.} sent Beryl, even before the cockpit door hissed open to admit the white-haired warrior. {If I am not mistaken, it is even yet another part of—}
"Grand Unity." Colonel Jardin ground out, unknowingly completing Beryl's thought. "Or a chunk of her, at any rate. The Soia dreadstar that we boarded, back just after we first met."
The Soia Council's own flagship. The humans were right — how had that gotten here? Another part of that ship had been 'sitting' in Slipspace near the earlier system, could ships travelling through slipspace 'pick up' other objects waiting there? For that matter, was this the same part of the ancient dreadstar that Stillstorm's boarding team had fought aboard?
She could see exposed decks and shorn-off metal plating, all blackened and twisted. Clearly it had not been separated neatly from the rest of the dreadstar, yet this chunk of that ancient dread vessel had managed to reenter realspace without any evident signs of a violent impact onto the Ring?
It was unnerving.
"Well, it's definitely canned our plan." Alex noted. "It's swarming with Bugs, and they've got hundreds of ships holding station just above it. They wouldn't even have to spot us on sensors if we try and move in close there; we'd just physically bump into them at that sort of crowding."
"Plan Q it is, then." his uncle sighed. "Take us out-system and back to slipspace. The Commander'll want to hear this."
"Yup. Looks like the gun crew might get to get their hands dirty, after all."
Talon asked "Four warships against several entire Shell divisions? That seems to be high odds." A bit much even for Strike Group 51, really. Even with the advantage of surprise.
"With how packed-together they are? We sneak in a Shiva or two, then the three frigates jump in right on top of them and raise Hell with their broadside armament. Like letting a family of foxes into a hen-house… after you've set off a grenade in it first."
The door hissed open and Colonel Jardin stepped out of the cockpit, pausing to throw over his shoulder with a chuckle "Calm your jets there, young Cole. We've got all the time we need, and they don't know we're here. I think the Commander will have a somewhat more… conservative plan."
As the cockpit hatch closed behind him, Alex let out a brief chuckle of his own. "Has he met the Commander?"
As the Plummet stealthily drifted away from the Ring, Talon turned to Alex. "What is a 'cole'?"
"Human vice-admiral. Preston J. Cole. Best naval leader the UNSC ever saw, and the only person to ever put the fear of God into the Soia before their civil war."
"He is perhaps a human Tempest?" Spiral ventured.
"Heh. Yeah, that's actually pretty accurate from everything I've heard about him. Anyways, he's known for liberal use of nuclear munitions and surprise attacks against the Soia. He's used nuclear warheads for everything: booby traps, maneuvering aids, atmospheric demolition, covering a slipspace—" Alex cut himself off. "Well, I guess that last one turned out to just be a rumor, or else he'd still be around."
"That seems to be a very interesting story!" Beryl exclaimed. "These are not standard—"
"Uh, hold on, sorry. We're coming up on our jump point to regroup with the rest of the squadron." Alex leaned forwards, hands playing across the controls.
The Plummet neatly cut his way back into slipspace, emerging within communications range of Anlace and the other two waiting frigates.
"Reports packaged & sent. Now we wait." Alex reclined back in his chair, turning to Beryl. "Anyways, Cole was known for being a very out-of-the-box thinker. Pity he disappeared — well, died — before the Soia Civil War; now that you've mentioned it, I bet he'd have gotten along great with Tempest. If she could forgive him for Psi Serpentis, at any rate."
"Psi Serpentis?" Talon carefully pronounced the alien words.
"Battle where he disappeared. See, he'd led a counterattack into the Outer Colonies starting six years after the war began. Had already cornered the moonships Accuser and Stalker, destroying both with all hands and subships in two separate battles. Really put egg on the Soia's faces, losing two entire dreadstars like that. So Tempest—"
His console chirped at him, and he tapped a single command back. "Comms request from Yao for Uncle, I've put her through. Anyways, Tempest got direct orders straight from the Council to pull every available ship in the theater and hunt down Cole. She always said it was a stupid order: Cole's fleet was getting further and further away from the UNSC's front-line with every system she took, so he was going to get attrited down eventually even without pulling her own ships from the ongoing offensive."
Talon grimaced, exchanging a knowing look with the other loroi in the cockpit. The risks of an admiral getting cut off in enemy territory were well-known to everyone in the Union, after Sunfall's disastrous demise.
"But the Council had sent one of their own along with two brand-new dreadstars as reinforcements; Tempest wasn't on the Council herself at that time and so the idiot had enough authority to override her." He glanced aside for a moment, frowning. "Was the 'Minister for Public Morale' or something like that, if I remember right. Anyways, Tempest manages to get most of her experienced ships and crews left behind to continue the offensive without her, and takes the fresh-from-training reinforcements as well as a few of her own ships and moves to cut off Cole from withdrawing to UNSC space. All while this Council bureaucrat breathed down her neck."
"Well, she found him." Alex smirked. "Harried Battlegroup Everest, eventually forced him into an engagement in the Psi Serpentis system. Uninhabited, couple rocky planets… and one heavy gas giant. Lot of compressed helium, just ready to pop into a brown dwarf by itself in a few million years."
An odd detail to mention.
"They skirmish back and forth for a few days, leaving dead ships strewn across half the system." Alex paused, chuckling. "Even get a surprise attack by a few Innie squadrons out of nowhere." at Talon's questioning look, he hastily added "Story for another day.
"Anyways, Cole is surrounded, outgunned, and bound to lose. So he runs out Everest herself ahead of the formation, broadcasting his identity and service history on open channels to anyone and everyone. Really beats the drum of 'Me mighty warrior, me defeat many dreadstars, who here strong enough to fight me ship-to-ship?' hard."
Alex flicked a quick smile at Talon. "Now, uh, I don't know how that would work against your modern loroi, but for the bunch of rookie warriors the Council had sent out fresh from training? Just about the entire subship complement of all but one of the four dreadstars under Tempest's command — over three-hundred warships — immediately light off their engines and beeline for Everest."
"That seems most unfair." Talon spoke. Not to mention stupid. If they wanted to 'best' an accomplished alien admiral, then drowning him in numbers wasn't going to prove anything. And the smart thing when an alien commander makes such an obvious taunt is to ignore him until you figure out his plan.
She did not doubt that some loroi would have been foolish enough to fall for it. But twenty-five years of constant warfare had… 'removed' such officers from the Union.
Along with far too many of their wiser comrades.
"It was unfair — in Cole's favor. He dives Everest into the gas giant, and they follow. Just as they enter the gas, he sets off every remaining nuke that he carried. Gas giant ignites into a new brown dwarf, three hundred Empire subships get cooked, and Preston Cole goes down in history."
That was… a crazy story. Not the sort of battle that would ever be seen in the war against the Shells — the Enemy weren't stupid enough to fall for a trick like that, and no Union commander was insane enough to try.
Although maybe if someone gave Stillstorm enough warheads...
Alex chuckled, briefly. "Legend says that he made a last-minute slipspace jump out just before the blast got to Everest, but I guess that turned out to just be legend."
Talon frowned. "If his craft had survived, would he not have immediately rejoined his fleet?"
"Uh, maybe not." Alex waggled one hand. "There were… 'other' stories. Stuff that Uncle told me, that weren't supposed to go beyond ONI ears." He waved the hand dismissively. "Anyways, Tempest ends up with most of her fleet screen just gone. She could have continued and pressed the attack directly with her dreadstars, but even the Council weenie wasn't crazy enough to try that without enough subships to keep the UNSC's heavy-hitters at arm's length.
"Of course, Soia being Soia, Tempest is the one who ends up getting most of the blame for the whole fiasco. Only got saved because ONI's retaliation strikes on the Empire proper starting up around that time and the Council got desperate enough to not make an example of her. She got pulled home to chase shadows for a few years, and you've heard how things went from there already."
Talon could only shake her head. "It is a strange indeed story."
"So it is. But storytime's over." came the brusque voice of the Colonel behind her. She hadn't heard the door open — was a spoken-aloud tale really that interesting, to distract her so? "We're headed back in within the hour. Palmer's briefing the troops, and Tempo's seeing to her own ground-pounders."
"What's the plan? We go in to clear out the Bugs?"
"We're ignoring the Bugs. I've dug through the map of the Ring that Tempest sent, just before she left." If his voice caught at the reminder of his life-mate's death, Talon didn't notice. "There's another access tunnel that leads to the point where we'd need to set the NOVA. A slight detour, but it means we don't have to fly any closer than fifty klicks of the enemy's ships."
{Parat?} Talon asked. Best to check if the mizol had orders for her and Spiral just yet.
{You two tenoin will work alongside Pilot Jardin aboard the prowler for the first part of the plan.} responded Tempo.
"Fifty klicks? Long way to walk." Talon felt a slight headache developing as she tried to follow both Tempo's sanzai and the humans' spoken conversation simultaneously. "This a multi-day mission now?"
{If all goes to plan, the three of you will remain on the prowler while the ground team carries out the mission, preparing to depart rapidly once we return.}
"Negative. That's why the Plummet won't be going back in alone. One of Anlace's Seagulls is loading the heavy strike team, Union special forces and Spartans both. They'll drop out of slipspace alongside us, and we shield them from enemy sensors on the run in."
{Affirmative, parat.} Talon had been looking forwards to destroying a Shell ship or two herself from the helm of the Plummet, but it sounds like that plan had been resigned. Being a glorified transport pilot wasn't as much fun, but if it won the war…
"What can a non-stealthy Seagull do that we can't?"
"Fit inside the Ring's secondary maintenance tunnels, for one thing. There's one that will take us from the new landing site all the way to underneath the detonation point."
{Good.} Some of Tempo's good mood leaked into her sanzai, an uncharacteristically open move from the mizol. {Three-hundred solon after we take off, the bomb detonates and the Ring is destroyed.}
{And the war is over!} supplied Spiral, her own eagerness not even slightly shielded.
"Flying a Seagull underground? I don't envy the pilot."
"Yao swears that her stick-jockey's up to the task. Can't say I like putting the Furies on someone else's crate, but it can't be helped."
Alex switched to English. "[Well, we all hitched a ride with Talon from the fire-control station over to where the Plummet was stashed, when we all first met. That was fine.]"
"[Perhaps it was, for you up in the cockpit. Crammed down below, surrounded by unfamiliar, wary loroi? It was not an enjoyable journey.]"
Talon was pretty sure she recognized her own name in English, there. She'd asked Alex about that some time ago, although they'd both decided to keep using their spoken names in their respective languages — '[Talon]' sounded as strange to her ears as 'Enzin' seemed to be for Alex. Which was a pity; 'Guardian of the Garden' was a good name for a warrior, both tough-sounding and exotic!
Still, they were talking about her? "I think maybe your UNSC can produce more than one good pilot." She gestured to Alex, smirking.
Both humans looked at her silently for a heartbeat or two, and then Alex chuckled. "What she said. You'll be fine."
His uncle snorted. "Here's hoping. Anyways, the new landing point is on an island off in the middle of a large sea. Well-isolated, and no Bug ships sitting overhead. Apparently it's a maintenance hub or something. There's a small hangar off to one side where you'll hide the Plummet, while the rest of us enter the security station to open the tunnel access."
"Any resistance expected on the ground?"
"Doubt it. But just to be safe," the Colonel turned to Spiral, "have the EWAR systems blanketing the island as we come in. No communications out or in."
{Affirmative.} Spiral sent. A beat later, and she repeated aloud with only a tinge of embarrassment "Affirmative." It looked like the young narrat would get to put Alex's training on the prowler's systems to the test, even if her practice flights in the pilot's seat would go unused. Fortunately, the electronic warfare systems were almost-entirely automated.
It was an… 'interesting' experience to be cross-trained in so many aspects of operating a craft like this, but both tenoin had found the lessons quite enjoyable. And not just because of their teacher.
"Estimated time for the ground team's mission is seven hours."
"Seven hours?" Alex asked. "Long flight time, for fifty kilometers. The Plummet could cross that in three minutes, without even generating a detectable wake."
"In a straight line, perhaps. But these are maintenance tunnels; they meander all over." Colonel Jardin shook his head. "And we'll be out of communications range as soon as the Seagull enters the tunnel, but if we're not back by eight hours..." the older human's voice was grim. "leave without us and get well clear of the Ring."
Alex and Talon exchanged a worried glance, but the human pilot replied in a firm voice "Understood. Hope it doesn't come to that, though."
"You and me both. I'd like to live to see a future free of Soia interference, now that that's an option."
Perhaps a few hundred solon after the Colonel had left the cockpit, the radio squawked. "[Bravo Five-oh-two to Did Ever Plummet Sound, we're taking station below you. Separation three-four meters.]"
"[Plummet copies.]" Alex responded. After a brief chuckle he added "[Is that you, Bullseye?]"
"[The one-and-only! How're you doing over there, Fireball?]"
"[Never better. Sounds like you drew the short straw for today's flying, huh?]"
"[I volunteered, thank you very much. Two-hundred klicks each way, top-speed through narrow corridors, less than ten meters space off each wing? This calls for the best pilot.]"
"[Never change, Bullseye. Never change.]" Alex leaned back in his seat, a warm smile spreading across his face. After glancing over at Talon's questioning look, he tapped a button on his console. "The Seagull's pilot is Bullseye, a friend of mine from flight school." The smile faded. "We're the only two left, he and I."
Talon nodded in understanding. "You are like diral-brothers." A strange term — what would a male diral trial be, anyways? 'Competitive Poetry-Writing'? — but it seemed to fit the aliens.
"Yeah, something like that." He looked past Talon. "Like you and Spiral, I guess. But without the face-tattoo."
Spiral asked "Are human pilot-diral using any mark to show their together-ness?"
"Actually, uh, we did all get the same tattoo. It wasn't my idea, though; blame Fireball." Alex responded, a faint blush for some reason rising on his cheeks.
Understanding hit Talon. "Oh! I think maybe that is what that mark meant!" She clamped down on her explanatory side-channels just a beat before Spiral's surge of curiosity hit her. {It is for you to discover for yourself!} Talon sent, wry humor filling her sub-channels.
{Oooh – no fair! Where is the tattoo?} the younger tenoin asked.
{You will find out for yourself soon enough, I think. Unless perhaps that was all bluster, earlier aboard Seren citadel?} It was not often that Talon got to be the one teasing Spiral, so she was going to get as much out of it as she could.
{Certainly not bluster!} Spiral sent back, before grumbling {Shredded small prowler, no room for privacy...}
{Then it seems your discovery will have to wait until after the Ring is destroyed and we dock with a larger vessel.}
"That, uh, yeah. Like I said, not my idea. But it was right after graduation, we were all a bit drunk, and none of us thought we'd be alive in five years anyways. So here we are." He tapped the same button once more. "[Bullseye, we are go for slipspace exit, sixty seconds. All passengers secured? It's going to be a bit bumpy, popping out in a Seagull.]"
"[Everyone's strapped down back there. Cargo straps for the big ones: don't want the Spartans pinballing around. Anyways, coming up on four-five seconds… mark.]"
"[Copy. We're spinning up the drive now, should emerge within two light-seconds of the Ring. Comms stay silent after exit and until we both get down close to the deck; we'll run cover for you as you make for the island. Happy hunting, Bullseye.]"
"[Same, Fireball. No sudden maneuvers, okay?]"
"[Who, me? I'd never! Out.]" Alex closed the channel, laughing.
The spoken words meant nothing to Talon, but she could recognize the happy familiarity in Alex's voice. It was always fascinating to be reminded that while the humans were aliens, they were so loroi-like at the same time.
{And not just in body shape.} Spiral sent.
{Indeed so.} Talon agreed, before turning her attention back to her station. Alex would be doing all of the flying, and unless something went very wrong Talon's position as the weapons-control officer of the prowler wouldn't be needed at all.
"All systems report green; twenty solon 'till jump."
From what Talon had heard earlier, even for the humans it was an unusual and difficult procedure to take one of their small Seagull craft out of slipspace even though it did not have its own drive. But by staying very close to the Plummet, like an adventurous child clinging to the back of a sprinting miros, it could be done. Either way, she was not going to distract Alex while he concentrated on his task.
"Ten… five… and go."
The Did Ever Plummet Sound slipped neatly back into realspace, the black void visible through the cockpit windows suddenly aglow with stars.
"[Drift one-five centimeters. Adjusting.]"
While Alex muttered to himself, Talon took a moment to drink in the sight both through the windows and the sensor display repeated on her console. She had been more distracted in their first flight through the system only a cycle earlier, but now had a few solon to really think about where she was.
This was it — the Ukko system. Where the war began. Her creche instructor hadn't known exactly where in the system that fateful patrol had been when they were fired on by the Shells, but Talon still swallowed against the dryness of her throat as she glanced over the many enemy icons dotting the sensor readout. Had the loroi looking at a similar fleet in this very system some twenty-five years ago understood the significance of that violent moment?
No matter. Talon was here to correct the events of that long-ago battle. The Shells had begun the war in this system... and Talon would help end it in the same place.
"No change in Shell formations or patrolling patterns since our last being here." Spiral spoke.
"Copy. Looks like we're on-track." Alex gently engaged the engines, and the Plummet drifted forwards towards the massive Ring looming ahead. Well, 'looming' only in the sensor readouts; it was far too distant to see by eye. "Estimate two-thousand solon until we begin our braking maneuver; we'll drift until then."
"Affirmative."
The two craft dove inwards, the shadowy bulk of the prowler shielding the smaller dropship. It was fortunate indeed that the Shells near the Ring were so concentrated; that made it simple to position the prowler between them and the Seagull. That said, as Talon's tenoin instructor had reminded her so many times, when dalid seems to be smiling on you is when one should really search for an incoming threat.
"Why are they grouping so over that Soia wreck on the Ring surface?" Talon asked, after a long time of silence.
"Hmm? Well, it's a fragment of a moonship. Even if the Bugs don't know what it is exactly, they can probably see that it's built from a lot of the same materials as the Ring's support structure. I'd actually be more worried if they weren't curious about it."
"That is true, yet those are each warships clustered over it. I think maybe that 'curiosity' would bring more non-combat vessels, yes?" Even the Shells must have their own equivalent of gallen technical experts too valuable to risk on the front lines; the war would have been over long ago if they hadn't.
"Good point." He shrugged. "I guess they remember what happened to them the last time they tried poking around something funny they found on the Ring." A sharp grin spread across his face, like a hungry predator spotting its next meal. "After all, they found us. Looks like they're taking no chances about what they think they might find aboard the fragment, this time."
"Perhaps. If there are surviving warriors of the Soia Empire on that dreadstar piece, what would they do when they met the Shells, do you think?"
"Easy. The same thing the Empire always do when they meet someone who doesn't kowtow to them immediately: open fire."
She thought she understood what Alex meant, even with some of his native language sprinkled into the spoken Trade. And the thought of Shells fighting against the Soia was amusing; two enemies of the loroi wasting their energy against one another.
Silence descended over the cockpit once more. Eventually, just as the Ring began to be visible to the eye, Alex spoke "Deceleration burn in twenty solon. That'll bring us down to safe speed for when we hit atmosphere."
"Affirmative." Talon flexed her fingers. It was frustrating not to have any task to perform, instead sitting and watching Alex do all the work. She had never thought that she'd miss flying her old Arrow light interceptor — the terrifying feel of flying a screen-less tiny craft through the thick of a battle, torpedoes and plasma-fire flashing past with every heartbeat — but at least she always had something to do there.
The two craft eased into the Ring's atmosphere. Rather than the slow increase in air resistance during descent over a planet, the artificial containment of the Ring showed itself as a sudden spike in drag. The prowler bucked slightly underfoot, and the roar of displaced air rushing past filled the cockpit.
"Five-oh-two's still holding station, good." Alex muttered. "That was the hard part. Spiral, anything unusual on EWAR?"
"Negative." the narrat replied. "It is saying that all is normal."
"Even better. Seagull's breaking off from us in five… and there they go."
From underneath the pointed nose of the prowler visible from the cockpit, the gray-green shape of the alien dropship emerged, accelerating towards the island growing ever-larger below.
"And… holding us steady, two klicks up and orbiting the island."
"Good." came the Colonel's voice from behind them as he leaned into the cockpit. "Anything from Five-oh-two?"
"Nope, so that's good news. We've got eyes on them, flaring to hover just outside that security station. Soia sure do build big, I must say. Looks like the ground team is hopping out, and—shit!"
"Weapons-fire!" reported Spiral. Redundantly, as the bright flashes of energy bolts could be seen by eye even at this distance.
"[Plummet, Bravo five-oh-two! The Bugs've got ground forces in the station, taking fire!]" A deep hammering noise could be heard over the other human pilot's radio transmission. "[I'm feeding them the seventy-mike-mike, hope the front of that facility isn't important. There's a damn lot of them, th—]"
The transmission cut off abruptly, at the same time as a burst of alarm from Spiral preceded her announcing "The dropship is hit! It is falling to the ground!"
"Fuck, they took a bolt right on the cockpit dome." Alex ground out. "Shields should have caught it, but maybe it blinded Bullseye or something. They've set down on the sand, hard but not a crash."
"Bring us down, quick." the Colonel ordered, as he leaned over Alex to tap the radio button. "[Ground team, Fury Actual. Status on Echo Five-oh-two and enemy presence?]"
Talon counted heartbeats while waiting for the response. Three… four… five…
"[Fury Actual, ground team is okay. Little banged up, but the Bugs got it worse.]" A human woman's voice, impressively calm despite the unexpected fight. Or perhaps it was an 'ambush'?
A trickle ran down Talon's spine. Did the Shells somehow know they were coming?
"[Glad to hear it, Cortana. And Bullseye?]"
"[Marines are popping the cockpit seal as we speak. It looks like a high-powered shot pierced the shield and splashed the glass. Possible penetration. And— oh, Hell. Bullseye and co-pilot are alive and stable, but they took spalling damage to the face and upper body. We've got two blind pilots down here.]"
"[Understood. Pop the hangar door for us, we're coming in.]" the Colonel cut the radio, and clapped one hand onto Alex's shoulder. "Looks like you're getting kicked back to Seagull pilot. Open-cockpit, too."
"I'll wear a scarf." Alex said, running one hand through his hair even as the Plummet slowed his descent into a hover perhaps sixteen mannal above the shoreline. The artificial Soia structures — well, more obviously artificial than the natural-looking engineered Ring scenery — disappeared out of sight as the prowler nosed forward towards what looked like an empty cliff face.
But Talon had seen its like before. Apparently the Soia liked their hangars hidden. Sure enough, the rock face ahead of them began to slide up and out of the way, and smooth overhead lighting clicked on to show an empty hangar, just large enough for the craft. Perfectly identical to the last Soia hangar she'd seen; a corner of Talon's mind half-expected to see a Union Hydra dropship sitting in the corner, still waiting for her return.
Yet no, that was in a different identical hangar hidden behind a cliff face on an island in the middle of a beautiful, calm sea. The Soia certainly had a 'type' when it came to architectural preferences.
"What has happened?" she asked, once the ship had touched down and Alex should not need all of his attention on flying. Boots clanged loudly against metal from behind them as the ground team immediately left the prowler and ran for the rendezvous point.
"Seagull took fire from the Bugs. Shot hit the cockpit glass, spalling blinded the pilot and copilot. That leaves one qualified Seagull pilot left around here, and you're looking at him." His fingers danced across the controls, and the prowler hummed around them as systems powered-down. "Which complicates things a bit." He looked up at her, even as his hands continued to work by what could only be muscle-memory. "Are you up for learning to copilot a Seagull? Bit of on-the-job training?"
Talon pulled her shoulders back. "There is no machine a tenoin pilot cannot fly!" Now that her caste's honor had been satisfied, she did have questions. "But it seems like this long flight will be most difficult compared even to normal flying, yes?"
"I'll handle that. Copilot's mostly just there for emergencies and to operate the weapons systems. Big gun and a heavy laser on the chin; some missiles under the wings too but we shouldn't need them underground. You'll pick it up in no time."
He stood from his seat and turned to Spiral. "Will you be okay watching the fort here? A few troops from the ground team will be staying behind as a perimeter guard, but if things go very wrong you might need to fly the Plummet out of here in a hurry."
"I—" Spiral's voice cut off, and she looked past Alex to meet Talon's eyes. {That would only happen if you are not coming back.}
{It is possible.} Talon acknowledged. {But we will set off the bomb, no matter what. The Ring will be destroyed, and the Shells will lose.} She cracked a thin smile. {And at least someone from the diral will be there to see it. Promise me.}
"Yes." Spiral said, speaking to both as she turned her gaze on Alex. "I will do this. But I hope that I will not have to."
"You and me both." Alex reached out one hand and grasped Spiral's shoulder. Then, after a moment of visible hesitation, he pulled the narrat into a hug. Quietly enough that Talon could only barely hear him, he murmured "I'll bring Talon back, don't you worry… Seed-Head."
Spiral froze briefly, eye flitting back to Talon. Then she grinned and put her arms around him, hugging the alien back. "You will, Fireball."
Well, if there was anybody that the two tenoin would allow to use her and Spiral's diral-names, it would be Alex.
{May good fortune find you both.} Spiral sent, uncommonly serious. She indicated the offline cockpit display, which had only a bima ago listed the four Union kinetic missiles sitting ready in the Plummet's weapons bays. Wry amusement shot through her sanzai, laced with fierce determination. {If you do not return, I will burn a Shell ship as your remembrance candle!}
It was a touching promise… and a reminder that playful Maiad or not, Spiral was always a tenoin.
Talon paused in the doorway, Alex already halfway to the rear ramp. {If we do not return, I think it will be because we have lit the whole Ring to our own memory!}
But Talon was smiling as the door closed behind her.
While jogging over to the almost-crashed Seagull along with the rest of the Plummet's part of the ground team, they passed a few human marines going the other way, supporting the injured flight crew of the dropship. Synthetic-cloth medical pads covered their eyes, and Talon recognized the viscous 'biofoam' where some of it had dripped out from underneath.
Alex paused, just long enough to pat the other pilot on the back. "[No worries, Bullseye, your bird's in good hands.]"
"[Just have her back by midnight and no funny business, yeah?]"
"[With her honor intact, naturally!]" The two pilots shared a laugh, even as they parted ways.
Hopefully not for the last time.
Once closer to the Seagull, Talon eyed the Shell corpses that were piled around the entrance to the major facility which towered overhead. More than thirty-two workers and twelve hardtroops, in various states of violent disassembly.
As they deserved.
Curiously, one of the hardtroops was missing an entire cybernetic arm, and was slumped against the wall below a large blackened scorch-mark. She allowed her curiosity to leak into her sanzai. What happened here?
{One of the Shells decided to play hero.} came a burst of sanzai, from the teidar sezon standing watch over the field of corpses from off to one side. Her arms were crossed over her armored chest, the black stripe of the Imperial Guard on each pauldron. {It overcharged what must have been a heavy blaster to begin with, and scored a hit on the human dropship. Turns out they aren't invincible, after all.}
Talon looked again at the hardtroop. It slumped into itself, as if half-melted. She recognized the effect of the energy weapons that the humans used; evidently they had not appreciated their craft being shot down.
Before she could send another question, Talon sent {The interior of the facility is secure?}
{Mallas Deepline is clearing it, along with the Legion warriors.} the sezon paused. {And the human ones.}
Talon lost track of the conversation, as she followed Alex towards the Seagull. The cockpit of the bulky craft was at the extreme front, with the transparent covering raised to show two seats side-by-side. It was arranged much like the prowler's cockpit, only much smaller.
"Going to get a bit drafty, with that hole in the glass." Alex said, as he walked around the craft and inspected the thruster nozzles. "Looks like no other damage, at least." He pressed one finger to the side of his helmet, and Talon heard his voice now stronger from her own radio receiver. "[Who's crew chief on this bird?]"
"[Yo.]" the answering voice came from the rear of the craft rather than over the radio. A figure waited there, in the shadow of the rear fuselage.
Talon took a step back in shock. She'd heard the story relayed from the prowler's lead teidar, but—
A loroi male stood there — in armor, like a warrior! — waving one hand at Alex.
"Wise!" Alex exclaimed, spinning on his heel and jogging over. "You old pirate!" the two pulled each other into a hug, armor clattering.
An awkward hug, given the height difference, but clearly a gesture of some familiarity.
"[Bah, you know I'm as happy using my original name, not just the Trade translation.]" the loroi male said as they stepped apart and walked up the ramp. After a moment, Talon pushed herself to go after them. She knew that Alex was a male and yet a warrior, yes, but he was an alien! This was a loroi male! What was he doing in the middle of a firefight; he could have been hurt!
"[Doesn't feel right anymore. You know, I did get around to reading those old books you loaned me. That really where the name came from?]"
"[I'm a 'hobbit,' aren't I? And I'm even here right now on a quest to destroy a 'Ring.']" The male shook his head, green hair bobbing where it coiled down below his non-sealed helmet. He reached up with one hand, tugging at a curl. "[Could've been worse. Whichever jarhead coined 'hobbit' first did me a favor; I think I'd have ended up being called an 'Oompa Loompa' otherwise.]"
"[...What?]" Alex asked, turning sideways to fit through the narrow corridor leading from the passenger bay to the cockpit. "[Now you're just making these names up.]"
Wise sighed. "[Another book, another time. Look, it's your people's history, why do I have to be the one pushing it on you?]"
"[I've got my hands full these days, no time to dig into ancient history. And some parts of it, I'm fine with people forgetting. Although now I do understand why Anders was laughing when she gave you that ring.]"
"[She still giggles about it, every time I bring it up.]" the loroi male waited outside the cockpit, turning around to look up at Talon. "[Hey, does your 'handful' here speak English?]"
"[No, Trade only. She's 'Tenoin Arrir Nesin,' caste-rank-name.]"
Recognizing her name, Talon drew her shoulders back even as this strange creature looked her up and down. Eventually, the male held out his right hand to her. "I'm Maintainer Wise, crew chief. Welcome aboard my bird, Tenoin Arrir Talon."
Recognizing the human gesture — as bizarre as it was, coming from a 'fellow' loroi — Talon shook his hand after a moment of hesitation. She was used enough to the Legion loroi that she was unsurprised when no sanzai came from the male, even when their gloved hands were in such close contact. Some of his surface thoughts came through, but only as blurred concepts like with most aliens — well, non-human aliens.
Loroi without sanzai — it was still most strange.
"Hey, how'd you end up chief on this bird, anyways?" Alex's voice came from the cockpit, as Talon squeezed through the narrow passageway after him. That was certainly… one of the many questions that she wished to ask. "I thought they had you running a whole hangar up there these days."
"Airburn insisted. If she was sending Legion-sisters on this hail-Mary of a mission, she wanted the best Seagull maintainer she knew to ride along. Turns out that's me. Helped that Anlace's original crew chief was some junior kid, barely a decade working on 'gulls. He got booted, so here I am."
Even the male's spoken Trade had the same peculiar accent that Alex and the other humans had. Different from that of the Legion loroi. Where had he come from? She took her seat at the left-side console, watching Alex as he worked rapidly through toggles and console readouts.
"Seems like overkill to me." the human commented distractedly. "Although I'm happy to have you in the back on a mission like this."
"Hey, this bird's a quarter-million years old; of course they'd want an experienced hand watching over her on her first flight in that long."
"Quarter-million years in perfect stasis. She's fine."
"And that attitude is why I am the crew chief and you are just the pilot!" even without sanzai, it was not difficult to pick up on the amusement shining out from the male's mind.
"That so, Master Sergeant?"
"Exactly, Ensign Second-Class. She's my bird, I'm just letting you borrow her."
Alex was grinning ear-to-ear, eventually glancing up to meet Talon's bewildered look. He blinked, frowning briefly, and then said "Right, it's uh, probably a bit odd for you. Wise here was raised by the UEG before the Soia Civil War. He's the shortest, bluest human around. Got pulled out of the wreckage of a moonship as a bawling little baby, picked up by ONI as a, uh, 'sociology experiment.' God only knows what they were planning to do with him, but it came in handy once Tempest and a bunch more loroi were suddenly on our side. Made it easy to get biologically-compatible logistics scaled up. He ended up arguing his way into the UNSC; turns out he's a deft hand at anything mechanical." Alex half-turned to call back with a smirk, "Helps that he's small enough to fit just about anywhere!"
"[Hey, Ellen says I'm 'fun-sized'!]"
"And you two know each other?" Talon asked, as the engines behind them came online with a whine. By their obvious familiarity, it must be so.
"Yeah." Alex reached over and flipped a switch on the center console. The cockpit canopy began to close over them… for what good that would do, with a melted-through hole large enough for Talon to put two fingers through. "He worked with Tempest and the Furies a lot, even got formally adopted into clan Starwind. If Tempest hadn't hated to see him anywhere near combat, he'd probably have been on Plummet's permanent crew. Yet here he is now."
"Hey, what the Old Lady doesn't know won't kill h—" came the maintainer's voice. "Ah, hell. Sorry for bringing that up, kid."
Alex pursed his lips, and sighed. "No worries, she died doing what she loved: putting her boot up the Soia's backsides. She's the reason uncle and the rest of us are here today. You too, actually. Would still be stuck in slipspace if Talon and friends hadn't stumbled across us."
With his preparations done, Alex keyed the radio. "Ground team, Fireball. Bravo Five-oh-two is ready for flight." With that done, he leaned over the center console and began walking Talon through the controls. Fortunately, they were most similar to those of the prowler, at least in terms of the sensors and flight systems.
But the happy difference lay in the armament. "This bird's pretty old, so the chin laser is paired with a kinetic autocannon. Seventy-millimeter, chews through both targets and ammo very quickly. Trigger is here, and aiming's slaved to your… right, helmet's not interoperable. Here, I'll set it to stick control; trigger's the same either way. Targeting sight's fed into the main display, and the ballistic computer is on automatic. Doubt we'll need it for any fight we might get into underground, though; at close range you can just eyeball it."
It had tugged at the corner of her mind earlier, but now she was certain of it. Alex seemed to be speaking more fluidly and definitely more confidently than normal, now that he was flying into combat. She had not recently heard any of the strange 'uh' word that marked where a human had to pause and let their mind catch up with their mouth. He appeared to be more comfortable approaching a fight than he had been peacefully flying around back in Union space.
Talon nodded. A veteran warrior.
Loud clanging from behind them heralded the return of the ground team. Colonel Jardin radioed in "The tunnel entrance is open and we're all aboard. Let's get moving."
"Lifting off, aye." Alex said, as the Seagull rose gently into the air, nosing away from the island for a moment before swinging around in a wide arc. He glanced off to one side through the window, before chuckling briefly. To Talon, he said "You know, this island is a regular loroi vacation destination now. Surf, sand, and dead Shells."
She snorted, but her attention was more fixed on the structure that the dropship was carefully lowering towards. "You are certain that there is enough room for this craft?"
"Yup. Not much, but enough. Good thing Anlace carried a Seagull rather than something even older, like a Pelican or so. Those birds were big. Don't think I'd want to try and take one of those through here."
They descended past ground level, faint lights on the outside walls utterly failing to properly illuminate the shaft. Aiming the turret straight down, Talon couldn't see a bottom even with full magnification. "It seems the most strange to fly an air vehicle down this way."
"Look on the bright side — the last thing the Shells will expect is an airborne attack from underground."
Talon nodded at that, even as the doorway overhead slid shut once more, deepening the shadows into which the alien craft descended.