For now join them in their volley.

>>20276850
Has Rust seen this kind of ship before?

rolled 4, 10, 1, 3, 6, 8 = 32

>>20276866
this
We don't know how effective our weapons are yet, this is a litmus test essentially.

oops, forgot I had dice from AC-quest last night still on

Prepare the warp bombs. Use one on whichever carrier seems least damaged after the D-cannon shots.

>>20276850
Aim for the crystal arrays. Last time we damaged a crystal it was...impressive. Send a Warp Bomb into one of the fighter sections.

<Join in the volley.> You tell Magenta.
<As you say.> Magenta snarled.
Approximately thirty disintegration cannons fired at once.
"Rust, have you seen this kind of ship before?" You ask him.
"Yes." He said. "The fighters can be destroyed by laser weaponry. The carriers cannot. It is not recommended to use projected energy weapons on them. It is also recommended to retreat."
"Why not?"

One of the battleaxe ships fired early, it's disintegration cannon having started the windup first. . and two small wormholes opened up near the Carrier, both facing the same direction. The beam tore into one wormhole. . and out the other, burrowing a hole into the battleaxe ship.
"That is why." Rust said.
<Shit, shit shit!> Battleaxe calls. <Fuck, teleport the heavies into the bellies of those things.>

>>20276850
"Please tell me you built a moonbase laser array, Battleaxe?"

>>20276923
"Send warp bombs one through three. Maximum coverage over their ships."

>>20276923
<Battleaxe we're going after -arbitraryemperorship-. Don't send anyone in there.>
Then send a warp bomb into it.

>>20276923
Couldn't you have said that a bit earlier?

>>20276923
What the fuck was that when we fired our disintegration cannon through a wormhole then? I thought they exploded or something.

"Couldn't you have said that a bit earlier?" You ask.
"Not enough time." He said.

"I'm sending out my drones, see if it can protect us from the fighters." Lucca said, and closed her eyes.
<Warp bomb.>
<Battleaxe, we're going after the carrier closest to the sun.> You say, hereby dubbing it Carrier A. <Don't send anyone in there.>
<Got it.> Battleaxe responded.
<Onyx, warp bomb.>
<Understood.> Onyx said, and one of the warp bomb canisters vanished. <Warp bomb away.>

Carrier A shuddered, and then the crystals started to rattle in the ship's frame. .
>Roll 1d100. Taking first roll.

rolled 84 = 84

>>20277005
Rolling.

>Listen, don't delete rolls. Fuck you.
>Taking the 25.
The carrier shuddered, and then a small explosion shot flame out of the fighter bay, destroying only. . one or two fighters, at maximum. The Sleipnir rocked as fighters shot lasers into the hull, despite however many drones Lucca was throwing at them.
"Dave, I'm going in." Amy said, and plugged herself into Epona's computers. "I'm going to fuck with the D-cannon. Keep it spinning."

<Please tell me you built a moonbase laser array, battleaxe.>
<Not enough nanometa, sorry.> Battleaxe said.

>>20277067
Let things play out for now.

>>20277067
"Damn. Teleport something small into one of the crystals."

rolled 67 = 67

What weapons do we have onboard the slep?

As you watch, Lucca loses more and more drones, and the knockoff sleipnirs drift, slowly firing their cannons at the nimble, bat-shaped fighters.

<Done.> Amy said, and the disintegration cannon fired. . In a spread. A cone of red, slowly fading light shot from the D-cannon, burning a significant group of fighters to ash. The Sleipnir shook again.
<Shields at 75%.> Magenta said. <Hull integrity is medium. My secondary gauss turrets aren't doing much.>

Lucca gasped, and took a step back, reeling. "Dave, I need more nano-meta. I'm almost out of drones." She said.

Rust turned to the instant-communication dropbox. and tore open his torso, cables swinging free from it and the small core that made up his mind. He turned back to you. <I will be back. With help.> He said, and slammed his own core into the dropbox. Rust's body went dead. . and then collapsed.

"Teleport something small into one of those crystals." You say.
<Yessir.> Onyx said. You see one of Carrier A's crystals glimmer. . and then shatter.
<How the fuck did you do that?> Battleaxe said. . and then he screamed, as another one of the knockoff sleipnirs was hit by a barrage of fighters. You see gasses stream from the slagged hole in its hull. <Shit, shit, shit.> He said, his voice muffled, as if by a mask. <Get those atmos shields on!>

>>20277195
"Fuckit. That seems to be working! Teleport something into each of those crystals!"

>>20277195
"Keep teleporting things into those crystals, Onyx."

>>20277195
<Teleport something into the crystals!>

>>20277195
Interpenetration is defnintely the way to go, then.

Start teleporting chunks of matter into all the crystals...except for one Carrier. Try to sever the stalk connecting the crystals to the rest of the ship using a Warp bomb.

<Continue teleporting things in, onyx.> You say. "Teleport something into each of hte crystals!"
<Gotcha, Dave.> Battleaxe's muffled voice said.

<We are out of random refuse. I will now start teleporting ancillery equipment.> He said.
Amy 'yeeps' as the chair she's sitting on vanishes. A second crystal cracks, and the ship shudders again. Something above your head suddenly gets warm, very warm. You look up, and the ceiling seems to droop, somehow.
<The laser weaponry has pierced our hull and slashed our heatsinks.> Magenta said, emotionlessly. <We no longer have thermal control. Scaling back power generation for occupant safety.>
"Damnit, Dave, I need that nano-meta!" Lucca said. "I'm taking it." She said. She closed her eyes, and spread her arms. The fabricators set off into making more drones.

One of the Sleipnir knockoffs, without orders, fire their cannon at Carrier A. The wormhole. . doesn't activate. The D-cannon slashes through one of the crystals, blowing ash everywhere.

>>20277297
Why aren't we randomly teleporting around to avoid the fighters?

rolled 12 = 12

>>20277297
try and bullshit hack one of their fighters.
Use it to attack the other fighters.

>>20277316
Because our teleporter has recharge time and we're already using it to destroy the crystals in the enemy ships as fast as possible.

>>20277297
Switch to the D-Cannon, and start trying to conduct damage control.

rolled 97 = 97

>>20277320
Might work.

You reach out to bullshit hack one of the fighters. . your body trembles, and your head suddenly starts pounding, blood dripping from your nose. You pull back to yourself, wipe it, and continued. <Onyx, teleport us.>

Azure, connected to the computer as well as Amy, reaches out with the ship's 'drites and snatches several fighters out of the air, crushing them.

You teleport away from the cluster of fighters, and suddenly things get noticably warmer. One of the more adventurous fighters dart up toward you. You reach in. . and take control.

The bat-shaped fighter suddenly darts back down, ignoring the four-legged, two-armed green alium trying to pilot the thing. Battleaxe's own personal ship is utterly swarmed. . so you shove the fighter forward, firing the laser that makes up most of the vehicle. The crystal glimmers, and then a massive beam of light shoots out- not at Battleaxe's ship, but at the fighters swarming it. You're easily able to slag a large portion of them- they're designed for offense, not defense- before you lose control, and slam into one of the other fighters, both of them crunching into eachother.

<All of the crystals in carriers B, C, and D are done busted.> Battleaxe said. <Heavies are working through E and F, but it's slow going.>
>Field too long; continued

The swarm of fighters have regained your attention, now, and darted upwards, toward the Sleipnir. The entire ship turns downward, and Amy fires again, the cone-shaped blast taking out another portion of the fighters and giving you a breath of fresh air. Still, however, the carriers keep producing more fighters- almost too many to fit in the thing. A heatwave slams down on you- most likely from firing the D-cannon- and sweat beads on your brow.

"Done." Lucca said, and her back thrummed. "Unlimited drone works."
She closed her eyes, and the Sleipnir emptied itself of drones.

And they're each carrying purloined weapons from Valhalla, equipped with gauss turrets much too large for them.
"Where do you want them?" Lucca asked.

>>20277449
'Whatever they're most effective against. You're the expert, I trust your decision.
However, I would be grateful if you could prevent further losses on our side, .'

See if Azure can focus on repairing the damage to our ship.

>>20277449
"Onyx, drop a warp bomb in the biggest group of fighters not near friendlies, then activate it"

rolled 35 = 35

>>20277449
The fighter was quite effective. What if we bullshit hack a carrier?
Disable life support, vent atmosphere, open wormholes to redirect fighters to crash into the other carriers...
We might need to get closer though, which is probably bad. I forget what our bullshit hacking range is.
Can we get K to help with her beam thing? Like combine our powers?

"Wherever you think they're most effective against." You say. "You're the expert."
"Right." She said, and she brought her drones up. . to surrounding Carrier A's fighter bays. every time a fighter slid out, she destroyed it.

<Onyx, drop a warp bomb in the biggest group of fighters not near friendlies, then activate it.> You say.

<Warp bomb away.> Onyx said, and another little canister vanished. You had four left.

The canister appeared down near a cluster of fighters. . .

And then it was there near a cluster of fighters that looked, for the most part, like they'd been through an enormous, monomolecular cheese grader, random parts and pieces of the fighters warping randomly.

As if by chance, one bit fused with another bit, and caused a few minor explosions.

"Azure, can you repair our ship?"
"Heatsinks or hull? I can repair both, given time, but not at once." She said.

>>20277580
Heatsinks. We need to use the cannon, and also heatsinks lets us generate more shield power which is better than hull.

>>20277580
Hull, what good is a gun when there's nobody there to pull the trigger?

>>20277580
Heatsinks. Not all our crew is as resilient as Dave is. And I don't want to fry any of them.

"Heatsinks." You say.
"Right." she responded, and closed her eyes. Quickly, spare drones shot out of the Sleipnir, small nano-meta canisters in their manipulators, and they got to work repairing the heatsinks.

>200 nano-meta lost. 1300 remaining.

<Fire!> Battleaxe says, and approximately thirty D-cannons fire into Carrier D, turning it to swiss cheese and ash. An escape pod shoots out, and a wormhole starts to open . .

K holds out her hand, and suddenly, one of the fighters escorting the escape pod, slams into the pod's crystal. The wormhole slams shut again, and the escape pod just . . drifts.
K gets a small, self-pleased grin. "The crystals create the wormholes." She said.

>>20277715
Our Emperor wormhole generator wasn't crystalline. They're more likely the power source or something. But yes, destroying them stops the wormholes, we established that in >>20277297.

Let's go pick up that Emperor before battleaxe can, Gary didn't want ArmaTek getting a wrist computer.

>>20277779
Good idea. Everybody don Tinfoil Masks (Pat. Pending)

>>20277779
>They're more likely the power source or something.
Strike that, they're giant quantum computers. That's the only crystal technology we've come across. They probably deal with the targeting and spacial calculations that Onyx does for us.

>>20277870
Then why did fragging the crystal from that first ship (the one we captured, however briefly) kill all the tech?

"Everyone, get on the tinfoil masks. Let's take hold of that Emperor." You say. You shut off your nervous system, disconnecting the Dominance from your mind.
"Right." K said, quickly sliding on power armor and mask. Grayson slipped his own helmet on.
Quickly, the heat started dissipating and cooling, as Azure opened her eyes. "Heat sinks repaired." She said, and controlled the 'drites to take hold of the escape pod.

Immediately, Lucca started twitching, and her eyes glazed. . and then Amy slipped her own tinfoil cap onto Lucca's head.

"I don't need it anymore." Amy said, and stood, cable still plugged into the base of her skull. <We should get back to the battle.>

Simultaneously, the 5 remaining carriers ejected the bloated, bottom half of their ships, and started moving toward one another.

>>20277918
I don't know, could be anything.
Because the tech won't activate without a command signal from the primary computer.
Because they scuttled the ship when they saw we were going to capture it.
Because they have some stupid design where the power is actively regulated by the computers and removing them puts a billion volts through everything, like the Martian weapons in SWQ.

>>20277951
"Fire the D-Cannon at the ones that don't have heavies and if their crystals aren't down chuck some pebbles into them or something"

>>20277951
Watch the awesome transformation scene where they all combine into a giant space robot.
We should probably try and interrupt it, but that never happens on TV.

"Fire the D-cannon at the ones that don't have heavies." You say, checking over their crystals. All of them are cracked or shattered, it looks like.
"Right." Amy said. "I just need to change it back from spread. . " She closed her eyes, and again, the cannon started winding up. "Come on. . .come on. . ."

The D-cannon tears through one of the ships, slowly turning as much of it as it can into ash. The discarded lower-halves continue shooting out fighters, descending toward the moon, but Lucca's drones keep destroying them as soon as they arrive. It seems that all you need to do is clean-up, now. . But still, that wormhole stays open. You have a bad feeling about that.

The five heavily damaged carriers link, belly-to-belly-to-belly, creating a strange, pentagram made up of the top halves of the carriers. They start sparking red, and small beams of light shoot from the damaged crystals.

>>20278137
Oh noes its a sooper gate Lazoor

>>20278137
Blast a big hole in the pentagram.
Even better, get Battleaxe to do it so we're not a risk if there's backlash. Try and look busy saving the moon and tell him he should probably stop whatever they're doing.

>>20278137
"God damn it. Can we synthesise anti-matter with the atomic-goop? We need some concentrated anti-matter bombardment here"

>>20278218
We can synthesise antimatter. We don't have an antimatter cannon or missile tubes or anything to deliver it and the middle of the fight is probably not the best time to try and refit our ship.

>>20278211
How about we have Battleaxe do it AND do it ourselves? It's the fucking Death Star, people.

>>20278245
Well...technically speaking, we could synthesize a canister of it and then teleport the canister into one of the crystals. Even without the interpenetration effect, it would still annihilate.

>>20278271
The matter already annihilates "like an antimatter explosion" from the interpenetration. I don't think teleporting antimatter is going to be any different from teleporting raw nanogoop.

>>20278271
I... I would like to keep the solar system in existence...

"You should stop what they're doing." You say, and start sending the Sleipnir down, closer to the ship
<Right, right. Everyone, D-cannons!> He called, and started the wind-up. You urge Magenta on to start your own.

"Damnit, can we synthesize anti-matter with the atomic-goop? We need some concentrated anti-matter bombardment here." You say.
"Uh. . " Azure said. "Theoretically? I don't know how."
"Let me try." Amy said. "Gotta use this thing for *something." She said, plugging herself into the computer, and closed her eyes.

Suddenly, her mind started screeching, racing, impossible for you to understand. You know, from experience, that she's likely watching everyone do absolutely nothing, as time stops for her. .
And then she's back.
"We can't." She said. "Not quickly enough. We have enough nano-meta for a few grams, but that won't do enough."

The carriers finished linking at almost the same moment the disintegration cannons fired, ready to swiss cheese the Emperor ships.
The beams slam into something thick, and solid, and stop right at that point, as if hitting a shield. A shimmering red dome raises up around the five carriers, finally hiding them from view.
<Shit, we just lost contact with the heavies on the inside.> Battleaxe said.

>>20278295
The metal/whatever it is that makes up the Emperor ships negates the annihilation effect apparently, which is why we dumped things straight into the crystals.

>>20278307
"Shit. I'm willing to bet the shield blocks communication, so we can still hope they're still alive. Teleport something in and then back to see if we still have that capability"

>>20278307
Red dome reflects red light. Disintegration cannons are red beams. Amy, make our disintegration cannon blue.

>>20278324
True, it would work on the rest of their ships with antimatter. Dragoon was suggesting teleporting the antimatter into the crystals though.
...seems odd that most of the ship would be hardened against telebombing and then they have giant glowing weak points. Can't they at least put the crystals inside the hull so we can't target them so easily?

"Shit. I'm willing to bet the shield blocks communication, so we can hope they're still alive. Teleport something in and then back to see if we still have that capability."
<Right.> He said. You see a flash of light behind the sphere, and then it teleported back. <It. . uh. . missed.>
He tried again, but the teleportation missed again, teleporting it to just on top of the sphere, and then back.
<Our AI are confused as hell.> He said. <Apparently whatever that sphere is, it doesn't exist, according to our teleporter's sensors.>

>>20278399
"Amy...can you uh, timestop and then figure out what that thing is?"

>>20278399
"Shit. Let's chuck a big rock at it. That always works."

>>20278399
Something like the slipstream drive? Can we modify the artificial gravity to make a gravity cannon? That would work.

>>20278419
But before you do, could you close the connection on your end? The time "Doppler" effect is kinda distracting.

"Amy... can you, uh, timestop and then figure out what that thing is?"
"No." she said. "I can't."
<I spent hours in there figuring out the negative mass.> She said, privately. <I don't like it there. I have a bad feeling about it.>

"Shit." You say. "Let's chuck a big rock at it. That always works."
<Like what?> Battleaxe asked, over the radio. <The moon?>
"Seriously, don't give Dave ideas like that. It doesn't end well for anyone." Amy said, and then held the bridge of her nose.

"Is it something like the slipstream drive?" You ask. Azure's eyes widen.
"Most likely." Azure said. "Something about. . I don't know, bending space. They do the wormholes, they do the teleporting, maybe they can do something else similar to that."

>>20278516
Except we don't have a slipstream drive. Here's hoping Rust gets here soon.

>>20278516
"So, we know it's a slipstream drive, good progress, but how do we get through it."

>>20278516
Aaaamy, can you build me a big gun that fires gravity waves or spacial distortions or something like that please.

>>20278516
Right, they're bending space, so if we just shoot a beam of coherent light it'll perfectly follow the curvature of space. So fire a very wide net of lasers, see where they go, and if we're lucky it'll curve in on itself and hit the ship, when we find that we fire more lasers along that path and smile.

>>20278516
Problem with theory: We could teleport through a slipstream field. Mind, that could be because we knew its settings.

<Here goes.> Battleaxe said, and shot something small at the sphere- It looked like a chair. .
It hit the sphere, and burst into ash.
The sphere got progressively darker.

"Except we don't have a slipstream drive." You say. "Here's hoping Rust gets here soon."

As if conjured by your words, an enormous, green battleship appeared, layered with thick armor, and pop-out laser turrets covering the sides and the top. Out of the bottom jutted some kind of capital weapon.

This. . was not the needle-shaped fighter he had before.
<Hello.> Rust said. <They ended up having made something new for me.>

>>20278674
Nice to see you Rust, I like your new ride.

Okay, they got some sort of space bending sphere. Battleaxe what did you just throw at it?

>>20278674
Thanks for the help. Can you tell us about that sphere thing?

>>20278674
"...Rust...It's beautiful. Now, how do we crack a slipstream bubble?"

>>20278674
"Good timing. You seen this before?"

"Nice to see you, Rust. I like your new ride."
<Statement: So do I.>
He sounded almost giddy.
<That's a friendly.> Battleaxe said.

"Okay, they got some sort of space bending sphere." You tell Rust. "What can you tell us about it?"

<. . Do not use laser weaponry on it.> He said. <It has the same effect as the wall of the inside of a wormhole tunnel, we've found. It usually appears to be impenetrable, but they only seem to use it as a last resort. It seems to be an upgraded version of a slipstream drive. But it never lasts forever.> He said. <They use it as a last resort, usually while waiting for something bigger to arrive.>

At that moment, two enormous rods slammed through the battleship, tearing out of the wormhole. Rust hisses audibly through the radio, but laser turrets sprung from his sides, and he started firing. A massive golden sphere shot out of the wormhole with no external crystals, and the wormhole closed. The lasers sheared against the sphere's edges, doing little except for superficial damage.

<That's Baron, our friend from neptune says.> Battleaxe said. <Trash it!>

>>20278806
<What can that ship do, Rust?>

>>20278806
I think that trashing it is the best idea.

Drop a warp bomb in it and fire D-Cannons.

>>20278842
This sounds like a plan.

<What can that ship do, rust?>
<Response: I don't know!> He called. <I've never seen it before.>

"Fire the cannon." You say. "Onyx, warp-bomb it."

The warp bomb vanishes. .

And then your entire body feels like it's shuddering, and one of Baron's sides start bulging. .
And then explodes, in a fusion reaction with the teleporter, streams of flame and radiation and energy in it's rawest form- light- shooting out of the side. When it fades. .there's just a crater there, gleaming with heat- And there's more hull below that.

At the same time, Disintegration cannons blast into the sphere, shooting ash out of the corners, spreading wildly- it looked almost like smoke in the vacuum of space. When the beams stopped for cooldown, you saw that they only dug through a few feet of the thick, dense hull.

<<My turn!>> Something screeches, and then the sphere jittered, faster than you could react, and slammed into one of the copied Sleipnirs, shearing through it with nothing but raw speed.
<<Duuuuuke.>> The voice said, and slammed through a second ship. <<Where areee youuu? Still playing your game with Queen?>>

>>20278917
"Fire all warp bomb!"

>>20278917
"More warp bombs!"

>>20278917
<<He's on Neptune!>>
Except we can't do the mind scream thing. Oh well.
What if we told the Emperor we captured, and then he could do it.

>>20278959
Nope.

>>20278917
So that's what it can do.

Was anything other than more hull revealed by the explosions? How big is it?

Azure, analyze the armor it has, see if it has any flaws or weaknesses.

Try to find where the crystal would be, probably the center, try to throw warp bombs in as far as possible into it.

People, when it charges you try to port out of the way.

I wish we had another blob of negative matter right now.

>>20278972
Why not?
They're not after Earth, they're after the Emperor who is playing games with the human race. I don't see why we should get in their way.

>>20278917
Warp bombs all the way down.

>>20279018
Yeah, right. Like all the other civilizations they annihilated happened to just have another emperor in the solar system.

>>20279028
We can still kill them after setting them against each other. Divide and conquer and all that.

"Fire all the warp bombs!" You say, and the rest of the canisters vanish. The sphere shifts to the side, dodging away, and the warp bomb lands alone, outside of the ship.

<<Tooo sloooow. Hehehehahahaha.>>

A second bomb lands half-fused with Baron, and explodes with itself, accidentally tearing itself into shreds before it can do much. The third one causes a second bulge, and a second enormous explosion, rocking your entire body, perfectly soundlessly.

<<Are you in. . . this one?!>> Baron says, and careens straight toward you.

<I am acting without orders.> Onyx said, in a strange voice. Azure's eyes widen. . and then the Baron slams into the Slepnir. You get a flash of golden hull tearing through the bridge. Magenta hardly has time to scream <Shields empty> before everything goes blue.

Next thing you know, you, Lucca, Amy, K, Grayson, and Azure are in a large, golden room. Everything seems to be trembling, and gravity is much stronger than you're used to. Your heart labors to work- like a twisted, inverse version of having less mass than normal. Lucca and K are stuck to the ground, and Grayson seems incredibly uncomfortable, gasping for air inside of his helmet.

<<Noope, not this one!>> Something very, very close to you screeches. K holds her arm, gritting her teeth at the not-noise. <<Just a lifeboat with Count in it. Failure, failure.>>

>>20279028
Its certainly possible that some did

>>20279052
>Twisted, inverse version of what you felt during Slipstream.
>Fixed! whoops.

>>20279052
Lucas and Delta?

>>20279052
Find that motherfucker and RIPKILLTEARSHRED.

>>20279052
I was all lets kill the Neptune guy while we can and every one was like nope he a cool guy and now he is trying to rape us so fuckeveryone.EXE

>>20279052
Okay, take a look around the room, look for anything that looks like it'd be used for control or a door that would lead to somewhere important.

>>20279094
Neptune guy is Duke. This asshole is Baron.

Apparently Onyx is Count?

rolled 35 = 35

>>20279052
you know, I think the guy you're looking for is on another planet...

this is quite a nice ship, care to give my companions a tour?

>>20279111
I'd guess count is the guy whose lifeboat we captured. It was still being held by the Slepnir's mecha-tentacles.

>>20279052
Onyx acting without orders? Can non-sapient AIs do that? If Onyx becomes sapient it's going to be a massive pain, given how many times we've copied him.
Help everyone up and then seize this ship in the name of Dave!

>>20279111
No, that makes no sense. The Emperor in the lifeboat we captured was Count.

>>20279126
I think he doesn't know we're on the ship, yet. And I'd like to keep it that way, for now.

Who peed.

<Where's Lucas and Delta?> You ask your onboard Onyx.
<My fork on the Sleipnir, of it's own volition, determined that they would be no use here, and would survive in a vacuum. He could not waste or generate enough energy to bring them here with any accuracy, especially with Delta's bulk. Instead, he utilized one of the evac teleporters to send them out of the battle.> Onyx said. <It is no longer responding. I suspect the Sleipnir has been destroyed.>

<<Noope, not this one! Shit, you people suck at being tools. The Kalach are much better at being tools than you Earthlings. Just tell me where Duke is.>>

Amy pushed herself to her feet, wobbling slightly. Phi crawled out from underneath her, his helmet still intact. He didn't seem bothered by the gravity or the mass change.

You take a look around the room. In a direction you arbitrarily state West, there's a hallway, and there's another hallway to the East. To the north is some kind of closed, thick door, with an imperial keypad attached to it.

K gasped for air again, and, trembling, pushed herself up, straining to remain standing.

<Good thing I got augged.> Amy said.

>>20279199
"Onyx, you're awesome. I really hope your fork on the Slepnir survived."

>>20279199
"Let's find that fucker and tear his guts out. Let's hope he's huge, then he'll have huge guts."

>>20279199
Options: Wander East or West in an attempt to find machinery to fuck up or try to get through the door to get at Baron directly.

>>20279199
Nicely done Onyx.

Right, head towards the north door, I suspect there's something behind it. Don't try and bend it open just yet with our drites, first we should fiddle with the keypad, try to bullshit hack it.

rolled 56 = 56

>>20279199
What were the Kalach again? I know they've been mentioned before in SCQ but I can only think of the SORQ ones. Stop reusing so many names, it's confusing.

Ready weapons and bullshit hack the keypad.

>>20279242
Pretty sure those were the bear-things.

Second the vote for going for Baron directly.

rolled 7 = 7

>>20279235
Forgot to roll for bullshit hacking.

>>20279199
"Guess so."

>>20279199
Shit, I wonder what happened to Minerva.

File: 1344724583440.jpg-(3 KB, 300x57, Deathcaptcha.jpg)

>>20279261
...good thing someone beat you to it.

>teholdr deaths
Captcha does not bode well.

>>20279310
I hope Amy designed with some kind of computer black box for the ship.

>>20279199
This would be a good time to have super-strength Emperor-knowledgeable Dani along. Shame she doesn't exist any more. I'm also curious as to why Lucas and Delta wouldn't be useful.

>>20279310
Dead, probably.

>>20279130
>No, non-sapient AIs cannot act without orders. They *can* have orders like 'if this, do X', but onyx had no such orders.

>>20279242
>Asurians mentioned them, and you guys never checked them out. They're the four-legged bear-lizardtaur things that you've found in pretty much every emperor ship.

"Ready weapons." You say, in a low voice. Amy raises her hydra, and Grayson raises his enormous rifle. You put your hand on the keypad, and for the slightest moment, reconnect your nervous system to bullshit hack it. Your nose starts copiously bleeding beneath your helmet, and you get a worried vibe from Amy, but the door slides open.

On the inside was a dark, dingy room. And inside. . were massive, four-legged beings, with two arms sticking out of their torsos. They immediately started snarling, and charged. Grayson pulled the trigger of his rifle, and a flaming, searing shot tore into one of the creatures- going through it and slamming into the second before stopping. Amy slid the dragon's breath off of her hip with her other hand, and fired, sending a plume of plasma into the doorway.
Amy, with Hydra and Dragon's breath, and Grayson with rifle, raise their guns and pretty much butcher them slowly as they come through the door.

<<Ooh, intruders.>> The voice says. <<Duke, is that you? Come say hi, like the old days.>>

>>20279321
He was specifically isolated from the rest of the computer system for security anyway.

>>20279349
Go say hi. Find out Duke's story.

>>20279349
Onyx hit sapience, good for him.

Join Amy and Grayson, start slaughtering our way through the horde, plasma bolts, autocannons. If any get close slice them apart with the blades on our light drites and rip them apart with heavies. Fire Mjolnir at any choice targets.

Nice to meet you Baron.

>>20279349
"Fuck you, dickhead, I'm not one of your race, I'm not duke."

>>20279409
>Onyx hit sapience, good for him.
Not really. He gained a proper life just in time to die horribly. He would probably have been better off without that brief burst of fear and pain in his existence. But we wouldn't, so we'll hold a big funeral for him when we get back and maybe try and get him a couple of posthumous medals for saving the world.

>>20279457
and he's been forked to hell and back.

>>20279465
Mmm, computer core might still be reasonably intact. The sapient Onyx fork might still be alive.

>>20279465
Onyx is like Dave, will do what it takes to win.

You bring up ALL of your drites, and start firing wildly, Mjolnir in hand, throwing down the 'tools' with slugs of nuclear fury. Finally, you clear the room, and there's another door on the other end of the room. You, Grayson, and Amy walk in- But Grayson stops.
"I need to keep watch over them." He said, keeping an eye on K and Lucca. "Azure, go with them."
"Okay, John." Azure said, and drew her blade. She, you, and Amy approached the door.

<<Ooh, you already killed all of my tools.>> Baron says. <<Faster than last time. Let's see if I can tear your spine out like last time. . >>

The door slides open, and an Emperor in full armor, complete with a mask and respirator stood, monomolecular claws attached to it's hands.

<<Aw, you're not duke.>> Baron said, walking closer. It tilted it's head. <<I don't suppose you have any eggs. . .? Probably not.>>

And then the emperor burst into furious movement, directly toward you.
>Rollin' rollin' rollin'
>Roll 1d100s from here on out.
>Wat do?

>>20279349
"Duke's not here. I am."

>get banned.

Not I said the cat.

>>20279465
That's not insurmountable, we can have him design a new program to run the teleporters and then just wipe all the non-sapient Onyxes and replace them. Might be slightly tricky to make sure ArmaTek complies though.

>>20279509
"Wait, I know where Duke is. How about you tell me what game he's playing?"

rolled 30 = 30

>>20279509
Never said I was Duke, we haven't met.

Okay, we're the big heavy hitter, we keep up the fire and if he gets close we grab him with heavy drites and bash him against stuff and throw him away into walls so Amy and Azure can keep the fire pouring onto him.

rolled 90 = 90

>>20279509
Brief wait, then bullet time and a javelin to the chest.

rolled 100 = 100

>>20279509
Take out his mobility, focus fire on the legs, avoid his claws, javelin him around where the legs and torso meet.

>>20279567
Neato. 100 on a javelin to the dick.

>>20279563
Which is to say, wait till he's close enough for him to not dodge.

>>20279567
Damn, and I thought my 90 was good.

>>20279591
It was good. His was just better

>>20279603
Which means my roll wasn't good enough.

>>20279563
>>20279567
Doubletap chest-blast followed by ZAP 'EM IN THE NUTS? I like where this is going.

>Fun fact! Baron is voice acted by Gilbert Godfrey in a falsetto.
>Also, fuck your nat100s- you just instantly ended the confrontation. As usual.

You keep firing, but even slugs of nuclear hate ping against the incredibly dense armor. The Emperor pounces at you- and you kick on bullettime.

Time stops. Period. Completely, utterly stops. Amy's presence keeps to the same rate, and you can tell that she's letting you borrow some of her quantum computer's cycles. In slow motion- incredibly fast from everyone else's perspective- you draw the Javelin, and point it directly toward the Emperor's dick.

"I'm not Duke." You say, and pull the trigger.

With a loud 'whomph', the Javelin fires a small orb of plasma, kept intact and slightly stable by the strange effects of being inside the ship, and then it slams into Baron's crotch- and lost coherency, exploding into thunder and fire and flaming lightning and everything green and killy, blasting Baron in half, gangly arms and legs and claws flailing wildly.

Bullet-time ended, and the Emperor snarled, crawling toward you, leg-less and ribless.
The multitude of power cores within Amy's armor sparked, and suddenly the Emperor was slammed into the wall. And then the ceiling. And then the floor.
<Hey, I figured out TK.> She said, and the power cores sparked again. The emperor's armor dents.

You put the javelin right up to the upper chest, where you recall Dani's lungs and hearts being.
"I'm Dave. Nice to meet you."
You pull the trigger, and the slagged bits of the Emperor go skidding across the room.

"Well, I feel ancillary." Azure said.

rolled 78 = 78

>>20279658
>"Well, I feel ancillary."
"Naw, we just get lucky sometimes."

>>20279658
"Don't sell yourself short, Azure. So, uh, we should get out of here, folks. Before a cliched self-destruct sequence starts."

>>20279658
You know you love the 100s.

Confirm the kill, turn anything still wriggling into must with our heavy drites.

It's okay Azure, I can't always kill Emperors by shooting them in the junk, they might start wearing codpieces after this. I got lucky.

Right, let's find the thing that looks like it controls this ship and send a message out to the rest of our fleet that we took our the Baron.

He killed our ship, let's take his.

>Ideal time to watch the Perseids
>Massive blanket of cloud, can't see shit
Fuck you, Exabyte. Trying to keep me in here with your fake space by covering up the real space. I'm onto your plot.

>>20279686
How do we get out? We have no Sleipnir to send evac teleporters. We need to steal this ship to get him back for wrecking our old one.

You look over the bits and parts of the Emperor. Most of it is still, and deepscans indicate it dead. .except for some strange, pale white pulsing orbs- similar to what 'Duke' had fed Dani. You crush them underfoot, and with your 'drites, scanning over everything. Just to make sure, you draw Mjornir again, and put a few bullets into the emperor's head.
<Nice idea.> Amy said, and threw out a bit of explosives. <I'll key these to detonate when we leave.>

You approach the next room, where Baron had come from. . and it's a control terminal. It reminds you, eerily, of how Hlidskjalf looked like before you'd torn it out. Emperor glyphs lay spread across the terminal. . and you have no idea what does what.

Phi crawled up your shoulder, taking a look at everything. Without any preamble or explanations, he leapt onto a button.

Suddenly, *finally*, everything returns to normal. You can walk without issue, and your internal organs are breathing properly- Gravity is back to human standard.

<<I don't know how to use most of this.>> Phi said. <<But some of it. . . >>
He stepped onto another button, and the chamber became a massive. . well, you can only call it a holodeck, showing you an entire 360-degree vision of the space around you. the red field had fallen, and the carriers re-entered the fray- With Baron's help, they'd been able to destroy nearly all of the Sleipnir copies, leaving behind just a few ships. As you watch, two more Sleipnir's fall, but the last one tears a hole through the final carrier with a D-cannon.

And then you see your Sleipnir. It'd been sheared in half- the front half, the one including the computers, and the D-cannon, were nowhere to be found. But the rear half, the one with the power core, teleporter, and nano-meta... that was intact.

>>20279782
Signal that we're in control of Baron's ship and attempt to recover the aft section of Sleipnir.

>>20279782
Hey, guys, why don't we keep this fancy new ship? We could fix it up, add some amenities and then fly around in a giant golden disco ball of death.

It's plenty destructive and it ought to fuck with the Emperor's heads when we ram it into their faces.

Send a message out, say Baron is dead and we have his ship.

File: 1344727723459.jpg-(156 KB, 1130x785, 1292535536901.jpg)

>>20279782
"Uh. Phi. Which button is the 'Save the World' button and which is the 'Do Something Stupid, Dave' button? Because we need to find the right button and push it, fast, before Battleaxe gets slagged."

>>20279782
We need to grab our generator before ArmaTek steals that one as well. So glad we didn't lose it after only having it for a couple of days. Does this thing have mechandrites? If not, Amy will need to give it mechandrites when we start repairs.

Call Battleaxe and Rust and tell them we captured the ship so it doesn't get shot up any more.

>>20279822
That… sounds quite Dave-ish.

rolled 88 = 88

>>20279782
Rolling to grok the controls of our new house.

<Baron is dead.> You tell the remaining Sleipnir-class ship. <I've claimed his. . it's ship.>
<Good to hear.> The response comes- it isn't Battleaxe, but some nameless officer- you can almost hear the gasmask he's wearing. <Battleaxe is dead, as well. That. . thing tore through him.>

<Good.> Rust responded to you. <At first, when the unidentified ship slammed into the Sleipnir. . I thought. . .>
You hear rust sigh. .
And then the body, complete with holes in it's head, started twitching.

The 'holodeck' went pure red, and alarms started blaring.
<<Hahahahaha, you thought you'd won your game, Duke. Or Queen, whichever you are.>> An obviously pre-recorded signal said. <<But you're wrong! This thing is locked down. Watch the **** detonate! Ahahahahaha!>>

<Something's going on with the Baron's ship, Dave.> Rust said. <It's just. . shaking, and it's armor is disappearing.>

>>20279844
Can someone point out one good reason why we should let battleaxe live

>>20279885
"Uhh. We need to teleport out or find another one of those control crystals and smash it."

rolled 53 = 53

>>20279885
bullshit hack the self destruct off.

rolled 43 = 43

>>20279885
Attempt to kill the self destruct, and try to call the Onyx aboard what's left of Sleipnir for an evac planetside.

>>20279887
Never mind should go with out saying

rolled 70 = 70

Bullshit hack the ship

rolled 27 = 27

>>20279885
Fo that thing, that'll get us out of this
bullshit.

rolled 77 = 77

>>20279885
Get a some teleporters in here to evacuate us.

Give bullshit hacking the ship to take control and stop the self-destruct a try, worst happens we have to leave. Get Amy to help with this, with our bullshit and her processing power we can do this.

"Uh. . we need to teleport out, or find another one of those control crystals and smash it." You say.

Phi starts leaping from button to button, completely randomly, doing a great big nothing. There's no response. It's almost as if the terminal's not even connected anymore.

<Onyx, are you on the Sleipnir? Onyx?>
There's no response.
<Okay, I've connected to the teleporter.> Rust said. <I can get you out.>

You touch the terminal, and close your eyes. . .
And the Dominance inside you springs to life, reaching out for the crystal at the very center of the ship- it's building up with energy, somehow springing forth from nowhere- And your entire body vibrates. .
And you crack the crystal.

The holo-deck turns off, and everything goes dark.

rolled 55 = 55

>>20279928
Or maybe that other thing. Not that my roll will matter the way things are going for my rolls.

>>20279946
"Guys. I accidentally the ship."

>>20279946
"Teleport us out, Rust, into you, if you have the room for it?"

>>20279965
Hack and vaporise the limbs off the Emperor corpse before you leave too.

>>20279946
<Thank you Rust, but that won't be necessary. Can you make sure the ArmaTek goons stay away from the remains of our Sleipnir?>

>>20279946
I'm not sure what I just did. The ship may or may not explode now.

Check for anything that looks like it's going to explode or anything like that, be ready to evacuate if necessary

rolled 99 = 99

>>20279946
Now we hard reset it using the bullshit hacking.

"Teleport us out, Rust, into you. If you have room for it?"
<That was one reason I was late.> Rust said. <I wanted a position inside my body for organics to survive. I foresaw something like this.>

With a flash of blue light, all of you- even Delta and Lucas- appear in a dark green chamber. A screen and camera sits there, along with some vents.

"Statement: You feel so good inside of me." Rust says, and you hear him chuckling from the speakers. " . .That was a joke."

>>20279987
>>20279994
Damnit.
It's not like we're going to be able to do anything to help the battle inside Rust.

>>20279994
It might have been a joke for most of us but I think he wasn't jokeing about Azure

rolled 12 = 12

>>20280006
Battle's over, man. We won.

>>20279987
I sincerely hope we are still within range so this can happen.

rolled 20 = 20

>>20280019
>>20279987
Seconded.

>>20279994
I'm glad that was a joke, keep us up to date on the ship, I want my old golden disco ball of death, we might be able to take control of it for ourselves.

>>20280016
Then why did we port over? There's nothing here.
Now our awesome disco ball is unattended and ArmaTek can loot it.

>>20280048
There was the matter of impending detonation to worry about.

>>20280048
ArmaTek might as well be dead, they've lost Battleaxe.

"Keep us up to date on our ship."
"The rear end of the ship intact. . The front end, however, was extremely damaged. I only noticed two objects that were still intact." Rust said. "A refrigerator and a small independent computer- the one isolated from the rest. ArmaTek curiously picked that one up."
"What?" Amy cried. "That doesn't mean-"

<Hey.> Minerva says, connected to your radio. <I'm in the last ArmaTek ship. Thanks for not killing me and all. I'll make sure we leave all of this refuse for you- you probably want the nano-meta. . and the ship refuse too- both ours and theirs- because why the fuck not.>

You close your eyes. . and at the very edge of your mind. . so far. . you hit the terminal on the Baron's ship. Remotely, you feel it click on... And there's no self-destruction. Complete reboot. The ship is yours.

>>20280063
No there wasn't, we'd just disabled the self destruct.

>>20280069
Oh yeah, massive corporations just disappear when their CEO dies. That's a thing that happens.

>>20280089
We were still in the process of hoping and praying at the time of the evac.

>>20280078
Any transmissions from our ship?`Did Onyx make it out of there?

>>20280078
<I expect the blueprints for all my stuff back.>

>>20280078
Minny, I suggest you behave from now on or I will kill you again and make it permanent. I now have a golden disco ball of death, do not tempt me. Also ArmaTek owe us royalties for stealing our designs, see to it. And no more making any Sleipnir class ships without my permission.

Now we can improve it, we have a giant pile of Sleipnir bits lying around, let's toss a D-Cannon on it, a humongous D-Cannon under numerous layers of the armor that we can open up when we want to turn something into dust. Also we should get some of those repulsion core railguns in on it for extra dakka.

>>20280078
<I hope you've learnt your lesson about trying to kill me.>

>>20280105
No we weren't, we'd just hacked the crystal and turned off everything.

>>20280078
"We cool then, Minerva? No beef?"

>>20280148
And mechandrites. We have to add mechandrites to it. And tell ArmaTek they can't call their ships Sleipnir-class without the mechandrites it was named after.

>>20280177
Mmm, technically they're Sleipnir-A's. Sleipnir class, variant A.

>>20280078
"Yeah. You're welcome. Gonna see what I can do with all this salvage... I don't care much if you make more Sleipnir copies, since I'm going to be making a Sleipnir Mk. II for kicks, but a little credit where credit is due would be nice."

"I didn't know Battleaxe long, but... He seemed like a good guy. Definitely driven, smart, and tough as nails. Make your pappy proud, wherever he may be in the great hereafter, when you take Armatek's reins, Minerva. Because if you don't, I'll be there to set you straight again, one way or another. I'm retiring once this business is over with, but we'll be in touch."

<We cool, then, Minny? No beef?>
<Minny? Really?>
You hear him sigh.
<Yeah, no beef. Hell, if I'd captured you in that state, I'd have killed you.>
<I suggest you behave from now on or I will kill you again and make it permanent.>
<Of course.> He said. <I'm not *that* retarded. And I have ArmaTek to consider, now. Consider us even, More than even.>

"Any transmissions from the Sleipnir? Did Onyx make it out of there?" You ask.
"No, I got no such transmissions." Rust said. "Onyx is. . likely dead."
Azure frowned. "He came to life knowing he'd die." She said, and frowned. "What now?"

>>20280233
"Let's go explore our new house. Do a little clean-up. Go spook Duke. Then, once it's clear, we have a funeral for Onyx-that-Woke."

>>20280233
Now we salvage stuff from the Sleipnir and use it to bling up my giant disco ball of death. Which we also need to name. And find out how to use.

>>20280233
"Well I suppose we should clear out the disco ball, collect all the salvage, then let Earth know that we've won."

>>20280233
"Wait. What about the evac teleporter he used to get Lucas and Delta to safety? Onyx-That-Woke might well be alive in there."

>>20280233
First we check the remnants of the Sleipnir and any teleporters he sent out, make sure that he didn't somehow save himself.

If not we'll hold a funeral for him, pour some libations for him, both digital and physical. His true life was far too short and his first and only act as a sapient being was to save us all. We owe him our respect and I wish I could have gotten to know him.

We inform Earth that the threat for the time being is gone.

Then we have a chat with Neptune Emperor or Duke, and ask who Queen is among other questions.

Then we clear out our new ship. Then salvage all of the Sleipnir parts to begin the process of improving it, I'm thinking a D-Cannon that can shoot through a moon in it would be a nice addition. Also larger versions of that new power core repulsion based Railgun would be nice.

>>20280283
Maybe. We should probably go find them before we do anything else, anyway. They'll probably be thinking we're dead because we didn't show up with them.

>>20280258
This. Also, salvage the wreckage of Sleipnir as soon as practical.

>>20280258
Agreed.

"Let's go explore our new house. Do a little clean up. . and then go spook Duke. Once it's clear, we have a funeral for Onyx-that-woke."
"Yes, let's." Delta said. "He saved my life- Not my other bodies, however."

"Rust, would you mind taking us back into the golden sphere?"
"I will do so." Rust said, and with a flash of blue, you were all back within Baron's sphere. Phi climbs down off of your shoulder, and goes back to the imperial terminal, starting to hit seemingly-random buttons.
<<I am astounded.>> Phi said. <<Whatever you did, restored it to something called 'factory settings'. It has. . help files, and we can create a new administrator profile.>>

Leaving Phi to work, you tromp through the rest of the ship, taking care to keep an eye on everything. Other than strange crystals here and there, there's nothing except for a large. . eerie, twisted version of a slipstream drive. You scan through for more critters, but there's nothing- it seems that all there was were the ones in the Baron's room.

>>20280371
"So, what do we call this one, Amy? Since my codename and cyberspace-self is apparently 'dragon' and we've been banking on Norse lore this whole time for our naming scheme, I was thinking Fafnir."

>>20280371
Well that's nice.

Does this place have anything for Nanometa? It might have a wormhole generator which would be plus. We should probably move all of our stuff from what is left of the Sleipnir in here and work on tying the computer systems together.

Also we'll probably need to find a way to power it since we killed the crystal in the center. We'll get more answers about this sort of thing from Duke.

>>20280418
If we're keeping to steeds, I would suggest Gulltop. (Heimdall's horse)

>>20280418
Actually... Jun's "codename" was dragon. Dave has always been bullfrog. You're right on the second point though... Dave's cyber self is a Dragon Amy's is a Naga.

>>20280418
Are there any disco balls or disco-related deities in Norse mythology?

What about... New Genesis?

>>20280418
Nidhogg would also work for a Norse dragon, it chews at the roots of Yggdrasil.

Our space base, should we make one on the moon or in space proper, should be Yggdrasil.

>>20280457
Baldr is the closest one I can think of, he's associated with light and so on.

>>20280472
Heimdall was a sun god in addition to his guardian duties....

"So, what do we call this one, Amy? Since my cyberspace self is apparently a dragon-"
"A really pretty dragon." Amy interupted you.
"-and we've been banking on norse lore this whole time for our naming scheme. . I was thinking Fafnir."
"Jormungundr was a dragon too, wasn't it? Or a serpent. . " She shrugged. "I forget. But Fafnir works."

<<Bad news.>> Phi said. <<We can't teleport this ship. Apparently it is. . incredibly, incredibly dense- primarily the armor on the outside.>>

"We'll need to find a way to power it since we killed the crystal in the center. we'll get more answers about this sort of thing from Duke."
"Then should we go see him?" Amy asked.

>>20280532
Yeah, why not. He should be grateful to us seeing as this guy was apparently his enemy.

>>20280532
Not quite yet, we should strip what we can from our Sleipnir, move the computer, nanometa stuff and so on in.

Then we hold a farewell for Onyx, the one who sacrificed himself to save us all.

Then we can visit Duke.

>>20280532
"Yeah. Phi, make sure that administrator account, in my name, is made before we meet Duke. Just a precaution. I'd rather he not jack the doomsphere actin' all chummy and cackle all the way back to the core of Neptune with it in tow before we even figure out how to work it."

>>20280532
"Not surprised, Phi. We got any propulsion at all? What about, I dunno, tractor beams, or something, that we can use to collect the salvage?"

"Not surprised, Phi. We got any propulsion at all? What about, I dunno, tractor beams, or something, that we can use to collect the salvage?"

<<We have propulsion. So much propulsion you have no idea.>> Phi responded. <<And no tractor beams, but we can teleport the salvage into this ship's cargo bays. I just need to figure out how to use it. . .>>

"Yeah, Phi, make sure that the administrator account is in my name, and made before we meet Duke. Just a precaution."

<<Already done, Dave.>> Phi said.

"Rust, mind teleporting the salvage into our cargo bays?"
"Not at all." Rust said. "I have double standard teleportation capacity, with the Sleipnir's teleporter, and my own. I will begin shortly."

>>20280677
Thank you Rust.

Does this place have wormhole generators? Because otherwise we're kinda stuck in this area.

Once get get all of the bits of Sleipnir here and look through it and any teleporters that got sent out before the explosion to make sure Onyx-that-Woke didn't live. If he didn't we're holding a small funeral for him. I wish I could have known him beyond him saving our lives at expense of his own.

>>20280677
"Thanks, Rust. So, I suppose we'll need to use the Sleipner's fabbers, if we need to make anything?"

>>20280677
A second AI that acquired sentience, I wonder if the AI-aliens were too dependent on the mindcore?

>>20280820
We should definitely check if onyx managed to copy to one of our personal computers before the ship exploded.

"Thanks, Rust. So, I suppose we'll need to use the Sleipnir's fabbers, if we need to make anything?"
"Most likely." Azure said, looking over the cargo hold as it quickly gets filled with objects, devices, and random shrapnel and pieces of debris. Roughly half of it is Emperor tech, and the other half, ArmaTek tech.

"Does this place have wormhole generators? Because otherwise we're kinda stuck in this area."
<<I believe so.>> Phi said. <<I'm having issues accessing it. I don't understand any of it- I'm learning as I go. It'll take some time.>>

By the time everything finished teleporting, even the Sleipnir's teleporter, it was a few hours later, and all organically-minded people were getting tired. You didn't find anything related to Onyx, and the Sleipnir's computer was completely trashed- you couldn't get any data off of it.
"Mind sending me home?" Grayson asked. "Karin's worried about me, and apparently Ishelda isn't back yet. She's worried about her, too."

>>20280907
Drop everything, Ishelda's in trouble!

>>20280907
"You better not lose my cat Grayson."
Then send him back.

>>20280907
"Yeah. Sure, Grayson. Anyone seen Duke around? You'd think he'd have ported in here by now... Gonna take a minute to call Jun. See how Dani's doing.

>>20280907
"No problem Grayson, where do you want to be dropped?"

"So, we don't happen to have a nano-meta generator on board do we?"

>>20280907
Yeah, just a small farewell to Onyx and I'll get you all home.

Onyx didn't live long, for most of his existence he was not sapient, he did his duties and I relied on him. His true life was short but it ought to be remembered. He gained sapience, and instead of rushing to save himself he chose instead to save all of us. We owe him our lives, his life was short but it should never be forgotten.

>>20280907
"You bet, Grayson. Would you let [Two] know to tell Three that we're probably in the clear?"

>>20280960
Damn good words, mate.

>>20280982
Oh yeah, we lost the Resurgence terminal. We'll have to get a new one of those.

>>20280907
Let me know as soon as you find Ishelda.

>>20280960
His tombstone will be right next to Epona's.

>>20281052
Epona was never alive. And it was a group of AIs so if you're going to do it you should give them all separate tombstones because mass graves aren't nice.

>>20281088
Epona was still a bro, though. And that's what counts. Lets just build a private mausoleum for our fallen allies on some moon.

"Yeah, just a small farewell to Onyx, and I'll get you all home."

You clear your throat, and look downward to the scraps of computer.
"Onyx didn't live long, for most of his existence he was not sapient, but he did his duties and I relied on him. His true life was short, but it ought to be remembered. He gained sapience, and instead of rushing to save himself, he chose instead to save all of us. We owe him our live. His life was short but it should never be forgotten."

Azure sniffled, and Rust was silent. .
"He did save our lives, didn't he." Lucca said.
---
A few minutes after that, you send everyone home except for Phi, Rust, and Amy, leaving just the four of you still there.
"Now." you say. "Let's go say hi to Duke."

Rust teleports you to Neptune, and you walk through the dark facility, Amy by your side, and you enter Duke's room . .

And he's sitting there, laughing to himself. He doesn't look up to greet you.

>>20281132
"Hey, Duke. Baron's dead." We brought some of his bits, right? Tell me we brought some of Baron's bits to toss at Duke.

"What the hell was going on about, any way?"

>>20281132
I'm tempted to say: put a bullet in his brain.

But instead, ask him what his beef with Queen and Baron.

Then steal all his cool stuff.

>>20281132
>A few minutes after that, you send everyone home except for Phi, Rust, and Amy, leaving just the four of you still there.
Where did we send Azure? I wasn't aware she had a home.

"Hey, Duke. You probably know why I'm here."

>>20281132
"Sup Duke."

>Right, shit, Lost count of her. She's talking with Rust. . inside of him.

"Hey, Duke." You say. "Baron's dead."

He just continues laughing. . and then stops.
And stands.

"I know." He says, in a voice full of tightly-held fury. "Get out."

>>20281177
Well, guess he lost his playmate.

>>20281177
"What're you so angry about?"

>>20281177
"I'm surprised your angry, considering he ripped out your spine."

>>20281177
"Why so serious? The teleporters will take a moment to charge, can't we just talk?"

>>20281177
"Alrighty. Not exactly the response I expected. He did say something about the 'old times...' Shall I leave you to grieve?"

"What're you so angry about?"
He took two steps toward you- and froze.
"I lost." He snarled. "I lost! I lost! I lost! I lost! I lost! I lost! Because of *you*."

>>20281228
ಠ_ಠ

>>20281228
"Sorry, what?"

>>20281228
"How the hell did you lose? They're dead!"

>>20281177
You were the one who set the whole fight up. You have nobody to blame but yourself.

>Mentioned her and then completely forgot about her two sentences later
Poor Azure.

>>20281238
I think we have our helmet screen image.

>>20281228
"Lemme guess, you bet that humanity wouldn't be able to fend off an Emperor invasion and you were trying to steer us wrong, right?"

>>20281228
"Ooh. You were betting on Baron and Queeny was betting on me, wasn't she? Tough break, Duke. Sorry 'bout that. Better luck with the next game."

>>20281228
You lost what? How did you lose? What were the terms of the game?

On that note we weren't playing one of your race's games, we were killing that which came to destroy our home, your games are secondary to that in my eyes.

>>20281228
Haha, you were expecting me to lose? That's the wrong bet to make.

>>20281228
"Guess what, chump, too bad. You spoke in riddles half the time, never provided more than essential info and crashed our party. Big woop, I bet the 'game' wasn't even that fun."

>>20281243
Yeah, she's definitely down there in Exabyte's preference shit tier with Delta and Lucas.

>>20281228
Fancy some tea?

>>20281287
Now that she got all crazy Elezure yeah.

ಠ_ಠ, you make on your screen helmet. "Lemme guess, you bet that humanity wouldn't be able to fend off an Emperor invasion and you were trying to steer us wrong, right?"
"No, not at all." He snarled. "Fool. Tool. Pawn. You never even *knew* you were being controlled."
"Controlled? By who?" Amy asked.
"Get. Out." He repeated.

>>20281303
"It would've helped if you'd *told* us what the bet was, you know."

>>20281303
I think we should let him cool off.

>>20281303
"Little confused here, Duke. Fine. I'll get out and let you cool down for a bit. Just a game, after all. I'm expecting this is the end of our acquaintinceship? Because that'd be a damn shame."

>>20281303
Who was your game with? Who is Queen? What was the game? What are the stakes?

>>20281303
You know, if you explained what you were doing I wouldn't accidentally fuck up your plans like just now.

>>20281343
I think he tried to when he asked us to not get involved till Battleaxe was dead.

>>20281354
Well we didn't kill Baron until Battleaxe was dead.

>>20281303
"Right, keep this up and I'll put a nuclear powered slug between your eyes."

>>20281354
He could have informed us on his reasoning instead of just throwing it out there.

He gave us minimal information and now is angry that we didn't do what he wanted us to do without even informing us about what his goals were. He shrugged when we turned down the deal to not help until Battleaxe was dead.

"Little confused here, Duke. Fine. I'll get out and let you cool down for a bit. Just a game, after all. I'm expecting this is the end of our acquaintinceship? Because that'd be a damn shame."
"Take your new ship and *go*."

You turn around, and leave him to his anger.
You don't notice the small white cat who appeared the moment after you left.

>End of thread!
>Tomorrow will be epilogue day, and the end of SCQ and NFCQ.

>>20281373
Yes, we didn't kill ANY of his species which is what he asked us to do, we only disabled the ship crystals and battleaxe was dead by the time we killed baron!

>>20281395
Hahahaha, Ishelda's 'Queen', isn't she?

>>20281395
ISHELDA IS QUEEN.

>>20281411
I'd believe it.

>>20281395
AhAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Nice.

You got me Exabyte, you got me.

>>20281395
I can't wait to see what incredibly trollish futures you have in store for everybody involved.

And, unless you're serious about retiring them, there will probably be more adventures ahead. After all, half the cast is already pretty much immortal. Or has at least an indefinite lifespan.