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SAFES Liaison's Log, Science Vessel Searcher , September 23rd, 2555:

You know, when I let my high school friends prod me into trying out that new theme-park virtual-reality simulator, I thought I'd just stumbled into the final word in disorientation. That's small potatos compared to monitoring a full-on battle while standing in the middle of a holographic simulation of what's happening. I suppose it's partly because I've never seen such a thing outside the movie theater; I participated in war games while I was in the SpecOps but have never seen the SAFN counterpart. I suppose the thing that surprised me the most was how quickly the strike groups were able to penetrate the fighter umbrella around the ECM ships and drop their payloads. The battlefield pretty much went from wireframe sketches to a massive minute-detail smorgasbord in two seconds flat and when it did, we got hit by an anvil: Majesty was vastly larger than we had believed. So much so that, although ATLAS disagrees (and disagrees vehemently), I think that the supership we're sending the marines after isn't Majesty at all but the prototype of a totally different ship with a wholly different purpose. It resembles a floating dockyard strongly but has all the earmarks of a military vessel: overlapping firing arcs, individual deflection shields around weapon batteries, a redundant ejection system to blow radioactive generators clear of the ship if they're too damaged, and what Socrates believes to be multiple autonomous command and control areas. Its weapon batteries, however, are strangely small, like they're meant to beat off small ship attacks but aren't concerned with larger ships bombarding it.

At any rate, the battle was going very well with ATLAS and her fellow BSY Cores managing to kill the breaching ships as we closed in and the various snub groups torpedoing the gunboats that were impeding incoming strike groups, when the entire battle lost cohesion for us. It was very abrupt, like flipping a switch, and I have a sinking feeling that Admiral Williams' stern refusal to give Captains Sakura and Santosoperational freedom wasn't enough to prevent them from taking liberties anyway. Socrates has been unable to raise Cassandra or Hammer of Dawn so I can find out if Searcher should try and compensate for the loss of their battle control computers which concerns me even more.

On the plus side, the assault transports got to their targets relatively unscathed although Ethan Romanski was right to warn us that Vulcan is a good manager but a dangerously naïve fool when it comes to battle: with the transport hanger actually facing the largest batteries from the supership, he opened the armored hanger doors and turned off the shields. Luckily, the batteries only hit non-vital equipment and even more luckily, General Lee saw to it that the transports are so structurally solid that they can be violently bashed against the side of a ship and shake it off. If Romanski doesn't dropkick Vulcan into deep space himself (and I honestly wouldn't put it passed him, given the Swastika Electronics attitude towards incompetence), his future is probably filled with boring transport missions to backwater research stations. Fortunately, it is possible to disconnect Vulcan's "brain" from the other BSY 2K computers that form the Core and use hard ports in the back of Athena's skull to connect her in his place. I'm sure it'll be very strange for her-I can't even imagine what the world is like to a bodiless artificial intelligence, especially one that actually has a body-but we're literally plugging a perfect copy of the oldest and most skilled military AI in the entire Governance into a supership equipped with devastating anti-ship firepower. At this juncture, it appears that we won't need the guns for anything except destroying competing gun batteries on Majesty but reinforcements could always be on the way and we may soon need to consider the destruction of their superluminal transport stations.

Dr. Melinda Campbell, SAFES

"OK, marines, here's the situation." Shadow's voice sounded over the assault transport's intercom, causing titter of conversation to stop abruptly as everyone turned their heads to face the pair of speakers in front. "As you know, circumstances have forced us to pull the trigger on the attack early. They have achieved momentary surprise by beginning to scatter their fleet to dissipate the effects of general bombardment but such is battle. Because a complication with the ripple gate has removed the Hammers from the board, the fleet will move in formation towards the Imperial Fleet, bombarding by visual markers until their electronic warfare ships have been neutralized at which point we will switch to instrument-directed bombardment. When the Haephestus Hammer has moved in close enough to commence pinpoint destruction of anti-ship batteries on Majesty, Stryker frigates will move in to cut through their primary armor and permit your transports to breach the secondary hull. Your approach will be different than planned but your goals remain the same: take Majesty off the field and, if possible, capture the Grand Admiral."

Shadow paused and in the pregnant silence, Sera released the breath she had been holding in and slumped back against the seat. Last she'd checked, official shipboard time had been 0300 when she'd finally climbed aboard with her team and a squad of marines. When Shadow had dismissed her, she'd spent a few minutes at a viewport, watching the battleships commence a full-scale bombardment of the Imperial Fleet, watching as bursts of light in the distance registered impacts, watching as return fire was deflected off the shields of various ships with a distinct and strangely entrancing rippling distortion like a stone impacting water. She'd stood there just long enough to see that Shadow was exactly right about how a BSY Core made a difference: where most return fire flew passed the bombardment line in streaks of white-hot color, she could swear that she saw viis ships breaking up in the distance. Satisfied that, for the moment, all was well, she'd taken a fast shuttle to Marauder to gear up and collect Akeya and her hand-picked squad. Seeing them all, especially Boom, dressed to the hilt and prepared to kick ass was somehow calming and when they loaded up, there seemed to be no chance of failure. Now she sat in the crowded assault transport with marines checking their guns and the two powered-armor soldiers doing a thorough inspection of their suits as Shadow broadcast the situation to them.

"It will not be an easy task, marines, but we have the momentum." She continued. "Our strike groups are reporting mission success at this time and very limited snub opposition. It is the assessment of my executive officer that our frilled and scaly friends have the Japanese problem with their warships, lacking the medium-grade munitions to effectively halt a landing while under targeted bombardment from the Hephaestus Hammer. Marines, you are set to go against..."

Shadow abruptly stopped, so suddenly that Sera thought that something had happened to the communications. Just as she was realizing how absurd this was, Shadow's voice picked up again. "General Wilson, General Lee, unit commanders. I need you to each head up to the cockpit of your respective transports. There has been a... development that I need to inform you of."

Sera immediately looked across the aisle of the transport where a young-looking human sergeant, her adjutant for the landing, was sitting. He met her eyes, shrugged, and jerked his head towards the cockpit in mute suggestion. She nodded and they both got to their feet and threaded their way though the equipment packs on the floor towards the transport's rear where the cockpit was. Not a single marine looked up at her or even at each other as she walked passed, acting as if they hadn't heard Shadow mention the 'development' she needed to inform the commanders of.

The pilots already had the communications terminal warmed up and tuned in by the time she and the human stepped into the cockpit. Both quietly left and shut the door behind them as Shadow started talking. "OK, I understand that I'm talking to everyone in a closed room. Just to be clear, it's not as if I'm worried that this news will undermine morale but it wouldn't make any difference to the marines. Now, the development is that we just got our first real look at Majesty. Up until now, it's been educated guesses and what we could glean from a very brief sensor picture but now, we've got constant instrument dwell on the thing. Long and the short of it is that it's bigger than we anticipated and is structurally different. It has no bulge space, instead wearing very thick armor. Socrates is telling me that while our strategy of overloading the shield generators and causing them to melt down will still work, those generators will not present a radiation hazard because they're physically sequestered from their engine room with what Socrates believes to be pinpoint charges that will blow melted generators free of the ship. Our big break is that it seems to be lightly-armed and a vast majority of its size is cavernous."

"It's a goddamn converted dockyard!" The sergeant beside Sera exclaimed.

"Yes, it is." Shadow confirmed, demonstrating that the communications panel worked both ways. "Majesty does not appear to be a sister ship to the superbattleships that serve as fleet command ships. Rather, it is a prototype of those ships, a prototype that is somehow in prime shape despite the model being developed over six hundred years ago. ATLAS' speculation is that the prototype might use much older technology that favors a 'heavy metal' defense scheme over much more sophisticated but delicate schemes. If so, we're facing a warship that dates back to before the collapse that the myal in the Imperial Library mentioned."

"Language differences?" Lee asked.

"ATLAS anticipates none." Shadow replied. "The maps you have, however, are useless unless ATLAS can locate blueprints so you'll have to rely on translating signs and on-board maps. I honestly don't know what you'll be facing inside that thing other than a markedly clever commander and as many goons as he could fit into the barracks."

"Does ATLAS or Socrates have any speculation on whether we can bore through the hull without needing Stryker preparation?" Sera asked.

Shadow paused. "ATLAS believes that Stryker preparation would be needed but advises that determining the correct bore depth is impossible without trial-and-error... and we don't have the time. The worst that can happen is that the transports clamp on and can't get through then retreat for the Strykers to move in but if the Strykers cut too deep, it'll render part of the ship impassible which could greatly endanger the assault squads."

"I know that it's risky, General, but the armor would have to be extremely thick and specially-formulated for it to be impossible for the transports cutting torches to bore through." ATLAS added. "I believe my counterpart described the armor of the actual superbattleships to be composed of this special formulation but according to engineering records, the transposed layering process is quite new, relatively speaking. I don't believe that the prototype will have it."

"It's a gamble." Lee commented.

"Yes, but we have little choice but to take it." Shadow sighed. "I can't say it makes me particularly happy that we find out about this complication mere minutes from the jump-off time, but there's no help for it. I have confidence in you, ladies and gentlemen, and the marines. Good luck."

The communications terminal went dark and a pregnant silence filled the cockpit for a moment before the sergeant cleared his throat. "You want to tell them or should I?"

"Beg pardon?" Sera looked at him.

"Which one of us is going to relay the admiral's information to the marines, General?" He asked again.

"Neither one." Sera replied, surprised. "I thought the admiral made clear that she had chosen to tell us this in private because it wasn't necessary for the rank-and-file to know."

"With all due respect, General, neither you nor the admiral have ever done this before." He told her, meeting her eyes steadily. "Unless it's classified, everything is relevant. The marines fear no man or beast but being surprised by something that their commanders knew but chose not to tell them will put them off their game when they need to think of nothing but victory. General Lee is, at this moment, telling his marines. So are all of the sergeants he trained and entrusted with command. Knowing that Majesty is bigger than they believe and that they no longer have a map of its innards will strengthen their resolve, not undermine it."

"Lee really took a different approach, didn't he?" Sera shook her head admiringly. "I haven't had much command experience but I don't think the same thing would work as well with typical SAFA/G grunts."

"Pitting flesh against fortifications is what we do, General." He smiled proudly. "And all fortifications are large and unknown. Thus, that this fortification is large and unknown makes no difference."

"Well, you seem to know the language then, Sergeant." Sera gestured towards the door. "Have at it."

"I'm not their general, General." He mirrored her gesture with a smile. "It will mean all the world if you were to explain it with your own words."

"I'll try." Sera took a moment to brace herself and stepped through the door into the compartment filled with marines. But where they seemed busy and distracted when she was going to hear Shadow's report, she stepped into the aisle lined with marines to find that all noise had vanished and dozens of eyes were fixed on her. The concentrated attention made her take an involuntary step backwards as she cleared her throat, suddenly unnerved.

"I... uh... that is... um..." She took a deep breath and looked to either row of soldiers. "...why is everyone staring at me?"

"Cos we'd be tickled if ye'd tell us whot the admiral had to say, General." Aurorareplied.

"And be even more tickled if ye'd stop standin' there like some ravenous critter had gotten ye poor tail in its jaws." Treeni added.

"Majesty isn't what they thought it was, is bigger than they thought, and its insides are a mystery." Sera replied in a single breath. "Oh, and the transports are going to have to clamp on and hope they can drill thought because the Strykers aren't going first. So, you know, nothing really interesting."

Silence greeted her announcement before one of the armored suit drivers leaned around the row to look at Boom. "I guess I owe you a c-roll, BigMan."

"Big Man's never wrong, leatherneck." Boom boomed cheerfully. "I'm gonna be rolling in Cubans for years. Ya'll don't forget to pay up when you go ashore next."

Sera blinked at looked at the driver, the various marines who were looking vaguely chagrined, and then at Boom. "You guys...?"

"Wagered on whether you'd choke, of course." The driver told her with a grin. "But you play well for a cushcaptain."

"Big Man's never wrong, boys and girls." Boom repeated, his pearly whites gleaming. "Remember that when you think he is."

Sera looked behind her at the sergeant. "Were you in on this?"

"Wish I was, General... no finer smoke than a Cuban." He chuckled. "Toldja so."

"Yes, yes you did." Sera agreed, heading back towards her seat as the pilots slipped passed to take their positions in the cockpit. "Still, stumbling over my tongue was the easy part."

"Only easy day was yesterday, boss." The sergeant noted. "But the hardest part is getting there and getting over yourself. Then comes the easiest part of all: sorting out who lives and who dies."

Before Sera could ask him to spare her the morbidity, she felt the engines of the transport whistling to life and the small craft trembling under the power of its vertical elevation jets as it rose of and was nimbly rotated around to start out of the Hammer's gigantic interior where they'd been sitting for the last hour. "That's... suspiciously quick." She commented. "Our small fleet cannot possibly be so overwhelmingly superior that we're closing in on launch position already."

"Could be doing a dash and drop, ma'am." Her adjutant suggested.

"Using the largest and most unwieldy ship?" Sera shook her head. "I don't claim any special expertise but that doesn't fit."

"If I may, General, don't you think it somewhat pointless to speculate on why we are preparing to set out?" Silver inquired, briefly startling Sera who hadn't noticed the wiry wolven on the other side of the giant Boom. "It is clear that we are indeed preparing and that we are in a position to do so. Thus, the precise details of how these two things have come to be are wholly immaterial. Suffice it to say, we are heading once more into the breach, dear friends."

"I only wish these transports had viewing ports." One of the marines sighed. "It'd be a real kick to see our next vacation destination."

"I'd just as soon see the interior and not have to contemplate how gigantic the thing is." Sera idly checked the reinforced carrying case for the decryption/hacking computer and went over her submachinegun slowly, killing time as the transport made its way out of the bay and towards the hanger doors. The inertia compensators, vital in a fast-moving transport that was designed to accelerate and decelerate rapidly, were as good as anyone could ask for but the slight movements of the ship were still unmistakable. Thus, when a well-placed shot from Majesty slammed into the side of the transport and caused it to bounce off the thick armored hanger doors, it was more the unpleasant sensation of having the wind knocked out of her by the safety restraints rather than the intense pain of stress fractures. Her machinegun went skittering along the deck along with various loose weapons, ammo, and gear as the transport pilots struggled to correct their sideways motion. Sera only knew that they'd succeeded when the compensation motion threw her head back hard enough against the cushioned headrest to briefly stun her.

"I take it that the gunners regard the open hanger to be an inviting target." Silver commented wryly. "Sporting of Vulcan to open it up and paint a bloody bullseye on our asses."

"Tragic part is that there's no way to kick his." Boom rumbled. "Hey, everyone OK?"

"Got my bell rung but I think I'll be alright." Sera rubbed the back of her head. "I'm sort of surprised to be alive, frankly. We got hit hard enough to slam us into the side of the hanger opening but no hull breaches."

"You owe some SAFES engineers a steak dinner then, General." The sergeant told her with a definite note of pride. "Them, and a couple metallurgists from Katyusha Mining Conglomerate and the Old Man himself. The armor plating and underlying structure can deflect mid-level battleship artillery without any shield reinforcement and let me tell you, it's a true experience to watch SAFN do field trials of these things. Makes you feel invincible."

"If that's true, I bet it does." Sera agreed. "I suppose this means that we're on our way then. Sort of disquieting to be shut up in this flying cigar without a clue of what's going on around us."

"More like a blunt, really." Akeya commented from where she was still attaching and removing modules experimentally, something she'd been doing ever since taking her seat. "Larger diameter, more of a slighter taper on the tooth end. More interesting effects too."

"A... blunt?"

"Yeah." She looked up. "Large diameter cigar with one end hollowed out and filled with a marijuana blend."

"Dare I ask how you know that?"

Akeya grinned toothily. "Shucks, General... whattya think fine Southern lasses like mahself do when the world just needs a bit o' extra color?"

"...dare I ask what you substituted for real marijuana?"

"Depending how badly you really want to know." Akeya continued grinning.

"Come to think of it... not all that much, actually." Sera smiled a bit wryly. "Although I'd wager that you're just smart and haven't actually smoked a blunt in your life."

Akeya laughed. "What gave it away, General?"

"Abnormal intellects rebel in abnormal ways. Getting high is a normal way to rebel." Serafine chuckled. "Which sort of makes me wonder what your particular abnormal rebellion was like but that's hardly a topic for..."

"Got laid. In public. Just before the birthday party." Akeya looked back down to her rifle and switched out a module. "Best friend from school sends me a copy of the newspaper headline every year just to remind me that geniuses can still be stupid as hell."

There was dead silence within earshot of the draccian for several moments. "You know, I just don't know what to say to that." Silver finally admitted. "It's hard to imagine you being young enough that having sex in public would be particularly scandalous."

Akeya looked askance at him. "I'm trying to decide whether you're complimenting me or just being very creepy, Tails."

"Well, neither. You look considerably younger than you are, Major, so it's difficult to imagine you looking all that much younger." Silver replied, ignoring her use of his less-favored nickname.

"Fair enough." Akeya acknowledged. "To be perfectly honest, outside of my family, it was considered extremely funny, mostly because I looked like a small child even though I was clearly shaped like a teenager. I'm sure you can imagine why most people laughed at it."

"To be perfectly honest, Major, I don't see much reason for me to sit here before going into battle contemplating why you having sex in public would be funny." Sera deadpanned. "It's just... not that much of a priority, you know?"

"Get used to it, General... random, pointless conversation about nothing worth thinking about is the most entertaining way to pass the time before people start shooting at you." Akeya smiled slightly. "If you'd like, we could divert from my exploits to all the titillating tales I've heard about the creativity of a certain pair of star-crossed lovers in stealing a few moments for fun in the midst of their duties."

"Akeya..." Boom growled.

"You're right, big man... that was out of line." Akeya held both hands up. "Sorry, General."

"For what?" Sera smiled. "They're some fun stories. Just... not for a transport full of people neither of us know."

"True." Akeya unscrewed the barrel and was starting to pull the replacement from her carrying case when the transport intercom beeped insistently for attention.

"Marines, lock and load. We've passed into the blind zone of the anti-ship batteries near our drill point and are preparing to clamp on. Assuming double standard battleship thickness of armor, entry can happen in two minutes from attachment. All other transports are also on schedule for penetration." The pilot announced. "Get all you can when you go; we must seal the door after you to prevent the entry point from being vented."

"Finally! Showtime." Boom grinned whitely.

"Can't say I'm nearly so enthusiastic but yes, showtime." Sera unbuckled for just enough time to retrieve her errant sub-machinegun before seating herself again and starting to strap on the helmet portion of her body armor, complete with the NBC mask. "By the way, Akeya... that was all just a joke like the blunts, right?"

Akeya smiled broadly before her muzzle disappeared behind the emotionless material of her mask. "There's no need to be nearly that elaborate in your rebellion when joining the army does the trick." She replied, her cheery voice becoming tinny as she started speaking through the NBC gear. "My parents were and are ardent pacifists. All I had to do is get my grandfather to sign off on my enlistment papers and I'd rebelled big-time."

Sera stared at her through her mask. "You're serious this time?"

"Yup." Akeya's voice conveyed a warm smile. "Part of SAFES, both of them, but involved exclusively with the non-weapons end of things."

"And you're serious this time."

"Yes, General... perfectly serious." Akeya replied evenly. "If you get the chance, you can even look up Sarah Jessica and Jessup Cain Obsydien. Got the CO designation on their SAFES files. Cross my heart."

Silver's eyes sparkled around the breathing apparatus over his muzzle. "And you're...?"

"For the love of good grits, yes!" Akeya rolled her eyes. "I'm not a reefer and I'm not a floozy, OK? Just a SpecOps sharpshooter with..."

Akeya's reply was interrupted by a loud clang from the far end of the transport and the whistling whoosh of the cutting torches starting up. "Secure attachment, boys and girls. Armor looks thick but not as ablative as we feared; countdown is T minus ninety seconds and counting."

"Alright, ladies... cock and lock." Sera's sergeant barked. "Armor boys, get strapped in and in the front. Riot boys, right behind them. Everyone else, get ready to rock."

Sera checked briefly over her equipment, practiced hands moving lightly over the various items, verifying by feel as well as sight. Satisfied that everything was in place, she curiously peeked through the ordered chaos of marines making ready to watch the armor drivers suit up. The two of them had already gotten suited up to their torsos, the scale-like appearance of the powered armor covering everything but their collar bones. As she watched, plated sections rotated down over their arms with small rectangular buckles swinging around and locking the limb armor tight with audible clicks. The interesting part, however, was watching the helmets activate, a hollow half-sphere swinging up behind the head and several plates sliding down to cover the face and then slide into the slot in the torso plates. Then, sections of the plate over, above, and below the eyes lit up with a flickering green light, some sort of transmitter for a heads-up display inside the helmet, Sera supposed. Then two pairs of marines, one holding the belt and the other holding the gun, passed the two armored suit drivers their .40 caliber automatic rifles to complete the ensemble. As the two marched passed Sera's seat, flanked by marines holding what looked like slabs of armor as large as they were, she could see them smoothly feeding the first link of the belt into the chamber and locking it into place. As she rose to take her position in the assault line, she could hear the rapid beep-beep-beep signaling that the cutting torches were almost through and the pilots were preparing to seal and clear the opening.

"Marines, the breaching charges are set. T minus ten... nine..."

"Hey, all you devil dogs!" Boom roared suddenly, drowning out the count. "Say it with me! Retreat?"

"Hell!" The marines roared back as one. "Hoo-ah!"

"...four... three...two..." Sera braced herself as a thunderclap drowned out the last number of the count and the far end of the transport simply disappeared, leaving a round portal with the edges still glowing from the plasma welders vaporizing their way through Majesty's armor to open up a breach. Immediately, the two marines in armored suits braced their guns and clanked forward, followed immediately by the double stack bearing the special riot shields. As Sera surged forward with the rest of the marines, Boom a couple places ahead of her, she could barely see the leaders disappear through the breach, fanning out to either side. Just as she was preparing to step into the ship, she moved her left hand down and switched on the NBC rig and the whirr of the tiny fans starting up caused her to miss the first communication over her built-in comm set.

"Say again?" She inquired, stepping over the edge... and stumbling as the floor was apparently a full eight inches below her.

"Watch the first step, ma'am." Her adjutant repeated wryly. "Although I guess you worked that out."

Sera glanced at him before looking to either side, the marines with the riot shields kneeling and using them for cover as the ones in the armored suits were swinging their guns back and forth, their heads turning with surprising fluidity considering how rigid the neck armor seemed. "No welcoming committee."

"Dark as hell too." Boom commented. "I can see light sockets with nightvision but I think they're empty."

"Works for us more than it works against us." Sera said. "OK, we're blind about layout. Let's split fifty-fifty and spread one-hundred to see if there's anything interesting nearby."

"I'm almost more interested in a porthole." Akeya commented as she split off to the right, following Boom and Silver. "Having no idea how the battle's going outside is driving me nuts."

"You mean you're not already nuts?" Boom inquired dryly. "Ain't that a job requirement for being a SpecOps?"

"You're not as funny as you think you are, Morris." Akeya retorted. "Hey General... check this out."

Sera stepped around her to find that the draccian was gesturing to a diagram in the wall that looked very much like a map although mostly obscured behind a large wooden notice board crammed with fastidiously neat writing in viis. Remembering the translator program in her datapad, Sera centered the sign in the digital recorder's viewfinder and tapped the graphic to capture a still. While the machine was humming through its translation, she reached over and lifted the sign up.

"That doesn't look like any sorta corridor map to me." Treeni commented as she peered over Sera's shoulder.

"That's because it's a duct network, dearie." Auroratold her twin, peering over Sera's other shoulder. "Like thot bunker in old Berlin."

"Oy... that it is!" Treeni sidestepped Sera and peered closer. "Can ye make out any measurements?"

"Not as of yet." Aurora, too, peered closer. "But if it's to scale... we might have a way around that our scaly little friends won't look in."

While the Foxx twins were studying the apparent ductwork map, Sera's datapad beeped cheerily to announce that the translation was ready and she looked down at the screen, her eyes scanning the text. "Captain of Majesty, regarding installation of device, codename 'Crusher'." She read aloud. "Power drain is too substantial to be justified regardless of apparent test results. Should the Grand Admiral and Master of All Arms decree installation, inevitable system meltdown will trigger the section interrupt device located at juncture twenty-three of the primary terminal duct. Caution in ceasing interrupt is requisite and paramount but the triggered interrupt will protect relevant core systems beyond the fifth breaker line. Unceasing may the throne of the Kaa be."

"That explains the blackout." Boom said. "Whatever they installed, it must have triggered a breaker of some sort and cut the power so it couldn't fry this section's systems. All we gotta do is flip it back on."

"I doubt it'll be that easy." Sera frowned. "This doesn't sound like the way zhrelli talk and according to Ampris, they're the only engineers worth the name in the Viis Empire."

"You think we're the first people to lay eyes on this for hundreds of years." Akeya nodded. "Probably. Still, the environment of a space vessel is tightly-controlled, especially for moisture and other things that could corrode systems. If this thing can still float and fight, I'll bet that we can still reset whatever breaker this 'Crusher' tripped."

"Speakin' o' such, Major... I think we've found it." Aurorasaid. "Strike ye as odd that a notice aboot the section interrupt device is placed over a map?"

"GUI controls." Boom walked over. "It'd make sense if this sucker dates back to before the viis were all pathetic. Hey boss, bring that datapad over and see if it can translate the notations."

Sera repeated with the map what she'd done with the notice board and the screen quickly lit up with the translations of the very faded symbols imposed over the diagram. Boom peered over her shoulder, his eyes flickering over the map with the practiced eye of an engineer as one of his gloved fingers traced over the real map. "Let's see... juncture twenty-three... primary... terminal duct..." He straightened up and looked at the map. "Here." As he applied pressure, there was an audible beep from the apparent map and Sera's night vision suddenly went white as the lights came on instantly.

"Ah!" She reached up and pulled the lens up and out of her vision as she waited for the light spots to fade; even with the compensator, enough light hitting the goggles was blinding. "Boom! Could you possibly have given me warning first?"

"Sorry, boss." Sera looked around as her vision cleared, able to see the corridors clearly and normally for the first time. They reminded her instantly of the well-lit ergonomic corridors of SAFN warships, clearly designed to be conductive to crew having to move quickly and easily from one point to the next if danger threatened. The corridors also had a strangely rounded appearance, any sharp corners smoothed out by artfully curved soft-light panels. Right above the duct map, Sera noticed direction labels that seemed untouched by the passage of time in stark contrast to the map below. A quick translation from the datapad told her that the fourth-tier engine room lay in the direction they'd been traveling when they'd spotted the map and that the officer quarters lay in the opposite direction. "Well, well, well... clear directions."

"Yeah?" Akeya walked over and tilted the datapad towards her to look at it. "Well, as interesting as it'd be to dig through the personal stuff of whoever used to boss the slaves around, I think we'd better make for the engine rooms."

"I'd be tempted to agree except for the fact that the bridge is usually on the opposite end of the ship from the engines. So if we move towards the quarters, we might spot signs telling us how to get to the Grand Admiral." Sera replied.

"Of course, the entire point of snatching this 'Grand Admiral' is to get intelligence from him, right?" Sera sort of started, not having seen her adjutant walk up.

"Yes."

"Well, officers like to keep really interesting and revealing stuff in their quarters, right? So maybe we can snatch something really interesting and useful on our way up." He suggested.

"True. Boom, you go with the bulk of the squad and head to the engine room with the sergeant here. Treeni, Aurora, you follow and provide recon support. Akeya, Silver, you two are with me. We'll take one of the other combat engineers, a rifle team, and an armored marine and head up towards the officers' quarters." Sera looked at each of them as she spoke.

"So you want to take our SpecOps asset and one of our major command assets off to parts unknown with the smaller part of the squad?" The sergeant quirked a brow. "I approve of the guts, General, but that sounds pretty stupid."

"Sergeant, where do you think everyone and their puppy is going?" Sera smirked at him. "Yeah, our part of this squad is sort of small but we're heading directly towards the bulk of our on-site forces. Don't forget that I was there watching while General Lee proposed our strategy."

"You're the boss." He nodded. "I suggest giving a call-out to the nearest scheduled forces before you go too far, though. What with this thing being all creepy and unknown, they might know something we don't."

"Duly noted. Check in every thirty." Sera traded salutes with the human and headed towards the other half of the squad as Boom and Treeni followed the sergeant the other way. They came upon the half of the squad almost immediately, the engineer in the final stages of cutting a door open with the rest of the marines loitering behind him, on casual alert with hands lingering near guns in case they were needed. Almost as one, they straightened up and saluted.

"General, ma'am." The armored suit driver greeted her. "We didn't get too far before we hit the door. Power coming back on didn't budge it but we're almost through."

Sera acknowledged him with a quick nod. "We're splitting up, gentlemen. I'm keeping a rifle team, engineer, and armor suit with me; the rest of you go with my adjutant. According to direction markers, the officer quarters are this way and beyond them lies the bridge and the bulk of the other marines. Since the flawed shield generators were presumably blown free instead of irradiating the engine rooms, that's your destination but keep a Geiger on hand just in case."

There were nods all around and except for the specialists she'd named, each of them saluted and headed down the corridor towards the engine room. Just as Sera turned back to the door, the engineer stood up and shut off his torch.

"Cutting's done. If you please, corporal."

"Gladly." The armored marine clanked over to the door and, with one arm bracing his machinegun, placed his other hand on the center and shoved it inwards. Sera caught a brief glimpse of multiple black-armored figures on the other side, some kneeling with their fellows aiming over their heads, before a hail of projectiles struck the marine with a series of curiously wet-sounding thumps. There was a heavy silence, the armored man clearly a big taken aback that he was unharmed, the viis soldiers stunned that their fire had no effect, before a tinny chuckle came from the corporal.

"My turn." The machinegun erupted and the soldiers directly in front collapsed, bluish blood pooling under their bullet-riddled corpses and the marine stepped through the door, sweeping his gun left and right as he walked, the soldiers trying to turn and run but unable to get away from the storm of tracers and armor-piercing bullets. Some brave soul managed to get another shot off, the projectile deflecting uselessly, before it was all over and the corporal stopped firing.

"Well, that wasn't hard." He stepped through further so that the rest of them could file in behind him. "These guys must be all kinds of stupid... didn't even feel the impact. It's like getting hit with paint rounds or something."

"Let me see." The engineer circled around to look at the armor plating, Sera following him curiously. Whatever the viis had been firing had broken on the metal plate and was dribbling down in clear rivulets of liquid. It seemed to have no effect at all on the armor.

"You're right, corporal... they're like paint rounds." She commented. "But what's this liquid they're filled with? I don't see fumes or corrosion."

"Maybe it's poisonous upon skin contact?" The engineer touched the clear liquid with his glove and Sera immediately heard a sizzling sound as the liquid began to bubble and started eating away the glove. The engineer, no fool he, quickly ripped it off and threw it to the ground where the rubberized material continued to corrode until the little bit of liquid it'd made contact with had completely reacted.

"Damn." The engineer shook his hand. "OK, it reacts really strong to my tactical gloves, whatever it is. Stings like the dickens too."

Silver went over and lightly grasped the engineer's hand, looking it over. "Welts." He reported. "Reddish swollen welts where it made skin contact. Looks like an irritant, sort of like strong enough cayenne oils." He smacked him on the back of the head. "You bloody fool... there's plenty of substances that won't visibly corrode metal but will do serious harm to bare skin, even skin covered in gloves. And you manage to get welts on your dominant hand." He shook his head as he took the medical bag off his hip and began to rummage through it, muttering "wanker" under his breath.

"Sorry, doc." The engineer responded, looking genuinely contrite.

"You should be." He pulled out a small metal canister, grabbed his hand, and uncapped the canister with his fingers as he dabbed the medicated gel on the welts. "You don't need your fingertips to pull a trigger but you're supposed to be the goddamn combat engineer, you twit. If you're going to touch some unidentified weaponized substance, use the back of your hand or something."

"So, corrodes rubberized gloves, irritates skin." Sera summarized. "And doesn't corrode metal visibly. Any ideas on what the stuff is?"

"If I was to guess, General, I'd say it was a multipurpose suppression round." Akeya offered. "I'll bet the smoke it gives off when it reacts with something is toxic and it clearly can cause dissuading pain when it comes in contact with bare skin. It's also clearly contained in some sort of projectile that bursts and splashes the target with the chemical agent. I'll further bet that if you were to drip some on that viis armor, it'd eat straight through it because the stuff doesn't fracture like metal."

"So...?"

"Eats through armor, produces toxic fumes while it does so, and causes painful welts. Thus, equally effective as a lethal and non-lethal round." Silver offered. "Very clever although they've clearly got conventional ammunition as well since the last round they fired ricocheted instead of burst."

"Which means that our armor, designed to stop solid or armor-penetrating rounds, might be useless against the type of ammunition they use?" Sera grimaced.

"Possible... but unlikely." The engineer replied. "It's true that we use non-metal fibers as a major component of the NBC armored suit but Spectra is chemically inert. It's like trying to induce a reaction with one of the so-called 'noble' gases: they're so chemically stable as to be very difficult to trigger. It might corrode one of the reinforcing components, say, the artificial rubber seals around the filter mask, but corrosion is a chemical reaction-and the other chemical has to be reactive. Still, it seems wise to caution the other squads. Emphasize that the chemical weapon is definitely ineffective against fully metal armor like the mechanized suits and the riot shields."

"And that their armor can't do shit against my awesome power." The armored marine added with gusto. "Slingin' machine gun bullets while all their weak game just bounces off is good clean fun."

Sera smiled. "We can only hope they don't have armor-piercing bullets, or at least don't have the sense to use them before they're killed."

"I don't think they do, General." One of the rifle team said from his position kneeling beside one of the perforated bodies. "Or at least they don't use them with their standard weapon. Looks like a three-to-one ratio of those CW rounds with some sort of solid-state round that looks a helluva lot like a sub-sonic police round. In fact, these weapons look like the sort of array a SWAT team rolls with, minus heavy tactical gear like a rifle."

"More garrison troops?" Sera glanced over at Akeya.

Akeya shook her head. "These guys were too quick on the trigger and their armor isn't worn. Plus, they didn't break like inexperienced soldiers. Greenies drop encumbrance and run standing; it looked like our unfortunate friends were tucking their guns in and running crouched. Granted, not a whole lot they could do with a stable AR40 sweeping them but they weren't panicked and one of them had the presence of mind to replace his clip and try solid rounds while being riddled with bullets."

"Concur, General." The other member of the rifle team added. "They couldn't do anything about a marine in an armored suit with a heavy weapon but if these guys are typical, this still ain't going to be cake and ice cream."

"I'd better raise Lee then." The fact that Majesty was clearly extremely large, even before they got close enough to see just how big it was, had made it necessary to find a communications device with signal power comparable to a crank set without being as bulky as one of the solid but unwieldy radios. Somehow, it hadn't been all that surprising to find that SAFES had developed an exterior module that could be hooked into the auxiliary port on the NBC suit helmet, for the use of the marines and it was this module, which looked very much like a pair of earmuffs, that Sera plugged in and switched on. "Vicksburg Actual, this is Wolfpack Actual. Vicksburg Actual, this is Wolfpack Actual, do you copy?"

"Vicksburg Actual copies, Wolfpack." Lee replied instantly, his voice surprisingly clear given that he was on the other side of at least a kilometer of bulkheads and systems. "If only because 'Chancelorsville', 'Manassas' and 'Chickamauga' are far too unwieldy."

"Be happy that we didn't decide that you'd be 'Sharpsburg' because it'd be too ominous." Sera smiled a little. "Hit any complications so far?"

"A great deal of empty space." He replied. "Well-lit, well-maintained empty space swimming in heavily-armored bulkheads. Ah would have expected soldiers by now, given that we apparently landed in a space that they'd want us to stay away from."

"Well, we just restored power and got ourselves shot at." Sera told him. "Gunslinger and the rifle team agree that even if they can't even scratch one of your armored marines, the defenders are professionals. Plenty gutsy, if nothing else; with AR40 bullets ripping into their formation, one of the soldiers still managed to switch out some sort of chemical weapon bullet for solid bullets and get a shot off."

"Chemical weapon bullets?"

"Yeah. Hard gel projectile that bursts on contact." Sera replied. "It definitely reacts with whatever material our combat engineer's gloves were made out of and produces painful welts on contact with skin. Although we have no way to confirm it, we believe that the smoke produced by the reaction is extremely toxic, obviously meant to dose someone with nerve gas or something as it dissolves their armor. It doesn't react at all with metal, however, so your riot shields and armored marines will be your best bet."

"Good thing to know." Sera overheard him saying something, presumably to a subordinate. "Ah'll pass the word to my section of the assault team. Ah recommend that you dial up Gunnery Sergeant Zanardi, callsign Shiloh, so he can do the same."

"Hopefully, his life is just as uncomplicated as ours are." Sera acknowledged. "Wolfpack out."

"General?" Sera looked up to see Silver kneeling beside one of the armored bodies, starting to unpack his field surgeon kit. "Believe it or no, I believe that one of these blokes survived the barrage. Bleeding like a stuck pig, but most of his wounds are from rounds that passed clean through the unfortunates in front of him."

Sera walked over and looked at the prone form, blood oozing from several holes but apparently still alive and able to move a little now and again. "You can tell that without being able to see his body?"

"More intuition than deduction." Silver looked over his shoulder at the engineer. "Sergeant, I need you to figure out how to get this armor off of him. I don't see any seams."

"Tap on it." The engineer replied as he walked over, fishing a reciprocating saw out of his pack. "Then point me at which part sounds hollow and stand back."

"I don't think that's the best..."

The engineer pointed at him. "Doctor." He then pointed at himself. "Engineer. I don't pretend to know how to do your job."

"No need to be a wanker about it." Silver snorted, tapping lightly and pointing the man towards the center of the torso plate. "Just don't do more damage..."

The engineer turned and stared at him. "Look, doc, I know you're a smart guy so don't start sounding stupid. Telling a combat engineer to do exactly the right amount of damage is like telling a neurosurgeon not to cut off someone's head. Didn't you learn anything from the Big Man?"

"Richard and I hardly discuss the finer points of our respective professions, if it's any of your business." Silver huffed but stepped back to let the engineer work.

"Well, you should try it sometime." The engineer started the saw and lowered the blade to the plate, the rapidly-moving saw parting the material like flesh before a scalpel. "It ain't fixing an artery blind while yelling instructions to the orderlies but the Big Man does bombs like Michelangelo did chapels. You could learn stuff from him, if not about bombs then about how to kick ass just by standing there and grinning."

"You forget, sergeant, that I have known the man well for well over a decade now." Silver pointed out. "And you don't even know the half of it. The man can't even be stopped by having half his chest ripped open by RPG fragments. And no, that isn't an exaggeration in the least."

"Like I said... kicking ass just by standing there and grinning." The engineer smoothly and quickly moved his saw over the armor, slicing away the plate from the viis' naval to collarbone and lifting it away in one piece. "She's ready for you, doc."

"She?" Silver stepped closer and knelt. "Oh. Well... no matter at the moment. Can you slice off the armor sections with the bullet holes while I'm examining the ones that you have already exposed?"

"Can a fish swim?" Although his mouth was covered by the mask, his voice somehow conveyed a grin. "How much clearance do you need?"

"Six inches at least. Eight would be best but..."

"Done." The engineer started up his saw again to cut Silver off and began carving off more of the armored shell while Silver unpacked what Sera guessed must be some sort of tiny metal-detector and a both-eye fiber optic camera only slightly more refined than the highly useful tool that Sera remembered using while she was doing technical work at the Gaia Shipyards. He swept the metal detector over the four visible wounds and, after a moment, pulled the separated armor plate towards him and turned it over.

"Remarkable... the shell prevented the bullets from actually penetrating the scales..." He commented before unwrapping the sterility packing from around the fiber optic lens and gently inserting it into one of the wounds, looking into the viewer end. "Bullets still nailed her with fragments though. Major, could you kindly reach into the compartment second from the right and two rows down and hand me the bent-end tweezers, the ones with the blue sterility wrapping?"

"You know, I was under the impression that the viis are wholly reptilian." Sera commented as Akeya stepped around her to get the requested tweezers.

"And cue the polite way of asking how I can tell that my patient is female." Silver turned and smiled. "The same way that you can tell that Major Obsydien is female, General. Of course, this young lady also appears to have the same 'deformities' as the Grand Admiral which indicates that she may not be a typical viis female. Ah, thank you Major."

As Silver turned back to his patient, started to carefully pull fragments out of wounds, Sera sidestepped around the still-sawing engineer to get a look at what the medic meant. She'd never seen any more of a viis than their faces and hands and she'd assumed that the fine pebbly scales covered them from head to toe, much like an Earth iguana. Instead, they apparently dissolved into smooth supple-looking scales that strongly resembled the leathery covering of a draccian. She could immediately see what Silver had meant: the firm swell of breasts protruded from the otherwise flat surface of what seemed to be a Kevlar-like undergarment, one that apparently did nothing to stop the spray of armor fragments caused by the impact of the .40 caliber machinegun rounds. Neither the armor nor what Sera could see of the underclothes indicated who this soldier was or even her rank.

"I wonder how they differentiate between one another." She commented.

"Beg pardon, General?" Akeya looked up at her.

"I don't see any rank markings or even anything to identify who this person is." Sera gestured vaguely at the prostrate still mostly-armored soldier. "We've used dog tags for hundreds of years and even these NBC suits allow the attachment of rank markings yet for all I can see, she's totally anonymous."

"Psychological warfare." Akeya grinned. "It's why SpecOps designed a special variation of the NBC suit that looks more menacing than the regular one and why we wear decorations like the blood band and the laughing skull: it intimidates and frightens enemies. I'll bet that the viis dress all the soldiers the same and omit anything to identify who they are to make them seem like pitiless and remorseless automatons that could be machines for all their enemies know. Considering that the viis are also a slave-using society, intimidating and frightening the untermensch is also part of the picture."

"Huh." Sera shook her head. "I can't imagine thinking of yourself as a professional warrior knowing that part of your duties is kicking helpless people around at the behest of a tyrant."

"Plenty of soldiers throughout our history could tell you all about it, boss." The engineer said as he stood. "All the holes are open for you, doc."

"Thank you, sergeant." Silver had, during the brief conversation, already finished cleaning up the wounds that had been first exposed, moving on to one that looked especially ugly in the soldier's shoulder. "I'm glad she's unconscious for this... having someone stick instruments into your wounds, however carefully, would be intensely uncomfortable. At least whatever this armor is made of isn't itself toxic or I'd be trying to counteract a poisoning of a species that I know virtually nothing about."

"Someone didn't think of skimming all the useful data from that lab computer and sticking it in a data pad for you?" Sera blinked.

"I doubt there was much there." Silver shrugged. "My impression of the science going on in that bunker was that it wasn't science at all and could not possibly have produced reliable data, certainly nothing that I'd trust if I was operating on a patient. Which still strikes me as strange, by the way, since all the scientists were clearly well-educated and intelligent."

"Yeah, even Mengele."

"Yes, even him." Silver glanced back at Akeya. "I do wish you'd stop using that reference, Major. The director is clearly not a Mengele because Mengele had no purpose behind the evils he did beyond morbid curiosity."

"Wouldn't that have been your first reaction too, Captain?"

"Of course." Silver turned back to his work. "But not my second or my third. Could you please hand me the suture needle and line in the upper left compartment?"

"Not anesthetic?" Akeya asked as she handed him the requested items.

"If she hasn't started shaking with pain by now, Major, she is either awake and able to push it away or she's still unconscious and can't feel it." He took a bottle labeled 'AMb' in large letters from the pack and dripped a few drops into the shoulder wound before starting to close it. "Doubtless, she'll be hurting plenty when I'm done but it's better than taking a wild guess about appropriate dosage."

"True." Akeya glanced towards the soldier's face, still concealed behind a helmet. "Do you think we should get that thing off her head?"

"I hesitate to go yanking on a helmet without knowing how it can be properly removed, especially when the person is wounded." Silver moved on to a wound where the rib cage would be on a human. "But by all means, see if you can do so without hurting her."

"Here, I'll help." Sera offered, moving around to the soldier's head and leaning down to examine the helmet. It seemed to consist of two cones, one squat and vertical and the other tall and narrow, designed to accommodate pretty much whatever head it was put on. There were no visible slits for the eyes but as Sera looked at it from blow, she spotted a seam running down the middle of the chin and a clasp.

"Here, I think this lets you get it off." She reached down and opened the clasp. Just as she suspected, the part under the chin and running down the neck was hinged and the helmet practically fell off as she opened it. Akeya was there to catch it and slip it the rest of the way off, exposing the face of the female viis wearing it. Sera was immediately struck by the fact that, just like the Grand Admiral, the female's face was sharper and more predatory than the face of the typical viis. The scales of her face still had a pebbly appearance but the pebbling was more fine and when Sera looked closer, she realized that some scales were darker than others and had a violet tint, forming a very subtle tigerstripe pattern that followed the smooth contours of the viis' face. Just then, the female's eyes opened and for a moment, Sera's was looking into eyes with unnaturally vivid green irises before the soldier's pupils dilated and she jerked her head away.

"Kaa's scepter, what are you doing?" She yelped, her voice surprisingly strong with an odd undercurrent a hiss, almost like a purr. The translation box rendered the words with a very strong lisp, such a strong lisp that Sera hesitated a moment to run the question through her mind.

"We are... um..."

"Cleaning and suturing your wounds." Silver supplied. "Which is hard when you move suddenly like that."

The female blinked and looked downwards at Silver who had returned to suturing a long narrow wound, like the furrow of a passing bullet, in her side. "You are... rendering medical treatment." She said after a moment, more calmly this time. "This explains the unpleasant sensation of being repeatedly stabbed by a needle."

"Sorry about no anesthetic but I know nothing about..."

"Think nothing of it, medic." She interrupted him. "The physiology of my species would be unfamiliar to you and I assume that you are constrained by a code of medical ethics."

Sera blinked and looked over at Akeya, seeing her surprise at the soldier's oddly refined word choice reflected in the too-blue eyes of the draccian. "I take it you must be..."

"A fully-commissioned officer, yes." She confirmed. "The rank directly below a general officer, fortuitously also the last rank in which the Kaa need not be personally consulted for approval."

"Are you part of some... militia or reserve?"

The officer was visibly taken aback. "Of course not. Granted, this would be a subsidiary career to the first one in which I was engaged but it is a full-time commission. Why would you believe otherwise?"

"The only soldiers I've known who throw around words like 'fortuitously', 'physiology', and 'constrained' are reservists who hold a highly-educated position in civilian life." Sera paused for a moment, thinking. "This may sound like a strange observation but the educated-sounding speech aside, you're very... well... ordinary."

She looked at Sera steadily for a moment before she smiled and actually looked pretty doing it. "You are laboring under the impression that if you have met one viis of high station, you have met all of my people. If so, your belief is gravely erroneous and assumes a state of affairs that I doubt to be true of your own people, assuming that I am not equally mistaken."

That caught Sera by surprise, especially as she realized that she had sort of assumed that all the viis were of a similar kind. Until just now, it had never even occurred to her that her only source of information about the viis in general were slaves that had only encountered one class of viis.

"So correct us." Akeya replied. "If you're not all a bunch of arrogant, rude, slave-holding, pathetic decaying remnants of a once-great imperial power, tell us how you're different."

The viis soldier grinned toothily. "I'll thank you not to make me laugh, she-who-deals-death... that would be extremely painful in my present state. I suppose that that is one demonstrable difference in the first: I am tempted to laugh enjoyably at your calculated insolence, as opposed to being offended by it."

"Point." Akeya acknowledged.

"As I imagine it is among your own, there are major geographical distinctions between those viis who arose from the vast tropical belt of Viisymel and those who regard the polar radii as their home. I am of the latter, as is Karchaan D'Adler as are the bulk of our empire's actual soldiers." She laid her head back as Silver finished stitching the last wound and began cleaning up. "The warm viis lead and hold the vision of the viis ascendant. The cold viis forge in metal and blood the vision of the viis ascendant and bow to the warm viis. Thus is the Oath of Unity that has bound all viis as a single world and single leader since before the passage of years was measured. We are not viis in the same way but we are all viis together."

"Black and white humans." Silver offered by way of explanation.

She mulled this over. "The analogy is apt, medic. We are black and they are white but we are all viis together. We appear differently, treasure differently, think differently, speak differently, but there is no difference between any two viis but for those differences which uniqueness renders in them."

"Err..."

"What I believe the colonel is saying, General, is that viis society has always been divided between the viis that live in the very large tropical band of Viisymel and the viis that live in the polar regions." Silver told her. "The tropical viis were accorded the responsibility of leadership and the polar viis the responsibility of fighting the wars of the Empire. It sounds as if she's saying, however, that the two... races, I suppose, of her people are utterly different from one another: they look different, they value different things, have audibly different dialects, and are in very different places philosophically speaking."

"Yes." The colonel smiled slightly, looking a bit embarrassed. "When you grow up with palace talk, using all the right words, saying things in just the right way, it becomes a habit. It sounds like you speak the albiru tongue."

"Actually, the language your albiru speak is identical to the standard language of our home world." Sera told her. "Just as your own people's language bears a close resemblance to the language spoken in my home region. We were somewhat shocked when a totally alien people began speaking to us in a language that we were familiar with."

"I imagine so." She looked between all of the team now gathered around her. "I believe that I'm your prisoner now. As I understand it, it is common to interrogate prisoners for information, is it not?"

"Yes." Sera nodded. "However, it's hard to know what to do with you. If we had a way to put you under guard until you could be transferred to a prisoner of war area, this would be easy. But our trip here was one-way so even if we formally took you prisoner, we'd have no way to imprison you."

"I could promise to stay here." She suggested hopefully.

"And how would that be different than giving you a pat on the head and telling you to do whatever you want?"

"Good point." She looked thoughtful. "We are near officer's quarters. You could weld one of the locks shut behind me."

"You know, I'm not sure what's stranger here." Akeya commented, quirking a brow at the colonel. "That we're talking to a viis that isn't incessantly calling us scum or that she's helpfully suggesting ways for us to imprison her."

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Major." Silver admonished her, chuckling. "It's refreshing to meet one of her people that's actually pleasant to us."

"You are soldiers, as am I and as was my squad." The colonel sighed. "I suppose it should have occurred to me that professional soldiers would prepare the ground before entering but the electrically-driven armor and the extremely heavy weapon was a surprise. So, too, is the fact that you make extensive use of metal and chemical propellant."

The mention of ammunition caused Sera to suddenly remember that she hadn't yet passed the information on the viis chemical weapon ammo to Sergeant Zanardi. "Hold that thought." She reached up to the comm box and brought it into her field of vision so she could tune it to Zanardi's frequency. "Shiloh, this is Wolfpack Actual. Shiloh, this is Wolfpack Actual over."

"Dude, it's Facundo." Came the prompt reply. "Could you hold on a minute, General? I'm sort of busy wiping the floor with the entire fucking garrison of this ship. It shouldn't take long."

"Uh, should I vector some other...?"

"The Old Man's already taken care of it." Zanardi sounded very radiant for a man engaged in a large-scale firefight. "Them armored marines are gonna dropkick 'em into the next millennium."

"You... seem very happy, Gunnery Sergeant."

"I'm in the happiest place in the universe, boss." He replied cheerfully. "Entrenched in hard cover with an unrestricted field of fire and an extremely target-rich environment. If I had a couple for-real machineguns, I could be playing poker and eating MREs while making a body wall of ugly reptiles. Life is pretty damn good."

"Well, be aware that some of their bullets are chemical weapons." Sera told him. "It seems to react strongly to non-metal armor, dissolving it and producing gas that we believe to be toxic. Also..."

"It's not toxic. It induces unconsciousness."

"Mmm?" Sera looked at the colonel who had risen to a sitting position.

"The gas the reaction produces isn't poisonous. We use it when we're trying to either capture or subdue a target without doing serious harm." She replied. "Dead soldiers can't tell you interesting and valuable things."

Sera nodded and returned to her conversation with Zanardi. "OK, scratch that. Gas isn't poisonous but pretend that it is because it'll take you off the board just as surely as being made dead. Also, be aware that the viis have access to solid-state rounds and possible special armor-piercing ammunition."

"Miniature fin-discarding high-revolution anti-armor rounds." The colonel supplied. "You can tell who came up with the name; we call them 'fishes'. They aren't for serious work but they're effective in a firefight against ordinary infantry armor. For real work, we use a hypersonic recoilless platform which is so over-powered that on a ship, it is more dangerous to us than it is to you."

"Alright, just confirmed the armor-piercing rounds, Shiloh." Sera relayed to Facundo. "Keep an eye out for something that looks like a 'hypersonic recoilless platform' because it can kill your armored marines. More dangerous to them than you but if they're desperate enough, it might show up."

"Picked up a POW, did we?" Facundo chuckled. "Nice to meet a real person, isn't it?"

"You captured one too?" Sera blinked.

"No, but they're pros and one doesn't get to be a pro without ditching the I'm-a-god-you're-scum tendencies. So, I figure that the one you got is a swell guy."

"Gal, actually. Kidnapped from a university..."

"Harem."

"...harem." Sera stared at her for a moment. "And given a golden bird. Got lucky and her only wounds were the blood-smeared bullets that had already punched a couple tickets on their way to her."

"You... captured a harem girl." There was a long silence. "So, can I borrow that girl-magnet power for a while? I could really use a cute girl waiting for me at home."

Sera felt her cheeks get warm. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, let's see." Sera could hear the grin. "Your best friend, possibly your girlfriend, is a looker. Practically the day after you rescue her, that pretty golden-furred girl is getting some mouth-time with you. Athena gets some tongue out of you to prove that she's real and now, the only survivor of an armored marine's mighty firepower is a harem girl. I don't know about you, General, but that spells 'girl-magnet' to an eligible bachelor like me."

"But... I didn't... I mean..." Sera stopped and rolled her eyes. "Why am I even talking with you about this?"

"Because I'm happy and bored and you're stuck figuring out how to accommodate the POW." He replied. "If there's nothing else, boss, there's asses that badly need to be kicked and I'm thinkin' that me and my boys are just the maniacs to do it."

"Well, have fun I guess." Sera smiled a little. "Wolfpack out."

"Shiloh out." Zanardi replied.

With the conversation over, Sera turned and stared at the colonel who looked up at her innocently. "Did I say something amiss, General?"

"A harem?"

She hissed with the beginnings of a laugh and immediately winced from the pressure it put on her stitches. "Where else would a female soldier pick up a palace dialect?"

"Education, I had assumed." Sera admitted.

"The cold viis are exotic and interesting to the warm viis." She shrugged. "And what kaa could call himself great if he lacked exotic concubines? I believe he was especially proud of acquiring me and especially happy that my family could not interfere with him, on account of them being killed in an aerial collision. His happiness, however, was... limited when I failed to translate my promising beauty into healthy heirs. That this was no fault of mine was not important."

"Whose was it then?" One of the riflemen asked, in the midst of examining one of the viis weapons.

"A severe aversion to a normally harmless irritant." She grimaced. "Apparently, the kaa's daughter does not like competition and she believed that it would be very funny if, the next time I was called before the kaa, my face was discolored and swollen. The... young female had the exceptionally clever idea of tainting my facial paints with a tincture that would be triggered by the warmth and humidity of the throne room. As you likely noticed, the tainted paints permanently scarred my face but more importantly... they... made me ill enough to... destroy my unborn."

"Is her name... Israi?"

"It is." The colonel looked surprised. "Your spies must be extremely talented that you would know the kaa's heir apparent by name."

"She wasn't a spy." Sera chuckled. "Somehow, it doesn't surprise me at all that fate somehow conspired to place the unfortunate victim of Israi's prank on this section of the ship and caused that she would be lightly wounded so I could discover her."

"You knew of me before coming here?" Her eyes widened.

"Not by name. Ampris..."

"Israi's pet." The surprise vanished, replaced by a smile. "You're correct, General, that fate in conspiring in your favor. You stumbled, by pure happenstance, on the only witness to the inner workings of the kaa's court that is not a member of that court."

"You don't qualify?"

"General, have you ever met a ruler who keeps the same pretty thing at his side like a pet wherever he goes?" She smirked, or at least smiled in a way that Sera took to be a smirk. "He took his heir apparent and her slave everywhere but I was a toy to be used and then put back in her gilded box."

"Hey boss?" The voice of her marine adjutant came over the com.

"Yes, sergeant?"

"We've arrived at the fourth-tier engine rooms. We haven't seen anyone or any indication that there's anyone in this direction but the reactors here are burning brightly and it's so clean that you'd think they'd polished it in preparation for our arrival." He reported. "I'm no engineer but this looks like lots of reactors to power a single ship and assuming this arrangement is mirrored on the other side, Majesty is one helluva energy hog."

"Is Sergeant Morris nearby?"

"Yeah, hold on." There was a few seconds of silence and then Boom's basso rumble filled her ear.

"How ya doin', General?"

"The armored marine we're with kicked ass and took names." Sera replied. "Squished an entire squad without a scratch. But the best part is that we scooped up a friendly prisoner who's telling us interesting things."

"I'll see your 'interesting' and raise you a 'things to make you go oh shit'." Boom told her. "This isn't my specialty, ma'am, but these reactors bear an uncanny resemblance to the A6N reactors we use to power the Gaia Shipyards. All the containment that says 'this reactor scares us shitless' and ejection rails surrounding each reactor. There's no less than ten in this room, boss; we only need four to power a shipyard ten times this thing's size and this is only one of at least two fourth-tier engine rooms. I don't think I like the math."

If Sera could have, she'd have gone pale. The size of the Shipyards was measured in miles and its massive antimatter-matter reactors were vital since Gaia was expected to be able to fully power two Colossus mobile dockyards simultaneously to do a systems check, not to mention doing the same thing with the ships in its hundreds of other berths. While staggering in size, Majesty could not possibly need that kind of electrical power for normal functioning. After processing this a moment, she turned to look at the colonel. "Colonel, what is this place?"

"My name is not 'Colonel'... it is 'Malice.'" She replied. "And I'm not sure what you mean by your question. This is a space vessel. Surely you could see that before entering it."

"We realized that it's a space vessel but what sort?" Sera asked her. "One of the squads under my command are telling me that its generators can power a ship several times its size."

"It's a prototype for a theoretical series of ships called 'Crusher' vessels." Malice replied. "I have gathered that the purpose of these vessels was to provide a kaa with a terror weapon to keep the Empire obedient."

"Not a fleet command ship?"

"No." She shook her head slightly in emphasis. "Those serve in fleets far from Viisymel. The nearest one is Majesty, commanding the shield fleet for the Inner Colonies."

Sera stared at her in shock. "This isn't Majesty?"

"Of course it's not." She looked genuinely surprised. "Majesty is distinctly smaller. This ship, at least when it was originally constructed, was called Overlord."

"And... why is it considered a terror weapon?"

"Because it has the weaponry to scour inhabited worlds." Her delicate brow furrowed. "I believe that Kaarchan refers to it as... planet-killing."