While she wasn’t a physicist, a cross check with her central AI noted that Initiative science had developed ways of creating very stable artificial stellar reactors.
While not quite the same as the Solar Core of the Spear of Adun and its Imperial copy, the reactor designs themselves were efficient enough to serve as power sources on the outer sphere city worlds of Initiative space.
Meanwhile, a proportion of the Initiative Navy’s vessels had been upgraded to a reactor design harnessing the incredible power of the Omega Particle.
Eden itself was powered by a matrix of 12 networked Omega cores in addition to the solar array on its Orbital Ring.
Still, this was quite the achievement the Empire had made. Hope smiled. “Gotta say, that sounds amazing. If what I’ve heard from the Technology Council is any indication, the only things which give more energy than that are Omega reactors and whatever the Forerunners used for power. Vacuum energy or somesuch, but even we are only barely starting to get into that.”
Hope scratched her head a little, knowing what the Technology Council represented in GDI society. “Maybe those guys could meet together with your Temple of the Glorious Body or something.”
“I’m sure that Nora wouldn’t mind the visit, just keep in mind that she’s trying not to do everything herself at this point,” Astrid replied. Nora was a very good friend of Astrid’s…hard to believe they were once mortal enemies at one point.
“Two groups of brilliant scientists and engineers meet, what could go wrong?” Hope joked with a chuckle.
All jokes aside, though, the Technology Council wasn’t just some motley bunch of mad scientists. If anything, they were among those who beheld rational scientific advancement for the benefit of all as their highest goal.
But she was digressing. Hope checked her omni-tool briefly as a message pinged before stretching. “Ah…well, guess I have to get going. It was really nice talking with you, Astrid, you should come visit us on Starbase Zephyr sometime!”
A moment, as the maid shipgirl reconsidered that proposition. “Or maybe not. Like I said, crazy stuff happens every day. Never a dull moment, that’s for sure. I’ll just head back to base, wait for Lumi to come back herself.”
“I request those codes if you don’t mind.” Isabella stated. Now that they had a connection back to the meterial realm, Isabella could keep her troops fresh, and resupplied. As for Shlaereen, she just silently nodded, not really saying a word to Adam right now. It seemed she was still upset with Astrid, and her reaction to the right decision.
Adam got off of his throne and approached the ones present. “I hope for all of your sakes that the Spartan’s plan will be useful to you,” he mentioned. “Or you’ll be in for a rough fight ahead.”
Astrid then decided to speak up again. “Say, Isabella, I think I have something for you to help you deal with that demon horde,” she mentioned. “Step outside of the palace and I’ll send it down to you.”
Nora shrugs,”Joseph is reliable, and has come through for his allies on multiple occasions. I trust his judgement, even if he is a bit…straightforward” She decides on the word, deciding on the types of combat drones to send through
“As for the portal frequency, sending it over to Isabella now” She says, transmitting a rather long string of numbers to Isabella’s mind directly,”Speaking of this Demon lord…Joseph, how’s the ground look? how big is this army?”
“Pretty huge,” Joe replied, transmitting his message over encrypted comms for the rest of the team. “I’m detecting thousands of enemies on this battlefield, with more showing up. Troops are pretty weak though, a couple of good whacks’ll do them in. Approaching an enemy fort now.”
A short while later, Joe mentioned, “Just what I thought. They’re using these forts to power portals to summon more soldiers. It looks like there’s one particular guy powering the portals. I suspect if we can take him out we can hijack the portal frequencies, bring in our own troops and turn his advantage against him. No doubt it’s the same deal in all of the other forts around here.”
A single person, serving as the key conduit and effectively an enabler for transport?
What sort of two-bit, degraded tactical idiocy was this? No half-decent commander would allow such a high level of strategic advantages to be concentrated into just one vulnerable being.
A subvocal communication from Red flashed forward to Joe. “Assassination optimal, recommend you proceed at will.”
Hopefully the Templars would be able to bring enough reinforcements to even the odds once this target was eliminated and the portals subverted to their cause.
Hope rubbed her head abashedly. “Guess I’ll have to ask someone else for that, then.”
A moment of silence as Hope pondered on something she’d seen while approaching Terra Hope.
“If you don’t mind a question in replacement, while I was at max FTL on the way here I got readings on your people’s flagship. Why’s it made in the image of the Spear of Adun?”
Now that was a good question there. “The Spear of Hope was a testbed for various technological progressions,” Astrid answered. “The intention was that, by replicating the technology of the Spear of Adun, we would be able to greatly advance our own technology. This statement proved quite correct, because now we have a much greater understanding of generating artificial stars, and we’re working to refine it further so we don’t need Solarite to accomplish that.”
Astrid put on a pretty confident smirk. “Creating artificial stars is an important step to becoming a Tier 1 society, after all! And I’d say we’re much farther ahead than most societies, considering how we can already generate them in certain contexts.”
“Hmm…artificial stars, huh?” Hope pondered.
While she wasn’t a physicist, a cross check with her central AI noted that Initiative science had developed ways of creating very stable artificial stellar reactors.
While not quite the same as the Solar Core of the Spear of Adun and its Imperial copy, the reactor designs themselves were efficient enough to serve as power sources on the outer sphere city worlds of Initiative space.
Meanwhile, a proportion of the Initiative Navy’s vessels had been upgraded to a reactor design harnessing the incredible power of the Omega Particle.
Eden itself was powered by a matrix of 12 networked Omega cores in addition to the solar array on its Orbital Ring.
Still, this was quite the achievement the Empire had made. Hope smiled. “Gotta say, that sounds amazing. If what I’ve heard from the Technology Council is any indication, the only things which give more energy than that are Omega reactors and whatever the Forerunners used for power. Vacuum energy or somesuch, but even we are only barely starting to get into that.”
Hope scratched her head a little, knowing what the Technology Council represented in GDI society. “Maybe those guys could meet together with your Temple of the Glorious Body or something.”
The resulting ‘Eep!’ from Hope and subsequent awkwardly embarrassed laugh would be comedy gold if anyone had captured it.
“Eh heh…ehehe…sorry.”
She really should have remembered that. Hope mentally bonked herself on the head for forgetting that obvious fact.
“All sorts of crazy, wacky things happen every day at Zephyr Station. I guess we’ve all grown used to what most people would consider ‘weird’. I’m sorry if I weirded you out just now, Astrid.”
“Eh, really, just remember that I’m not a goddess of love,” Astrid replied. “My domains are primarily strength, healing, and mercy in this form, and strength, war, and protection in my Battle Regalia. I can’t exactly say that I can help give advice on dating anyone, least of all your sister.”
Hope rubbed her head abashedly. “Guess I’ll have to ask someone else for that, then.”
A moment of silence as Hope pondered on something she’d seen while approaching Terra Hope.
“If you don’t mind a question in replacement, while I was at max FTL on the way here I got readings on your people’s flagship. Why’s it made in the image of the Spear of Adun?”
At hearing Astrid’s reassurance, Hope smiled, only more happily this time.
“Thank you. Lumi sulked and moped for a few days in her quarters afterwards, let me tell you. I was really just about the only one she didn’t immediately shout at when entering.”
Not that Lumi had continued such overt hostility all the time, of course. Hope remembered the time when she’d managed to convince her sister to share a drink with her in the starbase’s cafeteria, which was where that cherished holopic in her locket had come from.
And like Lumi had told Astrid previously, there were the times where she’d tried to seek help from counselors, which Hope had attended as well.
A sudden thought struck Hope, and she looked to Astrid, hands laced together again.
“Um, miss Astrid, if it’s not too much trouble, can I ask you for a bit of advice? I…want to know how I can really get through to Lumi.”
Hope began blushing with a lovestruck smile, averting her gaze as her mind concocted images of herself and Lumi in various affectionate situations.
“She’s so headstrong, enduring her guilt and suffering alone for so long…but I want my sister to know I’m always there for her. No matter what, she’ll never be alone.”
“…You know I can read your mind,” Astrid commented. “Please don’t ask me to give you advice on how to date your sister. Not that I really think negatively of that, it’s just kinda weird to ask a Goddess to give you advice on that.”
The resulting ‘Eep!’ from Hope and subsequent awkwardly embarrassed laugh would be comedy gold if anyone had captured it.
“Eh heh…ehehe…sorry.”
She really should have remembered that. Hope mentally bonked herself on the head for forgetting that obvious fact.
“All sorts of crazy, wacky things happen every day at Zephyr Station. I guess we’ve all grown used to what most people would consider ‘weird’. I’m sorry if I weirded you out just now, Astrid.”
Initiative Archival Network 