"You did not come on a transport or logistics vehicle!?" Ketevan was surprised at herself for speaking so loudly at Ana's ludicrous statement.
Ana laughed boisterously.
Behind Ketevan's smile, she saw those children that had been delivered from the evil of the Azeri empire. When her brother, who was far better at humour, made them laugh with his silly displays. "So, it is trivial to depart a planet's... 'atmosphere' and go to another planet. That being beyond the moon and into the orbit of the sun."
"Oh, do your people know that planets are round?"
Ketevan gave her half a death stare, "Be serious, that is obvious. It was realised even hundreds of years before my birth."
Ana smirked as she entered orders for the vehicle to pilot itself, "Is that so? Yes, leaving the planet is fairly common, you must have a decent job or source of income to maintain these vehicles and the mechanics and stuff but yeah, pretty damn common if you get a solid education, or you're a smart craftsman."
Ketevan nodded, "In the ideal peaceful world my kind shall never inhabit, I would like to make the most artful dresses."
"The British have a good historical selection, but that's for later. Big Red just sent you a list of things he's worried about, these stay between us, of course."
Ketevan looked down at the phone device to see a list:
※ Machine lifeforms
※ Your insight into defence systems
※ Detection of extra-solar events - second opinion
※ Development of new weapons
Extra-solar travel? Ketevan chuffed, "Truly wondrous, to have spectacular technology."
The flying careened through the air past the dense cobalt forest of giant structures, lined with what she knew now were solar panels to collect energy from the sun. Ana spent her time elucidating eloquently of how they functioned, they were initially inefficient dinosaur's years ago but with the rapid advances made in tech they were hyper-effective. With the advent of 'Glimmer' a resource that was also a currency, formed from atoms that seemed to be more like magic than science to her. This deity they called the Traveller had significant feats counted up on her list with the planets that should be lifeless as to how close they are to a sun now being full of life. Atop that, the polymorphic Glimmer.
This glimmer was utilised in forging solar panels capable of things that should not exist by her own mind without sorcery, amplifying light absorption and the photon particles to increase input and output. She would have to study their physics to gain a proper understanding of all of this. More importantly, Hodiocentrism. This idea that instead of Heliocentric belief, that the Traveller is at the centre of the universe or perhaps the universe orients its thermal, kinetic, potential, gravitational, electromagnetic, dark matter, dark energy and others but particularly an idea of 'god' energy - that they named in their bloody flaming laziness - orients around the Traveller. Thus shifting the foci of the universe.
Currently, they were on their way to Ana's home away from home in France, Ketevan curled her lip - who names a country France? Bland and hideous. - This place she called home, was anything but. The Away From Home more than sufficed.
"We're here, get outta your head, Warlord." Ana opened the door.
Ketevan kept her snide remark to herself and stepped out of the vehicle once the door was opened for her by a dark haired man. He offered her a hand which out of politeness she accepted, being treated as a fine pale cigarette smoking lady was a nice change. He released her hand without delay and shut the car door as Ketevan took stock of the house. Her expanded instinct informed her that the place went at least two stories beneath the water as it did three stories up. A stack of blocks formed of clear glass, some of which were tinted pitch black.
By what she had experienced so far, this was done on command. Such a square structure and far too high, two stories underground were as melodramatic as the king of... her eyes found a drone of Rasputin watching from two miles off, there were four more constantly observing the place and when she looked up and focused her vision she could faintly perceive the shadow of a large object in the clouds.
"Heya Cayde, how come you're workin' security at the..." Ana's expression fell to a frown but oddly enough, there was sympathy in her eyes, "Again?"
Ketevan watched the two, the man shrugged and chuckled at an unspoken joke.
"Alright, lay it on me." she said with a hint of regret in her voice.
"Why'd Big Skully cross the road after the recent crazy match? To get to the other side... methodically, with a plan and a trust fund to get the Warlord Woman to subscribe to his crucible plans."
Ketevan blinked, not at the stupidity she'd just heard but wondered why she chortled a laugh at this dull fatuous man.
"Ha, see, she gets me."
Ana's mouth hung open for an extended few seconds before she spoke, "There's your Warlord Woman. And the first time I've seen her laugh at a joke it's one of yours..." she wiped her brow.
"Name's Cayde, nice to meet ya. Don't go warlordin' on me, I ain't got wars or lords to spare." he offered his hand again.
Ketevan gave him a firm squeeze when they shook, "Your humour is stupid, I find it strange that I enjoy it."
"You know what else is strange," he raised a finger after they ended the shake, "Ana, she's a Bray top scientist, but she can never sit still and has a killer aim. But she lives in a block house, so she's a...?" he raised his hands to Ketevan.
Ketevan shook her head.
"She's a nerd with a lens!"
Ana sighed exasperatedly.
Ketevan chuckled, mostly at Ana's annoyance. "It was a pleasure Cayde, but there's work to do, shall we speak later?"
"Let's." he made finger guns at her, "Oh, Ana, I need a favour once I get sent back to Braytech's embassy on Venus with Ishtar."
Ana's expression flattened, "... I guess you can come with us to Venus... nobody's actually in the place and Big Red's actually the one guardin' it."
"Do ya mean it?" Cayde said in an obsequious voice.
"I changed my mind."
"Oh come on, I was joking!"
Ketevan threw her head back and laughed as Ana hissed through her teeth in annoyance and took out her phone to make some calls.
While departure was prepared, Ketevan read through Rasputin's weapon schematics. Although these were the ones that were 'allowed' under current circumstances the advancements in weaponry they have made would outright invalidate common magecraft available in combat where she had come from. The need for spell seals, sigils and motions would be decimated by a few fists of men carrying these into battle. Of course, if the gifted craftsmen could find a way to integrate common spellcraft with these guns, they would have on their hands a truly terrifying innovation with each weapon being unique to its user.
She parsed through eight of these marvels of engineering, though it was not her field she could certainly learn. What caught her eye was the concept of a hand cannon, ridiculous in design and scope. A regular human in this world would have tremendous trouble with the heavy weight and resulting force, she however would have no issue—
"Ketevan, we're ready to go!" Ana called from the other side of the hangar.
Her ship was what appeared to be a large pod, instead of sharp like most of the ships she had seen it was round and feminine. Almost impossible smooth with a surface like a sphere of pure silver on the top half, the underside was rectangular to support engines, storage and living space as it was as large as a house. On its fins were combustion vents, stabilisation vents. The front and the back had a separate set of fins that detached and expanded as legs with heels. Though, this thing would look even more hideous as a land vehicle.
Ketevan marched over with her mind still focused on her phone, she was onto a potential idea of what seemed to be a defence force. Though calling them Seraphs with these petty bloody flaming gormless armours was outright insulting to the name, she had to assume they had some form of super-material that required such unsightly scrap-stitch designs. A cloth rag over the head, brown what she hoped was some form of advanced kevlar hybrid material with metal armour plates, but bland as if it had been stitched together by survivor post genocide on the run from demons. If they were on such an edge, there is little doubt someone assigned to this role would be prepared and with glimmer at their use they would be able to craft plain clothes with under layers to make them appear civilian or simply harmless...
Her thoughts trailed off when a notification appeared on the screen with Ana, Malahayati and Rasputin in an assigned chat room.
"What is this about?" she showed Ana the screen as another name was added: Elsie.
"Trouble for all of us," she glanced back at Cayde who was entering the ship, "Keep it between us, the chat's encrypted so not even Charlemagne can access it."
"I would like to know about Charlemagne and Malahayati." Ketevan followed her onto the ramp that led up to her ship.
"They're all warminds, the best of em, there's a few others like Solon, Cleobulus and Sidis." Cayde said, "If you ask me, Malahayati's got it goin' on with her lead engineer bein' a real genius."
"Too bad that's all unrequited, eh?" Ana ushered him inside and waved, so the door shut with a clamp behind him.
Ketevan smiled at another consistent mimicry of sunlight, though it lacked the 'spark' or 'breath' of creation that the natural source carried it was certainly a solid go of it. The immediate interior was that of a home, it carried scents of a wood cabin in a secluded clove where rays of sun mixed with the shadows projected from trees. Branches and leaves, coated in fresh snowfall over the ground christened with pale fog. She could almost hear the sound of rivers from homesick memories that had broken the bank in the back of her mind. Ketevan's lips thinned to a line as she paced forward past Ana and took her shoes off to use the excuse of exploration to deal with the new mess that no machine should've been able to awaken within her.
She'd grown comfortable, felt relaxed. And it disgusted her that it felt natural. But it was rational for the mind and body to long for time away from ceaseless warfare and endless crusades against demons and other heretic filth. She bared her teeth and placed her hand against a large window into a fish container. The fish, multitudes of colours and fins floated by as if she wasn't there, just going about their brainless business while their supposed new guardian struggled with her own humanity reawakening.
Ketevan stared at herself in the faint reflection, purple hair, still a mess but less ragged, her face once consistently covered in dirt was clean. Such peaceful times, she would've loved to have given to the people of Raha Isora. That whore they had summoned and stitched up deserved a second chance at redemption. She likely would never see it done. But, left to her mother, it would be accomplished. She only hoped that dearest mother would not be disappointed in these feelings that broke the flow of her mind.
"What's up, warlord?" Cayde, ill timed as he was— "Looks like you need a good story about our golden age."
She watched his faint reflection, the smile, the daring in his eyes. Perhaps this was a man like her mother's most trusted men in time.
"You missin' home?"
She turned to stare at him with a warning in her eyes.
"Yeah, I get that." his hand went into his pocket, "There's a bar on the ship or tavern? Whaddaya people use?"
"Pubs."
"Ah, Britgirl." He pointed what she surmised were finger guns instead of a finger snap, "So, drink? Drown the sorrows and talk the melancholy?"
She looked him up and down, military boots - she assumed - then his look was too casual, maybe he was used to this line of work and felt the confidence to not dress to give the impression he was a security worker. Baggy trousers with many pockets, no weapon on display, an oversized leather jacket lined with more bloody pockets, though she understood the resourcefulness. What was he carrying? She could smell tobacco and an odd mixture of things on him. Ketevan gestured for Cayde to lead on.
Ana gave them a wave as they passed by the helm of the ship while she spoke to another woman who sounded similar. Her sister, more than likely. But that could wait. The difference between her and her sister stuck out, the flat delivery and Elsie being devoid of humour with a grimness carried through her blunt tone as if she was ragged by struggles of her own that Ana lacked. Ketevan glanced back with veiled suspicion and thanked Cayde in her thoughts for distracting her long enough for her focus to return.
The 'bar' to speak of was something that belonged in the basement of a home of a rich man. He pushed aside a set of mismatched rugs and curtains blocking a flight of cedar stairs, to her surprised they had a quiet creak to them added artificially when they paced down. Through another set of Technicolour cloths, they entered the pub area where a machine stood behind the bar which Cayde quickly shooed away with complaints of 'mano-a-mano' (another joke?) She took in the surroundings. Artificial and natural wood mixed in together with the background of a song performed on a guitar called 'Enchanter.' She almost laughed at how well it fit her brother who stayed locked up in his tower until crises loomed like birds of doom over them.
"So, we got whisky, rum, brandy, gin—"
"Gin," she took her seat on a bar stool, "For the melancholy."
"See, we're going to be good friends you and me."
"Drinking muckas, sure."
"Mucker?"
"It is similar to saying 'war buddy' or 'partner in crime' where I am from." she rested her arms on the table, "There's a lot of difference and quite a lot similar."
"Well, lemme tell you about this spicy ramen place, y-you know what ramen is right?" he pushed the glass across the bar and poured a few drips of a faintly pink clear liquid marked 'London Dry,' "Really nice place, nice ma and pa run it. They sit there, with one thing on the menu called 'House Ramen.'"
Ketevan took a sip of the sweet alcohol with just the right amount of kick with dryness, she nodded approvingly, "I would like some more, please."
"Thought you'd never ask, here." He took out some pink ground salt and sliced a lemon, rubbed it in the salt and put it in a metal cup with a filter and cap, shook then poured it out. The handsome fellow took another lemon to replace the one that likely got butchered in the process. Rubbed it in salt slicked it across the rim of the glass before leaving it in place and performing a wave gesture for her to drink.
Upon another sip, she smiled at the rich tastes offered. A soldier would slaughter many for even a nascent smidgen of this with a post battle sunrise or sunset. "Exquisite."
"High praise from a warlord, think I'll take myself up river to Galway become Irish and go to war myself."
She covered her mouth to avoid spitting on him as she chuckled, "I think the Galway where I hail from, and you hail from are two near diametrically opposed places. Now, onto your 'ramen.'"
"Okay, okay, you wanna know about The glorious ramen*" he raised his arms with a melodic vocalisation, before dropping one and wagging a finger, "Ramen is different, it's something someone made when they decided the broth just couldn't make the cut. Somethin' had to go hard, and deeper and further into the art of cooking." He stirred an imaginary spoon in a pot.
"Like when he made a soup from the broth he thought what if I put an egg in, then some noodles that have the right amount o' resistance to stand it and so when you bite you get the right amount of chew." he clicked his tongue, "Oh! Can't forget the pork, don't even get me started on that. Ramen is like the perfect theory executed into reality and boom we have an entire industry and old skool classics. Pork, chicken, beef, duck, eggs, leeks, anything you can think of!"
Ketevan failed to keep a straight face, the crooked smirk of suppressed laughter at this ridiculous display was too much for her to even drink. "Thanks, Cayde."
"For what, I just told the truth and if you try it, it'll be the best call you make."
"Get up here Warlord Ketevan, come see the stars as we take off."
"Seatbelts on all that's required." Ana spun around in the captain's seat as they entered.
"Sure, mom." Cayde sauntered into the room casually.
Ketevan followed after him, the room was constructed of reinforced carbon fibres for the layout with adaptable and smart glass surfaces that she had learned about in her last reading for the walls and other surfaces. When she placed a hand on a workspace where a computer was. Colours radiated outward in a pulse before they seized and flickered to display: UNKNOWN USER.
"Haptic feedback," Ana said, "Now come on, you wanna see those stars when you're out of the planet's atmosphere don't cha?"
Ketevan walked over to an empty chair beside Cayde and strapped herself in, a bubble of nervousness set off in her gut at the prospect of leaving the world. Such a thing was only done by the greatest of mages and now technology was taking them beyond there. Her sister would grind her teeth at the prospect of such a boring world when science claims all things.
"Everyone ready?" Ana turned back to look at each of them.
They both nodded.
"Initiating launch sequence, Big Red, you there?" Ana flipped switches under the desk while she started up another computer built into the work desk besides the other. Rasputin sent messages in a language Ketevan couldn't quite make sense of. Ana spoke it, harsh and choppy with odd sounds but nowhere near as bad as the French babble. "Alright," the ship engine hummed to life.
To a regular person it would be almost inaudible, a gentle hum stirred from the underside of the ship, a quiet whistle dropped in pitch after the engine had whirred to life. What sounded like a rotor and hammer with the strength of a giant came to life that silenced all other mechanical clatter as vents opened, and they lifted off the ground without a run-up.
"Hold onto your butts." Cayde said as the ceiling opened for them to hover out.
"He's right," Ana pushed a level attached to a rail forward and pressed down on a pedal to hurtle them through the air. Up and up, until she saw the clouds up close, masses of fluffy white and a cluster of thunderclouds miles off. They passed through, blanketing the windows white for a dozen seconds.
They broke through the large white water-fluff for Ana to slow them down, Ketevan exhaled the tension in her lungs to behold the ocean of clouds above clouds, an expanse of white and shadowy greys beneath that reached far beyond the horizon. An elated feeling swelled up in her chest. She felt joy rise within, the incorrigible blooming spirit of freedom. To be loose from all things binding and to take to the sky, she turned her focus to above in anticipation of what's to come next.
Ana, noticing her excitement accelerated their ascent. As they surged upwards, through the boundless sky, cerulean gave way to a bluish violet and blackened toward early nightfall. Stars winked into existence, fifty, two hundred, thousands of coalitions in her enhanced vision, ancient ever-burning lights of the heavens in overwhelming multitudes. Ruby, sapphire, emerald, citrine and she only had to assume there were an innumerable number shades and colours she could not see.
She drew a deep breath and opened her mouth to make a comment, but words fled her mind. Ketevan simply decided to smile and shake her head, half at herself and at the prospect that they could go much further, perhaps outside of the solar system.
"I would like to see your Traveller 'deity' up close after the first assignment is done."