She crossed her arms over her chest, a light smirk crossing her face as she peered through the clear neutronium wall. He had always insisted that they keep their hand to hand training in good practice, and to be honest with herself she may have let her skills slip from time to time, but as senior bridge crew on an Imperium vessel the chances to see real melee style combat had a low probability. Still, that didn't stop the more physically inclined among them from performing the daily rituals of bodily worship.
There he stood, clad in a white robe that hung loosely from his shoulders, shrugging slightly he bobbed his arms at chest level with hands outstretched. Clenching his fists he extended a thumb and wiped a bead of sweat that had found its way to trail down his nose, and with a self righteous smirk he extended that hand out towards the four other men that occupied the room with him, curling his palm back in a repetitive motion he signaled for them to come.
Two came from opposing sides, one lashing out at his head with an arched fist whilst the other swung out to try to take his feet out from under him with a sweeping kick to the backs of his knees. Falling backwards he let the fist swing wildly past his head as he extended his arms back to catch his fall, following the momentum he kicked his legs upwards to propel his body back into a reverse handstand, allowing the kick to pass under him unhindered. Curling his body back into a standing position he twisted sharply to the right, narrowly avoiding a drop kick aimed to plow him to the floor.
Standing on in idle amusement she continued to watch this mans favorite past time, recalling once how angry he got when she mentioned how unskilled his training partners really were when it came to the martial arts. He had nearly stormed out on her that night, his anger so great at the insult, but she could do nothing but to hold back the chuckle at how quickly he was to emote in front of her while here, and on duty, he was always so calm and controlled with his reactions. Perhaps it was the comfort they shared, a certain safety net that one could let down when in the presence of that one special person they already felt safe with. She smirked lightly at the thought but continued to watch on.
Spinning on the heel of his foot, he raised an elbow into the face of the man that had just tried to knock him to the floor, sending him staggering back a few steps dazed. The fourth caught him by suprise as he felt the jarring pain shoot through his jaw as the flat palm connected, and he felt his feet leave the floor for the briefest of moments as he was knocked back on his ass. An almost stunned look crossed his face as he stared straight ahead, one of his sparring partners being none the less relentless aimed a standing sidekick right at his face, but he would not be having that particular footprint on his forehead this day. Reaching up he grabbed the foot before it made contact, and shifting his own weight to the side, he managed to twist and twist hard forcing the other man to leap with the motion to avoid having his own ankle snapped, an action that immediately placed him face down on the floor.
Rolling to his side, he placed a sharp elbow into the mid back of the man laying face down, a loud cry filling the room before nothing. Leaning back slightly he kicked out with his feet, pressing himself upwards to jump back up and into the fight. He was granted no reprieve as he stood as two fists lunged at him with stunning speed from either side, once again attempting to catch him off guard. Pressing out with his palms, he slapped either wrist away, sending both men careening away under the force of their own blows. Spinning to face the third he was knocked back a few steps as the fist nearly undercut him at the nose, a deadly move that could well have been the last thing he had seen had he not leaned back a matter of inches and caught it in his mouth. Sucking back on his lip a moment, he tasted the warm saltiness of his own blood as his teeth had sliced into his lower lip on impact.
Opening his stance, he vowed to finish this before it finished him. Extending both arms straight ahead, he looked from the left to right of his periphery, never moving his head from the man straight ahead. The man to his left charged, forcing him to take a step back to avoid his opening fist. Reaching up with one arm he grabbed the wrist of the attacking arm from below, bringing down the elbow of his other arm on to the elbow of his opponent. The loud crack of breaking bone and shouting pain quickly immobilized his opponent long enough for him to yank the now broken arm towards him, forcing the still screaming opponent to fall towards him and right into the upturned fist that caught him right up into the nose as he had tried to do to him. The instant snap of cartilage into the brain ended the screaming immediately.
Before he ever hit the ground the others were on him, a quick blow to the kidneys almost bowling him over, but not completely as the other man caught him in a bear hug so tight it threatened to crush his ribcage. In quick action she accessed the rooms controls and shut down the program, her MindDrive acting on instinct faster than pure thought. The sparring opponents of the room quickly dissolved into piles of dust that were just as quickly reabsorbed into the floor of the ship, assembled clouds of materials ready for any other simulation they would be needed for. Rushing in, she quickly ran to where he knelt on the floor, his hands gripping his sides in an anguished look of pain.
"Come on you big baby, lets get you to medical... Give me your arm." and less than gracefully she took one of his arms, propping him over against her shoulder and walked with him out of the room. The corridor slowly moving and shifting around them to make a direct hallway straight to medical to expedite their journey. "I still don't understand why you insist on doing this foolish exercise each and every week..."
Jerking his arm from her grasp with a hard grimace from the pain, he stared at her for the briefest of moments before moving on his own down the hallway. "It's a mans pride to be able to defend those dear to him, that pride...." he stopped for a moment, the hard breathing he was doing while talking cuasing his ribs to only hurt that much more. "That pride cannot simply be claimed, but has to be earned. When the time comes and the challenge is taken, it is not the unprepared that will take the glory..." Carefully she tuned him out as he, yet again, babbled on about a mans pride. Sometimes she couldn't tell if he was so thick headed to not think that a strong woman of the Imperium couldn't defend herself, or if he simply lived back in the days before the Imperium. Rolling her eyes she sighed, because inwardly, she really didn't care...
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Standing at a view port that really wasn't there, he watched through the raw sensor stream the events that were transpiring just outside the ships hull as they happened in real time. The system had been much less active in the months after the initial planetary investigation had begun than had been previously suspected. The unset of war had forced the release of a great number of ships from the system to return to the defense of other home systems that would be suspected of attack. Yet he remained, on an errand of medical progress, a fools errand and he knew. In his range he sensed a few barbary cruisers changing positions as they used their own gravitation to propel themselves across the system on their patrols.
What he was missing on the front lines he was surely gaining a little something for being the first up link to see dedicated Imperium technology being used for the first time. It started as nothing at first, a minor sensor indicator of a gathering mass of inoculate particles at the edge of the Barbary lines, nothing a comet tail couldn't produce in good numbers. Slowly there became a general energy buildup amongst the particles that signaled the gathering of an artificial phenomenon. As the energy gradient grew on the pinpoint of space his sensors were trained on, a sharp spike of gravity replaced his attention as the receptors in his mind screamed with a wide range of new and radically unseen streams of information from across the ship.
Switching to outside visual scanner he confirmed what he could only comprehend with his purely analytical data streaming through his mental connections. A swirling vortex of bright white light broke the stark contrast of interstellar space that was the systems edge, almost like a second sun of sorts. The ship was transmitting the collected data of the technologies first recorded use directly to the Net, and while the connection was established he decided to delve into the recorded Arbiter information out of a bit of curiosity. It peaked his interest for a moment, what the difference might be between the alien ships they had been acustomed to using for so long, versus that of their own design.
Watching both the recorded data of old and the events transpiring outside, the differences were quite clear, but not quite as understandable as to the motivations for the second device. The older, but well tested, Arbiter created a similar wormhole in the fabric of space allowing sizeable vessels to travel across known space at incredible velocities effectively cutting a hole in space time and shooting through, both ways. The Imperiums own device seemed rather crude by comparison, instead seeming to only create a rift by which to send vessels through and be shot out of on the other side. Even now his data agreed with him, as the sensors noted a slight push of gravity being emitted around the vortex, that even the barbary cruisers were being submitted to varying degrees of drift. If the Arbiter created a true wormhole, then Imperium technology had made a traversable Black hole with a White Hole at its end.
Before he could become completely lost in the data stream of opposing technological standards he returned his attention to the real show happening before him. The Quantum device was merely one part of the show, he had heard that the Imperium was fielding a new All use ship of the line, and that it was to be used here. For what he could not fathom, a war was being fought out there and they would send the newest most advanced ship to the site of a medical research platform. Thus was the way of the Taj, his methods unquestionable and his wisdom infinite.
The ship shot forth out of the vortex like a bat out of hell, or so the saying went he thought. The gravity wells push had thrust it straight through the hole and right to the other side where, with lack of the direct thrust of the gravity well, it hit a dead stop. As his scanners read over the ships numbers and checked the net for confirmation of the ships parameters to ensure it had made the trip safely and without damage, he took a cursory examination of it on his own.
I reminded him slightly of a pair of spear tips laid overtop one another, with a poor rocky surface from years of use. That couldn't be right though, this ship was brand new and his scans were telling him it had made it through the Quantum stream in the exact condition it had entered in, something that required further research on his part. Accessing the data stream from the scanner hookup, he examined the ships specs and makeup as it slowly jerked to life under its own power and began to make its way intrasystem. It was sent to aid in the research of the planet and its viable uses to the Imperium, a ship of the line aiding in research was not all that uncommon and neither were unmanned ships of the Imperium, but on appearance alone it would be hard to imagine what the ship would actually do to help.
Even his visuals could not make it out to be exactly as it was, the front of the vessel shifting shape every now and then, forming up the solid shape of a spearhead once again, forcing him to recall its shape when it had left the hole. A dish of some sort, ah, yes, this was the ship that had created the Quantum stream, it had propelled itself through the stream... a new ship using new technologies... Assembler technology at its apex, he understood now. The ship itself was creating what was necessary as it traveled, on board engines shifting designs for optimal output as needed, energy reactors being created and disassembled, communications grids directed and then moved across the ship to be aimed elsewhere, it was nothing more than a large aglomation of machines rebuilding themselves as directed by need, wondrous.
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Limping along the hallway, he thought to himself about the odd sounds the floor made with each step. It might be the brace they had given him, upon his own request, but somehow he didn't think so. The corridors were pristine and seemed to glow, though he knew if they did it was merely an illusion he fooled himself with. It had been nearly a year since the first Fractal ship had arrived in the system, and since then many more had arrived. Like any other spectacle the wonder that these new ships inspired in their design and abilities quickly diminished when their actions turned into the mundane.
Stopping to look out a view port, he watched as a varying degree of transport ships traveled back and forth from the planets surface to the new orbital station. The sound of boots on metal greeted his ears, but he refused to turn and meet them, knowing well enough who was there. Taking a deep breath, he gazed out at the stars shining at the systems edge. A place he would be again soon enough, commanding a ship and navigating space was where he belonged and being couped up on a station was far too residential for his tastes. Bowing his head slightly he allowed his eyes to trail over his leg, an awkward reminder of the tiger locked in a cage.
"Still can't wait to leave I see," her voice cut into him like a shiv fashioned out of guilt and sore feelings. "Guess I can't change your mind?" Something there though, something lighter and hopeful, though drowning in disappointment.
"No, my place is out there, with my ship, as it's always been. You were always the scientific one between us anyway, perfect assignment... I'm happy for you..." He twitched slightly, nothing he wanted to do. He never was comfortable with situations like these. Tapping his good foot against the floor a couple times, letting the sound reverberate down the hall, he took a slow step to face her. "Is this really alright?"
She nearly melted, as if a wash of emotion took control and she reached out to hold him. Grimacing slightly at the extra weight his bad foot was now propping up, he put an arm around her. Her heart beat sped up as she felt him hold her, but slowly she pulled back and gathered her composure, raising her chin as she looked to the ceiling for the breadth of a heartbeat before looking back into his eyes.
"No, no its not. I'll be here with my work and you'll be out there across the Imperium and... And there's a war out there, and that scares me, I mean look at you... No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound that way. I'm just scared for you, for us. I want to see you again, I want to be with you again. I don't want this to end here, for this to be all there was for us. A DragoNest over a backwater planet in the Centrallity..." She was fiddling with her hands at her sides, but she never took her eyes from his.
"No, I actually meant a space station made entirely of Fractal ships..." He kicked the floor once more for good measure, and she laughed, though it sounded more for his benefit.
"Oh..."
"Don't worry, this isn't the end." Raising an open palm, he softly cupped her cheek in his hand, stroking his hand over her skin comfortingly. "Far from it..."
Tilting her head softly into his hand, she smiled.