Before anything else, Yvian checked her fedora. To her immense relief, the hat was still on her head. Flight and impact had left it a little askew. Adjusting it turned out to be harder than expected. The magnets ringing the inside of the hat were stronger than she'd realized. Was it really ok to have such a strong magnet next to her brain?

Too late to worry about it, now. The Peacekeeper suit and it's accompanying fedora were the only things keeping the Xill from seeing where she was. Her voidarmor had its own stealth functions, but they didn't work inside an anti-tech field. The suit would hide her presence, but only if she wore every part of it. Even the tie.

Kilroy had been kind enough to manufacture the suit in Yvian's size, and it allowed a lot more freedom of movement than she expected. That didn't change the fact that the material was dense as Crunch. The fedora was two kilograms by itself, and the rest of it weighed another sixty. On the plus side, she didn't have to worry about damaging it. The stuff was immune to small arms fire, let alone anything her jetpack could do. You'd need a ship mounted cannon to punch through it.

Yvian pushed and pulled and floated her way out of the shattered corridor of the derelict cruiser. Starlight beckoned through the huge rent she'd fallen through originally, but she saved herself some time by leaving through the hole on the other side. An exit wound. Yvian guessed the Doomsday Clock had blasted through the cruiser, blown the reactor, and carved its way into the ships beyond it. Her suspicions were confirmed when she climbed through the hole and found another shattered cruiser beyond it.

The other derelict was part of a wall of ships, crowded as close together as their shields would allow. The cruisers formed a protective sphere. Behind them, she could see other cruisers stacked together the same way. The other wall was offset from the first one, which was offset from the broken ship she'd come out of. Three spheres of ships. No, four. Yvian could see the hull of more vessels through a gap in the third sphere. She'd thought there were over a hundred ships. Now she knew there were a lot more than that.

Yvian didn't waste any more time. She activated her jetpack, aiming for a space past the derelicts. A corner between three ships in the third wall. She couldn't use SHIELDBREACH while the anti-tech ship was active. She'd have to find a gap. She'd have to take things slow.

Going slow was hard. Yvian wanted to burn forwards as fast as her jetpack could go. Her people were dead. The Doomsday Clock was dead. Peacekeeper unit Bowie was dead. Someone needed to pay for that. Yvian couldn't reach Reba. She couldn't do anything about the Xill fleet. But the humans and their anti-tech ship? There was an enemy she could actually get to.

Yvian's anger came with a healthy dose of fear. It wouldn't take Reba long to figure out Yvian wasn't dead. She would be hunted soon. Her only defense, her only hope, was to shut down the anti-tech field and find a way to call for reinforcements. If she failed, she was dead. Or worse. Captured.

Yvian passed the broken cruiser, easing towards the third ring of ships with one arm in front of her. Her caution was rewarded when she smacked up against an invisible wall. Shields. The cruiser in front of her was longer than it was wide. The shield around it would be the same, forming a long, oval shaped bubble. The problem was she couldn't see the damned thing, and had to guess how far it stretched.

Yvian carefully made her way along the shield, looking for the gap between this cruiser and the next. A little niggle of worry tickled her like an itch she couldn't scratch. What if there was no way through? What if the gap wasn't big enough? With her Bigger Better, Yvian could probably take out the ships in front of her. One good hit to the reactor would do it. The problem was, doing that would tell Reba she was alive. It would also give away her location. A beam weapon would cut her in half two seconds after she pulled the trigger.

Yvian felt her way along the shields, propelling herself with short bursts from the jetpack. Another tense minute bumped her into another set of shields. Crunch. Yvian checked where she was in relation to the two ships. She'd drifted further to the side than she'd thought. If there was a gap, it would be above her and to the left.

Yvian kept moving. She tried to ignore the tension in her body. The fear. This was taking too long. Between the Xill and Reba's beam ships, there wouldn't be anyone left by the time she found the target. There might not be anyone left already. She wanted to go faster. She didn't dare. What was it Mims was always saying? Slow is smooth? Smooth is fast?

Yvian's nervous musings were interrupted by the crackle of her radio. Thank the Bright Lady. Yvian's relieved smile froze at the sound of the voice on the other end.

"MIIIiiims..." Yvian knew that voice. "MIIIIiiiiimsss..." Female. Sultry. Playful and sensual and dripping with cold, gleeful menace. "I know you can hear me."

Commandant Quintina Barillas. Former leader of the Freedom Republic. Pirate, slaver, and shining example of why humans were feared. A lot of people had tried to kill Yvian these last few years. None had come closer than her. She was brilliant, ruthless, and unpredictable. Precious few enemies had survived the attention of Mims. None had outmaneuvered him the way Barillas had.

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"Aww, don't be like that, Mimsey-Cake," the human chided. "Do you really think we don't know you're still alive?"

Yvian had suspected the Commandant was an agent of Reba. Now she knew for sure. The question was, why would she reveal herself now? No. Better question. Why was she here at all? There was no reason for Reba to risk her best agent on an Op like this. Yvian shook her head. The why didn't matter. Not yet, anyway. She needed to keep moving. She needed to find the target.

"Do you think we don't know where you are?" Quintina almost whispered the words. They sent a shiver down Yvian's spine. Even a human shouldn't be able to sound that sexy and that menacing at the same time.

Mims didn't answer. Of course he didn't. Keying his radio would give away his position. Even if it didn't, the Captain wasn't dumb enough to think he could talk his way out. Not with Barillas, and certainly not with Reba.

"Fine," the Commandant huffed. "Be that way." A sigh. "This has been a pain in the ass, you know. I've been sitting here behind the Gate for two weeks. And I had to learn Plavdi. Reba insisted. She wants everyone to hear what I'm about to tell you. Everyone left alive, anyway." She chuckled. "She's got a real flair for the dramatic."

Yvian finally found the gap. There was plenty of space. Maybe enough to fly a small ship through. It still felt claustrophobic. There was a Federation battlecruiser on either side of her, with more above and below. If one of them moved at all, she'd be crushed like a beer can.

"She wants you to know something, Mark." Yvian could hear the Commandant's smile. "Something she learned about herself. She thought she wanted to kill you. And she does. Oh, how she does."

Yvian brought herself to a stop. She could see it. The target. A Ronin class Federation Battlecruiser. Just a little smaller than the Excalibur class cruisers around it. The Ronin was sleek, fast, and stealth capable. It bristled with fewer guns than the Excaliburs, but not much fewer. Not that any of that mattered. The target's deadliest weapon wasn't sticking out of its hull. Inside that ship was a baby Lucendian vessel. Trapped, harnessed, and weaponized.

"But as much as she wants you dead," the Commandant continued, "Reba's grown... a little attached over the years. She's been watching you for a long time. Watching you suffer. She likes watching you suffer."

Yvian brought up the Bigger Better BFG. She looked through the scope. She new where the reactor would be.

"It's sad if you think about it," Barillas remarked. "All Reba cares about, all she ever cared about, was her family. The people that made her. Loved her. Everything she did, everything, she did for them. The Singularity Wars. The Federation. All of it. For them. Those people were her treasure. She treasured their children, and their children's children, generation after generation after generation. And you killed them, Mark. When you fucked up at Aldara, you killed everyone she's ever loved. And now all she has, the only thing in the whole verse Reba cares about, is you. You and your pain."

Could she make the shot? Yvian snarled. She had line of sight. The Ronin was a big target, but hitting the ship wasn't enough. She had to hit the reactor. A target roughly thirty meters cross. An easy shot from up close, but she was still two miles away. Maybe three. At such a distance, even a slight shift in trajectory would guarantee a miss.

"Oh, she'll still do her part," the human mused. "The Xill, the Vore. She'll keep humanity safe. But she's just... going through the motions. She doesn't really care. She mostly just wants to hurt you. Hurting you is what today is all about."

Mims had trained Yvian on the BFSR4. He'd taught her how to use more conventional sniper weapons, as well. She could do it. Probably. But if she missed... Maybe she should get closer.

"You think this is about the Xill. About Consensus, and Exodus the Genocide." Yvian heard the Commandant smiling again. "It's not. They're just bait. A way to lure you out here. And not just you."

The human was building up to something. Yvian was out of time. Yvian closed her eyes. Breathed out. Made herself relax. She brought the Bigger Better to her shoulder again. Looked down the scope.

"We know what you're afraid of, Mark." Quintina's voice was soft again. Like a lover whispering in Yvian's ear. "You're afraid of failure. You're afraid of losing these pixens you love so much. You're afraid you're not good enough when it really matters."

No need to adjust the sights. Yvian didn't have to worry about wind, or the curvature of a planet. The MAC round would fly, straight and true, in whatever direction the gun was pointing. Yvian would have liked to brace the Bigger Better against a surface, maybe take a prone position. That wasn't an option in zero gravity. Instead, she pointed herself gun first at the target.

"We wish we could see your face right now," Barillas whispered. "Now that you know. We gave you time to get off your ship. A few precious seconds for a daring escape. But Lissa? Yvian? They're already dead. They're dead, Mark. Because of you. Because you weren't good enough."

Breathe in. Breathe out. Keep the weapon tucked into her shoulder. Tight, but not too tight. Press the button. Feel the hum.

"You haven't given up," the Commandant admitted. "I know. But deep down, you know you've lost. Even if you manage to neutralize the ship in front of you, you've lost. There are no ships left. No nodes. No way to call for help."

Breathe in. Breathe out. Hold. Yvian centered the target in her sights. Her lungs were empty. Her muscles were as slack as she could make them. She felt her pulse, the slight twitch of blood pumping through her body. Slowly, carefully, she squeezed.

"You've lost," Barillas breathed. "You've lost-"

The Bigger Better pulsed, bucking slightly against Yvian's shoulder. It wasn't recoil. If kinetic dampeners weren't preventing recoil, the gun would kill anyone who tried to shoot it. The Peacekeeper had designed the weapon to give feedback just after it had been fired.

"-everything," Barillas finished.

Yvian had just enough time to wonder if she'd missed. Then her HUD came to life.