Chương 59: 038 – Interlude: Rain Crystal

Rain let out a sigh of relief when she received confirmation that their guests had been able to board their ship after Seraphine's decontamination. With their gift baskets, which had made the little sisters very happy, especially since they'd been able to give it to their guests themselves. Once their guests were out in space, Stargazer Fortress was able to activate stealth measures and go dark, ready to counter-attack if the newly-arrived Hegemony attempted to invade.

Surcease's defenses would be as ready as it could be. Now that they were underway, she used the fast courier's communications system to contact the Venture. Rain had removed her armor's helmet so her face could be seen properly, which was the best she could do to make herself identifiable. Hopefully they would realize it was her and not one of the many other Kadekin with blonde pixie-cut hair and blue eyes." FTCS Venture, this is Paladin Rain," she said once the connection was made.

Hale and the Venture's Communications and IT departments had been improving their communications protocols, so voice and visuals were getting clearer and clearer.

"Requesting to speak to Captain Trout at his convenience. A situation has arisen that they need to be informed of." There was a brief pause.

"Acknowledged, Paladin Rain. We will inform the captain. Please stand by."

"Standing by, Venture," she said.

"We'll need to cut communications in ten minutes though, so if Captain Trout is still busy I'll contact him later if I survive." There was a pause." Acknowledged, Paladin Rain. I'll pass that on."

"Thank you!" Rain waited patiently as her message was relayed, beginning to look towards her left arm to look at the time out of habit before remembering that Princess wasn't mounted there right now. Ugh, it always took her a while to adjust when she put on a suit. Instead of putting on her helmet again—" Transferring you to the Captain, Paladin Rain."

"Thank you!" she said, hoping she said it quickly enough for the communications officer to hear it A few seconds later, she's looking at Captain Trout on her terminal's screen.

"Bawipu guranah weepuh ninibong!" she greeted universally.

"Greetings, Captain Trout. I'm sorry for being rushed, but something important has come up. I believe you were able to speak to Commander Bronze?"" Paladin Rain. Yes, Bronze was informed me of the situation on your end. Do you require any assistance?" Rain shook her head.

"I appreciate the thought, but we have protocols for this. If the worst happens, we should be able to deal with it. Thank you for the offer, though." She paused for a moment, then added, "I know we don't really have the authority to tell you what to do, but if the Hegemony does try to invade Surcease, maybe it will be best if the Venture hides behind one of the moons where they can't see you? There's no need for the Confederacy to be involved in the event of that happening.""

I appreciate your concern and will take your suggestion under advisement." A memory from Kaede arose, letting Rain know that in superhero and magical girl (and boys) circles, that phrase meant 'I heard you, but I'll do what I think is right anyway'. Movies and experience had also taught Kaede that in military circles, it meant 'I'm not listening to you, but I'm being mean and sarcastic about it'. Anywhere else, it often did mean they'd take it under advisement. Rain wasn't sure which definition Trout was using.

It was probably the military one, since he was in the navy, but he seemed polite and not mean and sarcastic so… she had no idea.

"Thank you for considering my suggestion. I hope everyone had fun, and I'm sorry they couldn't stay for longer. I'll contact you again when I return." Captain Trout frowned." Return? You're going somewhere?" Rain nodded.

"Yes. As part of my duties, I need to intercept the Dhekhajhyde before they reach Nightmare." On the screen, Captain Trout straightened." The Decayed? You've identified the Hegemony ship?"" Dhekhajhyde," Rain gently corrected.

"Yes, we managed to get clear enough scans to identify the ship. I really need to go now, Captain Trout. Was there anything else?" She really hoped there wasn't." Paladin Rain, please be careful," Captain Trout said very seriously." The Decayed is the Hegemony's most dangerous warship. I would very strongly advise against a frontal attack against it." Rain blinked. Why would she be trying a frontal attack? She was trying to keep that from happening.

Still, he was trying to help, so she accepted the advice in the spirit it was given.

"Thank you for the advice," she said.

"It will probably be helpful. Paladin Rain out." She waited a moment to give a chance to say anything more, and when she didn't, signed off. Then she sighed and nodded towards Yuki.

"All right, let's go." Yuki grabbed a lever, pulled and pressed the button and the switch that would unlock it, and Rain watched the light entering through the windows go weird as their fast courier went supraluminal. She took a few moments to enjoy the view, appreciating just how few people were privileged to see such a sight. Then she shook her head and went back to examining the scan data as she unmuted the connection to the rest of the First Contact Team.

There were three screens in front of her, each showing a different perspective. One was a real-time look at the ship from the point of view of the scanners on Lamppost Fortress, one of the three fortresses orbiting the moonless Nightmare at the distance where a moon would be, and currently the closest to the approaching ship. Another was a sped-up video that showed the ship from when it first appeared in the Dancer system to the present, meant to help see any patterns.

The third was a scan of the ship itself, which would intermittently update with greater detail as it was collated by the sensor network. On the loop display, the Dhekhajhyde was moving in a distinctly unnatural zigzag pattern at regular intervals as it approached Nightmare's night side. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Is it just me, or are they trying to be even more visible?" she said. At every change of direction, the ship seemed to be angling itself to reflect as much dancerlight as possible.

"Even without sensors, they might be visible if someone on Nightmare was a Seer—" like Ai, she didn't say out loud, "—or had a telescope pointed in the right direction."" That's what we were saying," Margaret said. The feed from the team was on a screen on Yuki's panel." There's nothing in that coordinate, so there's no need for them to change course at all. And every course change requires fuel that they'll need to replace.

Even if these exploration ships were made to be able to go for years before needing to resupply, that's still fuel they might need."

"That's actually very polite of them. It implies they want people to be aware of their arrival, so it's not a surprise," Rain mused.

"Or they want to be seen to scare whoever's seeing them," Yuki suggested.

"Remember that tree from space that fed on fear?" Ah, right. That had been in Kaede's memories, although not as something she had fought herself. Magical Girl Star Reverie had fought that one, as part of her atrocious luck of constantly finding herself facing monsters who had something to do with fear, whether deliberately causing it, feeding on it, or being born from it."

Terrifying the planet to cause chaos and a panicked response that might be easier to counter might be possible,"Margaret said," although that really only works if the planet in question can both see them but can't adequately respond."

"It's still more polite than immediately just heading for the planet," Rain said.

"Do we have any idea of what they use as fuel?"" Probably hydrogen,"Cloud said." In their sci-fi shows, their ships are always needing water, and if they're using it as fuel then they can't just recycle it."" Please don't base your assessment on their TV shows," Hale said." But yeah, probably hydrogen for use in fusion. Of course, that's not counting whatever magic they might have. Symbolism is certain, and their transmissions show they have a magic that allows them to shapeshift—"Rain nodded.

It was often a plot point in the mystery stories the Hegemony seemed to prefer." —but they might have more magic that we're not noticing. And that's not counting possible mutations and variation from regular exposure to the Void. And their ships definitely have regular exposure to the Void."

"Why do you say that?" Rain asked. There had been the detected burst of exotic radiations that was indicative of a Void breach, which was… well, certainly telling, but one example shouldn't be taken as absolute." Zoom in on the detailed scan, the pattern of damage on the ship's hull."

"You do it, we're driving," Yuki said. Rain did as Hale said, zooming in the render. When Princess had shown her the ship's name, they hadn't really spared any attention for the rest of the hull. Examining it now, what had seemed like clean painted hull looked… She stopped and stared, then slowly began to move the across the hull.

"Those are claw marks," she said, looking at a row of not quite parallel lines.

"And those… those are teeth marks from a circular mouth. That discoloration pattern… that's from an acid tendril… those are definitely teeth marks, and it's a matching set." She'd never personally seen the things that made these, but Void Rangers were fond of showing off battle damage from their mecha, and she knew a few.

"They've been attacked. A lot."" At the very least, their ship got grazed by things with claws and teeth. In space. And the markings are much too small for anything that lives out there in the dark,"Namine said." Not something immediately relevant to you, but something to be aware of. There might be some kind of parasite on their hull." Rain nodded.

"Understood. We'll keep an eye out." She didn't want to have to fight something during a first contact. The Hegemony people might think she was being aggressive! They took the long way around to meet the Dhekhajhyde, going in a wide arc for two hours to come at the ship from behind so their fast courier could be backdropped against the black of deep space to make their stealth field more effective.

Rain took care of handling that, one hand gripping the emitter contact that was basically an oversized version of the emitter built into Princess' chassis, while the other hand operated the fast courier's sensors so they could get their own readings of the Hegemony ship as they approached.

Even using the sensors based on those recovered from the wreckage of alien ships that had tried to invade the Old Earth—among other designs— whose scanning signals could travel faster than light, using ones that were closer to what you were trying to scan still amount to a cleaner reading.

Fortunately, their stealth field was working, the vennglow spell absorbing all the electromagnetic waves being sent towards them, and the vennplate shield behind that in theory diverting any particle-based radiation coming from the ship around the courier while retro-reflector geometry around the rest of the ship sending any particles coming in from the sides that might bounce towards the Hegemony ship back where it came from.

It wasn't long before they could see the rear of the ship on the sensors, and Rain couldn't help but note that there were no immediately obvious thrusters. Admittedly, that didn't mean much, because the thruster mechanism getting hit by a micrometeorite was a legitimate concern. Still, it made her wonder how they redirected the ship for the zigzag pattern. So far, the speed of the ship had been constant, with no significant slowing even when they changed course.

"Hold on a bit," Rain said as Yuki was about to bring them closer.

"Let's wait for it to change directions. I don't want to be between ships only to have it turn." Yuki chuckled.

"Yeah, that would be bad," she said, matching the Hegemony ship's speed and staying well to the side so they didn't get outlined by any exhaust. They didn't have to wait long. In front of them, the ship began to turn, its path curving through space as smoothly as the rising stream from a water fountain bending back down to earth. No thrusters glowed. Everyone on the fast courier, girls and buddies, stared.

"Okay…" Rain said slowly as she turned back to the sensors, and more importantly the logs.

"So, checking for the obvious explanation… no, the sensors didn't pick up any spatial distortions, so they didn't just keep going in a straight line through space that was more curved than usual. No exhaust, no ports opening for the exhaust to come from, and no change in velocity while definitely changing direction, so it's not just gyroscopic steering followed by some kind of thruster." Yuki considered that.

"That is such absolute pooting witchcraft," she said." Such vector redirection is definitely magic," Willow Wisp declared from the copilot's slot on the fast courier's console." Absolute pooting witchcraft." The two Kaedekin with heads nodded solemnly.

"Well, I need to get going," Rain said brightly, grabbing her helmet and putting it on. She felt a click as the locking mechanisms closed properly, and then another click as the magnetic seals locked it into place, and then one final click before the solid seals engaged. Rain rolled her head, the suit's neck and gorget moving and adjusting with her.

Giving her sword and zapper pistol one last sad look—if she needed to fight, she was wearing a personal mecha suit—she grabbed the picnic basket, checked to make sure the writing board was still attached to her back, and went to enter the fast courier's airlock. She had a ship to get on top of before it changed direction again.