Life2.0 - An "Of Unity" Narrative (Completed)

[Macavity116]

Surgery on a missile. Dr. McCoy would be proud.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Considering the patient has been left taken to bits, I'm not sure we can call that surgery...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"What The Actual..."
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Lartius Gargonius​

"Urgh, my head."

Still, the rest is ok. I give myself a shake up, shoot a stim, then shove the pile of Sirzusians off.

The place is just...

More destroyed than my last Companionship Asset. Oh yeah, I'm not allowed to think that anymore.

I check my comms.

Nuthin.

Pull the trigger on my gun.

That still works!

Right, first things first, get a bullet in every Praetorian's skull before anyone else gets up. Then it's safe to work out whatever just happened.

Nice and easy this, retract their helmet, then boom! Headshot.

Hold on, why am I using my ammo? Save the bullets, nick a parazonium.

There we go! Stabby stabby!

....

It takes a while, but eventually I make it safe to start checking on my own people.

Firstly, she who bats for the other side - need to make sure I get paid after all, I know what Corporate is like.

I trudge over bodies everywhere, shift piles of Sirzusians...

Find a few fallen comrades, but Appia is still breathing.

"Wakey wakey!"

I inject her with a stim pack, and leap back.

She looks at me, eyes dilated like she's off to the stars.

Then she throws up.

Spluttering to her feet, she manages to stand.

She looks at the Praetorians, then looks at me. "Lartius, have you gone and stabbed every Praetorian in the head?"

I smile. "Naturally."

She glares at me. "Fine. We need to get the others up. You look for the rest of your company, I'll look for Naomi and Buri, probably upstairs..."

"Nope. They're in the wall over there."

She looks at me. "Dare I ask why you attended to me first?"

"You're paying me. They aren't."

She breathes deeply. "Ok. Thank you."

She walks towards Naomi and Buri, limping. I call out to her. "What happened anyway?"

She doesn't turn back to me. "Naomi and Buri used a nuke."

I look at the state of Gateway Control.

Yeah, it looks like it got nuked.

The first guy on my shopping list is Demetrius. I don't know anything about hacking, but he does, and if there's any chance of completing the mission, we need him up.

Appia joins me in digging through Sirzusians. "Naomi and Buri are sleeping."

I look at her. "Nuke at point blank range, and they aren't dead?"

She laughs. "They're probably pretty close to it, but they aren't dead, just sleeping."

She lifts a Sirzusian.

We find Demetrius...

...In half.

I look at Appia. "Mission failed?"

She nods. "Looks like it."

I sit on a Sirzusian. "What do we do now?"

She looks around. "Get our people up, then get out of here. Comms are fried from the nuke, it wouldn't be too big an EMP though. The rest is scrap now."

I look at Buri. "Well, I am not carrying him."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Reprieve"
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Elizabeth Herminton​

I wake to two Appias leaning over me. Now, is that my head, or reflections from the cracks in the visor? Probably my head. She retracts my helmet. Definitely my head, still seeing two of her. She strokes my face. "Elizabeth?"

I ache. "Here. Seeing double though."

She runs a medical scanner over me, before throwing it away. "Not surprised, I just dragged a Praetorian off your upper body."

"What even happened?"

She sighs. "We were overrun. Demetrius had been bisected and the equipment he was using destroyed. Naomi suggested using her mini-nuke. I decided it was worth it."

I strain to lift myself.

Oh...

I need new armour, the chest is totally smashed in. I look at Appia. "How bad is it?"

"I'm not sure. The scanner was fried by EMP. I'd need to actually see, and I promise I'm not flirting."

Of course, the suits open from the back. "Help me over."

She turns me over, and her hands run down my chest, feeling my ribs. I look over my shoulder. "How bad?"

She sighs. "The bits I used to admire will need a fair amount of surgery as they're very squished, but thankfully the armour broke and you didn't."

I smile. "I knew you were having a good fondle."

We laugh. "Elizabeth, please, you've still got your compression suit on. And besides, if we're flirting, I know how they felt anyway."

She helps me out the armour, and injects one of the remaining hypos for pain relief. I slip my dress out of the armour's storage; just a compression suit means I feel naked in front of Appia.

I take my mind off her by looking around the room.

Lartius and TSR are trying to sort out Naomi and Buri.

Very few Olinbari are up.

Head spinning.

I lie down... Run through some breathing exercises.

Lartius and TSR lay Naomi next to me, And then Buri next to her. I look at TSR. "Are they going to be ok?"

His head turns. "This is where our alive and recovering pile is going. The Holocron has already made contact with them and begun an emergency regen procedure."

I look at Naomi and Buri. Then drag one of Buri's arms over Naomi. It's what they'd want, you can tell from the way she reacts by leaning back into him.

Appia comes back with an injured but walking Olinbari woman. I smile. "Picking up all the ladies Appia?"

She huffs, one hands on her hip while the other supports. "Elizabeth!" She flicks a glance at Naomi. "I haven't even touched the woman I'd most like to."

I laugh. "She is taken Appia!"

She laughs. "I know. But really, who wouldn't? Buri is so lucky."

She jumps when he growls, and strides away quickly. Naomi hides a smile as Buri pulls her closer. I stroke her face. "Are you two only playing at being asleep?"

TSR brings over another Olinbari woman. "Homo Tipheret retain a near-baseline level of intellect operating while the main level of consciousness sleeps."

I look at Buri. "So they heard all that."

TSR nods. "Affirmative." Then looks at me. "Appia owned you as a Companionship Asset, yes?"

I look at the far side of the room. "I was hers for almost a decade and a half." I look back at TSR. "I guess biont mating practices seem so strange to you?"

He looks around the room, at smashed armour, burned Sirzusians, slain allies, destroyed enemies. He shrugs. "Less strange than war."

 

[HistoryDude]

Lartius amuses me. Is "she who bats for the other side" a reference to Appia's sexuality?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Closing The Net, Part 1"
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Appia Flavonius​

I get straight into the next phase as soon as I have comms again. Holorepresentations of Alexandra, Valerius and Ruki make up the Life2.0 contingent, joined by my admirals and the Holocron.

I clap my hands together. "Our task now is to pursue Septima's fleet and pick off stragglers."

Tremellius Quartus - Admiral commanding the Corvettes - shakes his head. "Appia, Septima's Destroyers and Corvettes have severely beaten my Corvettes. I hope the situation improves, but I only have a quarter of my ships in operational condition, and all need resupply. I cannot mount such a pursuit."

I scowl. "We cannot let her get back to the Citadel in the Cybrex Beta system. We do not want her getting back to that fortress, we must pursue her."

He frowns. "Your nephew's ship is among the missing!"

Scipio...

Well...

Knowing them, they'll at least have been together.

I sigh.

Ruki looks like he's having a heart attack.

I think of my nephew. "As his wife is - or perhaps was - fond of quoting, we are all on the board. As harsh as it sounds, we must press the attack." I look at Alexandra. "As I understand it, your corvettes aren't going to have the fuel to make the journey either."

She wipes a tear. "Appia..." She sighs. "All the Vanguard fleet is able to do is saturate the retreaters with pellets that they'll out-accelerate."

Ruki raises a hand while looking at Tremellius. "Are we sure my sister's corvette is destroyed? We've found the wreckage, there's signs of surviving crew."

Tremellius looks at him. His voice softens. "Sorry kid, but your sister's ship got blown in half. I can't spare a salvage team for a ship in that state, especially if I have to call the ones I've got out back."

"Which pragmatically, you do. Every moment her fleet accelerates on the other side of the Gateway to safety, we cannot delay."

Tulla Sabucius files her fingernails. "Appia, our allies are having to commandeer captured freighters and convert them into makeshift carriers for their corvettes. Our damage control teams are working double-stints trying to get battlefield repairs done. And we have lost our Titan." She looks at Valerius. "Has Sharpbeak been informed of our capture of the Gateway?"

Valerius twinges as he nods. "Yes; he has changed course, and will arrive at the nearest Gateway to him in a week. We haven't informed the Kyaese revolutionaries yet however, we don't want to risk exposing them."

I frown. "Haven't you guys now got a Chosen One? What can she do here?"

Alexandra sighs. "She's not got back yet. And honestly, we don't know either."

I look at my people. "How many ships do we have that are capable of pursuing Septima?"

Tremellius rubs his shoulders. "Nineteen Corvettes of operational status from Classis VI Brigantia, I have salvage teams working to get four more operational in a timeframe where we could use them in a follow-up battle."

Tulla taps her desk. "I lost the Constantius and the Jovian to Septima's Titan. Only the Florian and the Probus are at full capacity, the Gratian is damaged but repairable, the Pertinax and the Geta need towing to drydock."

Two battleships remaining. Ouch. "Ok." I turn to Didius Ennius. "Your Cruisers and Destroyers?"

He smiles. "We came through pretty well actually, Septima prioritised the Battleships while her fleet focused on the Corvettes trying to knock out her freighters, with Life2.0's casaba attack sweeping most of Septima's forces that would have countered us. I'd be leaving five Destroyers and the Victoria and the Feronia of my Cruisers behind if ordered to depart immediately."

Hmm. "I was hoping the Flight-Deck Cruisers would have made it through."

He shrugs. "We ran out of Strikecraft. The ships are fine, they've just got nothing left to launch. The crews are assembling more Strikecraft from spares, but they'd need resupply."

I turn to Valerius. "And of your ships?"

"Admiral Veres has his squadron at full strength. Thando is loading his ships onto freighters that are being reworked into impromtu carriers. Ykrett has captured several of Septima's warships and is still assessing the combat capability. The various mercenary and vassal ships that we captured from Gnaea's fleet were transferred to Tremellius' and Didius' commands."

"So twelve old Arishkan ships, basically."

He nods. "Yes. Thando rcommends his fleet be considered combat-incapable without resupply of the casabas, as those were our big equaliser weapon. Without them, with just got non-superconducting railguns and near-UV lasers."

I turn to the Holocron. "I'm hoping you have some good news from Unity?"

The Holocron pans his view. He stands in front of... An innumerable horde of battle droids. "My focus now is The Infinite Wheel. My Neumanns have been instructed to fold-in with Life2.0's operational structure since I had to spend the Ukuthula. My manufactories have been hard at work producing armies of battle droids, and in the absence of any reprisal attacks, Pik, Rhizome, Shendredie and Estrili have all been working Life2.0's industry hard too. Plenty of pulse units and casabas ready, along with enough weapon-harnesses to outfit half a million Kyaese, by the time a freighter gets here to collect them. What I lack are transports to deliver it all - I can build antimatter rockets no problem, but I have no fuel, I spent all our antimatter getting our fleet to the fight."

"So... We can't pursue Septima back to her Citadel. That will make the future assault more difficult."

Tulla stretches her arms out, flicks her wrists. "But I can see no reason not to secure her Gateway."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Lartius amuses me. Is "she who bats for the other side" a reference to Appia's sexuality?

Yes.

 

[Macavity116]

He looks around the room, at smashed armour, burned Sirzusians, slain allies, destroyed enemies. He shrugs. "Less strange than war."

TSR is just taking all of this in stride and I love it.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Rescue Of The Strix"
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Juno Laronius​

I take a break from holding the sign up around the missiles to collect my thoughts a little.

With Statia having got a whole load of missiles in various states of disassembly, Rivkah has said everyone can take a break and take it easy.

So...

I would stay in my quarters, but, well... Rivkah and Scipio have abandoned their quarters because of battle damage, and they are now in a different officer's room.

Right above my bunk.

Need I say more?

So, I'm just looking at the Gateway, stood out on a wrecked bulkhead.

And I turn away.

They're horribly dark, Gateways.

No, I turn back to look at where Brigantia would be.

I was born on Brigantia's Orbital Ring. But... I got kicked out and disinherited; unnecessary second daughter. So I joined the Navy...

Corporate doesn't pay well, whatever you do. But, at least you get danger pay in the military.

And well...

I kind of need it.

But...

Do I care?

Is my life going to get better?

Should I just shoot myself?

Corporate won't come back for us.

We are all sharing recycled air... But we're on borrowed time.

I slump to the floor.

Even if air doesn't get us, water will. I turn my pistol over in my hands.

Fiddle the trigger.

Would it even hurt?

Run a hand down a filtration tank. Pull this pipe out, and all my troubles are over in a few minutes.

Would I be missed?

I close my eyes.

The pistol would be quicker. I turn it over in my hands again.

I point it at my chest.

Squeeze my eyes shut.

Hands trembling.

I'm shaken, first by a tiny tremor from the ship, then by a hand on my shoulder.

My eyes open to see a Human woman, squatting down to meet me. She takes my pistol, then my hand. "I'm Fiona Abrams, Admiral Veres' taskforce. We're here to rescue you."

 

[Macavity116]

I'm shaken, first by a tiny tremorfrom the ship, then by a hand on my shoulder.

My eyes open to see a Human woman, squatting down to meet me. She takes my pistol, then my hand. "I'm Fiona Abrams, Admiral Veres' taskforce. We're here to rescue you."

Fiona's sense of dramatic timing is excellent. It's too bad she wasn't set up for a "Aren't you a little short for a Praetorian?" joke.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

TSR is just taking all of this in stride and I love it.

Yes, he is.

Fiona's sense of dramatic timing is excellent. It's too bad she wasn't set up for a "Aren't you a little short for a Praetorian?" joke.

If anything, she probably wishes she'd got there a little quicker.

Hmm...

Not sure that gag fits this context.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Family Reunion"
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Rivkah Of Unity​

Ruki leads me into the ward where our parents are.

And, no surprise, they've rolled off the beds and are on the floor together; Dad is cuddling Mum from behind.

"Have they fallen off again?"

I turn; an Olinbari nurse. "Seems like."

She frowns. "They can stay down there then." She walks towards me, and gives me two cups. "Nutrient solution, if you can get them to take it."

I look at Ruki. "Hey fluff nugget, let's give them a drink."

He smiles. "Ok, Mrs Flavonius."

We both laugh. Mum and Dad smile.

I kneel by Dad. "Ok Dad, drinking time." I poke him. "Now."

Mum and Dad yawn at the same time. Ruki and I take advantage.

As I stand, a hand caresses my rear. "Hey sexy lady."

I turn to my husband, and place my hands on his shoulders. "Rawr."

Ruki stares at us. "You're as bad as Mum and Dad."

I laugh. "Where do you think I got it from?"

Scipio stands on tip-toes to lean over my shoulder, and runs his tongue down the back of my neck. I purr.

Ruki covers his ears.

Mum wriggles closer to Dad.

Scipio's hand moves around my waist. "Like mother, like daughter?"

I lean in. "Naturally." I close my eyes as we entwine our tongues. His hands caress my head as he pulls me closer, and I wrap my arms around his waist.

Mum and Dad get up as a buzzer sounds. Mum taps my wrist. "Come on you two, now that things are remotely stable, we should discuss the future."

"Wonderful Naomi, you're awake!" The voice comes from outside the room, but we all know it's Appia. She stops as she enters, looking at us. "Was I interrupting?"

Me and Scipio disentangle. I sigh. "No."

Mum gathers us to a table. Appia sits next to her.

Dad stares at Appia. "Before we begin. Appia, I am unhappy that you keep flirting with Naomi."

Appia smiles. "Don't worry about it, I flirt with any woman that moves."

"Could you not flirt with my wife though?" Dad opens his jaws. "I don't want to have to defend my mating rights."

Appia looks at me. "Would your Dad kill me for flirting with his wife?"

Ruki laughs. "Appia, if this was the Xenayan homeworld, Father would have already killed you."

"Ah." She looks at Mum. "Help."

"Appia... Like, how do you expect to get a wife some day when she knows you could easily be cheating on her?"

"I wouldn't..."

Mum stares at her. "Appia. Do I have to remind you of that time when Vopisca..."

Appia leans back in her chair. "No, no, No! But... Well, to be fair, at the time Companionship Assets didn't count as cheating."

Mum frowns. "At the time you didn't even see Companionship Assets as people. Like... Don't get us wrong. You have done a lot of growth this year. But... You do need to stop hitting on married women. At least."

Scipio takes Appia's hand. "And stop hitting on your junior officers. If nothing else, it's creepy."

Appia looks at her nephew. Then sighs. "I want to defend myself... But I can't." She bites her lip. "Naomi... It's that whole using other women for my own ego thing, isn't it? I might have freed my Companionship Assets, but..." She slumps. "Yeah..."

Mum stands, walks around the table, and hugs Appia.

Appia looks at her. "Naomi?"

"Appia, would you say that you are like a mother to Scipio?"

Appia looks at Scipio.

Scipio squeezes my hand under the table, and smiles.

Appia looks at Mum again. "Yes."

Mum hugs her tighter. "So, in our Xenayan culture, we're sisters now."

Appia glances at Dad, before slowly returning the hug. "Yeah, I can see that."

Mum looks Appia right in the eyes. "The thing is Appia, you are focused on the past, of memories when, well, there was no love. Just sex. But love is more than just sex. Sometimes, love is being part of a family."

The rest of us smile and sit up straight. Even Dad.

Appia smiles, tears in her eyes. "Thanks guys."

Mum smiles. "I love you, Sis."

 

[Mithrill]

That's cute... but even more than that, I'm  really impressed by Naomi ability to forgive.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Naomi forgave Appia a long time ago; this is just letting Appia know she's forgiven.

It's Buri who's really forgiving Appia here.

 

[Macavity116]

D'aww. So cute.

Also,

Dad stares at Appia. "Before we begin. Appia, I am unhappy that you keep flirting with Naomi."

Appia smiles. "Don't worry about it, I flirt with any woman that moves."

"Could you not flirt with my wife though?" Dad opens his jaws. "I don't want to have to defend my mating rights."

Appia looks at me. "Would your Dad kill me for flirting with his wife?"

Ruki laughs. "Appia, if this was the Xenayan homeworld, Father would have already killed you."

"Ah." She looks at Mum. "Help."

"Appia... Like, how do you expect to get a wife some day when she knows you could easily be cheating on her?"

"I wouldn't..."

I do love these conversations where they just bounce off each other.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Me too. They are such a fun bunch of characters to write. Part of the reason updates have slowed is that as we get closer to the end, I don't want to finish it because I'll miss them.

Even the ones I never really got to feature because of the focus on the Hortensus' Folly region of Unity meaning that they never really got a look in.

It's understandable - Life2.0 is already extremely long even having focused on the people it has focused on - but I definitely regret not looking at the Lokra-Kitan more, for example.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"The Synthol Of Human Kindness"
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Juno Laronius​

A moustached Human pours me a synthol. I down it. Arishkan synthol, so it's way too fruity for my palate. Still...

He looks at me. "That kind a day, huh?"

I laugh and sigh. "Yeah."

He pours me another.

I take it. "Thank you."

I throw myself down on a couch, and sip the synthol.

I'm glad I made it through. Humans picked us up, gave me some depression tablets - I'm hoping the label saying side-effects include increased risk of suicide are just really over-cautious - and well...

For now, I flick through the magazines on the table, and keep sipping the synthol.

Eventually, I've read through three, and I need another synthol.

Barkeep has another waiting. "Hey gal, why the long face?"

"Because I'm short on luck."

"Well, it ain't that bad a day, you're still here." He turns to put a glass in the steam cleaner.

"More luck than judgement. Ship got destroyed."

Humans look strange bald. Come to think of it, I've never seen a bald Human before.

"Is there something on my head?"

"No, I'm just... Used to Humans having hair."

"Bah. The good Lord made only so many perfect heads, the rest He covered in hair."

I smile, feeling a little flirted with. "Thanks, Mr?"

He points to the sign. "Name's Rod. Yours?"

"Juno Laronius. And just Rod?"

"Well... Rodney Rhodes. But there's no need to be formal."

I sip the synthol. Definitely feeling it now. I lean on the bar. "Rod, what would you recommend a woman who's a bit down on her luck to do?"

He starts drying the glass. "What kind of down on her luck?"

"Lot of debt." I sigh. "Look... I signed on with the navy because if you survive your tour, there's financial aid and a stay on debt collection. But, no joy if you lose your ship. And mine got blown up."

"Up the creek, no paddle."

"Yeah. So I'm probably homeless for defaulting on payments."

He puts the glass down. "Forgive me, but I was of the understanding that you Olinbari were on Social Welfare."

I sip the synthol. "We are. But corporate screws us normal Olinbari just like it screws Indentured Assets; it's still debt, just on much nicer terms. Terms that I kind of failed."

"Appia not fixed it yet?"

I shrug. "Lots of problems, one Appia." Sip synthol. "It's on her todo list, but it'll be too late for me."

He waves a hand. "Join us." He smiles. "What are they going to do, send debt collectors?"

I lean back. "Maybe. It isn't the worst idea. Probably better than what I did earlier..."

He scrawls a name down. Tryykad. "This Kyaese has just been given a battleship by Appia, got just days to figure it out and get his people up to speed on running the thing, and Appia can't help as all her people are on damage control. Your MSI navy, right?"

I lean in. "Yes."

"So, you turn up and offer your help, and he'll take you seriously. Someone like you could make a big difference."

I look at the name. Then back at Rod. I kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"How To Conquer A Ringworld"
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Ruki Of Unity​

In front of me is a crowd of Life2.0 and MSI military leaders, and more listening in.

"Before we departed Unity, I had been working on the calculations for the assault on The Infinite Wheel. First of all, I had to establish a feel for the size of The Infinite Wheel. The dimensions of the ringworld are a thickness of a little under 12k km, roughly the same as that of a planet. Because Cybrex Beta orbits a G2-type star, the radius is very slightly lower than Earth's orbit around the Sun. As a result, we are looking at scouring an area twenty two thousand times bigger than a planet like Unity or Earth."

Appia smiles. "Fortunately, Septima doesn't have all of it."

I smile too. "Or even most of it. While Septima has been systematically depopulating Kyaese settlements for more than a hundred years, and more than a trillion Kyaese are held in her camps, her facilities are closely concentrated and stacked to make the logistics of running her empire easier. According to the submissions passed to MSI, Septima has thousands of sprawling facilities that each hold the population of whole nations of pre-MSI invasion Kyaese and all the supporting infrastructure to farm them, most of which is running on a fairly basic level of automation designed to reduce the need for Olinbari supervision and involvement."

Tryykad flaps onto a table. "The bitch has robots that monitor your every moment. Like, if a female starts to lays an egg on the floor, she gets electric shocks until she seeks refuge in a nest box."

I nod. "There's roughly one Olinbari for every hundred thousand Kyaese, such is the level of automation."

Rivkah raises a hand. "Talk me through it, whole process, start to finish."

"For ease of monitoring what she has, Septima has uniform batteries where blocks of nine thousand Kyaese are held in a eight female to one male ratio. Before a flock is moved in, the block is first cleaned out - this consists of the first step being the lifting out of feed tracks, water lines, the egg collection belts and the nest boxes, followed by hydraulic rams shoving the bedding and Kyaese alike through shutter doors into the incinerator fuel intake."

Tryykad whispers. "They are alive when that happens."

I gulp. "Yeah, it would add expense and waste time to cull the Kyaese before sending them to the incinerators..." I look back at the display I'm explaining. "The rams after ejecting the previous flock are retracted and then the whole block is subjected to an intense pressure wash of ten cycles of plain water with antiviral foam, which are drained through removable panels in the floor and purified and recyled. The rams cycle again to push any undrained water down, and after retracting, new bedding is distributed through conveyor belts in the roof of the block. Finally, the feed tracks, water lines, egg collection belts and nest boxes are lowered again. Boxes of newly sorted and hatched Kyaese are then placed on top of the new bedding. In short, a flock turnaround can be accomplished in less than a day from old Kyaese out, new Kyaese in. The blocks are scaled in quantity such that there is a flock being changed over on a daily basis, and egg collection belts continually stream to automated egg graders and packers, and from there are loaded for transport to her Citadel starbase, ready for shipment out."

Rivkah looks at Tryykad. "How long are they in there for?"

"She culls us at twenty years old, roughly."

Rivkah gulps. "That... Must be thousands of blocks to a single facility."

"Yes. Those facilities are our targets for liberation. Tryykad and the Holocron have been preparing for this ever since the mission to Kri Kyaese Ci began." I look at him. "Tryykad."

He presses his claws together. "Yes. When I first discussed the prospect of freeing the Kyaese with the Holocron, the first thing he did was observe that without a means to rapidily tutor and vaccinate the newly liberated Kyaese in how to survive and thrive, we would face losing hundreds billions of Kyaese in illnesses that we've long been shielded against - contact with just one of our Kyaese could kill thousands of Septima's Culinary Asset Kyaese in each block. Which is why he immediately partnered on developing Kyaese-formed Neumanns that can be completely sterilised to protect the Kyaese we rescue - these Neumanns have been produced on Kri Kyaese Ci in sterile and vacuum conditions, and will not contact any kind of non-sanitised surfaces until they are deployed to The Infinite Wheel. why Kyaese were not involved in the freighter rescue operation, but only in the battle. Obviously, all this data and planning was shared with Marcus Aurelius' team on dealing with captured freighters, and we've had encouraging results there as well as live testing of some of the Holocron's ideas; if nothing else, those Kyaese had already experienced other diseases, which contributed to a very high casualty rate. and we considered the risk acceptable. The second aspect is the vaccinations. In order to safely integrate these Kyaese into the wider world, we need to innoculate them with the protective battery we all got as children or when we were taken aboard Hortensus' slave ship. We are planning for innculating literally tens of billions of Kyaese a day, and this means bringing in the mosquitoes."

Appia smiles. "So those mosquitoes he gave me to use on the Praetorians aren't just biological warfare tools?"

Mum smiles too. "They were always dual-purpose, we just hadn't needed the healing modes yet. This does mean there are critical procedures - we have to minimise the risk of inter-species viral transmission, which means no one goes down without a full environmental suit. And we do have to go down."

I nod. "While they are not sufficiently fortified to defend against us, they are sufficiently fortified to defend against liberation strikes launched by native Kyaese, including Sirzusian infantry, and the facilities themselves will need some alterations by engineering corps to allow Kyaese to escape. The Holocron has been devising an attack strategy based on the data from MSI, and will be updating it with live data once our first ships start going through the Gateway."

Appia stands. "So, admirals and generals of MSI - our mission is now two parts. We will launch an attack through the Gateway and secure Cybrex Beta's Gateway. There we will await Skrand Sharpbeak's reinforcements. Once we are united with his fleet, we will assault the Citadel, and wait for the Holocron to deliver a battleplan for who invades what." She smirks. "Unless any of you fancy organising that."

Mum stands with her. "Life2.0 will divide our forces based on what we have the capability to do - mainly, our job is running the logistics, and linking up with the MSI fleet after the Citadel falls ahead of the ground battle for The Infinite Wheel. Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin the biggest combined arms offensive in MSI's history." She smiles. "No pressure."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

So, a quick real-life update.

The good news is that my Ndbele queen has finally had her spousal visa granted. While it is of course wonderful, it does mean the next few weeks get very busy with sorting out stuff relating to your wife moving a third of a planet away on present-day capability, and that means work on Life2.0 will get delayed...

I was planning to get Life2.0 finished by September, but we're now looking at by Novermber.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Falling From Space"
29th Daas, 10 (2189)
Elizabeth Herminton​

"Ladies, what you are about to witness is footage recorded when we test-launched an Iron Rain on Unity during a confrontation with dissident enslaving Xenaya."

Helmetcam. Looking at a casing. No, it's the inside of a SODS rocket. Naomi is flicking through comms channels, doing pre-launch checks. Eventually utters her sentence.

The rocket screams and shakes as it blazes.

Then an explosion. "That ladies, was the rocket self-destructing."

She falls in freefall, the casing tumbling through the upper atmosphere. Every so often, more clunks.

Eventually the casing itself is ejected, and Naomi swings herself to point to the ground. She pushes an arm in front of her face, and looks at an adapted on display of the airspeed. Which is interesting given it would have been on a display inside her helmet too.

She pans her view - she's over land, looks at rolling plains with light forests and tall mountains, before focusing on a barely visible grey dot.

The dot gets bigger, and I realise it must be an enemy facility. She looks around her, and settles on each piece of debris for a moment, before looking back down.

Eventually the facility is clearly visible, and she pulls her chute, firing at targets of opportunity on the final descent.

Then the footage stops. Naomi steps in front of us. "That ladies, gives you an inkling of what lies ahead. What do you girls think?"

I raise a hand. "It's quite pretty, but awfully exposed..."

She nods. "It looks exposed. Who would like to see what ground based sensors saw?"

I keep my hand raised.

I'm joined by essentially everyone.

A video displays a radar readout. "This is clipped from triangulation probes that we sent down or the previous orbit to the Rain beginning, and overlays exactly with my actions and experiences - from the beginning, it was planned as an exercise to help future soldiers like you, and it is important to know this radar knew what was coming, when it set off and had access to a tracker to know where I was, which hopefully simulates the improved detectors we expect to encounter."

It begins with an empty sweep.

Ping.

Ping.

Ping.

Ping.

I get bored of counting pings after that, until suddenly there's a whole load of signals getting picked up.

"By the time it clearly detects my sweep, it has more than twenty blips detected, any one of which could be a target."

It never really gets clear enough to be sure of hitting the right thing.

It continues into a thermal imager view. Picks the ships out straight away - downside of radiators at 2600K dissapating several GW of heat.

But at the same time being so big they cover her until atmospheric friction has slowed her down enough that by the time she's visible, so is a whole load of debris that's been heated by atmospheric friction coming through the upper atmosphere. It still offers no way to know which signature to fire at.

The last is a simple visual feed; it takes a few minutes to find the ships against the light of the day, but they're there like very faint stars. Again, nothing targetable until she's within a few km, by which time it looks like an aircraft has broken up in flight.

"As you can see ladies, you are in more danger from being hit by ejected debris than you are from enemy fire. So, don't panic. Instead, take the time while you fall to assess the area. Think about where you are landing, think about your position, where your allies are, where the decoy suits we launch with are falling, think about the terrain beneath you, and then remember we have live satellite feeds tracking ground the battlefield with dozens of Kyaese back aboard the ships picking out from the data to find actionable intel and highlighting possible targets." She smiles. "We never drop alone; there's Kyaese watching our backs, and don't forget, they've got ships with hundreds of megawatts of output laser ready to give anyone firing back up at you a really bad day."

I raise a hand. "Appia told me once you couldn't use lasers for ground support?"

She nods. "MSI use Gamma ray lasers in their own ships, with some vassals using X-ray lasers. And against an atmosphere, gamma and X-ray lasers are basically just warming the highest atmosphere. UV lasers suffer the same, but could be used as space-based anti-air weapons. Our lasers however, are stimulated emission lasers, with liquid holmium as the arc gas and ruby gain medium, producing 694nm red light. In space combat, a red laser is highly undesirable. which is why we use two frequency doublers to make it a 174nm near-UV laser for space-combat. However, we can remove those frquency doublers, at which point we have weapons that can put tens of megawatts on a human-sized target no problem."

I raise a hand. "What does 10MW do to, say, enemy infantry?"

"Enough that they won't be your problem for very long."