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Nellie and the Nanites - Bk4 - Ch.26
🕑 Added 2024-09-11 08:00:04 +0000 UTCChapter Twenty-Six
Message Logs II
Encrypted Transmission
Source: Captain Hellena - Birdsong.
Destination: Admiral Cyrus - Ravenwing.
Dad, I did something that might just help us get Mum and the rest out of the Imperial Line's hands. It is risky, but I think it will work in the long run.
I don’t want to say more, but if you find out which ship has the hostages on it, let me know immediately.
No Surrender!
Hellena
Encrypted Transmission
Source: Admiral Cyrus - Ravenwing.
Destination: Captain Hellena - Birdsong.
Hellena, do not risk yourself! You are all we have left if the Line kills your brothers. I will not risk losing all that we have left on some fool’s errand. I expect a full report on this matter when we next meet face-to-face. Take no further action.
That is an order from your commander.
Dad.
Encrypted Transmission
Source: Captain Hellena - Birdsong.
Destination: Admiral Cyrus - Ravenwing.
My commander? Dad, seriously? They have my Mother in that hostage ship, and you think I am going to sit by so I can pump out babies to continue the family line? Have you cracked?
There would be no point anyway, considering the Line can just do the same thing again and again. We have to either beat them at this, or we are their slaves forever.
Go ahead and keep your head down if you like.
I’m going to take our family back by any means possible.
That is an answer from your fucking DAUGHTER!
No Surrender and Not a baby factory!
Hellena
Encrypted Transmission
Source: Admiral Cyrus - Ravenwing.
Destination: Captain Hellena - Birdsong.
Hellena, you will NOT do anything. I have everything in hand. I plan to launch Operation Fledgeling as soon as I find a way to contact the opposing forces. Do not do anything, and try to keep our people alive.
I do not think you are a baby factory!
Dad.
Encrypted Transmission
Source: Captain Hellena - Birdsong.
Destination: Admiral Cyrus - Ravenwing.
Dad, I already did and have. It is done. All I need now is information and the right ship to target.
You so do!
Hellena
Encrypted Transmission
Source: Admiral Cyrus - Ravenwing.
Destination: Captain Hellena - Birdsong.
Understood, and well done. I will forward all our information to you as we get it.
Please be careful.
Dad.
===<<<>>>===
Message Sent through the Egg.
Lucy,
I can’t help but feel that Nellie might not have been fully honest about our situation here, and I want to make sure you are fully aware of the extent of the threats we are facing and how we are managing them in the meantime.
Following her near death, Nellie has been working non-stop to try and keep us all going, but it has not been easy. We were forced to repel an attack through multiple jump points by over fifty ships from the Imperial Line and Ten Suns fleets. Through a titanic effort by all involved, we managed to defend against the attack, claiming many ships in the process.
We did, however, suffer loss of control over some areas within the system.
Nellie has managed to create programs to automate the ships we managed to take, as without your presence, we can not correctly convert that many ships, let alone control them.
Nellie did her best to compensate, but it was simply not possible.
Given your continued absence and our urgent need, Nellie has begun to reorganize the fleet with a new ship type that we can operate.
I would ask that if you intend to return, do it soon.
Salem
Message received in response.
Salem,
First off, I am sorry to not be there. It is clear that you are all struggling, and I only wish you could all understand how I felt when I found out about my past.
It clouded my judgment for a while, and I behaved poorly.
That said, I do detect a slight tone in your message. While I am sure you are all struggling, I ask that you all support Nellie until I return and take up my position again.
I will be there, do not worry!
See if Paren can come up with something in the meantime.
What happened is between me and Nellie, so kindly keep your messages formal if you can not manage to avoid the tone in the future. I am still your Queen and your friend.
Lucy.
Message sent in response
Queen Lucy,
I offer formal apologies for any tone you inferred from my message. Times are tough since you abandoned your responsibilities and it made me phrase things poorly.
Regarding your comments on our situation,
Paren is unable to assist at the moment as she is currently stuck in the habitable world, which has been invaded by enemy forces. We can only hope she survives.
Once she has, I will relay your orders to her.
Regarding your disagreement with the Queen,
You are entirely correct, and it is indeed none of my business. I shall refrain from any comment on it in the future, although I did not see how I commented on it in the last message either.
Your obedient underling.
Salem
Message received in response.
Don’t be a fucking child!
We both know that having you contact me instead of her is Nellie having a go, and you are playing along with it.
I did not call you an underling, and go get Paren if she is in trouble!
Continuing in this tone will not make anything better, Salem.
It only makes it worse!
QUEEN AND FRIEND Lucy
Message sent in response.
Permission to speak freely?
Salem.
Message received in response
Get on with it already!
Yes!
Lucy.
Message sent in response.
Queen Lucy,
You fucked us all over and pissed off at the start of a war. We are all happy you found a family; just sad you obviously didn’t value the one you already had more.
Nellie is not playing games with you because she is currently sitting on the throne, slowly turning into a living skeleton while she tries to do the job you could have done in a day. It is her second week.
She wants to send you messages, but she hasn’t had more than three hours of free time in the last two weeks. She’s fucking amazing, and you are… gone.
She wants you back but won’t ask because she isn’t sure you even love her anymore.
You found your own people and dropped us like a hot plasma torch; how the fuck did you think it would feel to us?
Did you even think of that?
I haven’t let Baz see any of your messages talking about how much better your people are because it would break his fucking heart. He asked Nellie if he had let you down somehow. Did you know that?
Fix yourself up and come back, or don’t.
Nellie may love you, but I don’t forgive as easily.
We are very likely all going to be dead before you do, anyway.
To quote your adopted daughter,
Fuck you, Lucy.
Salem.
Message received in response
Salem,
I am sorry I hurt you all, and it had nothing to do with ANY of you. I just needed to find out who I was and where I was from.
Yes, I kind of fucked you all over, but I didn’t MEAN to do that.
It is nice to be around my own people, but I am coming back, and it is clear I have a lot of work to do when I come back.
I will be there in time, I promise!
Lucy.
===<<<>>>===
Inter Base Message Relay
Asteroid Base One to Asteroid Base Three
Anyone got eyes on the destroyers? They should have been back by now!
Report sightings and prepare for the next stage.
Asteroid Base Three to Asteroid Base One
We have one of the destroyers on the passive scan. It’s dead in space. When it gets closer, we will try to pull it in and check for survivors.
Asteroid Base Two to all Bases
Just got a message from the Planet Base. They are settled in and starting sorties to look for materials to supply the rest of the bases. Apparently, they are having trouble, and people are going missing. Never thought I’d be glad to be on a fucking asteroid.
Anyway, rationing starts from now.
Expect no resupply until reinforcements arrive.
Asteroid Base Three to Asteroid Base One
The destroyer got hauled away by one of their cruisers. I thought you lot decked it out. I distinctly remember someone saying it was ‘unkillable.’
Asteroid Base One to Asteroid Base Three
Fuck you!
Comments
Eifer
Yeah fair enough. Still, wasn't my best moment and you didn't deserve that. Yeah we'll see haha. Right now I honestly couldn't tell you if I even want to see Lucy back or not lol. I don't know what it would take before I could move past it (speak about being emotionally invested, eh?) but a simple "I'm sorry I did a booboo" definitely isn't going to cut it, and we've barely seen that out of her so far. But! Time will tell and Lucy aside, I'm loving the direction things are going. Absolutely looking forward to the bigass ship!
Clayton Danvers
No worries, it shows you are emotionally invested. That is one of the best things I can hope for. No Spoilers, but I think you will be happy with how things go in the future!
Eifer
Alright. So after having my dumb tantrum and having a think, I've realised I'm silly. First off, sorry for just basically writing off your story like that, because of a single event, regardless of how impactful. Still not happy about it, but it obviously wasn't meant to be a happy thing. It was meant as a way to force Nelly to learn her own capabilities and to stop her from relying on Lucy for almost everything. Anyway. I feel like Lucy doesn't quite understand how much she messed up. At least, she hasn't shown that she's aware. That's going to make any reconciliation a whole lot more difficult and it's already a pretty tall mountain to climb.
Avdrdr
We have to learn how badly the IES has screwed up though.
Scyfe
Yea at this point Lucy should stay gone. Don't see how this is salvageable at all or why they would try.
