• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Chapter 6: Taming a Giant

Ray of Meep

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[The date has been retconned to be in line with the rest of the setting.]

Late April, 2321

Yasny System, interplanetary space, 24 hours out from the Kitezh planetary system

It has been six days since the Grau Lancers left Kitezh's surface, regrouping with the Daheim Zwei. Six days to reacclimate to a low-gravity environment and rally with another corvette Admiral Vencencio had to spare, improvised to carry marines. Six days for Renee and Zana's wounds to heal.

Six days to learn of more bad news from Sol. The SLE's have been severely damaged, increasing travel time from Sol to Kitezh four-fold. The Soyuz and GDW were rapidly draining each other's arsenals, causing piracy to increase in the forming power vacuum. And supply shipments diminished due to the warfare and piracy, space colonies in the Jovian system, especially, began to protest louder.

There was something else. The KOS-869m Margelov, a large Soyuz dreadnaught with its own SLE, evaded Commonwealth interception and is now headed towards the Yasny system. Attempts to communicate have thus far ended in failure.

The two Commonwealth corvettes rested at a relative spot in interplanetary space, a few hundred meters between each other, following behind Kitezh as it orbited Yasny, waiting for the Wayward Giant to arrive in their vicinity. The Picket-Config, CSCS Persano was a Haflinger Class like Daheim Zwei, but with a module completely decked out in point-defense coilguns, four in total, one on each of the four sides.

"Are you sure we can trust them? Whoever did all of this got their hands deep in our leadership. Both the Soyuz and the Commonwealth." Eberhard stood in the small bridge of the corvette, allowing his helmet to float freely in the zero-gravity as he gently messaged his wife's shoulders, who was strapped into a crash couch, watching a monitor displaying information of all three ships: the two corvettes and the Giant. The Giant was essentially a flying hotel, thrice the length of either military vessel, with more transparent viewports than sense and an sleak, tapered architectual design with the bare minimum of thrusters other than its engine, a controls engineer's worst nightmare.

"You're still asking this question?" Ulrike looked up at him with a smirk, "Come on, they're our people. I already went through their background checks three times. Plus, weren't you the one who wanted marines with us?" She was in a Lancaster-Class as well, though some of the heavier armor pieces have been taken off.

Eberhard grumbled, "The lesser evil. It was them or TF52. Just because they seem less likely to backstab us doesn't mean they won't."

"Have some faith, Ebby. We'll get through this." Ulrike reached up to cup his cheek. "A date once this is all over?"

"Now that's a happy thought. Somewhere other than a tin can? Maybe back in Berlin if it's still around?" Eberhard bent down, his face coming close to his wife's...

"--- The Persano has been pinging us for the last thirty seconds, Rhodium." A hard, robotic voice came through the ship comms, announcing through the entire vessel. It came from Mari, hiding somewhere in the storage room, helping to manage the Daheim Zwei's subsystems.

"R-Right." Ulrike replied in embarrassment, accepting the Persano's hail, while Eberhard straightened up, putting on his helmet. "Lancers, report to the drop pod in five minutes." He informed.
 

Uso

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The robotic voice from Mari would then continue, "Your Dreadnaught knows we're on its side right? If we get stuck in a blue on blue situation I don't want to be in the smaller ship."

It was just one of a number of things she was trying to do in her Supply-room-turned-command-center. She'd already made herself at home, stacking the supplies and other materials against the wall as best she could to up-armor her small compartment. She also had some fluffy pillows and the like strapped down to use as a make-shift crash couch as her software monitored the surrounding situation.

Automated electronic attacks kicked off against their target... a suite of fully automated mid-level exploits were being beamed at the Persano. If their tech-guys were on the ball it'd be stopped but there was always a chance they'd get lucky.

Her attacks were also discreetly being used against the Daheim Zwei, looking to get what access she could beyond what she'd already been given. It would be better that she find any holes or unsecured personal devices before someone else did.

Software was also checking other surrounding ships, matching their burn rates and exhaust to payload manifests to flag if anything seemed off. Similarly all the information she'd gathered about the crew was being filed away and monitored by software looking for obvious discrepancies like mismatches between listed height and actual height.

Even their medical records were being checked, though for that part Mari really needed to use the manual option. "Lances, please confirm your physical status and readiness to participate in the operation. Also please share your camera feeds and datalinks."

Mari's robots had already ditched their robe, their main bodies sealed up in a pressure tight plastic bag. It certainly wasn't optimal for a space walk, and a low power mode would need to be used to keep them from overheating, but this was already a non-standard operation anyways.
 

Acewing13

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Beatrix went over her kit for the third time, carefully packing her medical supplies in the bag in order of how quickly she'd need to get at it, while her armor and weapon lay to the side. Have to make sure no one dies if I can help it, she thought, zipping up the medbag.

When Mari called, Bee rolled her eyes and replied, "Almost ready to go. You'll get a datalink when I'm ready to go." Sure, she thought, share my personal info with a fucking terrorist. Sounds like a great idea.
 

Ray of Meep

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Before Mari herself knew if her attacks on the Persano penetrated through the defenses, the entire interior of the Daheim was bathed in red emergency lights.

"Captain Grau, if this is some sort of twisted joke, we do not tolerate it." A male Itallian voice came through the comms. He seemed to be in mid-conversation, his professional voice suppressing surprise and frustration, "This is your final warning. Given the circumstances, any further break from protocol will result in you being fired upon. Understood?"

Mari got one glance through the corvette's sensors, the Persano having trained three out of five of its PDC's on the Daheim, before Ulrike cut all of her access to the ship's subsystems. "We apologize that we did not properly educate our Magnetic Assembly representative on CSC protocol. It will not happen again." Ulrike replied in a similarly professional tone. The other side did not reply. Instead, the lights in the corvette returned to their normal white color.

She then muted herself momentarily, contacting Mari instead. "I don't care if you're a Magnetic Assembly rep." She tersely informed her in a German accented English. "Endanger the safety of my ship and my employees once again, and I space you. Understood?"
 

Uso

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Mari wanted to respond immediately, but stopped herself right before she hit the button. She didn't find a security hole but she didn't NOT find a security hole. They were buttoned up tight electronically now which made data exfiltration from a compromised device impossible.

But more importantly, they DID react.

That meant Mari had found something.

But there was no way they could know that SHE didn't know what she had found.

This called for a careful choice of words.

"Of course, and in the interest of not endangering your crew we should all have a discussion on electronic security policies." Mari replied. It seemed the GDW handled itself better than the AU but she had to wonder by how much. Mari hadn't come all this way on behalf of the Assembly, to then come HERE on behalf of the Soyuz, only to get exploded because she was overly trusting of a GDW craft.

Mari then addressed the Lancers once more, "That's one of you reporting in, the rest of you aren't off the hook just because the lights changed. Where's Snake and Broken-arm?"
 

DUCATISLO

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žana sitting on her bed and just in her casual clothes she does tap a bit on where her injuries were not feeling anything she then slithers outside the room to meet up with her friends and the others.

also in the meantime when Mari says "Where's Snake and Broken-arm?" Žana comes around and is a bit surprised and happy to see her as she does greet her. "hey there Mari what you been up to laterly?"
 

Poe

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Renee's arm was back to normal now, bar the occasional nervous twinge and ache. It was a rare enough occurrence for Renee to be billed at full health. In the remaining time, she had been practicing her situational responses, ashamed at herself for how she had dealt with the robots. She would punish herself for that until she no longer needed to. Which was most likely to be never.

She was situated in the bridge, lurking in the corner and leaning on an unmanned control unit. Her arms were crossed and her face was evidently deep in thought, taking in Eberhard and Ulrike's brief conversation in the way that a sieve contains water. She wasn't focusing on it - it wasn't that she couldn't, it was just that nothing of true importance or different knowledge was being imparted. She did, however, note the almost-kiss with a clenched jaw. This was not the time for romance, came her initial thought, before it developed into the fact that this could indeed be the last time either of them saw each other. That... was exceedingly sad, and Renee did not like that thought. In that moment, she made a mental promise to herself that she would ensure that Eberhard survived at whatever cost.

Before Eberhard had finished his sentence, Renee had donned the serpent helmet and was already out of the bridge, on her way to the drop pod. As Mari spoke, Renee rolled her eyes under the mask. "I'm sure you have full access to our medical reports already, Mari," she hissed through the communication system, rounding the corner to the drop pod in her signature skulking, fox-like walk.

As the emergency lights exploded with colour, Renee reached to the location of her pistol at her hip instinctively, regardless of whether it was there or not. She listened to the voice of the comms, confusion initially flooded her mind - were they being set up, what was happening? Ulrike seemed to know, regardless. It took her a few moments to put two and two together - the MA Rep would be Mari, surely. Idiot, she thought to herself in French, her mouth curving into a scowl under the helmet.

Broken arm? Renee didn't like that. "Copperhead-" she emphasised "is here."
 

Uso

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"I am having to setup my workspace for the third time this week. It is really eating into my ME time..." Mari said in response to Zana, "So that, and saving the known universe from evil machinations... so the usual."

After a short pause, Mari's synthetic voice would come over the radio again.

"Copperhead?"

Followed by another long pause as that particular bit of information was processed.

"Is this team all going with snake themed names or did just the non-snake take the snake callsign?"

"žana, what is your callsign?"
 

Ray of Meep

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The drop pod's internal design was rather complex, but well lit. The team entered through double doors closer to the main engine, but they were expected to storm out from a hatch at the nose. Thus, the entire vessel was designed to be navigable both horizontally and vertically. Two rows of six crash couches each lined the walls on swivels, along with weapon racks and other storage units. A ladder with foldable steps lined one side of the ship like a spine. Clean geometric panels hid plumbing that ran from the engine to the powerful RCS thrusters at the nose.

As the Lancers floated up into their designated crash couches, Eberhard talked to someone on the comms. A sudden shudder of the entire drop pod could be felt immediately after, as it detached from its moorings on the Daheim. "The Grau Lancers are ready." He reported.

"The Daheim Zwei is ready." Ulrike came through the comms.

"The Persano is ready." A male Italian voice followed.

"Lazard Squad reporting. Let's get these salauds." A female French voice was the last to report. "Thirty minutes until contact. Shall we go over the overall strategy one more time, Cobalt?"

"Affirmative. The Familienauto (Name of the drop pod) will fly in parallel with the Daheim and the Persano towards the Giant. We will time our breach just as the Daheim and the Persano disable the Giant's main engine. Once we secure a beachhead, the Persano will force dock with the Giant and unload Lazard Squad. Questions on overall strategy?"

Another male voice came through after a moment of silence, this one a mix of European and Asian accents. "What's a beachhead?" Snickering could be heard on the other end.

"Wheelie, I'll take you down to Earth personally to visit a beach once this war is over." The female French voice responded.

Eberhard hid a smile under his faceplate, looking over at Beatrix. "Bee, how about you take over tactics this time?"
 

DUCATISLO

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žana looks at Mari and says "my callsign is snake...sounds easy"

later žana is happy and sad at the same time they are going to Earth with all the drama going on. but she is ready to face the challanges.
 

Uso

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Mari would begin the electronic attack in earnest, applying her best exploits and zero-days to try and get a foothold on the enemy ship.

Her spherical arm-drones would have followed the Lancers up and braced themselves by grabbing onto the bottoms of the crash couches.

Now all that was left was for her to wait and see what data came back. If she could get access to something she could get to work, otherwise direct access via drone would be her only approach.

...

"Bee? That really steps on the snake theme I thought you had going."
 

Acewing13

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"I predate the snake theme," Beatrix said as she had command thrust upon her at the last minute. "Alright, I'm in front and low to the ground, taking shots and blinding our foes with my shield. Žana is right behind me covering the sides, since she'll have the best flexibility to change to other sides of my shield. Mari, if your spherical drones could be ready to help check corners and other possible hiding spots, that'd be great. And Cobalt, same deal as Copperhead, but once we get in deeper, cover our rear."

"Our goal is the engines," she continued, pulling up the schematic of the Wayward Giant and tracing a path from their expected breach point and engineering. "We take those out, we'll be able to guarantee keeping them in system. After that, we assess the situation and see if the GDW marines need our help taking the bridge or not. Questions, comments, or concerns?" she asked, looking around the group.
 
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Poe

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Copperhead afforded Bee a nod, shifting her position slightly so that her stance was wider as she stared at the schematic. "What communication channels will be open?" she asked. Would there be talk with the marines, with the Dwaheim Zwei, any other ships?
 

Uso

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"You're wasting your expert on things that run on electricity on things that run on plumbing." Mari said, confident in her assessment of how computers and starship engines work respectively. "Though once we have engine control, we could jink the ship around to break some bones."

There was also a firefight coming up. Mari would reluctantly bring up her assistant program for some advice.
STARTING>>>> VRTRINKER
Loading....
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"It looks like you are about to be in a firefight. Would you like some help? (Y/N)"
 

Ray of Meep

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"We'll be talking to Daheim only until we've made the breach." Eberhard replied to Renee. "Brace yourselves. High-g burn in five. Four. Three. Two..."

As the small makeshift fleet sped along towards their prey, Mari would get internal communication logs back from the Wayward Giant. Civillian security seemed to be lacking, even with the barriers they put up, which was interesting in its own right; the code structure and methodologies were nothing like that of the Soyuz, AU, or the GDW. Perhaps it would've made a strong foundation, but these people clearly didn't know how to use it properly, making the whole framework unwieldy instead.

There were murmurs of worry and doubt, citing the military heat signatures they've picked up on their forward sensors. But there was also talks of betrayal, or rather, being betrayed. No other deeper intelligence could be found. Whatever core information was on that ship, it was locked in more secure databases and those meatbags' brains.

The fleet approached within five minutes of the vessel, now engaging in a deceleration burn, launching four drones in total to jam the Giant's communications on all sides, save for a small channel towards the fleet. It was now visible on the drop pod's higher fidelity external camera, a skyscraper in the black void, one side lit harshly by the Yasny star, the other covered in complete darkness.

"Uhh... Persano, this is Daheim Zwei, I'm detecting two dozen small drive signatures coming... 4 to 7 thousand kilos out from your sunward side? They have the profiles of rudimentary chemical rockets, blinking in and out. Did you or the rest of the Commonwealth fleet launch missiles?" Ulrike came through the comms in a perplexed tone.

"Negative, Daheim. They don't look like Soyuz..." The captain on the other side paused.

"... Fuck."

A tight beam pushed through the fleet's one open channel given, a panicked voice coming through the comms. "Mayday! Mayday! The Wayward Giant is being targeted by hostile missiles! Send aid immediately!" They clearly knew whatever was emitting the small heat signatures.

"They match the profiles of the stealth missiles that crippled the Fjord!" The captain continued and exclaimed, "Defensive positions immediately!" Both corvettes beared their PDC's, locking onto the heat signatures to the best of their abilities. However, they were well out of range, and the turrets had a hard time following. The precise range wasn't even discernable with confidence.

Eberhard frowned, "Looks like the mission's changed, Lancers."
 

Acewing13

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"Is there anything at the location where those missiles were fired?" Beatrix asked, pulling up a view of the battle. "Might just be me looking at the problem like I'm in a boarding pod, but I don't think we can do much about those missiles, right?"
 

Ray of Meep

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"Affirmative. Stay on task. We still need to apprehend those personnel." Ulrike replied in a somewhat distracted voice as she worked the Daheim into a more evasive configuration. There was a beep in the Lancers' helmets. "I just gave you comm links to the Giant. Coordinate from them here on out."
 

Uso

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"Yes," Mari said outloud, half paying attention to VRTRINKER as it started to explain how to conduct a firefight.


"Are you in immediate danger right now? (Y/N)"
...
"If you are being shot at you should run away from the shooter and zig-zag as much as possible."
...
"If you are unable to run, you should find sturdy objects to hide behind."
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...
...
"Yes, yes... don't get shot...." She thought out loud, her pad letting out a soft ping when it showed she had access to the ship's communication systems. Mari would lean forward in excitement... or at least she'd try to only to find that the acceleration was keeping her pushed down against her crash couch more than she was interested in leaning forward.

Space was exhausting.

She'd start passing the voice samples from the communication system through her deep-fake software, getting voice-masks ready for use and preparing her scripts along with a sound-board of sound effects.

"Selene Rosica, this is Wayward Giant Actual." Mari now sounded just like the ship's captain, her transmission also including a bit of the background sound from the ship's CIC taken from other voice communications inside of the Wayward Giant. "This ship is being targeted. Take you and yours down to the airlock nearest the drive section. Our secondary group will take you the rest of the way."

Mari would then aim her communications at the engine room of the Wayward Giant. "Engineering, this is Wayward Giant Actual. We've got a fire in the CIC." *FLAME_NOISES.WAV* "Looks like we have been betrayed. Engage fire suppression and drop internal pressure up here to 475 Milibars!"

Next target was the CIC itself. Mari's voice would now sound like the engineering crew, "SIR! We've got a situation down here. We need to evacuate the CIC and transfer controls over to the remote command consoles immediately or we're gonna lose the whole ship!"


TRANSFER COMMAND TO REMOTE TERMINAL (Y/N)?
Then there was the question of the incoming missiles, "Hey, VRTRINKER, how do missiles work anyways?" The virtual assistant would start to say things that were vaguely unhelpful as Mari considered what could be done. She would turn her attention to the Daheim Zwei.

"Hey, Captin, you gonna shoot those missiles down or do I have to get creative?"
 

Poe

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Renee silently slunk out of the room, heading to to join the crew that was manning the guns. As she entered the room, still equipped with her mask, she earned a few odd looks, but the majority of people seemed to be more concerned about the fight... and some orders that they had just received. Renee watched the chaos ensue for a few moments before turning to the officer closest to her. "What... the hell... is happening?" she all but hissed.
 

Ray of Meep

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The crew on the small bridge was only Ulrike and a holographic manifestation of the ship's AI, Blenda. Ulrike barely had the moment to glance at Renee as she stepped in, while Blenda calmly "watched" her enter, using the plethora of cameras in the room. The AI manifestation was dressed in simple but clean medieval peasant attire, a scarlet outer dress with a white collared, long-sleeved shirt underneath. She wore a snood on her hair, a hatchet on her belt. Overall, simple earthly colors for small, necessary distractions from stressful white and blue lights that flooded the monitors.

"Yes, Mari," Ulrike replied out loud, tapping away on the console interface, "We're going to shoot down those missiles, but getting creative wouldn't hurt." She took a pause to acknowledge Renee's presence. "Good to have you here, Copperhead, get on one of the consoles. Blenda will take care of you."

Blenda greeted Renee in a neutral, Scandinavian accent, speaking perfect French otherwise. "Hello Copperhead, Rhodium is looking for a firing solution on the hostile missiles as we speak. Estimated twenty to thirty minutes until contact. You will man the coilgun and handle the missiles, then take charge of the vessel if Rhodium becomes incapacitated."

"Don't fucking jynx it!" Ulrike scolded the AI, who simply "looked" back at her, then back to Renee.
 
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