• 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.

Day in the Life: Escape from the Heavenly State

Koyama had made for her room as soon as she had been able. The terrible stench and dress were discarded across the room. And as soon as the shower had grown steamy stepped inside. Afterward and a change into something fresh gave her a chance to answer.

'Yes, I'm here.' came the terse response, all while finishing whatever it was she had been doing on the other side of that virtual space. The screen in her room had been turned on, the news more or less at this point just describing the weekly forecast. And now seemed to be going about thoroughly combing her hair as she watched.

'Someone may as well keep an eye on the news while we're here.' having already volunteered herself.
 
"On it." Now in a secure building with beefy, physical servers, Wen could truly stretch his will onto the virtual space they all shared for communication. The reality around them widened to infinite grassland, blue skies dominating from above down to the horizon, snow covered silver mountains breaking it. Orkhon sheep, fluffy grey and white little dots, spread out across the vastness.

Wen himself manifested as his true bull form, a large, red maned figure, hulking with two small stubs above his temples for horns. He dressed himself in a relaxing yet formal Daqinren military uniform, standing under a tent, next to a table, an ancient cargo truck resting nearby. Setting a clay cup filled with tea down on the table, he picked up a newspaper.

In meatspace, meanwhile, Wen's body was mindlessly, automatically, nursing bruises in his own room, the bright red spot on his cheek covered with fake skin, purple splotches across his body, where crowds trampled all over him, treated with ointment.

"A bomb cutoff the electrical grid of Purple-Two commercial district from the rest of the city for an hour. The fire we left behind at the bar is already being linked to this attack, and the police are already looking for personnel with unauthorized bio-mods and suspect behavior." Wen snorted, shaking his head at the old fashioned newspaper. "Morons. They should've gave all of us a heads up, and we would've said no. It was too early and too little."
 
"They're enough for me to replace the top I lost." Jun replied as she poured out the tips on the bed to count them. She hadn't had a chance to really replace her lost top and had stolen one of those touristy-trap T-shirts with bad English on it from a Kiosk as the crowd escaped. It was a size too small and looked like it was made from the cheapest material possible with the words "BE DANCED OR DANCE" written on it. "... but not as much as I had thought. I think someone must've grabbed tips out of the jar when the chaos started... I sware I made more than this." She was comparing her pile of singles with the pile that Hoshiko had grabbed...

She would also turn on the news on the TV in their room, and then go inspect the shower.

"So what is the plan?" Jun asked, joining the others in virtual space, "Burn down more strip clubs? Destroy them with the power of blue balling the population?"
 
"Maybe," Hanyako replied to Touch-Cow-Now, pulling the bill-padding out of her own outfit to pool with hers. "But you could have spent just a bit more on your top. If someone spills water on you, you'll get a ticket for disturbing the peace for sure!" she pointed out.

"Well, it's simple, isn't it?" the princess paused in their virtuality, her lips drawing in her Nocky stick with a few half-muffled crunches. "We kill the humans," she pulled out another snack-stick. Straightening herself out, the Tigress sat with a bit more dignity befitting someone of her station. "Our Mother-Empress will be brought here, and we are in a prime position to sabotage the humans at a key, pivotal moment. More importantly," her Nocky stick pointed to a map of the system. "Our mercantile fleets are being harassed by the humans here, and the recent fighting between the Americans and the Magnetic Assembly left the SLE irradiated. We're not going to be able to go home." The mention of home brought thoughts of safety and comfort, but it was a lie. Going home was far more dangerous than staying put. "So, we should pick a few juicy targets and hit them where it hurts! Naturally, I am willing to consider any suggestions."
 
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"The science division always talked about following the curves." Wen set down the newspaper, tracing out a horizontal path that curved downwards at chest height in front of the three women. "Not like that." He interjected his own train of thought with a flat tone. "Height advantage is supreme. Orbital supremacy will allow the fleet to do anything to these people." Wen picked up a rock covered with soft dirt from the ground, letting it fall onto the table, roll and bounce over the newspaper, making cuts and dents into it. "We can level their skyscrapers, burst their water lines, shatter their solar panels, all while simply pressing buttons, and no amount of Shen Zhou, patriotic resolve will save them from oblivion. Their only option then is to surrender."

He picked up the rock again, raising it to the height of his neck. "The trick is getting our fleet to that point. There's a lot we can do on the ground. Destroy their launch pads. Cut their fuel lines. Find where their anti-orbital defenses are. We can also get spaceborne and go find corvettes to destroy while they're still docked, but it's a lot riskier; we lose a lot of our stealth up there in our ships."
 
"I didn't get much time to pick it out," Jun replied, only half keeping an eye on the news. There didn't seem to be anything about the night club fire? Lots of talk abut the Daqin mobilizing. Something about cleaning up the mess on the Shen Zhou SLE?

"How are we going to get our fleet here anyways? It was a long enough trip on civilian lines. Are we stuck waiting for months? Years? Can't we just... blow up their military somehow?"
 
Koyama leaned forward, while part of her had remained in the space for meat sacks, and the other in the virtual reality pocket her eyes widened in both places. Even tossing the virtual and real towel. Its non-physical counterpart smacking into Hoshiko. At least here it didn't smell like whatever the hell passed for cleaning products in the hotel. It was more pleasant in the very least.

'Shhhhhhh!' hissing with a series of flicks of the tiger form's black striped tail in clear agitation and surprise. Having called for silence, her virtual form pulled a large television into view for all to see.

Her ears were flat as she began the upload into their digital realm. The TV flickered to life what played was a clip of the news. It played over, and over again. The now tiger-formed princess waited expectantly then sighed.

'Enough of science and killing the humans in strip clubs for a moment.' admonishing the three. Then the clip's end changed, showing more.

'The group of ships our Imperial-Mother was being imprisoned on has been diverted to...' her voice going low, and into a rumbling growl, 'Earth.'

'The merchant flotilla in Sol tried to intercept them, and thus they go to the cradle of humanity.' her flicks of the tail became more like lashings until with a deep breath she sat with arms crossed and cheeks reddened. If it had been planned by her mother ahead of time, the woman was in another league, but if it was mere happenstance it left her wondering.
 
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"I bet there's all sorts of little sabotage going on all over from those Daqin," the stripper replied to Jun, tossing herself onto her bed. "Stupid, sexy gene freaks," she stared into the ceiling.

"Very true, there's lots of juicy targets for us to hit," the princess acknowledged the bull. "As for how long we have to wait," she answered Jun, "It'll likely be months at worst. There's time needed to muster for the assault, but we're faster than the humans. Always have been. And given the fact we're next-door to each other? We might even get lucky and intercept Mother-Empress on her way here," Hoshiko remarked, an eager fire lit in her eyes. However, she bristled at Koyama's words. At first, she was a little irate at the other princess, the tip of her feline tail twitching with annoyance. But soon enough, her eyes widened as she leaped up onto her feet to view the television screen. "This...this changes everything!" she realized the sheer scale of the change dawning on her. Horror at the thought that she wasn't coming here made itself clear on Hoshiko's face, but something clicked and she smiled. "Mother-Empress is brilliant," the princess realized. "We're going to be heading straight to Earth and fight there. Right where it all began!"
 
Koyama's gaze had marked the twitch of Hoshiko's tail, the princess only giving her an expressionless look. And even as the other Daqin woman felt things click into place she nodded.

'I am glad you caught on as well.' she crossed one leg over the other. The tip of her tail swayed lazily. She was pleased. 'She had made the first move by allowing herself to be taken.' her virtual avatar holding up a curled fist, her index finger unfurling as she said this.

'Then the ship she was imprisoned on and its escorts were attacked by the merchant flotilla. All but herding them toward that cesspit. But it leaves me wondering,' her voice going quiet.

'Earth would be fairly well defended, the AU alone could prove difficult if they decide to jump in. Then whatever human nations on that hell world may contribute. Or...' with a brief pause, Koyama brought a hand up, cradling the fist against her chin, her thumb at the edge of her bottom lip.

'I would suspect there may be elements on Earth that would stir up trouble should we invade. Perhaps on our side.' the television continued its broadcast as she spoke on. 'Divert to Earth, a heavily defended world, the world that humans spawned from? I would bet my life she has something prepared there as well.' she rubbed at her face then.

'This is why I hate losing at games with her whenever I managed to get our Imperial-Mother to play something. She always found a way to win. In some manner, I could never anticipate' and how it grated on her whenever it happened. Even a simple discussion. Adopting a frown, Koyama looked to Hoshiko, 'The fleet would need months at most to prepare for an assault on Sol. Let alone our ground forces. We need to find a way off this rock and warn them and prepare them if they haven't already found out about this. It'll speed things along with their having this information.' she had undergone some of the simulations of attacking Mars, but Earth was a different matter.

'If we have to buy our way off this spinning dirtball, I have cash on hand although I'm not sure if it would be enough now that the humans are fleeing as it might have driven prices up,' and after a brief pause, 'That was not stuck down a bra or panties. However hot they were.' in truth she had earned it through quick investments and trading in the local markets. It made her feel like a Rooster, with the all feathers and pretty faces and pheromones. Koyama was very much a person with a princess mentality and it showed. The former dragon had fallen far, but still maintained that level of bitchiness, no-nonsense attitude, and liberal use of viciousness and violence. In other words, she was still of a sheltered upbringing.
 
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"It does change quite a bit." Wen snorted, the billowed air ruffling the newspaper in front of him slightly, betraying his excitement. He rummaged through the pages, headlines from a variety of news sources in a dozen languages popping up, anything that discussed this diversion to Earth. "Mother-Empress' plan is already working, there's so many more eyes on her trial now. They can't just put up a show trial and gun her down now. She bought us time." He paced around the tent, finally ending up behind the television, one arm resting on its frame. "Oh, Earth, I've always wanted to visit. Virtual space is nice," He waved his free hand across the simulated grasslands, "But I always wanted to see Mongolia in person and eat mutton kabobs in meatspace."

A hawk flew down and fluttered onto Wen's arm from seemingly nowhere. He drew a rolled up message from his pocket, tying it to his avian companion, then let it fly off in the direction it came from. "I just informed the rest of my crew." He walked back to the table, a hand summoning a map, unraveling it, showing a map of the Shen Zhou system. "The good news is we've got a few months, maybe even a year, before anything happens to Mother-Empress. The bad news is that it's unlikely the fleet will be coming to Shen Zhou now, which means we need to find our own way out of the system. It won't be easy; the SLE around Hahana's still fucked and teeming with Republicans. The two mobile SLE's are similarly guarded." He explained, his starry-eyed, imagining tone turning cold and militaristic in an instant. "That, or we stay and do damage."
 
"So we have to go to earth?" Jun asked, her avatar just sorta floating in a T-pose as she spoke. "Can we even make it there from here? DO we just take over their government and declare ourselves liberators? ... I guess if we pull it off we'll be famous... would be great for your career Hoshiko!" Jun perhaps wasn't the most subtle about it with her suggestions, as 'save the empress' quickly turned to Jun's exciting side project of 'revive Hoshiko's reputation!'

"Yeah... so terrible..." Jun said verbally, now wondering if they were being listened too in meat space.

And if they had cameras in the shower.

She had forgotten just how careful they had to be for a moment. "Are you getting hungry? I should find a better shirt and there was that food-stand just down the street."
 
"I guess it couldn't hurt?" Huāzǐ offered, rolling about in bed. "What's the rating though? A few stars at least?" she asked, curious at Juniper's choice of food. Her comfort was practically luxurious in comparison to Wen's though, his various wounds stinging from the whole affair. Transhuman Daqin or not, an injury was still an injury, but gazing out of the window, he saw an unmistakable face. Hoshiko's.

"Remember, they are likely among us! Report any strange activity to the authorities immediately!" the floating neon billboard blared, her face changing to another and another Daqinren before Koyama too came and went.

"You hear? They're planning to protest! The doves are throwing a fit!" Koyama's ears perked, panicked footsteps passing by her door.

"Amazing," Hoshiko sighed, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "She always liked flying circles around people, and Mother is likely so many moves ahead she's doing this half-serious and a bit amused," the Tigress sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. "Earth might be defended, but with this, Mǔhòu has decisively cut their forces apart. More than just half even." With a wave of a hand, she poured out a fraction of the cosmos from her sleeve, a bright sun and its surrounding planets coming into view on the table for them all. The view was serene, but their eyes could see far more than any human's could. Orbital magnetic accelerator cannons, battle and refit stations, and fleet after fleet of human ships dotted the system and more. "And we're right here," she poked at one of the planets in Shen Zhou System. "Meanwhile," the celestial bodies that humanity had known for eons poured out of the other sleeve, "Our own forces now have to contend with this," she jabbed at Sol. The cradle of humanity was dotted with formidable forces as well, but with a snap of her fingers, they were divided into red and yellow. "Only a tiny fraction of humanity is against us from the start. Play our cards right, and they'll stay out of this!" the princess clenched her fist, feline tail held high as its tip twitched in excitement.

"But yes...." she deflated, shoulders slumping. "We have to go to earth." Glancing at Wen, she asked, "What ship and crew do you have at your disposal? Are you from the Dàqín Dìguó or the Shāng Chuán Duì?" she asked, referring to the Imperial Military and the Merchant Marine accordingly. "And as for you," Hoshiko's eyes turned to Jun, lightning blue flashing across her gaze. "Are you even taking this seriously?" she stomped on over. "I bet you didn't even do your physics model!" the princess began to viciously slap the cow's udders.
 
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Koyama's physical body had been casually flipping through channels, mostly news reports, financials, even taking a moment to delight at their 'anime' as it was called. Of course those like her species were usually the bad guys. Even so, it was humorous in its way.

But that simulacrum in VR couldn't help but laugh, her vocal range shifting to somewhere high but still somehow managing depth in that regal courtly manner. Laughing harder as Hoshiko began smacking the Cow-form woman's chest experimentally but she had taken in the map of known space at a glance. With all of this, her humanized ears in meatspace perked, head cocking and honeyed brown eyes looking to the door.

"The Empire was founded around two hundred years ago. Plenty of time to prepare with care to cast down one of the more vocal opponents. Even before, our honored predecessors took their time with the Termination. Our Mother is no slouch and never has been. She will have been meticulous." she muttered the last with a narrowcast of her golden eyes. They were alike and unlike her mother's. More metallic. And shined in the lighting of the virtual space.

"I believe I have an idea of what she has pla-" the princess began smugly and came to a full stop. Her avatar shot to its feet. With a twitch of a finger, the interior of her meatyspace room became visible. What she was seeing in the real world at the least. And it was fixated on the door. Her room had been dark, the lights dimmed. It was a nice room. Not too luxurious, not too spartan or cheap. Something someone of some modest means might afford for a night or two.

And the voices that she had heard replayed for them all. Turning back to the udder smacking Tigress, the Bull, and the Cow, her lips curled.

"And it seems opportunity has knocked." stating with a pause, "Like you are knocking the cow's knockers." the blackened tail swaying lazily as her gaze took on a decidedly cruel look. "We should take advantage of this human protest in some manner. Political leverage is a fine thing to flex and gain. Especially with the younger more sympathetic and educated demographic."
 
"We can't be at two places at once, not if we're going interplanetary, then interstellar," Wen countered Koyama at the table in front of the four of them. "If we want to kick some hawks out of the local Congress and delay fleet movements, we could do that. If we wanted to leave right now and coordinate an SLE hijack, we can also do that, but we can't do both. Having two brains to work with is great, but we're heavily outnumbered here, even if we unite all the covert Daqinren in the system. Speaking of which..."

Wen turned to Hoshiko, "I'm part of the Shang Chuan Dui, Lady Hoshiko. The Wang Shu is a corvette refitted for electronic warfare and covert communications, and I have three men and women under my command. We've got barely enough firepower to shoot down a few missiles our way, but good enough engines to outrun any ship that tries to chase after us, unless the humans kill themselves."
 
Jun's VR body was rather noisily slapped around, but kept snapping back to the original position as the physics model provided by Hoshiko and the lack of a physics model provided by Jun started to clash. "The cart was like... a high 3 out of 5 which might be the best we can get now. No way I want to scan in your face on a dinner reservation and..." Jun frowned.

"STOP SLAPPING MY TITS!" She said in VR, "If anything YOU are the one not taking all this seriously. You act like your next in line for the throne while everyone else is wondering what you've done lately if they even think about you at all! Come up with some grand plan already!"

"... Did you want the chicken noodles or the beef?"
 
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"Me? Next on the throne? Are? You?! MAD?!?!" Hoshiko slapped the t-posing cow's udders at each outraged word for emphasis. Taking in a deep breath as the huge breasts wildly gyrated from Jun's lack of attention to physics, the tiger princess rubbed her temples for a moment to recollect her thoughts. Nevermind the absurd noises that the cow was making. "I think there could be a way to put all this to our advantage," Hoshiko began .Her feline tail held high, its tip twitched every so often. "We have the personnel we need already and even a ship thanks to Wen, but in order to get to Earth, we need a Super Luminal Engine. And right now, there's only one in the system since mother preferred to flaunt our bribery of the Americans that held it right in the Republicans' faces. But, even if we did, those machine-worshippers from the 'Magnetic Assembly' irradiated it." Pulling up the mega-city in miniature, Hoshiko sunk her claws into it and began dismantling the whole thing like a giant monster come from beneath the waves, tossing aside virtual pieces until she found what she needed.

"I believe this cleanup firm here specializes in hazardous cleanup. The protests are the perfect cover for appropriating their equipment," she nodded to the dragon princess. "And with it, we just need to render it operational enough to make our jump. Whether or not the rest of the Shang Chuan Dui join would just be a bonus!" Hoshiko waited for their words.

"Beef. Stir fried over the fire," totally-not-Hoshiko replied from the bed.
 
Wen raised an eyebrow at the tit-for-tat on going between Hoshiko and Jun in front of him, but stayed silent on the matter otherwise. Instead, he concentrated his mind elsewhere. The tent on the Mongolian plains setting was cute and relaxing for a while, but now they needed better tools than just a map on a table. As he slipped his tea, the entire world around them changed. Away with the infinite skies and grassland, in exchange came the infinite void, a planetarium that surrounded them, mapping out the entire Shen Zhou system, with all the celestial bodies, manmade installations and spacecraft whizzing about in conical curves in real time. It was truly grandiose, if Wen hadn't been looking at same map multiple times a day for the past few years. He knit his eyebrows, his meatspace body shuddering at the idea of having to be trapped in a metal bottle again, but duty was duty.

"Lady Hoshiko, if I may." The four stood next to a small, desert planet, Wu Zetian. Wen walked outward, toward the edge of the planetarium, but never fully approaching it, passing by the terrestrial planets' orbits within seconds, faster than life on the real scale, before stopping at a large, bluish purple ice giant. Suddenly, to Wen's will, the entire star system moved and warped, now the three Daqin centered on the ice giant, Nurhaci, alone, with Wen standing next to an unremarkable, silvery rock, Hahanna. Around the moon was scattered tens of thousands of yellow pings, radiation debris warnings. A hundred purple dots orbited through the debris field as a cohesive constellation, the SLE array. The same purple dots also showed up on the surface of the moon: the central command center of this SLE. Further out from the moon, well away from the debris field, in high orbit, were a dozen red dots: Republic Space Command (RSC) corvettes and a single command cruiser. Hundreds of orange dots were scattered amongst the debris: support vessels rotating in and out, satellites, drones. Around all of them, there were even more dots swirling in the Nurhaci system: more moons, satellites, gas refineries, military vessels, transport ships, etc.

"We don't want to clean up the debris. We want it to stay. We just need to keep the SLE online long enough to get as many of us out of the system as possible to join the fight." Wen advised. "Our ships and EVA suits should keep the radiation at bay for long enough; any extra poisoning, I'm sure the fleet will have advanced medbays when you get to Sol. I can rally a squad to take control of the command center; it should be lightly guarded, with all the radiation and debris bombarding it. Then, the rest of you, whoever decides to join anyways, can leave while we hold out to keep the squeeze up."
 
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Koyama nodded.," A screen?" she questioned the man while her eyes fixated on the dots and what they each represented. Not taking her eyes off the in-system map, she paced around it to stand beside the female Ox.

"This has covert possibility, look at the rotations. A barrier as much as cover with all of this?" reaching out, Koyama prodded at Jun's chest, which now swayed with a realistic physics model, and then to the various dots. With a small, if an imperious wave of her hand, plot points began to form. Weaving about the various obstacles. There was a method to her madness. The timing between patrols, satellite, ship and drone cover, and rotations. There was hesitation at the radiation pockets then more little connector dots began to form around those with a few warning spots here or there of increased detection. She had been making plot points for insertion and extraction.

With a nod, a small list of medical solutions came up to help keep the radiation at bay, or rather lessen its intensity. "I will be going to Earth. Can we appropriate some of that equipment, suits, medical kit, anything that may provide an advantage for those that may try his, " nodding to the male Daqin, "Plan?" all while looking to Hoshiko, then back to Wen. "Even if it is human manufactured, surely there is something that could be of use? The sooner we're fighting fit the better once we rally with the fleet."
 
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Jun would head outside, on the look out for a better shirt and something warm to eat. The T-pose of her body in virtual space would come to an end as she started to focus there as a way to avoid having to think about all the grubby humans around her.

"What do we do when we get to earth?" Jun asked, "Don't they have just as many ships there as they do here? Can't we like... capture some politician? Or Indigo League to make us diplomats so we have diplomatic immunity and can't be touched?" Jun certainly had an idea of Strategy... but it was one formed by comic books and Magical Girl Ayame. Her tactical classes only covered what a geologist needed to know. She DID know a lot about the locals though, and was eager to try human beef.

Jun in VR frowned.

"Hey, this stand's beef is all lab grown..."
 
Wen nodded to Koyama's comment of the debris field. "We have to hand it to the machine cultists. They did a thorough job polluting the area. Look." Koyama would see the active vessels in the cloud blinking in and out, their presence fading, then reappearing again. "These are ships and drones trying to boost their signal and project their position, and they're still having a hard time with all the radiation noise all around. If we can get inside, the Republicans will have a hard time finding us. If."

"It's still a couple of weeks from here to the SLE if we burn hard. Time isn't on our side. The less we spend on this planet causing trouble, the higher chance we have of making it." Wen turned to Hoshiko. "But I'll leave it up to the leading princess to decide."
 
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