[story] Saber Chase

[Dartz]

I'm not sure. It's running to a close pretty quickly right now. And character interaction.

If there was one thing Maico regretted, it was asking Mackie about his fusion boosters. She pretended to listen intently, all the while doodling on her notepad rather than noting down the dry technical details of an infodump that would bore David Weber.

“So, basically. Power from the engines is used to initiate a DT fusion reaction, which injects more free neutrons into the cuke core, which puts out more power out the back, which gives us more speed up front. It’s exactly like an old-fashioned supercharger on an IC engine.”

And she sensed he wasn’t mentioning the increased fuel burn and engine stress caused by running things well beyond their rated power. Still, he was proud of it.

“Too bad I can’t make it public. Not unless I can adapt it to something we’re supposed to have on Frigga, like the Dragon Wagon...”

“But of course,” Maico rewarded him with a smile. “Thank you,”

He gave her a bashful grin, convinced she’d listened to the whole thing. There was something endearingly charming about the teenaged AI when he wasn’t leering.

“Mackie, Senshi rules in the aft compartment while we suit up,” Jet said, calmly. It was her puppet body, plainly dressed.

The boy’s shoulders fell.

“You’ll need to be at the controls once we get in towards Luna anyway. Traffic report from the L5’s says it’s hectic.”

“Fine,” He exhaled the mother of all sighs, making it perfectly clear to everyone how cruel she was being by expelling him from the compartment. “Though you know those rules don’t apply on Militia ships underway,”

“You know we aren’t a Militia ship,”

He looked to Daryl, “Don’t ask me,” she dismissed him with a shrug of her shoulders. “I was city forces,”

“Fine,”

He slunk through the hatch and locked it behind him. Jet closed her eyes. “We’re clear. I’m keeping an eye on him,”

There was a quiet moment of collective relief, before all four women began to undress. Maico found herself compelled to stare at the taped-on patch over the bullet hole in Anika’s left breast.

She felt physically sick, a nightmare chill in her body as the memory struck her.... The mercenary had just straight out shot her. Dead. For those few seconds, she’d been so certain she’d just seen Anika die.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yep!” Anika threw her a cheerful smile. “I just need a new radiator and a DEXRON refill to be back to normal. So long as I don’t exert myself too much right now, I’ll be fine.” She turned to Jet. “We’re sure we won’t be seeing combat on this, right?”

“Probably not. This is going to happen just as we discussed.”

“Unless there’s a Dark Kingdom attack,” remarked Daryl. “You know how contrived shit like that just keeps happening to us,”

“It comes with the territory,” Kotono batted her hand at it.

“I think we’ve already had our glitch for this mission anyway,” said Jet.

Maico found herself blinking when she saw what Jet’s puppet wore under such plain clothes....

“I’m Mackie’s sister,” she offered by way of cryptic explanation. Maico puzzled for a moment, before catching on to exactly who Mackie Stingray’s sister was....

She recalled Jet’s earlier explanation in the landing bay, and something about that sent an uneasy quiver down her spine.

“They say converts make for the most fanatical believers,” Kotono jibed.

“I like the textures!” Jet snapped back, an angry flush heating her puppets cheeks. “And you’re just jealous,” she added, with a haughty hand-on-hip swagger.

“Gymnasts need a trim figure for proper balance.” Kotono responded, archly

“So that’s why you had your hardsuit built with a fuller figure,” Daryl groused.

“Daryl you traitor! We’re the only natural ones here and you side with them!”

An accusing finger was aimed at Jet and Anika.

“What, me?” Anika pointed a finger at herself. “I can’t help how I was built.”

Darly grinned, folding her arms across her bare chest. “I may be natural.... but that just means I’ve more reason to brag,”

Muffled giggling rang through the bulkhead seperating them from the cockpit.

“The bulkhead isn’t soundproof,” Jet informed them, calmly.

“Mackie?” The pair chorused, throwing uneasy glances towards the cockpit hatchway

“It’s a good thing he’s an AI, the poor kid would’ve had an aneurysm.” said Daryl, struggling to hold back on a laugh. It curled the edges of her lips up and lit her green eyes with a demonic gleam.

“A priapism,” Kotono giggled behind her hand.

“Poor kid,” Maico editorialised.

Anika threw a worried glance towards the door, but said nothing. She focused on climbing into her skinsuit instead. She was the only one who bothered to pick her clothes and underwear up off the deck.

“Well, he’s the only male living on Frigga, especially since I took the oath of Venus. No wonder he pushed hard for Pixies to get the CAG job,”

Servo’s whined somewhere outside the spaceframe. Maico had a mental image of the ship’s wings swooping forward like an eagle coming in for landing as she slowed down.

Jet sighed. “And now to contact Stellvia control. This is going to be fun,”

Skintight polymers creaked as the Sabers stretched the suits over their bodies. Someone might’ve found them sexy, but they sure didn’t look comfortable. Maico cringed at the mere idea of wearing one.

She felt sick to her stomach.

It might’ve been a good idea to have something to eat before leaving. And her head was still a groggy mess, pulsing and trying to burst out through her temple. The Sabers stepped into their suits.

Legs in. Pull the hips up and let both halves of the armour latch together. Lean forward. Arms in. The whole plastron then snapped back, locking into the back, standing bolt upright.

And there they were, all four of them. Save for the missing helmet, they were taken straight from the video’s she’d seen.

“Systems checks everyone,” Jet ordered, before slipping her suit’s helmet on over her head. She popped the visor up immediately. The others pressed their hair out of the way, before slipping their own headgear on.

“Green, Okay,”

She sounded like.... She sounded like Lisa! Almost dead on.

“Blue, alright,”

A deeper version of Jet’s voice. Like someone trying to sound like her.... and trying a bit too hard.

“Pink, online,”

Deeper and older than Anika’s natural voice. More firm. Close to Qeen Nehallenia, if she thought about it.

“Visors up. Confirm armaments at cold inert. Keep them towards the deck. We don’t want any accidents,”

And that right there was not Sailor Mars. Similar enough that a child could make the comparison... but off. And the accent just made it funnier.

“Pink, confirmed.”

“Blue, weapons down,”

She didn’t sound too pleased about it.

“Green. I’m safetied.”

Jet glanced at each of them.

“Good. We’re ready to go,”

Anika glanced at the hatchway, “I better check the sensors. We’re going to be lit up by every sensor in the L5, I’ll have to give Mackie a course,”

She was through the hatch before finishing that sentence, finding her place among the jumble of hardware. Her hardsuit docked with the chair and she got very busy.

Maico rolled herself up of the bed, bracing herself against another dizzy spell. She pulled herself forward, trying not to step on the underwear on the deck. What was on Anika’s displays she quickly figured to be beyond her comprehension.

It looked like a Stellvia-centric map of the L5’s... but exactly what everything else on screen was she couldn’t make out.

“Mackie, I’m sending you a course to skirt round the worst of the sensors,” she said.

“No point. Everyone already knows we’re here,” the boy answered. “Stellvia just asked us to take priority position in their holding pattern while the Astra undocks,”

“Chigusho,” Jet snarled through her teeth. “They’re probably keeping up appearrances,”

But of course.... That’s Jet’s puppet body in the rear bay. It was still hard to link both bodies with the one person.

“Well, at least we get to show off,” said Mackie with a sigh. “And it’s pretty much an open secret that we use one of these,”

“You’re right,” said Jet. “You’re right. And we could do with the publicity. Although a beauty pass might be pushing it a bit,”

Jet chuckled in amusement. Maico felt herself smile. A moment later, the cyborg noticed her reflection in the cockpit window. She turned to face in her seat, trailing data cables from her ears.

“You have the memory stick?” Jet enquired

“I do,” Maico confirmed, fingering it in her pocket for a moment just to be sure.

“Good. That should at least make up a little for the Saber story,”

Maico felt her shoulders drop.

“You planning to give us away now?”

The blue saber was standing in the hatchway, one hand on the hatch, the other on her hip. Green eyes bored into Maico’s skull, demanding an answer.

Everyone was staring at her. She could feel Jet and Mackie behind. Anika’s head popped out from behind her monitors. Kotono was looking on over Daryls shoulder. Everyone was waiting.

“I haven’t decided.” Maico answered. She felt compelled to look at the deck. Still, she knew that there was one direction she was leaning in. “I’ll let you know soon. If I am going to run it, I’ll let you know the day before I do. I’ll send you a copy for verification,”

“So you’ll screw us over just to make yourself a bloody name!” Daryl spat at her. She stepped forward. A sickening moment of terror rose up Maico’s gullet.

She really didn’t feel like arguing.

“Daryl!” Jet snapped back at her.

Anika winced, hiding back behind her monitors.

“This isn’t the time,” Kotono placed a metal hand on her shoulder, tugging her back gently. The expression on her face was soft, decent.... calming.

Daryl squirmed in her suit. “I still don’t like this,”

“Unfortunately, we’ve no other alternative.” Jet answered her, coolly. “We really don’t. We’re the good guys, remember?”

Her eyes closed. She inhaled a deep breath through her nostrils.

Kotono tugged again. “We’ve plans for this Daryl. We can handle it. We’ll be famous.” She giggled. “We might actually get some recognition.”

“This would be worth so much reputation on the underspace,” Anika added with glee. “Nobody would believe I did some of the things I did.”

“And I could finally release the fusion boosters,” Mackie chipped in his cheerful two credits.

“You know what I don’t like about it, and I still don’t like it” Daryl stood her ground. A small smile formed on her lips. “....even if the convoy job might be worth a named sailor commission,”

Everyone relaxed again.

The radio hissed. “Knightwing, Knightwing. Stellvia Control. Cleared for priority docking boarding tube one. Security forces and medical personnel will meet you at the gate.”

It wasn’t Miyuri. Maico didn’t recognise who she was on the other end, not right away.

“Stellvia, Knightwing. We copy,” Mackie answered. “Entering final approach,”

He pulled the throttles back. The roar of the engines deepened in tone as they throttled down. Genaros was sliding by, kilometres away, ringed by sparks of spacecraft. Ad Astra was powering up into a holding pattern, joining the other traffic waiting to dock with Stellvia.

The multi-ringed station was quickly growing big in the window.

“Everyone to ready positions by the hatch,” Jet ordered.

Maico was guided towards the boarding hatch in the floor, the cockpit door being locked behind her. She gathered her things, and slung her backpack over her shoulder. Another dizzy wave rolled by, but she rode through it well.

“Visors down,” Saber White ordered.

“Roger,” all three chorused. In unison, they reached up with their hands and latched their visors down with a metallic click.

The main engines went silent. Thrusters cannoned, shaking the frame of the spacecraft. Maico was aware the ship was re-orienting itself, but just couldn’t tell which direction it was facing. It was nauseating.

Or maybe that was her nerves.

She swallowed a shaking breath.

The thrusters cannoned again. The ship shuddered. Gasses hissed and pumps whined. A light on the floor came on bright green. They were docked and lcoked. Saber Blue pushed a button on the bulkhead, and the hatch in the floor opened downwards.

Maico peered over the edge, and found herself looking straight at the inner airlock door of the boarding tube. Her stomach heaved. Instead of docking alongside, the Knightwing was pitched nose-down relative to the station, with it’s belly towards the station core.

“After you,” said the White Saber, indicating towards the hatch.

Maico consciously forced herself to step over, her foot dangling in mid air before the station’s own gravity grabbed it. She pulled herself upright into the boarding tube, her stomach looping. Acid crawled up the back of her throat, and she forced herself to swallow.

A cold sweat broke out across her face. Her mouth began to water. She took a gulping breath, forcing it down. Take another deep breath. She was on solid ground now.

She was on what actually felt likely solid ground.

Hardsuit feet thunked onto the flooring behind her. She could feel the weight of the Saber’s armour behind as a cold draught running up her spine.

On some unseen signal, Saber Green pushed a button on a keypad, opening the inner door.

What was waiting beyond was an almost empty boarding tube, save for a fully equipped squad drawn from Stellvia’s security force and Station Commander Hansen himself, with an incogruously hard expression on his face.

“We rescued her from a mercenary ship. She was already injured in a struggle with the Captain. When she came around, she asked to be taken here.” Saber White stated. Jet’s voice was cool and hard, and every bit the mercenary she styled herself as.

Maico immediately sensed this was, on some level, for the benefit of the crew.

“I assume you know the policy on mercenaries and bounty hunters operating on StellviaCorp property,” said Hansen, his tone equally icy. “However, thank you for rescuing Ms. Tange.”

She wasn’t rescued on Stellviacorp property after all.

“It was our pleasure,” said the White Saber.

They turned on their heels and left, metal high-heeled boots tack-tacking on the floor. Maico watched them until the airlock hatch closed behind her, and felt herself ache to have her headset with it’s camera, just to catch video footage of the hardsuits up close and personal.

Through the portholes, she could see camera flashes flickering from nearby windows, and from the opposing booms. Word had gotten around of the unique spacecraft that had docked.

With a thump, chased by a hiss it detached, pushing itself silently away. Slowly, it began to pitch over, before accelerating off on a tangeant to the outer ring

“Are you alright, Maico?” Commander Hansen asked her, his voice warming up.

“I’m fine,” she answered, “I just need to rest for a bit.”

She did have a lot to think about.

----

I can't find if Maico actually met Lisa or not... but it was the first voice that came to my head for Aya Hisakawa, and it's a nice callback.

'Natural dialogue' like this scene is pretty tough for me. Hopefully it works.

Mackie's booster design. He needs his own thing beyond 'Jet's Brother'. So he's the kid who bungs an oversized turbo on a Civic and gets it to work (for about ten minutes), rather than designing a full high performance engine from the ground up.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?