Finally got around to reading that chapter. Haven't really been paying attention to PSOW after the PSO2 beta ended. The chapter was, of course, awesome... And now I'm thinking about PSO2 again...
On that note: Back during the beta I saw Keiko once on channel... 22 or 23 of ship 2, if memory serves.
Not surprising if you saw me, I was hanging out in that block range, shoulda said somethin' unless I was moving around in a hurry, or you were. I played with X a bit and ran into a few older friends.
On another note, got myself a new computer finally. Once the next beta starts I'm ready to go to play it on max settings, it's gonna be good.
Chapter 44: The Fifth
Huh, did Zoe’s fight really take that long? Well, I suppose it’s no surprise you’d go into such laborious detail for your girl crush.
We left Elyham on Colony. There were a few reasons for that, but the chief reason was that either Elyham or myself was required to operate the satellites we had set up for the purpose of setting up all four reactors in a circuit. The equipment required constant remote monitoring and we hadn’t exactly time to engineer it to be user friendly, so as a result, the software was complex. I had business to settle on Rykros, so the choice was obvious.
Hauser somehow got it in his head that Eustace put Elyham on Colony because she was the weakest of us. Now, it’s not untrue that Elyham was probably the weakest of us in martial prowess, but one does not make Aegis on their martial prowess alone. ...Well, no, actually, that’s precisely how you make Aegis: templates and such. I suppose what I’m trying to get across is that Elyham was valuable for more than her middling combat talents.
The reason that Eustace put Elyham on Colony was to perform the vital task of manning the satellite power relay that was essential to our deployment strategy that day. Without it, the Illuminus would have been able to mass their forces at one location at a time and we would have had no way of predicting which reactor they would target. Thanks to the relay, they were forced to split their forces which, as you’ve read so far, worked out swimmingly for us.
We left behind a skeleton crew on Colony: enough to maintain order and protect the civilians living there, but not much else. Elyham was operating the console for the power relay. It wasn’t an impressive device. As I said, we slapped it together on a tight schedule, so some of the wires were hanging out of the panels, and many of the keys didn’t match in color. But, it was functional.
”Elly, are you still at the console? You should be getting ready for combat!” Eustace said.
”I have no idea where the enemy is, or even when they’ll arrive. I may as well just keep doing what I’m doing until I know more,” she said. She was a pragmatic, if scatterbrained, thinker.
”On Neudaiz, we have a saying that goes, if the world ends tomorrow, plant a tree!” Keiko said.
”I don’t get it,” Ethan said.
”It means stick to your routine, more or less. It loses something in translation,” I said.
”Oh, so it’s like, you can’t let fear stop you from living,” he said.
”Right, right! See Jo-sei, Ethan got it and he’s not even from Neudaiz!” Keiko said.
”Feh...Elyham, how’s the transfer efficiency on the satellites?” I asked
”82%. It’s not ideal, but it’s within the acceptable spectrum we predicted. On the low end of it though. I think it’s an issue with the retention of the voltaic cells,” she said.
”I believe that those satellites had nanite packages that could be used to edit the surface of the cells. Perhaps if you-”
”Use them to carve a Rolyn’s lattice! That would handle the retention issue nicely!”
”Hmm, actually, I was going to suggest an Arevich’s loop.”
”In zero G conditions?”
”Zero G, yes, but zero atmospheres as well. In a vaccum, an Arevich’s loop wouldn’t incur any induction penalty on the photons, netting it a slightly higher retention rate than a Rolyn’s lattice.”
”Oh my freaking light! Nerds, both of you!” Sable yelled.
”You know Sable, men find geek girls quite attractive,” I said. I was a little bored where I was, so I decided to take the opportunity to stir the hornet’s nest. They all made it so easy. “Why, if you and Elyham went out, I’d give her even odds that she gets hit on more than you.”
”What? Hahn, this is no time to be huffing paint,” Sable said.
”I think Dr. Launcher has it exactly right!” Elyham said. “I’m certainly more appealing than a bosterious cow like you!”
”You sure got some bark in you when you’re not on the same planet as me!” Sable said.
”Dammit Johann, this is why we can’t have nice things,” Eustace said over Sable and Elyham’s argument.
”It’s not my fault you’re women,” I said. “Ethan and I wouldn’t argue over something this stupid and we just met.”
”We’re bros!” he said.
”Let’s not get carried away.”
The argument died down, and with excellent timing, because Eustace was probably about to tell them to shut up. “Hey Elly, maybe you should suit up?”
”Eh.” Elyham made no move to get up. Rather, she just kept on working on the edits to the satellite panels that we discussed. It was odd, especially considering she wasn’t wearing her power armor. She was just wearing the interface suit that the armor plugged onto. I have to confess, I found that outfit a marvel of computer engineering; the entire operating system and infrastructure that controls her armor was embedded in that suit, which was skintight and reasonably flexible. I don’t normally go for the skinny type, but her figure was quite enticing when wrapped so tightly.
”Elly, what are you doing? Get out there,” Eustace said.
”It’s fine,” she said. “If you think about it rationally, it’s obvious where the enemy would infiltrate.”
”Indeed,” I said.
”Do you want us to beg, or something?” Keiko asked.
”Last time, they attacked the reactor. This time, they’d expect us to guard it more heavily, so, they’d attack something else of near vital importance,” Elyham said.
”The motor room,” I said.
”Wait...Colony has a motor?” Ethan asked.
”Yes, the motors are what keep Colony rotating. Without them, Colony stops rotating and produces no gravity. I’m sure you can imagine why that would not be ideal,” I said.
”Oh, I get it! So the motors make that, like, centripetal-” Keiko said.
”Centrifugal,” Elyham and I both said, correcting her in perfect unison.
”Nerrrds,” Sable said.
”Happier nerd than drunken party girl,” Elyham said. “Anyway, once I realized that, I just went ahead and booby trapped that room and instructed everyone to stay clear of it. Then, I purposefully left one door unlocked to guide the intruder through there.”
”Are you sure you shouldn’t just be there yourself-” Eustace said.
”No, it’s fine. See, when the intruder opened the door, it’d be rigged that the door’s motor would short out the local power supply and kill the lights. When that happens, the intruder would have to fumble around and while doing so, would definitely step on the stun trap I left on the floor.”
”This seems elaborate,” I said.
”That’s hilarious, coming from you, Jo-sei,” Keiko said.
”The stun trap wouldn’t be set to its maximum incapcitation capacity though, so the intruder would be able to release themselves by shooting at it, with some effort. The plastique I mixed into the charge would explode.”
”I don’t think a little explosion is gonna do it against these bitches,” Sable said.
”It wouldn’t, so it’s good that the explosion would set off the fire suppression system. I replaced the extinguisher tanks with mustard gas.”
”This plan has a lot of moving parts,” I said.
”Again, hilarious,” Keiko said.
”Naturally, the door the intruder came through has been sealed shut by this point, leaving her with no choice but to go through the ventilation shaft,” Elly said.
”Are those even big enough?” Ethan said.
”I wasn’t sure, so I greased it up with some koltava lard. You know, to be considerate. It really stinks though, so the intruder would definitely want to exit the shaft at the earliest opportunity.”
”...Your room,” Zoe said. Unsurprisingly, she had a pretty good memory of Colony’s schematics; she used to be AMF, after all.
”Right! At which point, I could turn around in my chair and shoot her in the head while she’s still stumbling and off guard!”
”Well. That plan is really something, Elly, but you can’t depend on it to go exactly as you just said,” Eustace said.
”But it did.”
”...What.”
”Yeah, this was like twenty minutes ago. Turned out to be the same woman I fought on Parum that day. I should really call someone to clean up this mess. The lard is starting to stink up the room. Anyway, Guardians’ Colony, clear.” We were, each, thousands upon thousands of Jp away from each other, yet, for the following moments of silence, I could see everyone’s faces as if we were all in the same room. Our mouths were agape in shock and the only sounds made were intelligble croaks.
Eventually, it was Keiko who broke the silence. “I guess you could say Elly had time to plan.”
”Not cool, Keiko,” I said. Well, I didn’t really mind. That was a pittance compared to the shenanigans I had planned, but, I get ahead of myself. “Well, nicely done, Elyham.”
”Thanks, Dr. Launcher!”
”It’s a shame about Landale. I think I would have been glad to sponsor your thesis when the time finally came.”
”I’ll still need to get my Ph.D after we’re done fighting this battle, you know.”
”True, but I don’t think it’d be appropriate for me to be advisor to a student I’ve slept with.” Again, thousands upon thousands of Jp away, yet, I could see the blush on her cheeks clear as day in my mind’s eye.
*****
Back on Rykros, Eustace leapt on her chance to gloat some more. She adjusted her frames and smirked up at Hauser, waving at him cutely. “Another one bites the dust, Hauser. If this diabolical plan of yours has a failsafe, you’d better hit it soon!” Hauser said nothing to that, keeping par for the course, and kept his silent, stony gazed affixed to Eustace below. Still, you know he had to be smoldering on the inside. All of his best agents had been soundly dispatched, leaving only the forces beyond his control to fight on his behalf.
”You know, you called Elly the weakest. That, right then, is when I knew you were thinking entirely the wrong way about us,” she said, hyping yet another of us up. Honestly, sometimes she spoke of us as if she were a proud mother. ...I didn’t hate that about her. “For a whole century, the Guardians have used the same six combat templates. Thousands of Guardians have come through our ranks, but they’ve all used those six.”
She took off her glasses. Really, I need to glue those things to her face one of these days just to see how she copes. As she started wiping them down, she continued, “Elly seems like the most normal out of us, but to tell you the truth, she’s the least conventional person in our team. And it’s beause of that, that she was able to break one hundred years of Guardians’ rigidity and give us a new combat template. So, if you look at her and just see a weak woman...well, you’re misunderstanding what it is that makes people valuable.”
”You take me too lightly, Miss Carroll. Do you think me a child who need suffer your lectures? I am a man who stands at the precipice of this world’s annhilation! Your victories will come to nothing at the end of this day, when you all lie dead upon the shadows.” He stopped to chuckle, calling an ugly grin to his lips. “The enemies that stand against your remaining forces are beyond my control. Whatever strengths you believe the empress and her knight posess are nothing against what they face.”
”I guess that means you’re still not coming down?”
”...”
”Well, whatever. So, no point in keeping secrets. Who’s up first?”
”Neudaiz was the most steadfast in the period following the Colony’s fall. How ironic it would be for it to be the first planet ushered into disaster.”
”Keiko.”
”I definitely can’t lose after all the commoners have put on such a good show, right?”
~~~~~
All right, here comes the first srs fight. Zoe's was okay, but you're about to see some real **** my friends. Place your bets on who the opponent is.
Elly's plan reminded me of Mouse Trap, haha.
Before I place my wager, can I ask if it's a SEED form or someone/thing we've met before?
Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
A hint, huh. Hmm, okay, why not. I am willing to say that the enemy and Keiko will have plenty to talk about.
Then...
Either Keiko's mom or Johann's mom. I can't decide which one, because I can't fathom a reason for the former to partner up with Hauser, and the latter because the severity of her ICS would seemingly cripple her in battle.
Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
Wow, Elly seems to have taken a few tips from Johann. That kinda plan is, as Keiko pointed out, the kinda thing you'd expect from him.
@Keiko: I considered it, but we don't know each other too well, and I have difficulty wtih people I don't know too well. Sorry about that.
All righty, betting's closed.
Chapter 45: Return of the Queen
Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Johann.
So, I’m sure Johann will protest, but I’m just going to go ahead and say I had the hardest fight that day. But let’s start from when I returned to Neudaiz after meeting up with everyone on Colony. I was already beginning to feel faint from the short time I left Neudaiz, so it was a relief to get back into its atmosphere as my ship descended back into Ohtoku. I wanted to scream a little, at the unfairness of being tethered to a single planet, but, there were more important things to be doing that day than have a pity party.
I had to take a short walk from the spaceport to the flyer hangar which I had expected to be uneventful. But it was then that I had to have a very disturbing conversation. On my way out, some of the Communion’s officials walked up to greet me. There was nothing strange about that; they came around a lot to coordinate things with me, since they had orders from the Divine Maiden to cooperate with me.
”Your eminence, may we have a moment of your time?” one of them asked. It was a tall man, well, tall for a newman. Not too easy on the eyes, but he was an older guy. He was accompanied by some Communion guards: also not that weird.
”Speak your mind,” I said, not slowing down. I didn’t want to lose time getting to Egam and its Confinement system.
”We at the Communion were wondering what your future plans for the throne are,” he said, keeping pace with me.”
”Meaning?” I asked.
”Meaning, whether or not you intend to continue holding power after this crisis has passed,” he said.
I already knew I didn’t like where that conversation was going, but like a fool, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and kept being pleasant. “I hadn’t given it much thought.” It was true, I really hadn’t thought about it. When I first booted Rutsu off his horse, I wasn’t thinking about ten years, five years or even a year from then. I just wanted to get my home off the course he set it on. At the same time though, in the back of my head, I had sort of assumed that it wasn’t going to be the rest of my life.
”It is our hope that you will be relinquishing control to the Communion, after the need for martial law has passed, your eminence. It would be unfortunate if the people came to think of you as an opportunist,” he said.
”...And how would they come to think that?” I asked, turning my glare to him.
”Well, we at the Communion would certainly have protests and grievances to air,” he replied, slightly turning his own head at me, peering at me through a sinister glare. “It might be an unavoidable consequence, that the people come to think of you as a despot as a result.
I stopped, and he did the same a step later. I still wasn’t so great with putting on a menacing front at the time, but I made a really good attempt right there. I took a deep breath through a contemptuous glare and said, “I don’t appreciate being threatened.”
”Please, your eminence. Don’t take it as a threat. Take it as...advisement.”
”My plans for the future will take nothing else but the welfare of Neudaiz into account and you can go ahead and relay that message to the rest of the Communion,” I said with my hands on my hips. I whipped away on a heel and turned back toward the flyer base. “Now remove yourself from my presence before I decide to make a tradition of keeping eunuchs. And that’s my ‘advisement’ to you.”
”Of course, your eminence,” he said as he bowed at my back.
I was fuming on the whole flight over to Egam. Of all the nerve, threatening me on my own planet, after all I’d done for it, in the middle of the worst galactic crisis ever. Still, it was when I first started giving serious thought to what I was going to do after it was over. On one hand, the Communion had done a fine job of running Neudaiz in times of peace, so perhaps I could quit without harm. On the other hand, screw those guys.
Anyway, that was all just a diversion. At Egam, I was overseeing the Communion forces’ defense against the SEED forms. Like we said, Stacy dispatched what would have been Neudaiz’s share of Guardians to Moatoob since we still had a functioning army..
In case you haven’t been to Egam, or it’s been awhile since your last visit, it’s an archipelago. I believe there’s seventeen islands total, a lot of which are bigger than the typical island in an archipelago. The thing that I always found weird about them is that there wasn’t that much dirt to them; they were mostly plantlife structures sticking out of the ocean. So, the ground always had this dull mossy look to it and every island smelled kinda bad. Still, they were substantial enough that Relics could be burrowed into them and that’s exactly what the ancient civilization decided to do, for some reason.
The Confinement system was on the biggest island of the cluster and, naturally, that was where I set up camp. That island had a really tall tree sticking out of the middle of it, so I perched on one of the higher branches where I had a bird’s eye view of the whole island and even a few of the surrounding ones, where SEEDs were invading.
I went along with the order to hand back and conserve fighting strength...mostly. See, I had such a good view of the battlefield below, that I could shoot arrows from where I was with pretty good accuracy, even at enemies on other islands. So, I watched all the Communion guards fight and helped along the dicier battles with a couple arrows. I had this one really good shot from two Lp away that brought down a carriguine in a single hit. I wish I could get a replay of that. Blew right through its head in mid leap.
I guess that about catches us up. “So far, this is going really well,” Sable said.
”Speak...for yourself,” Zoe said. Some of our medics on Parum had patched her up but she was still down one arm and even if her injury wasn’t going to kill her, it was still a serious thing. I wish I could have been there to heal her up myself, but, I told myself I’d have a look at her after we were done.
”Not my fault you’re weaksauce, Zoe,” she said.
”Your enemy was the weak one,” Zoe said.
”Yeah, but I’d have bitch slapped yours too!”
”I always do love to hear Sable talk about beating up girls,” Johann said.
”That’s because you’re freaking weird,” Stacy said.
”On the contrary, it’s a very common fetish. I’d say I’m within a standard deviation of the norm,” he said.
”You’re awfully calm for someone who supposedly has such a dangerous opponent on the way.”
”Yes, well, I’ve-”
”Had time to plan, we know,” we all said in unison.
”Tch-”
”Plebeians, we know,” we all said again.
”Man-”
”Screw you guys, we know.”
”Rrrgh...at any rate, Sable does have a point. Zoe aside, this has been going swimmingly. Eustace, Hauser hasn’t...done anything, has he?”
”I’ve had visual on him the whole time. He’s just glowering at me. What are you thinking?”
”Hmm, well, perhaps I’m just being paranoid. It could just be that he overestimated his leverage here. At any rate, we don’t have any choice but to deal with possible curveballs when they up. In the meantime, give us a sexy fight, Keiko.”
”I don’t like how you put...that,” I said. I trailed off for a second there because it was right then I felt an amazing radiance. It made me sit up and set every one of my senses on fire. It was overwhelming and sublime, serene and intense, pure and wicked. Most importantly though, it was familiar. I knew there was someone who’d stirred that feeling in my belly before. It seemed my opponent had arrived.
I switched my comm channel to address the Communion guards and said, “all personnel, please evacuate the main island and the surrounding ring. Immediately.” It looked like the SEED felt the same way because no more of them were spawning in, leaving the leftovers to get cut down by the retreating members of the Communion. It was a lot like how animals flee an approaching storm.
I jumped down from my perch and had a look around to make sure my orders were being followed. Thankfully, it didn’t look as though we had any heroes, and in a couple minutes, I had the island to myself. Then, I looked myself over. My gown was gorgeous as ever and my hair was fabulous. Well, that’s not what I was looking for; I was making sure I didn’t have any loose threads or anything else that might screw me over, but you can’t help but notice beauty when you see it. ...Stop laughing Johann, it’s not too late for me to do the eunuch thing.
I switched my comm back to Aegis chat and said, “it looks like I’m up.”
”It occurs to me no one has jobbed yet. Good luck with that,” Johann said. Come to think of it Johann, you first when you got yourself killed the first time and had to reset the game, so nyah.
”Anyone have some actual encouragement?” I asked.
”Um, do your best,” Stacy said.
”Don’t be bad,” Sable said.
”Don’t die,” Zoe said.
”G’luck,” Ethan said.
”What the heck you guys, where did all that enthusiasm go?!” I yelled.
”Meh,” they all said.
”You guys suck!” By that point, the radiance had gotten much closer. It was time for me to start paying full attention to my surroundings, so that I wouldn’t get caught off guard. Problem was, as obvious as the sensation was, I couldn’t pin it down exactly, so I had to look all around to find its source. Well, it didn’t take long to find it. I caught a glimpse of her on the shore when I turned my head over my shoulder.
”You!” I shouted, immediately recognizing her. That woman with a body that Gwen and I were intensely jealous of, that woman who had caused me so much anguish, that scheming witch, “Qin Shi Huang!”
”How rudely you address me, Seisha. We’re both empresses now. You should address me with something cute, like senpai,” she said. She walked up from the shore, arms folded beneath her breasts. “You seem surprised to see me,” she said, with that irritating lilt in her voice. “And please, think better of your position than to reply with something cliche like, ‘I thought you were dead.”
I frowned. I always hated how she spoke to me so condescendingly. It’s not as if it wasn’t a valid thought. The last time I saw her, I had buried an arrow in her throat. It was like no one ever freaking died in this story. “I should say the same to you. Don’t tell me you’re here for something petty like revenge,” I said. “I’m busy right now, if you can’t tell.”
”Oh yes, I can see that,” stroking her braid with the back of her hand. “I’m here to provide your challenge.”
”What?! You’re working with the Illuminus?! Qin Shi, if you destroy this reactor, Neudaiz dies with it! Even if you hate me, that can’t possibly be what you want!”
”I agree. Though, I’m afraid it’s really out of my hands,” she said as she began to unfasten the top flap of her qipao. She stripped it off, laying her breasts and torso bare to me- no, I will not describe what they looked like, Johann. Well, I have to describe one thing: the black blotch in her cleavage. It was unmistakably where the anathema I felt was coming from.
”A SEED infection...?”
”Good, you understand,” she said as she put her clothes back on. “It seems I’m a puppet, today. It’s rather humiliating.”
”But how?!”
”You’re entirely too noisy...” she said as she got done refastening her dress. “If you must know, it was Li Ming who revived me. Unfortunately, the technic itself wasn’t enough, but it provided enough fuel for my infection to reanimate me.”
”So you’re a zombie.”
”I don’t like the imagery that conjures, but I suppose that’s accurate.”
I thought about it, and that definitely did explain the state Li Ming was in the last time I saw her. Didn’t make the whole situation much less ridiculous though. The last time I saw that woman, she, at one third of her total radiance, made me and Johann look like toddlers. And there I was, set up to fight her myself.
”Then let me lay you back to rest,” I said, leveling my aim at her.
”Well this is interesting. You’re surprisingly eager to leap into battle, considering the odds,” she said, eyeing me with an upturned glare.
”You’re in for a big surprise if you think I’m the same as I was back then.”
Dammit, I thought she was dead!
Looking forward to ze battle.
Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
Silly Obs. Why you so silly?
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