Twentysixth Light

[curse_u_reflexes]

1.

[With the crisis at the DSSD labs thoroughly averted now, Julia's been sitting around, occasionally helping herself to the giant pizza she had made partly for a victory celebration and partly for the fact, well, Irgelion metabolism.]

It's over.  Phillips, Valentine, even Bairoft... they're all gone.

[And between everything that's just happened along with that, two of the big threats the Chalice faced were disposed of and another really big one was bound to be finished off soon enough.  No better time, really to do that...]

2.




Everyone, I just want to say... thanks.  Through thick and thin we've all been able to scrape by and even when things have looked ugly we've managed to find some way to win.  Or at least not lose.

I say this because I think I've made up my mind, and I'm going to take a leave of absence.  The deep space exploration project's finally been realized, and I'm going to stick around for a while.  Do security work maybe, but also maybe even have a chance to take a little trip to my first home.  I was only a little girl when my family left Irgel, and I want to see what it's become.

⌨ four

[tookthepill]

[ 1 ]

Guys... I'm sorry. That mobile doll computer thing is confusing, even for us. [ And coming from him, that's saying a lot. He looks frustrated. He also has bags under his eyes, and there's a wastebasket full of empty soda cans near his personal set-up in the lounge. ]

I tried to take a look at it earlier, but... well, let's just say there's worse things than firewalls and antivirus software. Allie can handle firewalls like these given enough time, but... I think they just made this as confusing, clunky, and un-user-friendly as possible. It's so simple of a security measure, but it's brilliant!

[ He groans, and presses the heels of his wrists into his eyes, underneath his glasses. ]

I wanted to try to help you guys have an easier time with the software, but... well, I don't think there's a whole lot we can do. I guess we'll just have to get used to it?

[ 2 ]


[ THIRTEEN HOURS LATER after sleeping for THAT long, he can be found in the lounge. He's tapping a few buttons on the touchscreen of his tablet, when he comes across... a password protected file. He can't get into it. ]

What's this?

Muh Astray

[space_macgyver]

[What an awesome way to start a day! Lowe walks around the hangar in a cheerful step, happy that another group of bad guys is gone and his friends returned more-or-less safe and sound. There wasn't even a lot of combat damage, and in fact they brought more toys for him to play with!

And then he notices the bisected 0 Custom.]


Nooo! My baby, who did this to you?!

A Leader's Deeds

[sonofgucun]

1)

The Mobile Doll system is in our hands. New information from the state... this day will be... interesting...

[A way to deal with the Festum, possibly other Alien menaces that may have similar abilities. Cheng approves without a doubt. And to add to this he's looking at some schematics to boot - one that is awaiting his perusal and approval for production.]

The Mengde Cruiser... hm... an ambitious name.

[With the Federation looking to replace their old junk with new ship designs, the out of date Salamis had to go somewhere. This design was... to put it bluntly, what happens when you weld two Salamis together by their top halves and relocate the bridge. The 'mated' ships were refitted with several internal sections redesigned... but overall the structure of the ships remained the same. Large amounts of projectile and missile weaponry was in use in the design - though there was an alternate lay out that mounted at least three beam cannons.]

[Hangar space for a squad of up to eight Combat Frames/Prominence Armors...]

[Gucun didn't have a dedicated space force yet unlike the Federation and the Divine Crusaders. This design would be a good step so they wouldn't need to Piggy-back on allies or use outdated designs.]

[Cheng shook his head at some of the other redesigns of aged ships... this was the only promising one really. A shame.]


2)

[It seems that a number of the surviving Thaumata Pilots that had survived the battle at the DSSD station have went missing. The man responsible? None other than the Chairman General of Gucun - Hua Cheng Kwan himself. It would seem that he has recruited them and had those willing to work with him split into three groups - one to return to the State along with a few members of his Original Bodyguard detatchment, another to a small group of Gucun troops posted in space to help them in training in an unfamiliar environment... and the last and least numerous to take up rank for the casualties from the Giga-Float a long while back - There was little time to get additional replacements from Gucun after all...]

... I assume you have words for me?

[Cheng looks... stern to say the least. He figures that the moment someone found out about this questionable, if not... reprehensible action - they'd chew him out. But either way he's going to explain his reasons and stay firm on his decision.]

[014]

[better_than_aliens]

1) Wow, um... y'know, I hate to say this so soon after Julia said this, buuuut... I'm going to be leaving the ship, too. I-It's not what you think - Lowe isn't going to kill me over my Astray, really! Just, well... Julia's leaving and, well... I wanna see what's out there, too. See just how much her dream's gotten her.

So, when she comes back, I'll be back right with her! And hopefully, things'll be much better!

2) [After revealing she's leaving the Chalice temporarily, Christine's busy looking over her ravaged Zero Astray. She can't help but letting out a small sigh.]

...I wonder if things could have been a bit different with Valentine and Victor. Victor was so dead set on trying to bring me back and Valentine... geh... no, I think she's a lost cause...

Tank Goodness!

[girlfriend_dot_exe]

 [There's a little dancing chibi Alice on the bottom of various computer terminals today. She's holding a sign, labeled "click here for tanks!". And if you click on it, a bunch of schematics pop up for a tank. It's based off one of the tanks everyone..."aquired" during the mission at the Tritech Labs. And it's one hell of a tank, too, incorporating a minovsky generator, a phase shift armor system, pulse lasers for point defence, a nasty main railgun, and...what looks an awful lot like a VTOL system. And that's just on a first glance!]

Well? Do you like it? I'm going to try to get the engineers to spare some time on it. It's model name is IDS T-X1, but I think it needs a common name as well...

[How The Star Captain Got His Groove Back: Part The Third]

[hominilupusinexilio]

[1/network]

These 'mobile dolls' reduce battle to a...a game! [The irony is lost on him.] We cannot accept it on board the Chalice. It is the strength of our convictions as Warriors that has carried us so far, our willingness to offer our lives for the ideals we believe in.

[2/action]

When they touch down, Resnick's gone to visit one of the domepoli. He's found a shabby looking tattoo parlor, a rarity in the days of the Railway Patrol, when it was unaffordable and climactic shielding was nonexistent. A number of them have popped up though, servicing grizzled Siberians and clanners alike.

When it's his turn, he has the tattoo artist chisel a design of a wolf carrying a basket with a human child in it, leaping the 'fence' of one of the green lines of his EI tattoos. The needle whirs and hums and he does not want to admit how painful this is. The EI tats were much more extensive but the needle much finer.

[3/action]

On return to the Chalice, he's removed his jacket and shirt, both to show off the design and let it dry. Of course that also makes the geometric green lines that cover his torso and arms, the Enhanced Imaging system, visible.