Mayferria: Back in the Stacks

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Alu'ravenor"] @Clone Pilot Oddball

Cerita shrugged.

"I will stick around and see if I can dig up some more stuff about their philosophies then." after which she took up her pen and started digging into the texts again. A few moments after she looked up again, almost as if she was reminded of something.

"Oh, right. If you need help or anything, lemme know."

Again nose in the papers. She really did seem to like to study and explore things.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

Alu's earbud comlink buzzed: her starship's service droid, relaying a much-anticipated message from the pyramid's administration. A smile broke over Alu's face, and she pulled a small transmitter from her pocket.

"And here we go," she said, pressing a button.

The monolith shuddered around them. They'd just leaped to hyperspace. A short jump, into a nearby part of the Unknown Regions that only a local would know. She was vaguely aware of several layers of employer above her. Clearly, one of them knew the region.

"That," she said, "is that. I'm reliably informed that there's about six more bulk freighter hyperdrives linking up with us once we get where we're going, and then the whole pyramid's bound for somewhere...else. Free and clear and a hundred thousand richer. Now that's a sizable chunk of change." The distraction team would be wrapping up, the pulse-mass mine would be blocking reinforcements, and another would get dropped to block pursuit, if any materialized. That was the price of reaching too far into the Unknowns: help was always days or weeks away.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Michael Sardun"]

They worked their way through the rest of the small temple in what was objectively about seven or eight minutes, but felt much longer. Oren only knew for certain because his timer and his comm buzzed, one after the other. He looked up through a broken window and saw that the floating monolith was gone. A nod to Sardun, and Oren wiped and sheathed his sword.

Trailing Ke'dem capture/loot teams, Oren stalked back down the stairs and into the waiting shuttle. Though tired and sore, he kept his focus on the future. He could use that soreness, after all, through Calyphan principles -- use it for awareness. Farsight, precognition, intuition. And a counterstroke was coming; he could taste it on the wind. But the Ke'dem teams knew their work. In short order the shuttle was full of incapacitated Walpurgians and Sionites, whatever their current trappings, along with anything of value in the small temple. Oren sealed up the back hatch and signaled the Clan Rekali pilot, a Roil-trained instinctive astrogator like those waiting to guide the monolith to safety. The shuttle lifted off and departed, though Oren kept his mind's eye on distant and future things until long after they'd left Mayferria behind. Only then, when hyperspace surrounded them, did he allow himself to relax.