secondshipgirlsquadron:

fleet-admiral-red:

secondshipgirlsquadron:

{I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready for any task you have for us, Fleet Admiral.} The AI chirped.

“Am I missing something?” The carrier asked irritably. “I’m just a girl, remember? What good is flesh and blood going to do against a Reaper?”

She rose to her feet, pacing around with frustration and unable to sit still any longer.

“What good am I any more? You can’t even recycle me for scrap. And you want me to protect a star system? I’d love to, Sir, but I can’t. Unless there’s something else I don’t know?”

“Gotcha!” Halcyon beamed as she tapped her omni-tool a few times, the icy-blue haptic gauntlet glowing as the repair ship sent directives to the training-only replicators scattered throughout the nearby aerospace around the Starbase set aside for tests.

Automated target drones made to look like scaled-down versions of common starships soon launched from the replicator stations.

Good afternoon, ladies, Admiral. I’ll be assisting with this exercise. Test yourselves with these to your heart’s content. The voice of Akemi sounded in their minds. It was apparent by now that Akemi was the Starbase’s presiding central AI.

If Tempest desired a closer look at her rigging, she would have seen faintly glowing strips and nodes strategically placed all around it to provide full 360-degree coverage.

Halcyon’s voice sounded in Tempest’s mind, transmitted by digital communications. “First things first. I’m reading that all your shield layers are up, that’s good. Point defense system first. You’re a carrier, so your SPEAR network should be pretty nasty.”

Launching dummy missiles, 150. They’ve no warheads, so simply shoot them down. Akemi advised.

As it turned out, Tempest didn’t need conscious control to do that. If anything, it appeared that Adrianna was responsible for managing point-defense duty, among other things. Thus far, no organic reflex could beat the sheer superior speed of AI processes. At least it meant that Tempest didn’t have to actively worry about point-defense.

Scarlet-white antiproton beams, needle-thin, lanced out from the tiny nodes in extremely rapid fire. Only an unknowable instant had passed before the incoming massed volley of dummy missiles were destroyed cleanly in bursts of light.

Halcyon whistled appreciatively over the shared mental channel. “That’s the stuff.”

Adrianna chimed in with a mental report. {All 150 missile targets destroyed. Time, 0.8 seconds.}

“Okay, let’s get the real show started.” Tempest grinned. Reaching over her back, she withdrew the first of the two bolts and loaded it into the high-tech crossbow’s chamber. It was stylised to resemble an assault rifle, save for the obvious giveaways of its design philosophy.

“Enact squadron ready for launch.” She announced, bringing it to aim on a frigate-like target. “Go for launch!”

She fired, a lance of blue light streaking towards the target. It split off into five distinct beams, each transforming before her very eyes into miniaturised Enact fighters, no more than half a metre long.

Once they had fully formed, they surrounded the drone in an orbital pattern, awaiting their instructions. Just like she remembered.

“Adrianna, leave the fighters to me. I want you to focus on point defence and micromanaging the drones.” She said to her partner. “Squadron E-1, engage!”

And with that, the fighters lit up the drone with a hail of weapons fire.

As was expected, Tempest’s fighters made very short work of the frigate-target.

The combat drones deployed themselves from the sides of Tempest’s rigging, Adrianna directing them to harass several more frigate-targets at once.

Information flew like lightning between the pair, condensed into the pure, nearly clinical thought of focused combat, not even mental words being exchanged.

Cruiser targets 1 through 3 marked, preparing secondary armament: mainline antiproton beam arrays. Strike craft ready for additional sorties. Squadron E-1 deployed, remaining Enact fighters 62/67, Flag interceptors 67/67, Spirit bombers 66/66.

Hornet combat drones deployed, 20 engaged, remaining 160/180, Pathfinder recon drones 20/20

Three cruiser-targets idled on a course across from Tempest. A distance away, Red and Halcyon looked on as they observed how Tempest handled things. Both were impressed.

“For a new girl, she’s doing astoundingly well.” Halcyon remarked. This Red concurred with, noting how some of the other carrier shipgirls did in comparison.

Practice-wise, Tempest was near the top of the list. Again, very impressive, all things considered.

secondshipgirlsquadron:

{I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready for any task you have for us, Fleet Admiral.} The AI chirped.

“Am I missing something?” The carrier asked irritably. “I’m just a girl, remember? What good is flesh and blood going to do against a Reaper?”

She rose to her feet, pacing around with frustration and unable to sit still any longer.

“What good am I any more? You can’t even recycle me for scrap. And you want me to protect a star system? I’d love to, Sir, but I can’t. Unless there’s something else I don’t know?”

“Gotcha!” Halcyon beamed as she tapped her omni-tool a few times, the icy-blue haptic gauntlet glowing as the repair ship sent directives to the training-only replicators scattered throughout the nearby aerospace around the Starbase set aside for tests.

Automated target drones made to look like scaled-down versions of common starships soon launched from the replicator stations.

Good afternoon, ladies, Admiral. I’ll be assisting with this exercise. Test yourselves with these to your heart’s content. The voice of Akemi sounded in their minds. It was apparent by now that Akemi was the Starbase’s presiding central AI.

If Tempest desired a closer look at her rigging, she would have seen faintly glowing strips and nodes strategically placed all around it to provide full 360-degree coverage.

Halcyon’s voice sounded in Tempest’s mind, transmitted by digital communications. “First things first. I’m reading that all your shield layers are up, that’s good. Point defense system first. You’re a carrier, so your SPEAR network should be pretty nasty.”

Launching dummy missiles, 150. They’ve no warheads, so simply shoot them down. Akemi advised.

As it turned out, Tempest didn’t need conscious control to do that. If anything, it appeared that Adrianna was responsible for managing point-defense duty, among other things. Thus far, no organic reflex could beat the sheer superior speed of AI processes. At least it meant that Tempest didn’t have to actively worry about point-defense.

Scarlet-white antiproton beams, needle-thin, lanced out from the tiny nodes in extremely rapid fire. Only an unknowable instant had passed before the incoming massed volley of dummy missiles were destroyed cleanly in bursts of light.

Halcyon whistled appreciatively over the shared mental channel. “That’s the stuff.”

Adrianna chimed in with a mental report. {All 150 missile targets destroyed. Time, 0.8 seconds.}

secondshipgirlsquadron:

fleet-admiral-red:

secondshipgirlsquadron:

{I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready for any task you have for us, Fleet Admiral.} The AI chirped.

“Am I missing something?” The carrier asked irritably. “I’m just a girl, remember? What good is flesh and blood going to do against a Reaper?”

She rose to her feet, pacing around with frustration and unable to sit still any longer.

“What good am I any more? You can’t even recycle me for scrap. And you want me to protect a star system? I’d love to, Sir, but I can’t. Unless there’s something else I don’t know?”

“Honestly? I don’t remember much either. All I recall was just the sensation of drifting quietly, then I heard a voice. Kind of like Red’s but not really? Sure sounded like a mix of him and a lot of other people, requesting the usual ‘how copy’ status report-and-call every military ship gets.” Halcyon replied, thinking back while the diagnostic bay hummed to life. “When I awoke 6 years ago, it had been over 9 months since my original self’s decommissioning.”

Off handedly, she manipulated the display of one of the other haptic screens. “As for that time dilation effect, well you got me. It’s been 20 years or so since the first shipgirls in the Initiative appeared, and we’re still no closer to a satisfactory answer.”

Red chimed in with his own contributions on the matter. “Every manifestation has had differing circumstances and timespans behind it. Some shipgirls manifested just hours or days after their destruction or decommissioning, others took a few years. The Third Wave is a large-scale case of what would appear to be deliberate self-manifestation. I’ve asked around, and most of them said they came back out of sheer rage and willpower.”

A sigh as Red once again brought his mind to speculation over the possibilities. “Bottom line is, Third Wave aside, we have absolutely no control whatsoever over what shipgirls we do get. It might as well be decided by luck, and that’s an unreliable factor if I’ve ever seen one.”

Halcyon nodded. “Yep. It’s all RNG, if you’ll excuse the gaming lingo.”

Tapping a spot on one of the haptic screens, Halcyon gained Tempest’s attention with a small wave. “Alright, so far so good, next we’re gonna test your rigging. Just try to imagine yourself as you were before. You know, in space launching your fighters and all that.”

The diagnostic bay sealed itself while a ring of light began glowing gently on the pads both above and below Tempest where she stood within it. A sleek pair of handles emerged from the sides for her to hold onto.

“Stand by for antigrav, and…now.”

With a pulse of light, gravity disappeared as Tempest began to float slightly while holding on to the handles.

“Alright, now try and summon your rigging! Just remember, imagine yourself as the carrier before.” Halcyon said, now monitoring several haptic screens carefully, though she gave an encouraging smile to Tempest.

“I just don’t understand. It was seconds, how could a month have gone by without either of us noticing? Nothing about any of this makes much sense to me.” She sighed irritably.

As soon as the gravity was gone, her legs flailed helplessly, but only for a moment. Her toes pointed downwards like a ballet dancer, and she soon had the confidence to let go of the handles as well. To her delight, she stayed perfectly still. Perhaps for the first time since her arrival, she was genuinely happy.

“Okay, I can do this…” She whispered, closing her eyes. “Adrianna! Stand by for exercise!” She instructed.

{Affirmative. All systems standing by for your command.}

“Prepare to sortie two Enact squadrons.”

As she gave the order, the air around her shimmered. On her back there formed a sleek metal backpack of some kind, with an opening on the top to allow access to the two shiny metal bolts waiting for her. What was more interesting, however, was the crossbow-like weapon in her hands.

Opening her eyes she looked down at it with glee, reaching out with her free hand to grab the handles once again. “I did it!” She exclaimed. “Can I launch them?”

Halcyon clapped upon seeing Tempest manifest her rigging for the first time. It was always an exciting thing to witness.

The carrier’s request made her ponder for a moment. “One sec, I gotta check. Alright, tests…carrier protocols…got it. If you want to try your capabilities out fully, we’ll have to take this outside. Literally.”

Halcyon seemed to speak to thin air. “Akemi, prepare one of the launch bays for point-to-point Blink, three people. I’ll accompany Tempest on this one.”

A feminine voice responded, a light-hearted tone. “Done. Seems the new girl wants to try out her proverbial wings. A moment, please.”

In a flash of energies, Red, Halcyon and Tempest were teleported to one of Starbase Zephyr’s shipgirl-tailored launch bays.

Conveniently enough, Tempest had been Blinked in such a manner that she was already in place for launch on the armature.

Beside her, Halcyon manifested her own modest rigging, settling herself into an armature as well. Red did the same, already clad in his deployed environmentally-sealed armor.

The bay’s control AI flashed information into their minds, starting the launch sequence.

Bay doors open. > CLEAR <

Gravitic catapults armed. > CLEAR <

Armatures set, inertial dampeners active. > CLEAR <

Fly safe.

-[ LAUNCH ]-

And with that, the gravitic catapults fired as one, flinging the trio into open space. There was only the slightest hint of acceleration felt.

secondshipgirlsquadron:

{I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready for any task you have for us, Fleet Admiral.} The AI chirped.

“Am I missing something?” The carrier asked irritably. “I’m just a girl, remember? What good is flesh and blood going to do against a Reaper?”

She rose to her feet, pacing around with frustration and unable to sit still any longer.

“What good am I any more? You can’t even recycle me for scrap. And you want me to protect a star system? I’d love to, Sir, but I can’t. Unless there’s something else I don’t know?”

“Honestly? I don’t remember much either. All I recall was just the sensation of drifting quietly, then I heard a voice. Kind of like Red’s but not really? Sure sounded like a mix of him and a lot of other people, requesting the usual ‘how copy’ status report-and-call every military ship gets.” Halcyon replied, thinking back while the diagnostic bay hummed to life. “When I awoke 6 years ago, it had been over 9 months since my original self’s decommissioning.”

Off handedly, she manipulated the display of one of the other haptic screens. “As for that time dilation effect, well you got me. It’s been 20 years or so since the first shipgirls in the Initiative appeared, and we’re still no closer to a satisfactory answer.”

Red chimed in with his own contributions on the matter. “Every manifestation has had differing circumstances and timespans behind it. Some shipgirls manifested just hours or days after their destruction or decommissioning, others took a few years. The Third Wave is a large-scale case of what would appear to be deliberate self-manifestation. I’ve asked around, and most of them said they came back out of sheer rage and willpower.”

A sigh as Red once again brought his mind to speculation over the possibilities. “Bottom line is, Third Wave aside, we have absolutely no control whatsoever over what shipgirls we do get. It might as well be decided by luck, and that’s an unreliable factor if I’ve ever seen one.”

Halcyon nodded. “Yep. It’s all RNG, if you’ll excuse the gaming lingo.”

Tapping a spot on one of the haptic screens, Halcyon gained Tempest’s attention with a small wave. “Alright, so far so good, next we’re gonna test your rigging. Just try to imagine yourself as you were before. You know, in space launching your fighters and all that.”

The diagnostic bay sealed itself while a ring of light began glowing gently on the pads both above and below Tempest where she stood within it. A sleek pair of handles emerged from the sides for her to hold onto.

“Stand by for antigrav, and…now.”

With a pulse of light, gravity disappeared as Tempest began to float slightly while holding on to the handles.

“Alright, now try and summon your rigging! Just remember, imagine yourself as the carrier before.” Halcyon said, now monitoring several haptic screens carefully, though she gave an encouraging smile to Tempest.

secondshipgirlsquadron:

{I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready for any task you have for us, Fleet Admiral.} The AI chirped.

“Am I missing something?” The carrier asked irritably. “I’m just a girl, remember? What good is flesh and blood going to do against a Reaper?”

She rose to her feet, pacing around with frustration and unable to sit still any longer.

“What good am I any more? You can’t even recycle me for scrap. And you want me to protect a star system? I’d love to, Sir, but I can’t. Unless there’s something else I don’t know?”

Halcyon’s expression softened for a moment. “I know. Just trying to cheer you up a bit more, Tempest. Stars know we need more of those pick-me-ups these days.”

“First day back from the void is always a confusing thing. Don’t worry, you’re not alone in that. We’re all here to help. As for what we need you to do for now…”

The repair ship scanned the expanse of the chamber before spotting the place she needed. “Right, follow me, please. This won’t take long.”

So they did, Red guiding Tempest around a few people who were going about as they followed Halcyon to what looked like an enclosed cylindrical emplacement, one of many, but with transparent panels that slid open to reveal a space to let someone through.

In a way, it greatly resembled a turbolift.

“Right, kindly step inside for a bit, this is just a basic diagnostic overview. Your AI’s Adrianna, right? Tell her to sync up with the diagnostic bay you’re in, and we’ll get the ball rolling.” Halcyon said as she stepped over to a slim console that projected a few haptic screens with a tap on it.

Red glanced at Tempest encouragingly. “Every new shipgirl arrival goes through one of these. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

secondshipgirlsquadron:

{I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready for any task you have for us, Fleet Admiral.} The AI chirped.

“Am I missing something?” The carrier asked irritably. “I’m just a girl, remember? What good is flesh and blood going to do against a Reaper?”

She rose to her feet, pacing around with frustration and unable to sit still any longer.

“What good am I any more? You can’t even recycle me for scrap. And you want me to protect a star system? I’d love to, Sir, but I can’t. Unless there’s something else I don’t know?”

Serina nodded respectfully. “Duly noted, Tempest.”

Red gave an encouraging look to the carrier. “Let’s head down, shall we? Engineering hub isn’t too far from here.”

As they set of at a leisurely pace, one may have noticed how Starbase Zephyr’s local network was a storm of activity.

Equipment resupply, inbound at 1300 hours–

All frigates, repeat all frigates, stand by for swarm drill–

Power surge, Deck 45 Hall 9, maintenance in progress–

Medical, stand by, preparing repair baths–

A sea of digital chatter was what anyone listening in on the network would have heard. Serina paid it little mind, guiding Red and Tempest to the large chamber that was Engineering’s central hub.

The doors to Engineering whispered open to reveal a crowded hub full of people. Or, more accurately, shipgirls and various personnel.

Serina’s avatar briefly vanished from the side of Red, reappearing a short distance away beside a girl with unusually bright lilac hair.

Over the ambient buzz of the hub’s chatter, Tempest would be unable to hear what exactly was being said between them, but the intent was made clear soon as Serina gestured in their direction and the unknown lilac-haired girl approached them with a smile.

“Hey, Admiral! New girl, huh? Third Wave, am I right?” she chirped.

To that, Red simply nodded. The girl looked to Tempest, briefly glancing her over before giving her a surprisingly warm and affectionate hug. “You must be so confused, poor girl.”

She let go, smiling again at Tempest. “GDS Halcyon, Endurance-class repair ship. I’m Chief Engineer here. Nice to meet you.”

A pause, as Halcyon grinned at the carrier. “Tempest Eternal, huh? Thanatos-class I see, you’ll find quite a few sisters of your class here. Carriers are fun to work with.”

Before Tempest could reply, Red explained how Halcyon had determined her identity so quickly. “She instantly knows a shipgirl’s specs when she hugs them. Believe me, no one knows why that is, not even her.”

Halcyon shrugged. “Hey, you gotta admit it comes in handy a lot.”

secondshipgirlsquadron:

{I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready for any task you have for us, Fleet Admiral.} The AI chirped.

“Am I missing something?” The carrier asked irritably. “I’m just a girl, remember? What good is flesh and blood going to do against a Reaper?”

She rose to her feet, pacing around with frustration and unable to sit still any longer.

“What good am I any more? You can’t even recycle me for scrap. And you want me to protect a star system? I’d love to, Sir, but I can’t. Unless there’s something else I don’t know?”

“To be clear on technicality, miss Tempest…you aren’t quite 100% flesh and blood. You might look and feel that way to self-inspection, but from all reports all shipgirls retain the durability and function of their former starship hulls. We have no real explanation why, and it may be a metaphysical matter beyond our current understanding,” Serina stated.

Red’s own reply was softer, having given more thought to Tempest’s worries. “Rest assured that you will still be able to operate in space as you did before your manifestation here. We value all of our own.”

A moment of silence passed as he considered the options available for Tempest. Given how the Initiative was currently rebuilding and reforming, combat duty was out of the question, at least for now.

Practically everyone was in a holding pattern. But that certainly wasn’t going to be good in the long run.

Administrative duties, perhaps? Sure, it wasn’t much, but it was something. On the other hand, few liked the digital paperwork of Administration, reduced as it was. There was a reason it was mostly handled by automated processes, after all.

Training? Certainly an option, but that depended on whether or not Tempest was willing to test her own capabilities.

Speaking of which…

“Mm. Actually, Tempest, before we discuss anything further about your potential duties, I’d like you to head down over to Engineering so we can have a basic idea of your condition.”

At the look from the still-pacing shipgirl, Red gave a reassuring gaze. “Don’t worry, I’ll accompany you there. At least you’ll meet Halcyon. Lively one, she is.”