[story] Saber Chase

[Dartz]

And another one. Right before the meeting with Sylia Stingray.

I can still fit that scene on Hephaestus in after that.... Wire Geek can confirm what Ben said. Both spaceframes are almost entirely ruined beyond recovery.

And while Mel may be only 6 years old. She's been through a hard-working 6 years.

Oh... and because I completely forgot about during the last post. IF A.C.'s interested in an anti-tank pistol, she can have the third 'Caster Gun' replica. Jet would offer it to her.

----

The SC Melchizedek was well used. That was the best way for Maico to describe the Shuttle. It wore the patina of years of launches, of near-constant use, of both battle and the occasional race. Her chair on the mid-deck rattled when she rocked in it. The memory foam had lost it’s plushness. Switches had been polished to a bright plastic sheen by hundreds of fingers.The lights buzzed, and paint had been worn off many of the handholds.

It was completely different to the cosseted, polished and meticulously maintained ships of the Artemis foundation. Melchizedek clearly worked hard for her supper.

Maico busied herself with her messages.

“Alright Maico. For custom computers, the most obvious source would be Prometheus Forge. Saber Pink’s hardware is right up their alley, especially with thatsensor array. I’ve been doing some quick back of the envelope maths here, and she can easily dissipate a kilowatt of heat out those ducts, and probably a lot more. Stengovich is right, that’s enough for server-grade hardware. Not-cheap server hardware. She’s got a lot of computing and radio power in that suit.

But, she’s also fitted with a Mass Effect drive. The field and movement are unmistakeable. The Mass Effect drive is Catgirl Industries, however. They’re the only place in Fenspace that does them that effectively.

It’s an outside possibility that they’re all being assembled there, still. Saber Green’s monowire may be. Though I dug up a bulletin about Whistler recovering a tangle of the stuff from the wreck of a Zwilnik ship, and auctioning it off to an anonymous bidder.

I can’t prove any of it, but this all makes sense.“

“Of course, Ryan. I’ve managed to hitch myself a lift out to Jenga, and after that I think I’ll check up Hephaestus for armour sales. Maybe I can ask him if he’s selling a lot of blanks to the Forge? How can I approach this in a way that doesn’t run into the ‘“we don’t give out customer details?

I’d be satisfied with just confirming a link between these suppliers and the Sabers, even if they don’t say who they’re supplying them parts to. Because if I can get a circle of suppliers, I can get to who’s in the centre.”

“Well here’s one you’re going to like. Guess who’s a good friend of one of CGI’s founders? None other than our friend Jet. It’s another link,”

“You sound certain she’s behind this?”

“Let’s just say, I’ve been watching the odds on her at Stellvia’s Casino.”

“I might have to see about putting Frigga and the Forge on my travel itinerary, After Wire Geek at Hephaestus, and getting home to get some easy ones in to shore up my finances. My bank account is running low. Lower.”

In the shuttles cabin, she yawned.

The teenaged avatar glowered at her. “You can’t be bored,” said Melchizedek.

“Hey Mel, We’ll be docking soon,” the shuttle’s Captain called down from flight deck. “Sign off the radio or you’ll overload their sensors.”

“Awww....”

“Just do it!”

The girl murmured dark things as she drew the sound-proof curtains around her radio set, walling herself in a void of silence.

“Jenga control, this is Melchizedek. Entering final approach,”

Maico gathered her things, powering down her hardware. She felt the shuttle slow, followed a the strange tingling sensation washing over her. It was like driving in a car that had entered a tunnel, with her eyes closed. The captain was coordinating things with the radio, while Mel herself was still behind the veil of silence.

A servo-whine from beneath her warned of the landing gear extending. Three bumps, and a jerk told her the shuttle had landed, and come to a stop. She could hear a distant fizzing as air was pumped into the hangar.

The Captain, know to her as Jake, dropped to the deck behind her

“Alright everyone. Another successful delivery,”

“Thank you, Captain,”said Maico, fidgetting with her seatbelt straps. She was already to her feat when the hatch popped open.

“No problem.” He closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath. ““Maico.” he began, in a grave voice “If you’re interested in a story, Mel’s being decommissioned in two weeks. She’s the first OV-200 to reach her fatigue limits. Her spars and framing have cracked and warped beyond repair.”

She looked at Mel. The shuttles avatar gave her the saddest look, eyes sunken into her face with an almost terminal despair. A faint smile crept across her face. “They say the brightest stars burn for the shortest time,” Mel said, softly.

“I’ll be there,” Maico promised. “Forward the details to me,” It was a good banking story. Guaranteed money. Guaranteed rent. Guaranteed meals. An idea struck her “Where is the decommissioning?””

“Hephaestus,” Jake told her.

She felt her own eyes light up. This was perfect.

“Do you mind if take a ride?”

The Captain gave her a soft smile. “It would be our pleasure to have you along for Mel’s final ride,”

“Thanks,”

The hatch popped open, a change in pressure slapping Maico’s eardrums. A pair of blocky drones buzzed in afterwards.... rapidly inspecting the interior of the craft.

“Mel, open the main doors,”

The girl closed her eyes. With a jolt, a whine and a squeak from oil-starved hinges, the doors started to move. “Done,”

Maico made her goodbyes and left the shuttle, taking a moment to look back at the dusty spacecraft. Little drones swarmed like fat lazy bumblebees across the cargo bay, rapidly denuding it of its contents. Catgirls of various kinds oversaw the process.... or argued over the spoils.

“Maico!” on of the catgirls waved for her attention. A big red tabby.

“Cathy, I presume,” she said, offering a slight bow.

“Yes. I’ve prepared a conference room where we can talk in private. Please don’t provoke the exocomps, they are already doing enough nonsense.”

“But of course.” She felt herself giggle. A few of the little drones stopped and regarded her sightlessly, before moving on.

Cathy lead her through a labyrinth of corridors and airlocks, passing busy workships sealed lab doors. Maico could see Catgirls and drones everywhere, some of them working busily, others just relaxing. Maico saw glimpses of hardware she couldn’t hope to comprehend.

“Just in here,” said the tabby, pushing open an apparently anonymous hatch. It pushed open easily enough.

The conference room was little more than some of the local special tail-friendly chairs, arranged around a table with a holo projector on it.

“Please sit down. What can Catgirl Industries do for you?”

Maico did. The seat back flexed a little oddly as she settled into it. “I was hoping to speak to you about some of the hardware the Knight Sabers use, but first, could you tell me about Jet Jaguar?”

Cathy’s eyebrows rose, her ears perking up. She’d been taken aback by that.

“I’ve known her for years.” Cathy smiled, radiating a friendly warmth, “It was a mission with her panzerkunstler that would lead to the beginning of Catgirl Industries. She has been a good friend of ours, and helped us with a few research projects,”

“Oh? She does research?”

“No, no,” Cathy shook her head, “A few years ago, we were researching the abilities of the panzerkunstler, hoping to capture and copy the effect. Jet performed demonstrations for our instruments.” she chuckled awkwardly, “We could never figure out how it worked. We gave up and called it a wave effect.”

“So she was the subject?”

“Yes,”confirmed Cathy.

“So. How would you rate Jet’s own technical ability?”

“I think she would be as capable as any fen,” Cathy answered, just a little too quickly. “Her and Ford together especially. They exhibited two gravity-rotor powered helicopters at the last convention. Neither of them are mads. Jet...” she thought for a second... “If it makes sense, I think she is more of an engineer than a mad. She is a gearhead with her hobbies, and so is Ford.”

“It does,” Maico noded. “Are you familiar with the Knight Sabers?”

“A little,” Cathy answered, cautiously. “If you are going to ask me could Jet make their hardware I would say she could not do it by herself.”

The small fanged smile creeping across the catgirls lips didn’t escape Maico’s notice.

“I have a video I’d like you to watch,”

She sent it over the local network to the holographic terminal. Cathy booted it up. From Maico’s perspective, the display had gone opaque, but she could see Cathy’s reactions to what she was watching. She could pick out the exact moment Saber Green had brought those monowire ribbons into play. Cathy winced back in her seat and cringed.

Her lips pursed together. “You might have warned me,”

“Sorry. I need you to pay special attention to the Pink Saber,”

Cathy’s eyes almost seemed to zoom in. “She is using a Mass Effect field,”

“Yes. As the source of Mass Effect technology in Fenspace, I was hoping you might be able to tell he a little about it,”

Cathy scratched at her nose, mulling it over. “It’s a well known technology, we are not the only ones using it anymore. Remember the anniversary party?.”

“But of course. This would be consistent with a second generation Mass Effect core?”

"Most likely a custom build system, controlled by a high powered computer. Normal Mass Effect systems are spherical drive fields and shields... you need multiple small cores carefully arranged to get something like this. There’s nowhere on the suit to mount them.”

“Would it be possible with the latest generation?” probed Maico.

Cathy’s eyes locked with hers for a moment. The edges of her lips curled up into a small smirk. “Yes, might be. The latest cores are more flexible in their application, still we mostly use them for spherical or ellipsoid fields.”

“But would it be possible?”

“With a single core, yes. But a few small support cores would still help.”

“Do you design systems capable of this? Do you fill custom orders?”

“We do,” Cathy confirmed. “Still, we don’t have much experience with power armor. Most of us also have their own personal pet projects, most of which I don’t find out about until after they explode.” There was a mild hint of irritation in her voice.

“So, it’s possible someone here could’ve supplied the Knight Sabers,”

“I won’t deny it,” said Cathy. “Because I can’t prove nobody did. Not without violating everyone;s privacy. We have hundreds of catgirls here, I cannot know everything going on.”

Maico felt herself sigh.

“Have you done any trading with Jet Jaguar, then?”

“77 Frigga is one of our bigger customers,” Cathy beamed, a little prideful, “They use a large swarm of exocomps for general maintenance. And we have an Exocomp racing track there.”

“I assume they often order spare parts for maintenance, “ said Maico.

“Its the right thing to do.” Cathy said, wearing a friendly smile. “It was nice by Jet to give us some space there for racing.”

“Do you think the components could’ve been hidden in a shipment of spare parts?”

Cathy’s eyebrow rose. “Why should they be hidden? If its a private project, any catgirl could have carried the components there by herself. As easily as anywhere else in the solar system.”

Maico had to shift her mental gears a little. This racetrack was new.

“So. Can you tell me, are there any regular races on Frigga?”

“Most of us have been there. At some stage or another.”

Damn. Maico tried to hide the disappointment biting in the pit of her stomach. But, it was a confirmation of a friendship with Jet Jaguar. Now, try another angle. A little bit of a gamble.

“One last one. Do you trade with Prometheus Forge?”

“A little. But we compete in other areas. Why? Do you want a list of everyone we have sold Mass Effect systems to?”

Cathy was getting just a little annoyed. Her whiskers twitched out her irritation while her ears locked forward.

“I have reason to believe Saber Pink’s suit may have been built there.”

Nothing she could prove. Just a shot in the dark based on a suspicion.

“So what?” Cathy replied, curtly. “I assume then, if that was the case, they would be more than capable of making their own improvements over the existing releases, independent of us,”

Maico was beginning to feel like the Trekkie as a warsie convention, and wasn’t she wearing her lucky red blouse today. Cathy’s defences had come up. She was building walls and fences, which told a lot, but nothing she could prove.

“Thank you for your time then, Cathy,” she said.

----

Maico hid in her cabin towards the back of the yacht. It was dark, with the cruiser’s lights being set to a night cycle. It was almost possible to forget such things existed. She eased herself down into her bunk. The bunnygirl on the bunk beneath hers snored. Maico did her best to keep her typing silent.

“Ryan.

Another link pointing to Jet. I think I’ve got enough to confront her on this now. Even if I don’t have enough to prove. A nice little circle around her is beginning to form.”

The reply came a few minutes later. Time enough for Maico to get undressed for bed, and contemplate the vastness of space beyond a small round porthole.

“And guess who else Jet has links too? And her partner.

Do you remember an attempt on the All Fenspace ultimate speed record a few years ago? Prometheus Forge built a space-capable version of Jet and Ford’s Highway Star, and I’m going to give you three guesses who was invited to ride it.

I’ve done some digging on Jet. Guess where the first mention of her on the cyber’s mailing list comes from?”

“I am assuming the first two guesses don’t count .I have an engagement on Hephaestus in a fortnight, or the shuttle decommissioning. I need to eat sometimes. It looks like I’ll have to get there via Mars. I’m not sure how my travel plans will work out after that. I need to do more work that brings money in *now*."[/i[

[i]This isn’t going to do me much good if I get the scoop, and I’ve already been evicted from my apartment,”

“Do what you have to to keep yourself fed, Maico. I’ll hold my end up. Speaking of which... guess who I found living on Marsbase Sara?

Sylia Stingray.

She owns Stingray Motor Engineering. SME started as a shell corporation jointly owned by none other than Jet Jaguar and Ford Sierra. It was used by them to administer the original Highway Star, and has now expanded into a stable manufacturer of motorcycles powered by modified Mazda rotary engines.

It might be a coincidence, but given her name, and given that you’ll be on Mars anyway, it might be worth your while checking her out,”

“Thanks, Ryan. I Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Maico signed off for the night, snuggling back into a bunkbed. It was a long way to Port Luna at this time of year. Time enough to get some sleep on a slow boat that smelled faintly of the ocean.

There was something vaguely pacifying about it.

------
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?