Stargazers

The Battle of Athens

The Battle of Athens

Even with the support of Daedalus, Agamemnon has suffers severe damage. Its shields hold, recharging slowly between volleys, but they are not solid enough to stop every incoming attack. What Gigas Armors it has launched focused their attention on ground support early in the fight, while the Terran ships launched armors specifically for space combat to support Siegfried and to control the atmosphere.

Daedalus, after sinking one Terran ship, turns to the second Terran support. Drifting into range, it opens fire on the enemy while also launching its own armors. Three Lancer armors—lightly armored Gigas designed for long-range assault and hit-and-run space combat—launch, led by the prototype Mercury armor.

"Be careful out there, Guinevere. This isn't like last time. This enemy is far more dangerous, and numerous."

Guinevere descends into the enemy ranks. "Don't worry, Captain LeGuin. They won't even know what hit them." Activating Mercury's arm-mounted hardened-light blades, she slices cleanly through two armors before making a narrow circle back toward the Terran ship.

On the surface, in the Mars armor, the audio cuts. Arthur is left alone in the cockpit, twisting switches and trying hard to bring it back to life, but the armor remains inert. Through the armor he can hear the explosions, and the knows that the battle is raging around him.

He ducks under the console and pulls a switch which sets off a series of small, controlled explosions around the back hatch. The armor rattles and fills with dark, acrid smoke. Swiveling around in his seat, he kicks the hatch repeatedly until it groans and falls off into the Athens' dirt.

Arthur climbs from the armor and stands with his body partially hidden inside. The two armies meet around him with titanic force. The Federation armors have the Republic retreating back toward the facility, but the Republic is making them earn the ground they have. Deadalus' arrival has slowed enemy progress.

Releasing the rope ladder, Arthur climbs from the armor and sprints away from it, toward the facility and toward Chastity.

-Stargazers part 1-

Chastity follows the long corridors deeper into the facility. People do not notice her in the white coat. They rush around her without a care, securing research or burning it. There is fear in the air, fear of falling, fear of being caught red-handed. Chastity knows it well, remembering it from the attack on Canaan, but she pushes past the memories, driven by her new purpose.

She reaches the bowels of the facility and grows lost. Even with her expertise, she can find no way forward. She stops at a door at the back that reads "Sector 8." 8, she assumes, is the highest clearance level, far beyond that which she had stolen. Every hallway leads to this single point. It is the end and not just something a person can stumble upon. Everything funnels to this point.

The facility lurches around her. Outside, she can hear gunfire and explosions. She remembers Arthur, too, out there fighting, but she trusts him to take care of himself. The Lady, on the other hand, is passed this door. She knows it on instinct, like they are tied together. It is Chastity's job to take care of her.

She is considering her next step when the door slides open. The Lady is there, waiting. They exchange a quick glance, and then Chastity joins her at the threshold, even embraces her before remembering herself. She peeks in around the Lady into the empty room. "Where is everyone?"

"They left me here," the Lady says," and went to look in on their other projects. I do not think that they were expecting me."

"Probably not. No one was expecting you, at least not a you that walks, thinks, and talks." She looks to the open doorway. "Did you do that?"