Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Two

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James went into Armin's room. "Hey man, watcha working on?" he asked, seeing that Armin was sewing.

Dawn nodded, even if their reasons were different, the effect was the same. She reached the theater and peaked inside before going in. "All clear."

~~~
"They are not included in this?" Skye asked with a frown. That didn't sit right with her. She looked to the screen then motioned to it. "Let's see what they say." She said and listened to the speaker, smiling at his words. Good, it covered all androids in one way or another."
~~~
Rigel let Luka go where she wanted and watched the screen curiously.

Luna chirped and watched the moving images curiously for a moment before looking up at Armin. She didn't understand what he wanted her to see.

Vestia noticed the other ships in the distance, but didn’t alert her crew right away. It was odd to see other ships out here, this far from anything else, but it could just be a coincidence that they were nearby enough to show up on her sensors.

She did attempt focus her sensors on them though, trying to see if she could get a better reading, just in case. She’d had enough bad experiences by now that she was a little paranoid about these things.

~~
Vestia would have eventually thought to turn on subtitles for Mourn, but before she had time to realize she should do that, she got distracted looking at the other ships. Oops?

The androids in general seemed pretty pleased with the announcement. The Terran Uniteds in particular cheered at having not been forgotten about, they were pretty used to their MegaBrainTech brethren stealing the spotlight, so it was nice to feel included. A few androids were a little less certain, some even looked kind of annoyed.

James cheered at the end of the speech, because that was what he was supposed to do. There was a little part of him though that was furious at how much time the speaker had spent trying to push most of the blame onto the corporations, he felt like they should be doing a better job taking responsibility for their part in this.

Ellie went along with the androids, cheering as well. “Yay for Terrans doing good things!” Naomi gave her some robotic stink-eye for that.

Tala looked pleased at the end of the speech. It meant the Terrans were going to stop taking part in their barbaric and old-fashioned practice of lifelong slavery, so that was good by her.

Ethan just stayed out of the way, looking awkward.

Armin tried to project happy positive thoughts to Luna by way of explaination, but he probably wasn't so good at it.

Mourn grinned. "Good" He nodded. "Still no proper free with laws though." His ears twitched. That would have to be fixed.

Luka pulled James into a hug.

Matt patted Kay's shoulder and smiled, this was a great day.

Even Kay was feeling cautiously optimistic.

Swarm well... swarmed around James and Mourn in two small groups, cheering and chittering in celebration.

Mourn swatted at them playfully. "Silly bugs."

---

Esk nodded and carefully backed into the room so as not to spill his plates of food and drink. "So what do you wanna watch?" He asked.

---

The ships seemed to be heading straight for Vestia's coordinates and at quite a speed.
Getting a decent reading on them though was a bit tricky, they seemed to be partially cloaked.

Luna didn't understand, but she did understand that people were happy and that was good enough for now. She chirped again and nuzzled against his hand.

~~~
Dawn shrugged a little and set her stuff down. "I don't know, A comedy I guess."

James hugged Luka back, grinning. Despite his frustration, he was happy about the day overall. "We're free!" He smiled up at Swarm.

The androids were all chattering and celebrating.

Ethan noticed Asher heading onto the stage, cause he was good at recognizing himself. Oh boy, happy optimistic robot speeches coming up. Sigh.

~~
Vestia watched the ships, which were definitely not changing course, and definitely heading toward her at an unusual speed.

Yeah, maybe it was a coincidence that there were multiple ships this far out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, maybe it was a coincidence that they were trying to conceal something from other ships’ readings. Yeah, maybe it was even a coincidence that they happened to be on a course that was perfectly matched to her own.

But the odds of all that happening were tiny. The odds of these being people with hostile intentions were considerably higher, and she’d be stupid not to inform her crew, especially since these ships seemed fast enough that she probably couldn’t just outrun them.

“Guys,” she said, broadcasting to everyone on the ship, “We have several unidentified craft heading our way at high speed, I think they may be hostile.”

She also briefly fired her directional engines to made a slight course adjustment. Small enough that only the most sensitive of the crew would feel it, but big enough that the unidentified ships would have to adjust their own courses slightly to intercept her.

Starr frowned at the message then looked to Armin "Can you take Luna to your room please." She asked worriedly. If Vestia was worried, that was enough for her. She would head for the bridge herself

The other dragons with children would start taking them back to the nursery to have them together and safe. The other dragons would split up to help guard the others, especially Starr and Luna.

Shane moved closer to Ellie, frowning but still trying to watch the screen.
~~~~
Dawn frowned at the announcement then sighed and looked to Esk. "Well, that about figures."

Armin nodded and cuddling Luna close, headed for his room.

Kay looked up at Matt, eyes wide.
Matt squeezed his brother's shoulder reassuringly. It would be okay. "maybe... they're just looking for directions?" He tried to be optimistic.

Silence tilted her head. "Bad people?" She asked.
Ivor covered his ears again, scared people thought loudly. He pulled his knees up and curled in on himself, trying to block out all the anxiety that was projecting.

Mourn made a face, finishing his food before getting up. "Ship, you try hail?"

Luka frowned, one hand going to her hip where... she did not have her gun. Damnit. This was the problem with pretty dresses!
She looked to Rigel for instruction.

----

Esk set everything down and sighed. "Yeah, seems about right for us." He drew his side arm, which he always had on him. "Vestia, do you think we can outrun them?" He doubted it but worth asking.

Tala's ears flicked forward at the news of possible danger, and she reached into her horn pocket space to pull out the automatic rifle she kept in there. It probably would have been comical to watch, had the situation not been so distracting.
"Those who cannot or should not fight should move to hidden and defensible locations on the ship," she said. "Preferably with multiple escape routes. I do not think hiding in a room with one door would be wise."

James's expression turned grim at the news. "If they're here to attack us, they soo picked the wrong day to do it," he growled. "Does anyone have a gun? I need a gun."

Ellie put her hand on her own gun, prepared to draw it. "We were having a party! They can't attack us while we're having a party!"

Ethan's eyes narrowed. He didn't get out his gun from his own pocket space yet though.

The other androids looked pretty terrified, none of them had any battle experience.

---I haven't hailed yet, I'll try that--- Vestia told Mourn.

~~
Vestia would try to hail the ships, while still monitoring to see if they'd follow her slight direction change. "Unidentified craft, this is Independent Craft Hildegard. Please state your purpose."

Matt leaned his weight on one crutch and rummaged through his pocket space. He usually had weapons right? He managed to dig out a small pistol and handed it to James.

Get somewhere safe. Kay told his brother.

Matt frowned. "What? I can fight!"

YOu can barely walk! Kay chewed his lip. Please Matt, go with the androids, keep them safe.

Matt glanced over at the androids. He nodded. "Okay, okay.. those who can't or won't fight, come with me." He nodded to Kay.

Kay smiled weakly. Here they went again.
He glanced to the screen sadly. The curse struck again huh? Please let us make it through this.. please. He thought over and over, begging the universe to please give them a break.

Mourn drew his sword and growled. "They try board, we make them sorry!"

----

The ships came in closer, initially ignoring hails but finally one came back. Whoever it was didn't identify themselves. "Vestia, stand down, prepare to be boarded. "

----

Aww darn, they knew her real name. That wasn't a good sign. "Why should I stand down?" Vestia responded.

(What sort of weapons did we equip Vestia with? I honestly don't remember if she has anything good for a space battle or not, lol)

(uh... I think they gave her a few more guns but there's only so much retrofitting hahah. Knowing Mourn and Shane, they totally gave her a few more guns)

"you have a choice. Surrender and you and your crew may survive, fight us, and die."
The ships split formation, there were five of them. one larger than the others.
the large ship remained on course straight toward Vestia, the other four moved to intercept. two going one way, two going another.
Looked like they were trying to surround her.

---

"Vestia, what's happening?" Esk demanded, heading out into the corridor. He didn't like this, being blind, so to speak.

Starr reached the bridge to take stock of the situation from there and listen to the hailing. She and her guards prepared for a fight.

Shane sighed and shook his head, pulling guns out of his pocket space. He had filled it to be prepared since they got attacked so often.

Rigel frowned and made a motion with his head "Let's get our gear." If they had to they could use the Devil while they were at it. "Vestia, keep us informed." He called, heading out quickly to got to the Devil.

Dawn frowned and headed for her medical bay. Fights always ended up with someone hurt.

(I'm gonna guess she's not capable of taking on five armed ships then, hahaha)

Vestia considered the ships as they started flanking her. Nope, they didn't look like something she could survive a gunfight against, even if she got the Silver Devil to help. "Give me a second to ask my crew about this," she responded. She pushed her engine a little faster, hoping to avoid getting surrounded if she could.

~~

Vestia put all the information up for Starr to look at, letting her see the incomplete scanner readings, Vestia's own weaponry, and anything else that might be useful.
To the whole crew she broadcast, "We have five ships incoming, I can't get a clear read on their weapons but I would hazard a guess they're well armed, They're demanding that I surrender and let them board. I don't think I'll be able to outrun them or fight them off."

~~

James took the pistol Matt handed him. "Thanks, man," he said. It wasn't much, but it was a hell of a lot better than nothing at least.

"We should armor as well as we can," Tala said at Vestia's announcement. "If they board, then we will want to be well ready for a fight." She'd head for the armory, with Ethan and Ellie probably following her.

James looked up to the screen where his brother was still speaking, then followed along. Yeah, Matt's pistol was probably not going to be enough in a fight.

The androids who hadn't fought before went to join Matt, looking pretty terrified. This wasn't anything they had expected, even though they knew Vestia and her crew had a history of finding trouble.

A pair of dragons went with Matt and the androids to help protect them while the remainder followed Tala to get armed and armored.

Starr would try to scan in her own magic way to see if she could supplement Vestia's information. "IF it becomes necessary we can try to make a pocket realm." She said, emphasizing the 'if' on that.

"Okay, everyone follow me." Matt declared, trying very hard to keep his voice clear and level. He was fairly good at faking being okay, even as he started awkardly toward the door.
He paused, glancing back at Ivor. "You should come with us."

Ivor was curled up, he wasn't paying any attention.

Matt frowned a little.

Silence meanwhile was fairly eager to hurt someone, she flexed her claws and lumbered after Tala and the others, who all seemed to know what they were doing.

Mourn ran for the hall. "Ship! Overpressurise all airlock, when try break through, will explode yes?"

---

Esk headed after Dawn, intending to hopefully stop by his room to actually get kitted up in full armor and grab some extra weapons. He jogged to catch up with her. "Dawn!"
What the hell did he tell her? Stay safe? Hide? He settled with "Don't die."

"Vestia! can you lock down your blast doors between the inhabited areas and the airlocks? Slow them down a bit? " Esk's mind was racing. He had a fair bit of experience with warfare and with boarding ships, but he didn't have much at all in repelling boarders. This was going to be a whole new experience.


---

Armin settled into his room with Luna, trying not to project his fear too much. He was pretty terrified though, this all brought back a lot of very awful memories.
The only weapon he had in here was a very large set of tailor's shears and the fact the airlock to get in here would make it pretty slow going for anyone attempting to break in.

He kept his tanks in place but turned the valve off, letting his mask hang from its tubing around his neck. No point wasting oxygen if you didn't need to, but if someone broke in here and let all the air out, he'd need his tanks or suffocate pretty quick.

He set little Luna down somewhere safe. "Do not worry little one, I will not allow them to take you." and set to work trying to get this place as secure as possible.

----

Luka nodded and raced toward her room. No time to get changed, she'd have to strap armor on over the top of her dress. Oh well.
She had a rifle and a sword in her room, both of which she grabbed and strapped to herself as quickly as she could before she rushed toward the Devil.


---

The ships circled, trying to cut Vestia off as she attempted to maneouver away.

Starr might get some information from her magical scan. The ships were familiar, just like the ones used on the station the Star Dragons had been rescued from.
If she could sense life signs, she'd also be able to detect a fair few people and something substantially more powerful on board the larger of the ships.

“That’d be dangerous, wouldn’t it?” Vestia asked Starr. She didn’t know much about pocket realms. “Maybe we should save that to use as a last resort.”

~~
Moriah frowned at Ivor and went to crouch down next to him. “Come on Ivor, we gotta go,” she said. If he didn’t seem responsive, well, she and another android could probably carry him, but nobody wanted to do that to the poor guy.

~~
"I’m gonna pressurize the airlocks and shut down the inner blast doors to slow them down. I’m pretty sure they’d going to break in soon. Once I know where, I’ll give you guys positions to head to,” Vestia told the crew. The benefit of having been boarded and attacked several times was that the novelty wore off a little, and you were able to handle things better.
Stank to have been attacked several times though.
She kept her speed steady, letting the ships follow her.

~~
Once they reached the armory, everyone started arming up. Tala put on her scary minotaur armor and strapped as much ammo as she could to herself, as well as a baton to hit people with if they got too close.

Ethan opted for his dakkon bayonet in case that other keeper was here and a smaller spare gun, as well as his own armor and more ammo, and an extra regular knife.

James put on heavy armor, got all the ammo and a couple automatic guns, because it was good to have spares.

Ellie got her plant grenades, there were some left from the battle. She also got a better gun, because she wanted one too.

There probably wasn’t anything in the armory that Silence could use in her current form. Oops. “You remember your training?” Tala asked Silence. They’d probably been training fairly regularly since that lesson back on Terra.

Ivor whimpered and slightly uncurled, shaking his head. "w... where's sister?" He needed her and she'd abandoned him!

"It's okay, we're gonna keep you safe." Matt tried to calm him down. Poor guy seemed pretty spooked. "Inner floors, we'll take a few teleporters, put as much distance between ourselves and the airlocks okay?" this wasn't his first rodeo huh? "Grab anything you think you can use as a weapon just in case! And follow me!"

----

Silence tilted her head at Tala, nodding slowly and flexing her claws. "Ready." She said simply. Maybe she really wasn't the reality of actual combat was pretty different to sparring lessons with Tala, but Silence was arrogant and blood thirsty enough to remain blissfully ignorant of that.

Kay wasn't really sure what to do, everyone else had rushed off so he went to Ivor, reaching out a hand to help him up. My brother will do everything he can to keep you safe. Trust him.

Ivor stared up at Kay, nodding slowly. Kay wasn't Silence, but something about the way he spoke into his head helped calm him down a little.
He let Kay and Moira help him up, clinging to Moira perhaps a little tightly.

"You should get to medical, just in case." Matt insisted, hesitating. "Keep safe yeah?" He gestured with his head "Come on everyone! Let's go!"

Kay nodded. You too. He glanced back at the screen. Oh Asher...
chewing his lip and clutching his tablet to his chest, he made for the medical room to get all the first aid stuff they might need.
He'd try to stay safe till medical aid was needed, and just had to hope like hell he could get there in time. If worst came to worst, he could assume his true form, but it was only any good for close combat and these guys would have guns wouldn't they?

Skye and Jewel ended up going with Matt and the androids, they weren't that great in a fight after all. Skye frowned and went over to Ivor "Hey, we can't stay here, we have to get to a safe place. Don't worry, we have held off invaders before." Not well, but they had. She tried to give him a smile and her being silent like the androids might even help.
~~~~
Dawn nodded as she looked to Esk. "You too, I don't want to lose you." She said then focused on getting to medical to get ready.

Rigel geared up, putting armor on and weapons with plenty of ammo, though he also filled up on knives. If it came to it, he could always throw knives and use them as a death trap. He wwent to Luka to keep her close wherever they went first.

Starr would relay any info she got to Vestia to help all she could. She nodded then smiled "Right, dangerous, but a last resort if needed, so long as we have enough dragons to do so awake and ready."

The androids nodded at Matt’s suggestion to grab anything they could use as a weapon. Well, most of them did. Moriah didn’t, she just looked thoroughly queasy about this whole thing.

Naomi grabbed a fancy candelabra, Levi grabbed some random cutlery off one of the bots that was still trundling confusedly around the room.

Moriah nodded at Skye’s words. “Yeah, we need to get going. Come on, Ivor. It’s going to be okay.”

~~
“Remember Silence, if the situation is dire, remove your necklace and use your telepathic howls. But do not use them if you can help it, as they will also disorient us, your allies,” Tala advised her. “And try to stay near an ally, having someone to guard your back is always wise.”

~~
“Thank you, Starr. Yes, if it ends up being necessary, then I’m all for making pocket realms,” Vestia told her, adding the information Starr had shared to her displays. To the crew she broadcast, “Starr says the ships look to be of the same type as the ones the slavers who kept the star dragons used. There are a large number of people on the ships, and possibly something powerful, although she couldn’t identify what it was.”

Vestia powered up her engines a little higher, still trying to see if she could buy more time. The pursuers would catch her eventually, she wasn’t an especially nimble or speedy ship after all, but if her passengers had more time to prepare themselves, that was good.

Ivor nodded slowly and let anyone just guide him, he seemed to be in a bit of a daze. This sort of thing was definitely NOT something he had any experience with, he'd lived an extremely sheltered life, a shitty sheltered life but still, sheltered.
He was terrified.

---

Silence nodded, managing a toothy grin.

---

Esk wasn't entirely sure how to take Dawn's words, he nodded at her and headed off to get ready for the invasion.

---

Kay narrowed his eyes at the news. Slavers again, they'd never stop would they?

Now kitted up with first aid supplies, he waited, anxiously, for further information. He was scared, everyone was surely? But they'd survived these people before, could they do it again?

---

Matt led the non fighters across the ship, talking the whole time. He never shut up did he? He'd dropped effortlessly into 'try to keep everyone else calm' mode, explaining their journey as he led them through multiple teleporters and into the very depths of the ship.
Far far away from anyone who'd try to break in... hopefully.

---

Meanwhile the enemy ships closed in.

It was probably a good thing most of the people who couldn't fight had silent minds, it'd make them a little less overwhelming for Ivor to be around.
Moriah would probably stick near Ivor and Skye as they followed Matt deeper into the ship, trying to keep poor Ivor at least kind of calm.

The androids, especially the ones who weren't free yet, seemed pretty nervous, although they made a valiant effort to stay calm and talk to Matt. Very few of them had explored this far into the ship before, so at least that was interesting to them.

~~
Tala smiled her own blunt-toothed smile back at Silence, and finished loading her belt with extra bullets. "You shall make your mother proud on this day," she declared.

Silence looked happy. "Good. We shall slaughter bad men!"

---

Ivor clung to Moira because she was closest. Despite being a grown man he really was pretty damn child-like in so many ways. He looked frightened and lost but he obediently allowed himself to be guided along.

Matt struggled a little on his crutches, he couldn't move as fast as he'd like but teleporters helped. Once they got somewhere near the middle of the ship he found a camera to talk to. "Vestia, can you shut down the teleporters between us and them?" If they had to walk all this way it'd take them hours to reach this part of the ship, if they found them at all. HAH.
and by then they'd perhaps have come up with some kind of plan.

Moriah didn't mind Ivor clinging to her, she put her arm around him comfortingly as they walked if he didn't seem to mind that.

"Will do. That's a good idea," Vestia told Matt. She'd shut down all the teleporters around the ship for safety, if her crew needed to use one, she'd power it up specifically for them and then shut it down again. "If you guys need anything delivered, I'll send a bot over with it."

Matt nodded "thanks Vestia." To be fair, he probably had a load of random crap in his pocketspace he should be able to access anyway. He usually had drinks and snacks and games and stuff he'd picked up and forgotten to put back down. Oops?

He found somewhere to sit down.

"So I suppose we treat this like a camp away or something yeah? Vestia will let us know if we need to get moving again. " Matt wasn't overly happy about not being able to actually fight and defend his 'family' but he supposed keeping a chunk of them safe and calm was good enough. Still, he was worried and desperately trying not to show it.

Ivor let Moriah put her arm around him, but he didn't seem entirely sure what she was actually doing. Clearly physical affection wasn't something he had experienced much in his life. It was... weird.
In his mind though, she was just trying to guide him, that was something he could comprehend, being guided, being dragged, being taken places. These were familiar things. Things he had context for.

"w.. will my sister be alright?" He asked warily.

"Hey, she's tough right? And scary as shit, she'll send those bastards packing!" Matt tried to reassure him. He had no idea but hey, it sounded good right?

Unfortunately Ivor could read his mind. "You are lying..." He looked down at his feet.

"Hey, hey, come on man... we're all scared. Truth is we don't know what's gonna happen, but we have to try to have faith in our friends okay? They're tough, we took on a whole damn army of Keepers and won! We can take out slavers!" Matt sounded a bit more certain this time. "Also, we have a whole damn army of Star Dragons on our side, those guys are screwed." That idea made him smile.
Yeah, good luck trying to reclaim the star dragons when they were PISSED OFF and had had a taste of freedom. HAH.

Ivor frowned, then nodded, satisfied at least that Matt believed all that. "then.. why are we hiding?" He asked.

Matt hesitated. "Because... it's better to be safe than sorry. Regardless of what happens, we're safe here, away from the fighting okay?" He gestured that Ivor should sit down, so should all the androids and Skye and Jewel and anyone else who was with them. "We're gonna get through this okay? I promise."

Ivor stared at the floor, swallowing hard. Yep, he was scared.

The dragons with Matt would take up 'guard' positions around the androids and other non fighters, making a 'safe' area with a shield to block their life signs from scanners. Soon enough the babies and parents would join them, since they were non-combatants too.

Starr nodded and would keep a watch on the ships. She glanced to her guards then smiled a little as she looked out again, pointing to help her focus on making a small star in front of one of the enemy ships. "Take that slaver jerks." Yeah, she was mad at them.

Matt fished through his pocket space to find anything useful. Drinks, some water, a couple of random bags of jerky, some cards, a yoyo? He set everything down on the floor.

Ivor settled on the floor, legs crossed, eyes closed, trying to block out the 'voices' and not doing a great job of it. Even at this distance he could hear the rest of the ship, quieter, more like someone talking in a room next door than screaming in your face.

he could handle that. He wasn't so happy about all the worried organic minds around him though.

----

The star would begin to form but then the largest ship sent out a pulse. Was that an Aketi anti magic generator? They'd gotten that damn thing working apparently.

While the main ship was busy, the other four took up position.

They were searching for life signs, judging which airlocks to target when they boarded. The dragons magic held up deep within the cruise ship thankfully.
As a result the slavers were oblivious to the presence of Matt's little band of misfits hiding away, for now they were safe.

the smaller ships focused on getting close to Vestia.

"You've made your decision." the communication curtly informed Vestia. That sun was a clear show of defiance after all.

the smaller ships readied their weapons to fire on Vestia.

Moriah would keep holding Ivor, she didn't really notice that it was the idea of hugging he didn't understand, she figured he was just terrified and confused by the slavers attacking. "Yeah, we'll be okay. Try not to think about the fighting, it'll be better that way." Hard not to think about it when there were star dragons standing guard though, eek.

Tori and a couple of the other Terran Uniteds went to greet the parents and kids as they came in, trying to be reassuring. Tori especially was pretty good at that, she'd been a nurse most of her life after all.

~~
Vestia laughed in surprise as Starr created a star, she hadn't expected that. It was awesome. "They think they can beat us? They have nooo idea what they're up against."

She sent her engines to full throttle and went in a zigzagging path, more to show her defiance than anything else.

The crew probably felt the pressure from acceleration, but her artificial gravity would keep them from being too shaken up, so they'd be fine.

~~
Once everyone was armed up as best they could, Tala would lead the fighters over to some teleporter so they could be sent where they were needed as soon as the slavers broke into the ship. She wanted them to be ready to strike as fast as possible.