saviorgoddessastrid:

fleet-admiral-red:

Yellow nodded glumly. She was always hesitant to kill another living being, even in self-defense, but if the monsters were as fanatical as the adventurer said they were, then it looked like she had no choice.

Still, something about those last words seemed off. Killing them was only temporary? Was there some form of resurrection available to them?

Bringing back the dead wasn’t strange for Yellow, the incredibly advanced yet controversial medical technology pioneered by Dr Angela Ziegler was proof of that. But to hear that even killing these monsters wasn’t enough to put them down for good troubled her.

“I see. Thank you for telling me all this.” Yellow bowed once more.

The Adventurer nodded.  “No problem,” he replied.  “Try not to die out there, alright rook? If you’re not traveling with a party, you’re at much bigger risk, but if that’s how you wanna roll, that’s fine by me.”

“I appreciate the concern, but I’ll be fine.” Yellow tried to reassure him. After all, as she currently was, being in a party would only do more harm than good.

Normally Yellow was appreciative of her mysterious abilities, but they were so intrinsically linked with her psychological state that she was afraid the tightly suppressed inner turmoil she currently faced would end up affecting any party members too.

So it was with a sigh that Yellow left the adventurer, intent on finding a secluded place where she could stow her backpack, put on her data-stored Valkyrie suit unseen and begin collecting those needed plants.

Though she couldn’t help but wonder how other adventurers would see her suit. The technology in it was centuries beyond what she could observe of Terra Ancora’s own capabilities, sapient AI and synthetic races notwithstanding.

Aegis of Hope

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

“Hmm, that would make a hell of a lot of sense.” Wolf said, “Hmm…”

He looked to the captain.

“Take me to Altia.” He said, “I need to discuss matters with certain people. I have debts that need to be repaid properly.” 

“I’m sorry, sir. Before we can do that, we need to transport our latest prisoner to a secure location for trial.” explained the captain.

Locke gave a nod as his avatar rippled briefly, then straightened. “Akemi Protocol engaged. Battlegroup August and nullifier escort ready for synchronous Jump.”

The captain nodded in return, then turned back to Wolf. “I must request that you inform your ships of our temporary departure. The Akemi Protocol requires absolute secrecy when transporting a high value individual or item. We will only need to make a trip and back on our own.”

“He’s not going to make it to trial. Again, history repeats itself.” Wolf said enigmatically, “Either way, I’ll inform my ship.”

Stepping away for a moment, he opened up a comm channel.

“Temporary departure of GDI fleet, just remain in position.” He said.

“Destination set. Configuring navigation systems under Akemi Protocol. Ready for Jump on your command, Captain.” Locke reported dutifully.

As one, Battlegroup August pivoted about to a certain point in space, as did the nullifier vessel.

“Engage Jump in 3…2…1…mark.”

To those looking outside the windows, it simply looked like their surroundings had changed in an instant.

“Facility 520, this is Battlegroup August. HVP onboard in stasis, requesting permission to begin transfer.”

The Caldari waited for a reply. These facilities were MaxSec prisons, and each one held a distributed number of dangerous individuals or criminals GDI had captured over the years. Frozen indefinitely in stasis fields,

Any arrival or departure had to be heavily screened and monitored. The Vigilance’s arrival was no exception.

Locke inclined his avatar’s head towards Wolf. “Sir, I’m afraid we will have to wait. A transfer takes time, especially if stasis must be maintained throughout the process.”

Aegis of Hope

howlofthewolf:

“Hmm, that would make a hell of a lot of sense.” Wolf said, “Hmm…”

He looked to the captain.

“Take me to Altia.” He said, “I need to discuss matters with certain people. I have debts that need to be repaid properly.” 

“I’m sorry, sir. Before we can do that, we need to transport our latest prisoner to a secure location for trial.” explained the captain.

Locke gave a nod as his avatar rippled briefly, then straightened. “Akemi Protocol engaged. Battlegroup August and nullifier escort ready for synchronous Jump.”

The captain nodded in return, then turned back to Wolf. “I must request that you inform your ships of our temporary departure. The Akemi Protocol requires absolute secrecy when transporting a high value individual or item. We will only need to make a trip and back on our own.”

secondshipgirlsquadron:

Tempest floated around lazily, although still paying full attention to her tutor. Perhaps she had even more respect for the Titan than before, if that were possible. Not that she would ever admit it, of course.

She gently glided over to join Hope and Lumi nearby.

The two cruiser sisters watched Aegis as well, Hope quietly holding Lumi’s free hand. As Tempest neared them, Hope gave her a small wave. Lumi smiled at the carrier, but dutifully kept most of her attention on Aegis.

The Titan, for her part, was continuing her lecture. “Alright, I told you all earlier that our standard guided torpedoes are a variable-warhead model. What this means in practice is that most of the torpedo is easier to replicate or manufacture, using just a single blueprint.”

As was becoming usual for her, Aegis withdrew one of said torpedo casings, a gleaming metallic capsule with what looked like propulsion at one end. A wordless electronic signal was all Aegis needed to make the casing open itself up, exposing a core studded with blue glows.

“If you look a little closer, you can see the warhead. In this case, a standard quantum torpedo warhead. But there’s many warheads available, some of which you may not have even heard of before in your previous service lives.”

That last mention set off a wave of discussion amongst the other shipgirls. More torpedo warhead types than they knew existed?

Aegis of Hope

howlofthewolf:

fleet-admiral-red:

howlofthewolf:

“Confirmed, Sumeragi, hope to work with you again, Yumi out.” Yumi said. Wolf gestured to some soldiers, who manhandled Czar into the cell, a sarcophagus-like box perfectly sized to the cyborg. Locking him inside, they began to move him into a shuttle. Wolf moved into a change room, getting into his Necromancer armour, and then put on the Mask to Truth.

Once the mask was connected to the rest of the armour, Wolf checked the armour’s subsystems. It had been a while since he’d last worn this armour. With the HUD of the mask fully online, he moved to his shuttle. Sitting down in the passenger’s seat, he looked to see the soldiers had moved the cell onboard as well. 

It didn’t take long for the shuttle to move out of the hanger. The pilot moved towards the leading cruiser. Once they got close, the pilot sent a signal to the ship.

“GDS ship, this is Shuttle Wyvern, come for negotiations and prisoner exchange. Entry codes sent, permission to come aboard?” 

The captain coughed. “Allow me to clarify a few things, then. Firstly, CONCORD is not a paramilitary organization, but law enforcement.”

“Secondly, if you wish to tell us that, I’d recommend you inform CONCORD directly instead. They should be able to negotiate an agreement on operating protocols.”

“And finally, allow me to reassure you on one thing. From all records, CONCORD’s operations do not include planetary bombardment or WMD deployments. Their vessels simply do not have that capability, and are instead specialized towards anti-ship engagements.”

“Well, in that case…” He nodded, “We’ll negotiate with them.”

Looking around the vessel, he looked back at the captain.

“What’s the situation with the GDI? Given how it’s been five years, I’m kinda out of the loop…” Wolf said. Of course, he knew, but he felt he had better ask someone from the GDI.

The Caldari captain narrowed his eyes. “Five years? It’s been just a few months for us.”

“There is one possibility that fits. A rare occurrence, but the details match up.” The ship’s AI said suddenly, manifesting beside the captain. He did not miss a beat, turning his head to the AI. “And what would that be, Locke?”

The AI now known as Locke replied. “Temporal desynchronization or drift, as a result of the Gate’s connection being violently broken with the self-destruct.

secondshipgirlsquadron:

fleet-admiral-red:

secondshipgirlsquadron:

Tempest was among one of the first to speak up.

“Does that mean we’ll be turning off the gravity as well?” She asked excitedly. Now that her worries had been laid to rest, she could look forward to her holographic excursion.

“About…23 or so, I think.” Came Aegis’s reply after she’d thought about it. “Counting Halcyon, and they mostly stay around the Starbase.”

“Anyway, enough digression. Let’s get back on track. So, we’ve covered the basics of Relay Gun usage. Let’s now move on to the ammunition they use and other physical projectiles. Gun rounds first, torpedoes next.”

Still holding the Mark 2 kinetic slug, Aegis held it up again for everyone to see. “You’ve seen the Mark 2, now I’ll show you some other variants.”

Aegis returned the round to the pocket she’d taken it from, eventually fishing out 3 other kinetic slugs that were each longer and slightly larger than the last. And if one thought about it, couldn’t fit in her small breast pocket without being visible unless magical shipgirl shenanigans were somehow involved.

“These are three grades of standard Mark 3 tungsten carbide slugs, meant for use by the spinal guns of frigates, cruisers and dreadnoughts. And in our cases, by the rifles some of us have.”

Aegis passed them around, to let the others see and feel what the rounds were like up close.

As the Mark 3 passed through her hands, she shuddered as she thought of how that would fit inside her guns. I’ll stick to the Mark 2, she thought to herself.

“I’ll bet these things would be heavy if we weren’t in space.” Tempest joked lightheartedly.

“Oh, definitely,” Aegis affirmed. “Mind you, these are scaled down to our size and they’ll still be heavy. But even this small, they’re every bit as potent as their full-sized versions.”

Aegis then took out another kinetic slug from one of her other pockets, but this one was made out of dark metal and easily the largest, clearly made in the caliber of supercapital guns. “If anyone wants to test the weight of this, be warned – gravity isn’t going to be kind.”

A dreadnought raised her hand, clearly wanting to try nonetheless. Aegis nodded, maneuvering close to her and handing over the comparatively massive round, and the dreadnought’s hand barely managed to wrap around it.

“Gonna turn on local gravity for you, plant yourself stable.” Aegis advised. At an affirmation from the dreadnought, the Titan tapped her omni-tool as a blue tile was projected under the dreadnought’s feet.

Immediately, the dreadnought couldn’t stop her hands that held the round from falling hard to the ‘floor’ as she dropped inelegantly and cursed. “Agh! What the hell is this thing made of?”

Aegis’s answer was short but memorable. “Transuranic material alloy. It’s way too dense to use for armor, and the only safe way to make it in large amounts is by replicator. Otherwise you’ll have to look at industrial stellar fusion.”

With that said and done, Aegis once again turned off gravity for the dreadnought, and she quickly handed the hyperdense round back to the Titan.

Everyone else began muttering about what had just occurred, and Aegis followed up with a remark of her own. “Yes, for those of you who were wondering. That was one of the rounds my main guns use.”

A gesture to her massive quintuple-barreled rifle was all Aegis needed.

staff:

🚨This is a Red Alert for net neutrality 🚨

Last December, the FCC voted to to kill net neutrality. If we do not take action, this will kill the free and open internet as we know it. The internet needs you—all of you—to make sure your voices are heard NOW.

We need all hands on deck for this one. It may be our last chance. If you’re feeling under-informed and overwhelmed about why net neutrality is so incredibly important, we have this handy guide just for you.

Here’s what you can do to save the internet:

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Let this last stand burn so bright that it will be remembered throughout eternity.