My patrons keep voting for it, so I keep providing more of the The Hungry Stars! We're in the book's final act now. Our escapees are in the beast's lair, while Lakhesis has been pursued by Phantom-1, with a confrontation between the stricken cruiser and the League destroyer imminent.
Coming up, the situation on Rally will be attended to, as well as more shenanigans upon Brother Moon. In the meantime, we have a snippet below from Lucille's hunt for Lakhesis. For the rest of the encounter and the full story, check out the links above and enjoy!
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The stealth destroyer's captain barely noticed the dwindling temperature in the bridge, her attention focused on the faint, there-and-gone signal that showed Lakhesis's most probable position. The alpha-cruiser wasn't heading straight for the array; its course was unsure. It was still sweeping the system, like a squirrel trying to remember where it had left its winter cache.
Did you really think we wouldn't be watching our own backyard?
Cold hours passed; Phantom-1 lost and re-acquired the enemy ship several times, but always found it again. Lucille felt a thrill of anticipation as the contact marker's course changed, now headed directly towards its array. You found it! She thought exuberantly. Good girl. Go on, go to it. Yes, just like that.
Kallimakos could feel the taut, springy eagerness in her ship's praetorian, a dog staring at that same squirrel running through its yard, feeling its owner's hand ready to unclip its collar and set it loose. Easy, she admonished. Not yet. Let's see if they accept our gift first.
Phantom-1 might not have a wellspring, Tathlum assault boatsor Dáinsleif torpedoes, but it did carry ichor. Three hundred years ago, General Imani Lund was able to bring a separate colony into the fold, allowing several of their vehicles to evade pursuit after a raid on Salana Bekele Seaport. The rebels didn't realize until it was too late that two of their craft carried undifferentiated ichor. It spread rapidly through the colony and once a connection to the Óðrerir was made, it became part of the League. Imani referred to the tactic in later briefings and her memoirs as Itadaki-mono.
Lucille had done the same here, introducing several colonies of microbial-scale ichor to the enemy array and courier. Unlike Lund's tactic, Kallimakos wasn't letting these clusters act on their own imperatives, laser-linked lullabies giving them direction and purpose as they spread into platform and starship alike. Consuming, replicating, growing within their hulls. She could feel their soft, cooing static in her mind, a [font= "HP PSG"]pleasant[/font]sensation like fingernails [font="HP PSG"]gently stroking over her scalp[/font].
If Lakhesis brought the ship or array aboard, the ichor would spread into her, crippling or even neutralizing her completely.
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