A Traveller's Stories - Ring of the Angel (0 BBT) [RETCONNED]

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“Wha- yes, YES of course! You better lift up this fucking thing and get us back up there!“

“Earlier, we were yelling at you to give us back weapons control. You overrode our systems and took away the chance for us to get more kills in during your maneuver.“

“There were at least two planes I could have shot down with the lasers…“

“Anyways, putting that aside for now: no, we do not have a taboo on vengeance, especially given that this is a competition; there is no particular maneuver that is penalized during the battle royale; the shields are at reduced capacity but will be back in full force in about 18 seconds, and I do also believe we should resume the fight.“

“After this one, you better be offering me at least a small lake of drinks when we come visit the republic, Morgan. Oh well, what’s done is done… quite a shame that Khalir won’t get to be part of the final act.“

“Speaking of which, three vessels are closing in on our position. They seem to have sustained considerable damage, more than we have. They’d be very easy targets on their own, but judging by their movement vectors I surmise that they have decided to cooperate as an attack squadron to take us out of the equation.“

“Well then, looks like we won’t even need to jump back into the fray. I’ve highlighted the vessels on our screens and set the target locks. Ready to go crack some eggs, Starkiller ?“

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At the same time, inside the arena’s regeneration center, Khalir was talking to the dolphin crew that had designed the sky-painted cone responsible for frying half of his body, while they all watched the game unfold on multiple holographic screens projected throughout the water-filled room.

“…which is why we were, like, so surprised that it would even function so well!”

“Yeah, I get it! Though I think you guys did an awesome job with the design. Incorporating the voidpulse was a good call.”

“Admittedly, a non-negligible part of our design choices were made with the final incorporation of a voidpulse lance in mind. We had reasoned that almost no other ship would have one.”

“I mean, I think that strategy did end up working out for you all, right? At least, for the most part.”

“I suppose so. Admittedly, the thing that took us down was your baseline hu teammate making a sudden ambush maneuver while we were vulnerable due to other attacks. Remind me, what was his name again?”

“Morgan, Morgan “Starkiller”. He’s one of, if not the most skilled pilot in the Republic of United Worlds. We met two weeks ago or so at the primary spaceport.”

“You’re gonna have to introduce us 'cause I defs want to give this guy my congrats! Hadn’t had such fun getting blown up in the last 35 years.”

“I’d be glad to.”

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“It was a hard maneuver. I couldn’t risk sny of you two falling behind. And I had to get focused.” He sighed before reluctantly continuing. “But fine, you can keep the controls. I’m not used to having copilots.” He looked at the newly marked enemies on his HUD. “Now back to the action. Get ready to obliterate these guys.”

Starkiller pulled the plane back up and towards the enemy trio. When they got close, he turned to the side, inviting them to pursue. He had to make sure to stay ahead enough to not allow them to use their numerical superiority and get him from the flanks. Then he began to pull up, with enemies on the tail.

Once he was high enough, he turned off the thrust. The plane briefly stopped in midair, as Starkiller felt for a moment as if he was in space. It then began falling down, rotaring itself nose down. The enemies were right in front and fast approaching, a perfect target. Starkiller showed them a middle finger, giving time for his teammates to shoot, before turning on the boosters and launching the plane down at breakneck speed. It darted in between the enemies, missing them by centimeters thanks to a last-minute rotation.

Once again the ground approached fast, but Starkiller turned the plane 180 degrees with a quick maneuver. For a moment his insides lurched and his vision went blurry, but it quickly passed. Now they were directly below the enemies, briefly suspended in mid air as the machine just lost most of its momentum. A second firing window, just in case the first one wasn’t enough.

Hopefully he was quick enough and the enemies too suprised to have hit the plane with anything serious.

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Caught by surprise, the remaining craft of the other teams were easy pray for the weapons of the trio’s plane. Already damaged by one another’s particle cannons, missiles and all sorts of odd forcefield weaponry, the weakened spots on each of the vessels became a gateway to victory for the trio: salvo after salvo, not a single enemy plane was spared from disappearing in a fusion-powered implosion or turning into a debris cloud of molten carbon in truly rapid succession.

And so, despite being quite damaged themselves, in the end Morgan’s team was the only one left standing operational in the battlefield. After a few brief moments of quiet, the protective forcefield barrier around the arena began to shine brightly in a kaleidoscope of colors, as equally colorful fireworks lit up the evening sky. A loud and ecstatic announcement started blaring throughout the entire area from seemingly everywhere, proclaiming the trio’s victory.

“Fuck yeah, we did it! Woo, what a rush this was! I am so rubbing this in Derhen’s face at the next club gathering.“

“It was a true pleasure, friends. We deserve to be proud of our achievement today.“

The plane triumphantly returned to the runway plaza, its wounds rapidly healing as the utility fog and security forcefields omnipresent throughour Rheldann resumed their normal functions. There at the arena’s entrance a great crowd awaited, cheering for the team and celebrating their great success: some of the spectating fans weren’t really as enthused as the others, given that the team they were voting for had lost, but they had still been quite entertained by Morgan’s near-suicidal maneuvers and couldn’t really help but be a little content regardless.

As they disembarked, Morgan and the others took in the cheers and the admiration, seeing the organizers parting through the crowd as they brought over their shining trophy atop the glittering field of a service drone. More importantly than that though, the three victors found a golden octopus waiting for them right in front of the landing pad, gleefully moving his tentacles in intricate spirals to showcase.

“Ahaha, I can’t believe you guys actually made it! Good job everyone!”

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Morgan walked slowly through the crowd, welcoming the cheers and making sure to not embarass himself. He hoped at least a few people were going to upload footage. It would be a real shame if the Confluence were to miss out on his great performance. But his attitude quickly changed after seeing who was on the landing pad. He froze in place and just stared, before picking up pace to catch up to the rest of his group.

“But… Wha… How?!!” He blurted out while gesticulating wildly. “Khalir?! You’re alive?! But how? I saw you fall out! I thought you were dead man.” He paused gor a second to calm himself. “I really didn’t need to go so hard on these other guys, did I? At least it gave everybody a real spectacle.” He paused to wave back and strike a pose at the crowd. “Speaking of, I assume all the othe guys are alive too in that case?”

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“Happy to see I was missed! The security system caught me as soon as I got far down enough from the main battle to not be an impediment, and then I was brought to the arena’s regen center so they could, you know, unfry me.”

Nistami and Zandlephon leaned down to hug Khalir as he wrapped his golden tentacles around them. A weird colorful mix of feathers, polyps and fur that nevertheless showed the affection the three friends had for one another. Both the blue crow and the octopus perched themselves on Zandlephon’s broad shoulders, conversing with their human teammate while occasionally turning and saluting the cheering crowd.

“Worry not Morgan, your behaviour was perfectly acceptable. Everyone else is also alive and well. The arena’s infrastructure was carefully designed to make sure of that.“

“Honestly, it was a relatively tranquil battle this time. A few years ago people were pulling out so many hypersonic maneuvers that for a brief moment a pocket of air between the ships was about to start fusing, ahah. Which admittedly only makes your near-suicidial maneuvers more impressive, given that you didn’t know we would have all been okay anyways.“

“To be fair we probably should have told him, ahah.”

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From a private viewing room close to the arena’s main gate, an unknown visitor watched the quartet from afar and above as they received their medals and their trophy. The data feeds of Rheldann were buzzing with the news of their victory, posts flooding the forums and the agoras of the cybercosm to comment and relay and judge and celeberate. The visitor, a colossal figure draped in the bright colors of twilight, simply stood there in the dim light of the unlit evening and watched, their eye locked on Morgan’s face, scanning, recording and evaluating. They sharpened their gaze in amused contentment, and with a mouth that wasn’t there, smiled. Only two words, simple and concise, were uttered in the air, betraying their inner thoughts in a manner for them most unusual.

H O W . . . I N T E R E S T I N G .

Suddenly beckoned, they turned around to watch the quiet emptiness behind them. There was someone that wasn’t there, something that was everywhere, in every slow breath of air they took and in every inch of the surrounding space, like little specks of dust blazing bright in a beam of sunlight before returning to the darkness.

With delight, they smiled again towards the silence.

It smiled back.

And the room became empty.

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Due to recent changes, this iteration of the roleplay is now retconned.