Aboard The Sigmafly, Enroute to Lo-Nine

Soltana

She gazed out into the colorful display, the lines of stretched starlight, the dazzling of the dimensional FTL shielding, and all of it over a black background of mystery and exploration.

What is out there?

She checked her systems to find all was well.

Name: Soltana

Race: Lambent

Remaining Power: 7321/7500 QC

Inventory: 45/128 SB

Processes:

Location: Deep Space, Unknown

Time: Unknown

Modules:

Dreams of a Lambent

Soltana’s Contentions

Seal Compass

Solar Weld

Bioneural Healing

Inventory: Grzel’s Heart - 45 Shilentobytes

She could sense the angelic artifact in her systems like a limb or organ. Her internal systems scanned over the device, unable to truly comprehend its enigmatic design. She would discover it one day. Or she would meet Grzel one day. She gathered that Diniel missed his friends after the war against Lucifer in the Underrealm. She felt his regret being unable to save them. She also felt his hope at the coming time they would all be reunited. She knew in her core systems something was missing from herself. Not of herself. Something apart. She felt incomplete just as her previous incarnation- stuck under rock and stone as a broken head.

It was difficult to describe what it was. She dedicated a process as she had plenty to spare. She checked her core systems, seeing that more had been updated.

TW.Ilios.1.0

Seal of the Tetragrammaton

Memory: Healing

Creator: Mikial T. McDonough (Earth)

Creator: Barman (Destroyed)

Creator: Tangence (Missing)

Calling: The Guardian

Processes: 128

My seal has become part of my core system now. Who knows what that entails?

L’yophin and S'yliska were still talking quietly. She thought it best they get time to speak alone while she gazed out the main viewscreen. She felt a lurch as she almost lost balance. The Sigmafly exited FTL. Her eyes flashed at seeing the densely packed field of carved objects. L’yophin chittered an exclamation as he rushed to the piloting egg, stepping inside as it clicked shut.

S'yliska towered above her, pointing to the cluster.

“L’yophin, where did we drop off?”

“We’re in the Sculptor’s Way. We should have had a clear route!” he replied.

“Something’s wrong,” the Ancath stated.

Soltana looked up, meeting the vents where Sylsika’s eyes should have been.

“They’ve found us…” she whispered.

“Who has found us? How?”

“Can’t find us! Veiled!” L’yophin barked from the comms.

“A psychic… I’m sorry, I revealed us.”

The door opened, revealing Basil and Diniel.

“Wha’s happenin? Why did we stop?”

S'yliska snapped from the newcomers to the piloting egg, “L’yophin, please evade- now!”

The Dugrum rasped backed, swerving the vessel tightly towards the carved celestial structures. Soltana had but a brief glance at a triple merged triangle of carved polished granite.

“What do you mean a psychic? Like you?” L’yophin asked.

“Yes. But not like me. They’re Human.”

They all paused at those words.

Soltana spotted them. Several vessels dead ahead, springing around from the structures like predators. They were close; only a dozen light seconds away at the farthest.

“L’yophin- there!” she cried.

She calculated they were smaller vessels, larger than the Sigmafly itself, but not by much. Twenty to thirty crew strong at most.

“Sloops,” Diniel stated calmly, “L’yophin, please continue with your route.”

“Can’t!” he barked as a bright beam of green flashed by the bridge, narrowly missing them.

“Yes, L’yophin, I can shield us,” S'yliska began, “do as he says- I have a feeling we’re going to witness his power.”

“Diniel.” Soltana cried out, gathering the angel’s attention. His helmeted head craned down to her.

“Be careful.”

He clasped his four hands together in pairs, “do not fear, Soltana. I shall return.”

He blinked, vanishing out outside.

“Aye, bad bit ‘o’ luck we got here…” Basil muttered.

"It is. I do not wish for conflict," She added.

"I wasn' talkin' abou' us," he winked back at her before looking at S'yliska. His eyes widened at seeing the Ancath.

“S'yliska! Ruth? Is tha’ you?”

“It is, little Basil.”

“Praise Diniel- I knew you’d all be back, but I dinna think so soon!”

They’re reunion was cut short as S'yliska sat down cross-legged. She touched her fingers together. Soltana felt a sudden thrum of energy pass by her.

A beam of violet struck close, reflecting off of an invisible barrier and diving off into deep space.

Ruth and S'yliska’s powers… Amazingly versatile.

“L’yophin, can you patch me into the cameras?” Soltana asked.

successful invitation...

She had no more asked for permission then she was in the Sigmafly’s systems. She stood stunned at feeling the vastness of the vessel compared to herself. Akin to going from the eyes of a fly to the Dekapillar it sat upon. Another tight bundle of laser beams swept past them, shattering and melting the sculpted art just behind them. The shards spun off, cascading into more, creating a rippled effect of devastation.

The fleet appeared to be only a few light seconds away.

“L’yophin, where are we? What are those sculptures?” she asked.

“Right now?? Ragh! We’re in Sculptor’s Way, near the end of it, too!”

He was correct. Right now was not the proper time. She would wait afterwards.

She spotted Diniel keeping pace with the Sigmafly. He then began to change.

He no longer resembled the humanoid angel she knew, but a strange shape she had difficulty describing. It was brilliant, bright, shining, silver, and chrome. It was two flat, circular halves joined perpendicular together around a filigree cage with a glowing blue sphere within. Blue gems lined the two circle halves with grooves and designs. It rushed past them into the awaiting fleet of sloops.

A sort of sphericon shape. Fascinating.

“Vesselform…” L’yophin muttered.

The fleet appeared non-uniform, with the sloops themselves made of unlike parts. The lead vessel had a spiked conical nose, couched with laser cannons. The entire fleet shot as one, forming a large cone of light at Diniel. But he was no longer there. He had blinked ahead of them, moving several light seconds away. The fleet turned to intercept, firing a wide and wild volley. The sloops navigated the obstacles, flowing like mad hornets around the ornate sculptures. A beam struck Diniel, sending him spinning like a top, only for him to flow and recover with a grace Soltana had never seen before. She hadn’t seen much in the way of space flight, but she suspected those sloops could never perform such maneuvers.

“Coordinates locked in- waiting for Diniel!” L’yophin shouted.

“We won’ keep forever, boyo!” Basil shot back.

“I know!”

The Sigmafly flew in loose and unpredictable patterns as laser fire grazed past them, striking the densely packed sculptures and instantly liquefying them. She felt a pang in her theonware at the loss. The Sculptor’s Way was beautiful and familiar; she couldn’t process why.

She focused several outer hull cameras on Diniel, seeing him blinking in and out of existence. Lazer fire swept past him, unable to tag or touch him. It rained down in dazzling volleys and Diniel danced and vanished around them like a ballroom dance.

He is using his Fae abilities alongside his angelic Vesselform.

Diniel began to glow gold, then silver, then red- going through dozens of different colors.

“Why is Dinel glowing like that?”

“He’s using his magic to infuse himself with power,” Sy’liska responded.

A beam of blue dashed directly against the Sigmafly, splaying and wrapping around an invisible psychokinetic shield.

“Not good! They know where we are now!” L’yophin rasped.

“Better than being disintegrated,” S’yliska countered back with a serene smile.

Soltana focused on Diniel, seeing a small beam of blue shoot from a blue gem, striking the nose of the lead spikey sloop. It detonated like an atomic blast of blue, sending fragments and power radiating in all directions, catching several other sloops that had kept too tight a formation behind the lead.

“Have mercy! Diniel is no’ gaddy frolicking about today- saw that meself in the Underrealm!”

“Incredible… Is that what happened to that horrific angel Abezebithou?” Soltana asked.

“Not as big of a detonation, be he was flat by the end of it,” Sy’liska replied mirthfully.

Diniel blinked away, slamming his nose like an axe-head against the side of a retreating sloop.

“I counted twenty one vessels, seven of which are pacified,” Soltana announced, “Oh, eight now.”

Diniel shot a cloud of violet missiles which honed in on another nearby sloop, wrapping around sculptures and tracking the vessel. The ship halted and attempted a tight turning maneuver, too late to avoid the cloud of Saighead projectiles. The ship split in half from the massive magical attack, spinning off and colliding into different sculptures.

Thirteen attackers left. Who are they? Why come after us?

More questions. Another sloop detonated in a sunlike intensity from a single energy beam. Three beams dashed against the psychic shielding, trembling and scattering for a second. The Sigmafly took a grazing wound, shuddering the vessel. Sy’liska looked visibly pained.

Basil stumbled to his knees, gathering his bowler back atop his head.

“Shesh! Tha’was a close one! Keep those shields up, lassie- you can do it!” Basil bellowed.

“Damage in living quarters two- Bah! Sorry Ruth- need new quarters!” L’yophin announced.

“I didn’t have time to live in it, keep flying, my L’yophin!” she barked back.

The sloops were splitting up, half to Diniel and half to them. Their lasers scanned in the space near them, hunting for soft targets.

Diniel blinked rapidly, covering the span of light-seconds within a fraction, slamming the rounded head into the sloop, sending it spinning in place. Diniel blinked back and forward, keeping his momentum and smashing it the opposite way, slamming the sloop into a sculpture. It drifted away like a knocked out boxer moving in slow motion.

The remaining sloops began to break off, fleeing like mice into the nooks and cracks of the Sculptor’s Way. Diniel turned around, rushing back to the Sigmafly. Two massive gaps in the cluster of structures, debris, and glowing soul motes were all that remained. The yellow motes all rushed to him, absorbing within his vesselform.

He morphed and folded, returning to his humanoid angelic shape. A single blink and he was on the bridge, glowing with a blue intensity. He sat down, crossing his legs with a sigh.

“I have taken care of the fleet and this psychic. A sad encounter indeed- slaying humans. I made no sport and slipped the knife quickly, M’dra.”

His flame flickered and danced above his head. Soltana knew him enough to tell he had mixed emotions. Sadness for what needed to be done, satisfaction that he could react, and relief that it was finished. It was strange, she felt his flame was something any being could instinctively read.

“Diniel, thank you for rescuing us,” Soltana stated, rushing over by his side, “I do not know if we could have survived long without you.”

“It is fortunate indeed. It is concerning how we were attacked. L’yophin, what do the ship logs state?”

The piloting egg opened, letting the Dugrum spider free from within.

“Mm. Says a large obstruction and spatial disruption. But nothing is here. Mm…”

He scratched at his mandibles, unable to puzzle the situation.

“Why are we thinkin’ still? We know those shtates were prowling- an’ they almost got us, too- aye, so we can assume they were waiting for a poor ol’ lad or lassie like us, hmm, eh?”

He tipped his bowler, grumping quietly.

“Basil is correct,” Sy’liska interjected, appearing tired, “This was an ambush. These vagabonds were waiting for someone. Possibly us or someone else. We don’t know if travel through the Sculptor’s Way is common. Sad to see these structures destroyed…”

“But that would mean, someone tipped them off to us!” Soltana added.

They all looked to one another.

Him.

The author of their misery and the father of Maw. They dare not say his name aloud.

Genius Loci, Emerald God of Dark Knowledge.

“Little lassie, I think that rules out our god friend, me thinks. Gives me the gaddy creepers knowing he’s out there - somewhere- But we’re watching his child!”

“He may be testing us,” Diniel stated as his head flame flickered, “we all witnessed his wicked demands, we all saw how he treated Ruth. His is a being totally devoid of love.”

“He wouldn’t jeopardize the child like that- even if he teaches us through agony,” Sy’liska replied.

“But who, then- eh?” Basil asked.

“Their ships were not very well designed, as if they were all patched together,” Soltana explained.

“Possible pirates or vagabonds- a rabble horde scattered,” Sy’liska concluded.

“Mm. We can’t FTL until we repair, though,” L’yophin announced.

“What can we do?” Soltana asked.

“It will repair over time, but it is very slow… However...”

The Dugrum spider focused all eight eyes on her.

Then everyone focused on her.

She perked up, her eyes flashed as she processed what L’yophin could have meant. But she would help anyway she could.