I of course introduce Linda to everyone - again. Yes, she met them all before, but that was back when she was an outie… and I also need to clear her with the Summons: I can't have them thinking she's a hostile boarder, after all.
Linda would be fine, but I might have to replace the summoned creatures after that fight.
Regardless: We dock The Rustbucket, sync The Bruan's Drift engine with Stephanie's (it’s the only way to make sure two ships arrive together due to how Drift travel works), and head out for our delivery; apparently a colony in The Vast had a nasty bit of weather destroy most of their infrastructure, so we're delivering parts to resupply them… well, more like ‘rebuild the entire colony’ based on the manifest. I guess they're currently sheltering in the colony ship? Regardless, it's a twenty three day trip: Three weeks and change.
We get a good shipboard routine going: My summoned creatures do basically all of the work, I inspect everything, and keep my real crew entertained: Euler likes when I root her with the strap-on, Cowbird likes being tortured and insulted (by me, at least), Linda preferrs a good sixty-nine, and Stephanie really likes being told to eat me out. I also make good on the magical com for Linda - again, in a regular Wayfinder (it’s a mundane compass that acts like a magical lantern when desired, a pretty cheap item, but the reason I issue it to them is because it also has a slot for an Ioun stone, and Aeon stone is just term drift), so it can hang out in her pocket rather than advertise that she’s magic.
Not that the inhuman proportions don’t do that anyway, but eh.
I end up linking the plant world to the back of my meeting room Keyhome - mostly because I house my excess summons there, and don't want them traipsing through my apartment (although I do use the Captain’s Cabin on ship). I also turn the magic back on in there, and do some fiddling with the definition of “day” via the Seasonal trait in the Create Demiplane line of spells. On that Demiplane, a “day” is eight hours of local time (exactly the length of time a character can spend crafting in a day with Pathfinder's crafting rules), and then there's the time dilation, so two hours there is one hour on the prime material plane… between the two, my minions can get six days’ worth of crafting done in one day of material plane time… and if they have a good enough skill check (which they do), they can work faster still: Double progress for each eight hour block of time they spend crafting, for a net total of twelve days worth of crafting per minion per day of real time… and I can feed them materials for free with Fabricate: Virtually unlimited magical items, with an “ordering time” of one calendar day per twelve grand in market price.
Of course I review the video I took of Linda's transformation: Repeatedly, and in slow motion. It all happened in just one or two seconds of real time, but it’s fascinating to watch in slow motion. Her face changed first, going from a square jaw and a largish nose with a five o'clock shadow to a button nose, rounded jaw, and smooth skin. A wave of change went out from there, washing away body hair and shaping the rest of her, her hair lengthening while the rest took place, keeping up with the wave of until her hair stopped at her knees. Her Adam’s Apple was next to go, sliding into her throat. Then her shoulders narrowed, her pecs inflated like water balloons as her ribcage narrowed, the decorative nubs on her chest becoming fully functional, and the second pair of nubs grew and developed giant milk tanks behind them as her waist narrowed. Her hips then shot outwards along with her caboose, her proud rod shrinking to a tiny little pleasure button and hiding in her new folds, her sack pulling up and in, forming an opening that immediately started dripping. The wave continued downward, reshaping her legs as well, ending at her now dainty feet.
When it happens all at once, it's just a simple “guy is now girl,” but in slow motion? Fascinating.
I also set each of my real minions up with an apartment keyhome, setting them up with back doors to the cargo bay demiplane; I of course keep the cargo bay keyhome. This serves afew functions. First, we all have a way to meet up, no matter how separated we get. Second, it gives each of them a private retreat where they can rest, store things, entertain friends (or “friends”), or whatever. Third, it means I don't need to listen to them when they're “entertaining friends”.
They can get loud.
We pass a pair of planar chunks along the way: Seems the positive and negative energy planes do not play well together. It's quite the light show.
On the last day of our trip, I am enjoying the heated massager in my chair on the bridge, when the pilot stops the ship.
“It's time,” the animated ball of solidified air in the shape of a halfling informs me.
Great! I get on the shipwide com, “All hands, prepare for reentry to normal space,” not that any of them need to do anything: The summons don't actually leave their stations, they're always maintaining readiness.
I also go through the checklist: Shields up, thrusters primed but stopped, weapons hot, hull integrity good, and so on: We're not in a hurry, so it's good to hit all the checkboxes.
Once we've gone through the list, I give the order: “Activate the Drift Engine, take us back to normal space.”
I get the usual light show… from all screens, and in this bridge, that's pretty impressive and immersive. And there’s a rather lot of dots that the screens are highlighting in red. All around us, everywhere I look. Thousands of them. “Science lead: Report. What am I looking at?”
“A minefield, Captain,” comes the reply after a few seconds, “Quantum Mines, as far as our sensors reach, in all directions. Plus three ships our size… equipped with active Drift Shadow projectors.”
Okay. Someone rich is going for ‘Ultima Ratio Regum’ ("the last argument of kings" - it's an inscription put on a old type of French cannon, the biggest produced at that time; the meaning is clear enough, no?). Quantum mines are weapons for a capital ship; the lightest hit will crunch our shields, and a couple of moderate hits will kill Stephanie entirely… well, assuming her Regeneration doesn't work. And the fact that they're laid out for us means this was planned in advance, as those mines can't be manufactured quickly, and there’s thousands of them… that we can see.
“Pilot, what are our odds of of dodging through this field?” I think I know the answer, but I have to ask.
“Not good,” she starts in, “We can dodge a lot of them, but there’s way too many. We will take hits as we move.”
And as soon as we take a hit, the ships with the big guns will know right where we are. We could start shooting them, but we have a rather lot of them to clear… and again, that would give away where we are. Something's tickling at the back of my head, though….
My thoughts are interrupted by a synthetic voice over the coms, “Captain Alex Abrams of the Stephanie Steel: Surrender your Cloaking technology to us, and we will let you live.” The greedy folks are catching on, it seems.
“It's a pity I'm not as small as I used to be,” comments Stephanie, “A small ship could get through that minefield easily.”
That was it… capital weapons can't target small or tiny ships, and mines still target… and we're carrying a Small ship. “Thank you, Stephanie, that's the key,” I hit a few holographic buttons, “Rustbucket, prepare to launch. You are to clear mines; keep your position hard to predict, do NOT group your shots, nor clear a path: That would tell them where we are. We need to do this the slow way.”
“Yes captain,” comes the reply over ship's com, “Detaching umbilical….”
We go through the hoops (via tight beam radio, of course), and I also give orders to Euler running The Brute, “Wait until the mines are clear. After that, go sniping. Keep moving and turning at random so they can't guess your position. We'll do the same.”
So we wait.
There's four control consoles on the Rustbucket, and all are full of summons. Right now? That's pilot, engineer, and two gunners. The Engineer keeps the engines running at peak speed, the pilot keeps the ship's location unpredictable, my buffs keep the ship off sensors, and the gunners pick off mines at random over the entire minefield. The gunners don't miss, and mines detonate when hit by the least little thing (it’s kind of why they're using them), so it's one hit, one kill, until the mines are gone.
That takes a long time, though. Oh, the enemy ships don't just sit there…but there’s not much they can do about a tiny little fly they can't see flitting very quickly about the battlefield. With the thrusters redlined like the engineer keeps them, that little Rustbucket has a speed rating of fifteen, and the pilot can very reliably handle sharp turns. They take some guesses and fire…but all they end up hitting is the occasional mine: There's a HUGE area the Rustbucket might be hiding in after she's fired.
And when the field is finally clear… it's time for Euler and me to go at it.
I of course introduce Linda to everyone - again. Yes, she met them all before, but that was back when she was an outie… and I also need to clear her with the Summons: I can't have them thinking she's a hostile boarder, after all.
Linda would be fine, but I might have to replace the summoned creatures after that fight.
Regardless: We dock The Rustbucket, sync The Bruan's Drift engine with Stephanie's (it’s the only way to make sure two ships arrive together due to how Drift travel works), and head out for our delivery; apparently a colony in The Vast had a nasty bit of weather destroy most of their infrastructure, so we're delivering parts to resupply them… well, more like ‘rebuild the entire colony’ based on the manifest. I guess they're currently sheltering in the colony ship? Regardless, it's a twenty three day trip: Three weeks and change.
We get a good shipboard routine going: My summoned creatures do basically all of the work, I inspect everything, and keep my real crew entertained: Euler likes when I root her with the strap-on, Cowbird likes being tortured and insulted (by me, at least), Linda preferrs a good sixty-nine, and Stephanie really likes being told to eat me out. I also make good on the magical com for Linda - again, in a regular Wayfinder (it’s a mundane compass that acts like a magical lantern when desired, a pretty cheap item, but the reason I issue it to them is because it also has a slot for an Ioun stone, and Aeon stone is just term drift), so it can hang out in her pocket rather than advertise that she’s magic.
Not that the inhuman proportions don’t do that anyway, but eh.
I end up linking the plant world to the back of my meeting room Keyhome - mostly because I house my excess summons there, and don't want them traipsing through my apartment (although I do use the Captain’s Cabin on ship). I also turn the magic back on in there, and do some fiddling with the definition of “day” via the Seasonal trait in the Create Demiplane line of spells. On that Demiplane, a “day” is eight hours of local time (exactly the length of time a character can spend crafting in a day with Pathfinder's crafting rules), and then there's the time dilation, so two hours there is one hour on the prime material plane… between the two, my minions can get six days’ worth of crafting done in one day of material plane time… and if they have a good enough skill check (which they do), they can work faster still: Double progress for each eight hour block of time they spend crafting, for a net total of twelve days worth of crafting per minion per day of real time… and I can feed them materials for free with Fabricate: Virtually unlimited magical items, with an “ordering time” of one calendar day per twelve grand in market price.
Of course I review the video I took of Linda's transformation: Repeatedly, and in slow motion. It all happened in just one or two seconds of real time, but it’s fascinating to watch in slow motion. Her face changed first, going from a square jaw and a largish nose with a five o'clock shadow to a button nose, rounded jaw, and smooth skin. A wave of change went out from there, washing away body hair and shaping the rest of her, her hair lengthening while the rest took place, keeping up with the wave of until her hair stopped at her knees. Her Adam’s Apple was next to go, sliding into her throat. Then her shoulders narrowed, her pecs inflated like water balloons as her ribcage narrowed, the decorative nubs on her chest becoming fully functional, and the second pair of nubs grew and developed giant milk tanks behind them as her waist narrowed. Her hips then shot outwards along with her caboose, her proud rod shrinking to a tiny little pleasure button and hiding in her new folds, her sack pulling up and in, forming an opening that immediately started dripping. The wave continued downward, reshaping her legs as well, ending at her now dainty feet.
When it happens all at once, it's just a simple “guy is now girl,” but in slow motion? Fascinating.
I also set each of my real minions up with an apartment keyhome, setting them up with back doors to the cargo bay demiplane; I of course keep the cargo bay keyhome. This serves afew functions. First, we all have a way to meet up, no matter how separated we get. Second, it gives each of them a private retreat where they can rest, store things, entertain friends (or “friends”), or whatever. Third, it means I don't need to listen to them when they're “entertaining friends”.
They can get loud.
We pass a pair of planar chunks along the way: Seems the positive and negative energy planes do not play well together. It's quite the light show.
On the last day of our trip, I am enjoying the heated massager in my chair on the bridge, when the pilot stops the ship.
“It's time,” the animated ball of solidified air in the shape of a halfling informs me.
Great! I get on the shipwide com, “All hands, prepare for reentry to normal space,” not that any of them need to do anything: The summons don't actually leave their stations, they're always maintaining readiness.
I also go through the checklist: Shields up, thrusters primed but stopped, weapons hot, hull integrity good, and so on: We're not in a hurry, so it's good to hit all the checkboxes.
Once we've gone through the list, I give the order: “Activate the Drift Engine, take us back to normal space.”
I get the usual light show… from all screens, and in this bridge, that's pretty impressive and immersive. And there’s a rather lot of dots that the screens are highlighting in red. All around us, everywhere I look. Thousands of them. “Science lead: Report. What am I looking at?”
“A minefield, Captain,” comes the reply after a few seconds, “Quantum Mines, as far as our sensors reach, in all directions. Plus three ships our size… equipped with active Drift Shadow projectors.”
Okay. Someone rich is going for ‘Ultima Ratio Regum’ ("the last argument of kings" - it's an inscription put on a old type of French cannon, the biggest produced at that time; the meaning is clear enough, no?). Quantum mines are weapons for a capital ship; the lightest hit will crunch our shields, and a couple of moderate hits will kill Stephanie entirely… well, assuming her Regeneration doesn't work. And the fact that they're laid out for us means this was planned in advance, as those mines can't be manufactured quickly, and there’s thousands of them… that we can see.
“Pilot, what are our odds of of dodging through this field?” I think I know the answer, but I have to ask.
“Not good,” she starts in, “We can dodge a lot of them, but there’s way too many. We will take hits as we move.”
And as soon as we take a hit, the ships with the big guns will know right where we are. We could start shooting them, but we have a rather lot of them to clear… and again, that would give away where we are. Something's tickling at the back of my head, though….
My thoughts are interrupted by a synthetic voice over the coms, “Captain Alex Abrams of the Stephanie Steel: Surrender your Cloaking technology to us, and we will let you live.” The greedy folks are catching on, it seems.
“It's a pity I'm not as small as I used to be,” comments Stephanie, “A small ship could get through that minefield easily.”
That was it… capital weapons can't target small or tiny ships, and mines still target… and we're carrying a Small ship. “Thank you, Stephanie, that's the key,” I hit a few holographic buttons, “Rustbucket, prepare to launch. You are to clear mines; keep your position hard to predict, do NOT group your shots, nor clear a path: That would tell them where we are. We need to do this the slow way.”
“Yes captain,” comes the reply over ship's com, “Detaching umbilical….”
We go through the hoops (via tight beam radio, of course), and I also give orders to Euler running The Brute, “Wait until the mines are clear. After that, go sniping. Keep moving and turning at random so they can't guess your position. We'll do the same.”
So we wait.
There's four control consoles on the Rustbucket, and all are full of summons. Right now? That's pilot, engineer, and two gunners. The Engineer keeps the engines running at peak speed, the pilot keeps the ship's location unpredictable, my buffs keep the ship off sensors, and the gunners pick off mines at random over the entire minefield. The gunners don't miss, and mines detonate when hit by the least little thing (it’s kind of why they're using them), so it's one hit, one kill, until the mines are gone.
That takes a long time, though. Oh, the enemy ships don't just sit there…but there’s not much they can do about a tiny little fly they can't see flitting very quickly about the battlefield. With the thrusters redlined like the engineer keeps them, that little Rustbucket has a speed rating of fifteen, and the pilot can very reliably handle sharp turns. They take some guesses and fire…but all they end up hitting is the occasional mine: There's a HUGE area the Rustbucket might be hiding in after she's fired.
And when the field is finally clear… it's time for Euler and me to go at it.
