A Bite Before Heading Out
14 Jul 2022Ember Lacson
Guardian trip postponed for another day-ish. Nicole decided to meet up with me for lunch. She parked her Sidewinder just outside the Pilots Federation District and hopped on a Beluga. Took her a few hours to fly, but she got here. Massive hug at the concourse, and we had a sandwich and a couple drinks before I flew her out to my carrier for a tour. I showed her my fleet, talked about engineering and how Deciat isn't as scary as the net makes it out to be. I even offered to take her down to Maia for some meta-alloys once she eventually graduates and loses her permit and introduce her personally to Felicity. She kind of wants to take it on by herself, but she said it all depends on the Thargoid presence near Maia after Salvation and Azimuth do their thing. She said their efforts are actually sapping her will to fight. The whole reason she wanted to start flying was to swat bugs. But if there are no bugs left by the time she's ready, what's the use? I told her there will always be bugs, unless we confirm their homeworld and drop a couple hundred nukes on their doorstep and then mop up the rest of them. I also discussed my predictions for their reaction to the Proteus Wave, and she's inclined to agree with me. I mean, we're assembling it under their noses (antennae?) for Pete's sake. And this isn't the first time we've done this to them. They have to know it's a trap by now. Don't they? I guess we'll see in a few days.
I set Nicole up with a nice room on my carrier so that she didn't have to rent a hotel room, and I'm going to pay her fare back to the Zone when she leaves later this morning. I figure it's the least I can do. What's a few thousand credits out of hundreds of millions, after all? I've also got a foot in the door with the AXI to get Ouranos out on her maiden voyage tomorrow night, so maybe I'll bag a few bugs before I head back to Guardian space. Just gotta tweak some outfitting first; they tell me these Salvation Gauss Cannons are hot garbage, and they're the experts. So, I guess I'm signing off until my excursion with the AXI is over. Wish me luck; the only thing I've touched was a Scout. I barely scratched it, and it and its buddies took me down to half hull before I could get away.