The War Chronicles of a Little Demon (Youjo Senki alt)

[Rymu]

HS love triangle and concerns over other reincarnates has me thinking that an oblivious Mary Sue might just get caught up in such schenagains. Would be kinda funny for sure.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

HS love triangle and concerns over other reincarnates has me thinking that an oblivious Mary Sue might just get caught up in such schenagains. Would be kinda funny for sure.

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Hehehe. I mean.... hypothetically there's a lot of questions about how Mary would react to this, though without Being X messing with her mind...

And /if/ Tauria didn't kill her mother....

 

[Rymu]

Hehehe. I mean.... hypothetically there's a lot of questions about how Mary would react to this, though without Being X messing with her mind...

And /if/ Tauria didn't kill her mother....

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oh jeez. If the leader bitch was Mary's mother that would be hilarious.

Also really kinky if they hook up at all anyways. Imagine how Mary would feel about receiving oral/kissing Tanya after what she did. Especially if she really likes Tanya's technique...

 

[Sunshine Temple]

oh jeez. If the leader bitch was Mary's mother that would be hilarious.

Also really kinky if they hook up at all anyways. Imagine how Mary would feel about receiving oral/kissing Tanya after what she did. Especially if she really likes Tanya's technique...

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I mean... probably won't be going with that House, /if/ Mary is in the story.

As for the second part, even years down the line, I'm really not sure about that. Age plus that Tanya is fairly asexual...

 

[Rymu]

I mean... probably won't be going with that House, /if/ Mary is in the story.

As for the second part, even years down the line, I'm really not sure about that. Age plus that Tanya is fairly asexual...

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Fair enough.

Also I guess it depends on your take on Tanya and which source material you're looking at? From my memory, Anime/Manga Tanya is significantly less ace than LN Tanya. Plus I kinda feel like you've accidentally teased something being possible with the worldbuilding and character intros.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

Fair enough.

Also I guess it depends on your take on Tanya and which source material you're looking at? From my memory, Anime/Manga Tanya is significantly less ace than LN Tanya. Plus I kinda feel like you've accidentally teased something being possible with the worldbuilding and character intros.

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That is fair. And it is a spectrum of ace for her. That said as she goes through puberty she will grow up. (And unlike the manga she is growing up).

So her at her current age versus 14 versus 16 versus 18 and so on. Hence why VoiletBlood was thinking into the future. And Tauria got herself deeper by going "That's future me's problem to deal with".

Sucubae are long lived so they can be patient. That's why Tanya's whole "I've got to min-max getting through this 20 year Legion term" is more of her causing her own downfall.

Given VioletBlood points out that at the end of that term (if she lives) Tanya will be a Countess of renown, probable high rank, and only 31. Even her taking a sabbatical midway through her term has her at 21.
And there would be pressure from her Mother the Duchess. Where even if Tauria was still fully Ace there would be pressure.

But that is future arc stuff.

She doesn't even have a command equivalent to the 203rd yet, let alone Salamander.

 

[apeljohn]

That it was both of them meant this was not just a political move.

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Holy moly, they actually broke through the Degurechaff Misunderstanding Field. And it only took the both of them plus a literal empathic sense.

We were both Pilots for a reason. And I knew my place was at her side.

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...Harem Ending getto?

 

[Sunshine Temple]

Holy moly, they actually broke through the Degurechaff Misunderstanding Field. And it only took the both of them plus a literal empathic sense.

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Both of them and years of effort culminating in this party. But yeah, I did want to have Tanya learning a little bit.

But made up in the next scene by having her totally misread VioletBlood.

...Harem Ending getto?

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Well.... that would be telling. As VioletBlood notes they've got a lot of combat to go through. Maaaybe she doesn't make it.

Maybe over the years Visha shows she's best girl as she's got the inside track. Though VioletBlood has the status. Maybe they bicker while Tanya watches with confusion.

Maybe they work together to make sure Tanya is the bets countess she can be.

There's a lot of potential, especially as there's a good amount of time and plot elements to cover.[/quote][/QUOTE]

 

[apeljohn]

Maybe they bicker while Tanya watches with confusion.

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Tanya: You know, you two really should get a room.
Violet: Wut
Visha: Wut
Tanya: Don't get me wrong, it's kinda adorable in a tsundere sort of way, but you would be much healthier if you stopped suppressing your desire for each other.
Violet:
Visha:
Tanya: Now, I'm going to go get a coffee whilst you two... ah... sort things out. Just don't take more than two hours. And don't use my bed.
Violet:
Visha:
Tanya: ...Alright, alright, if your own bunks are that uncomfortable, you can borrow my pillows. I'll just burn them later. Bye now. ***click***
Violet: ...
Visha: ...
Violet & Visha: THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!!

Bonus points if they eventually arguing round to sharing Tanya, each give their new sister-wife a hug to celebrate... and Tanya comes back at exactly that moment. "Jeez, you two still not done yet? Whatevs, if anyone needs me I'll be camped out on the roof.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

Tanya: You know, you two really should get a room.
Violet: Wut
Visha: Wut
Tanya: Don't get me wrong, it's kinda adorable in a tsundere sort of way, but you would be much healthier if you stopped suppressing your desire for each other.
Violet:
Visha:
Tanya: Now, I'm going to go get a coffee whilst you two... ah... sort things out. Just don't take more than two hours. And don't use my bed.
Violet:
Visha:
Tanya: ...Alright, alright, if your own bunks are that uncomfortable, you can borrow my pillows. I'll just burn them later. Bye now. ***click***
Violet: ...
Visha: ...
Violet & Visha: THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!!

Bonus points if they eventually arguing round to sharing Tanya, each give their new sister-wife a hug to celebrate... and Tanya comes back at exactly that moment. "Jeez, you two still not done yet? Whatevs, if anyone needs me I'll be camped out on the roof.

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Hah! That is the sort of misunderstanding that Tanya perpetuates. And she would be just that dense.

And as we've seen with Tanya's time with the 203rd she's fine with her troops having R&R that is adult: drinking, gambling, ect. "You're soldiers, I don't care what you do on leave as long as it doesn't volatile fraternization rules, but Baroness I must note that you are a bit young for such things.."

 

[Rymu]

Tanya: You know, you two really should get a room.
Bonus points if they eventually arguing round to sharing Tanya, each give their new sister-wife a hug to celebrate... and Tanya comes back at exactly that moment. "Jeez, you two still not done yet? Whatevs, if anyone needs me I'll be camped out on the roof.

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I feel like there's a joke about the two of them agreeing after that last misunderstanding that they probably have to jump Tanya in order to get her attention before the realization that they're both bottoms who want their smol top to be more aggressive kicks in and they curse their luck.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

I feel like there's a joke about the two of them agreeing after that last misunderstanding that they probably have to jump Tanya in order to get her attention before the realization that they're both bottoms who want their smol top to be more aggressive kicks in and they curse their luck.

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Poor tanya, the second half of her teenage years are going to be so challenging.

Upside... she doesn't have to deal with high school drama.

Not wonder she was pondering running off to a nunnery.

 

[Rymu]

Poor tanya, the second half of her teenage years are going to be so challenging.

Upside... she doesn't have to deal with high school drama.

Not wonder she was pondering running off to a nunnery.

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The only way Tanya doesn't experience high school drama is her not going to high school due to her alternative education and the fact that a race of violent and empathic demonesses are up to things a bit extreme for high school drama.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

The only way Tanya doesn't experience high school drama is her not going to high school due to her alternative education and the fact that a race of violent and empathic demonesses are up to things a bit extreme for high school drama.

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Tough call. Which would Tanya rather deal with? Serving in a front-line posting or high school? I mean.... she'd at least be one of the popular girls?

And you ain't wrong for how "mean girls" things could get. Though as Tauria points out they're little hellions to raise. Given it's like dealing with children, and then teens, who always have knives, matches, and can climb anywhere.

 

[Rymu]

Tough call. Which would Tanya rather deal with? Serving in a front-line posting or high school? I mean.... she'd at least be one of the popular girls?

And you ain't wrong for how "mean girls" things could get. Though as Tauria points out they're little hellions to raise. Given it's like dealing with children, and then teens, who always have knives, matches, and can climb anywhere.

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Given the fact that they can all impregnate one another by their teens if i've been reading things right, I feel like teen years get even worse than the default expectation of dealing with teens with knives, matches, and flight....

 

[Sunshine Temple]

Given the fact that they can all impregnate one another by their teens if i've been reading things right, I feel like teen years get even worse than the default expectation of dealing with teens with knives, matches, and flight....

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The whole birds and bees thing does get complicated. Not to be fair, /accidental/ pregnancy is really really hard among their kind. But stupid teenagers being stupid teenagers?

Though on the other hand they as a society do have a rather good system of informing young demons what's going on and so on.

So yeah you're right that high school gets /complicated/.

Well strictly speaking their eqvuilant of pre university/vocational/apprentice training.

 

[JD.Forums]

Is there a lord reason why the armor includes ballet boots?
I haven't found it yet if there is.

 

[Teiwaz]

I see that the Light of God has good and proper taste in ships as to be be expected of one of His children.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

Is there a lord reason why the armor includes ballet boots?
I haven't found it yet if there is.

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The in-story reason, the boots are that high because it helps them in flight mode to be more 'en point' and it was seen as not that much of a loss because Ritual Plate is not that great in grounded combat (they lose a huge amount of the speed and mobility). I mean yeah to be honest it is a liability if they were in the suck of having ground combat. but some fight in hooves.
So the reason is that while it would be more practical to have flats in Ritual Plate, tradition and that it's not much of a help keeps them this way. They are succubae.
As someone mentioned in another thread: In the end, a full hardsuit is a full hardsuit, and the exact decoration is only relevant so far as spell arrays are concerns.
Is it all a flimsy justification to have demon ladies wearing Bubble Gum Crisis style hardsuits? I mean....

I see that the Light of God has good and proper taste in ships as to be be expected of one of His children.

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I mean when an archangel himself hints about it in the prologue...

Can have a lot of fun when they meet back up, like how Tauria sees that Visha has "gone native". Despite them both being (re)born demons Visha is a bit more of a natural to it.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

The War Chronicles of a Little Demon

Set in the Diyu Demons verse
A Saga of Tanya the Evil fic.
By Sunshine Temple

Naturally, I do not own Youjo Senki. So here's the disclaimer:

Saga of Tanya the Evil its characters and settings belong Carlo Zen, Shinobu Shinotsuki, and NUT Co., Ltd.

Previous chapters and other works can be found at my fanfiction website.
http://www.fukufics.com/fic/

C&C as always is wanted.

Chapter 6: See the World

Some Minor Houses are powers in their own right. They have coherent economies and militaries with institutions and organization that allows them to secure their territory and borders. While they might be too small to fight off a determined invasion from even House Andromache they could stand on their own from peer threats.

Other Minor Houses were basically whatever warlord or brood queen had the biggest claim over an area and was little more than a name on a map to cover up a zone full of squabbling tribes, raiders, and brigands.

House Vualia used to be the former and was trending to the latter. To the southeast of the Diyu continent, they were across the strait of Ambria from House Luxon which was an ominous neighbor to have separated by roughly seven hundred miles of sea.

Still they traded with Luxon, though they preferred to deal with House Alecto who owned Meropis Island due south of Cape Manu, which had been Luxon's southernmost point.

Before Luxon invaded House Vualia.

First, Luxon took the island of Drumian in the middle of the strait, used it as a staging area, and then made landfall on the northern tip of House Vualia.

From the forward observation station on the HFV Garuda I could just about see the border that separated House Vualia from the Luxon occupation zone.

The observation deck was just above the embarkation deck, itself the lowest deck. It was at the bow of the airship positioned between the twin side-by-side lifting structures. A Phoenician class Long Range Insertion vessel, the Garuda was about 840 feet long and looked roughly like two a hundred and forty foot diameter zeppelins stuck next to each other.

Functionally, that was what it was. The Phoenician class was built using a Virtus Medium Hull. And the Virtus shared many of the same lift bags, structural frames, maneuvering fins, propulsion pods and other structures as the Lua Light Hull.


The Lua Light was a mono-hull so it looked more like the traditional image of a rigid airship. Like the zeppelins of my previous life. Where classes built around the Virtus looked like two Luas. Again, structurally, there was some validity to that.

It also served that way in net lift capacity. Though the Virtus had more interior space given the way it was constructed.

That was handy as this airship was crammed with two Centuries of Legionaries plus their heavy equipment, such as it was, four Umbra Medium transports, two Ritual Plate Squadrons, Ritualista, maintainers, and assorted ships crew.

I say crammed, but in fairness, unless you were on something tiny like a Venture Scout or a Kolibri patrol, most airships had a fair bit of crew volume. It was mass that was the limiting factor.

I sipped my coffee. This observation post was above the Ritual Plate launchers mounted in the bow of the airship. Officially, it was to act as a way to check on arrival and approach positions. It was also useful for when the airship landed or went to anchorage, or docked with another vessel.

There was another post in the stern of the airship, one mounted below the embarkation deck in the keel, and another on the upper dorsal surface.

"There you are, Diamond," Centurion Baroness VioletBlood said as she entered the compartment.


"Just enjoying the view." I quietly nodded to the fleet officer who had a watch post.

VioletBlood stepped up to the guardrail in front of the transparent panes. There were shutters that would slide down behind them, but they were more to keep shards from blowing into the compartment. Armor was deadweight, until you needed it. Thus House BlackSky invested in far lighter defensive systems for their air fleet.

I had to admit the professionalism of the Household Fleet was reassuring. Especially since I had to trust them to get us out to this potential combat zone and then keep us alive while we waited to see if things went sideways.


Said professionalism started with having to maintain a giant fleet and every advantage of scale was taken. There was a degree of modularity, standardization and upgradeability that reminded me of Ritual Plate design methodology and logistics, but on a far, far grander size.

This streamlining of manufacturability by reusing the same hull designs, for having classes that did many roles using the same hulls, and reusing components and even major frame assemblies was used throughout the Household Fleet.

The powerful, but relatively fast, Fides Fleet Hulls and the ponderous, but titanic, Sancus Heavy Hulls also used many of the same components. This time with cyclopean nearly two hundred foot diameter assemblies. The Fides was a two hull design basically like an enlarged Virtus with thrice the lifting capacity.

Where the Sancus was a tri-hull design that was two times larger than even a Fides. The Sancus was so large that half a dozen of them could deliver an entire Infantry Legion: two Typhoon Troopships each with four Cohorts and a troop of armor, two Stellian LRI to carry landing craft, the remaining cohorts, and the rest of the armor, and two Bacchus Fleet cargo for additional supplies. Each Bacchus could carry over nine hundred tons of supplies and over a dozen medium VTOLs to deliver them.

A Nova Fleet Carrier was also required to transport the bulk of said Legion's Ritual Plate compliment. That Legion Lading Flotilla would need a lot of escort craft. At a minimum an, oh so creatively named, Landing Defense Flotilla

But it was an impressive show of force.

"I could not comprehend the exotic locales I would be sent to if I took your offer or patronage, countess," VioletBlood dryly remarked as she looked over at the war-torn landscape below us. At this height, it was rather pretty, nowhere near as bad as the Rhine Front.

Not so impressive was this little Task Force/ We were a mix of a Double Century LRI Singularium and a Damocles-Destroyer Singularium. That came to a total of four Venture Scouts, three Opis Cargo airships, a Damocles Light Carrier, a Mace Destroyer, and the ship I was standing on the HFV Garuda .

Which was also the largest vessel in the formation.

In abstract, it was not a bad little force. Each Venture could act as a persistent scout. The tiny airships had a total complement of fifty-five but could act as a mother ship for six Ritual Plate pilots. The Opis each had an RP squadron but that was mostly for their own defense though could be used in a pinch. More importantly was that each had over fifty tons of supplies stored on them. Functionally, they could double the endurance of this Task force. Or act in a relay to keep us on station for yet another dull month of negotiations.

"If you want better accommodation as your flight commander I will happily forward your request for transfer, and I will personally add my own commentary." My tone was mild, but I let my tail flick and curl.

"No thank you, Prefect Centurion DiamondDust. The fleet food is agreeing with me," VioletBlood hastily said.

I smirked.

Fleet Logistics was ruthless. Airship fuel was less of an issue as their power systems were very high-energy dense and only needed refueling on the long time scales. Unfortunately, fuel cells for Ritual Plate, VTOLs, and such, food, water, munitions, parts, and everything else all added up.

There were mitigations such as water recycling and local harvesting, or that most of the fuel cells could be recharged by the airship's power systems but weight was still everything. In theory, we did not even need the trio of cargo ships as each airship's onboard supplies would be sufficient.

For a whole month.

That said, the galleys on the Household Fleet ships were quite good. They certainly beat field kitchens. Though I did think they put a bit too much salt in their coffee, but it helped cover up the burnt taste. At least it had plenty of caffeine.

"Do you think the negotiations will get anywhere?" VioletBlood asked.

Luxon's invasion was decades past and had slowly grown since.

While some great Houses decried House Luxon's actions such as BlackSky and RedStorm. Most thought it was hypocritical for us "bellicose" BlackSkyvians, and our RedStorm lackeys, who spend so much building a force capable of invading anywhere at any time, to complain.

House Andromache, the smallest Great House, and one especially concerned about an invasion from a larger House was in a delicate position, as keeping good relations with Luxon was a key part of their survival strategy.

Even House Elena, the largest Diyu Great House, only gave platitudes. While Elena kept a placid stance on the diplomatic stage and played the peacemaker, especially to contrast with the purportedly aggressive posture of House BlackSky, they had their own expansion of gobbling up islands in the northern part of the Antropia Sea.

And even they, the largest House, wanted to stay on House Luxon's good side. House Luxon was the third largest and a strong ally of Elena. Thus Luxon provided Elena with a block that had more population, economic, and military power than House BlackSky and our allies.

While also helping them in BlackSky's land borders to the north and east.

"Do you think Luxon will give up the years and treasure and lives they spent securing their invasion territory?"

VioletBlood shook her head. "And I don't think Vualia would be happy with keeping the occupation in place."

"And no one cares, not really. Of the three biggest Houses: our objections are ignored, Elena gives empty air to avoid offending their ally, and Luxon are the invaders. The smaller Great Houses are ignored."

"And the three Medium Great Houses, Ziox, Irkella, and Trosier, see nothing wrong with Luxon's actions." VioletBlood sighed.

That was not fully correct. Ziox did protest the actions of their rival to the south, but saw military adventurism on Luxon as a net good, as they had their own designs on the rich farmlands and mines of Luxon's north east frontier.

"Why are we even here?" VioletBlood asked.

I eyed her.

"I don't mean us specifically, I mean our Task Forces. If these negotiations are futile then how does this show of force serve our needs."

"Which Great House have we not talked about?"

VioletBlood sighed. "Alecto."

I sipped my coffee. "They asked some of our diplomats to help with the ceasefire negotiations."

"Yeah, yeah, we're here to provide security," VioletBlood tapped her boot on the deck. "Alecto's not really a belligerent in this."

"Officially?"

I gave her a patient look. "You're of noble blood, shouldn't you know this."

Acting as if what I said did not make sense, she frowned at me. "Minor Houses are wary of Great Houses. Often, they get the sense that the Great Houses care more for their own interests than some minor power. Even the ones that help them."

"Especially," I corrected.

"House Alecto has been a strong trading partner with, well, everyone. Everyone but House Trosier. If you need your trade routes secured, or you need hardware or training, or just supplies, Alecto will sell to you."


"Provided you stay on good terms with Alecto." I could appreciate House Alecto's rational mercantilism. Unlike most Houses, they were less concerned about holding land for the sake of holding land, and more about what networks and connections they could make.

Despite being less populous than House Trosier and spread out among many islands and enclaves all over multiple seas, Alecto was an economically powerful Great House. Which translated into being somewhere between the three biggest Great Houses and the medium three Great Houses in terms of economic and military power.

Though their fellow naval power, and historical enemy, House Trosier could, and did, contend that assertion.

"It's not just that Alecto helped supply and train much of House Vualia's military. They're also trading partners with Luxon."

"Hose Alecto trades with everyone," I echoed her earlier comment.

VioletBlood looked out into the sky. I wondered if she was looking for the rest of our task force.

Field formations of airships were rather dispersed. The actual distances where mutual support was optimized and the craft would not interfere with each other was far further apart than fleet parades or the cinema would imply.

"This is a mess. The House who's been supplying both sides of this war has brought us in as negotiators."

I shrugged. "Who else? Elena's too closely allied with Luxon, and the other Great Houses are too small."

House Luxon did try to protest the Alecto's actions, but not as strongly. While they did not buy many weapons from the mercantile House, they did buy a fair amount of processed goods and components that were useful in the production of their arms.

More than that, after receiving intelligence on how much House Vualia was spending to get House Alecto's help, High Lady Luxon decided to continue the trade.

Unlike Vualia, House Luxon had their own defense contractors and mature arcane industries and thus only bought specialized equipment and hulls from Alecto.

Thus as the occupation ground on and expanded southward, House Vualia was slowly going bankrupt with all their arms purchases. Not to mention the lives lost.

"Will there even be a ceasefire?"

I sipped my coffee, tail rigid.. "Plenty of times both sides will agree to a pause so they catch their breath and build up more equipment and train more troops," I managed to not snarl.

I hated how much of a waste war was. Especially pointless wars.

In many ways, House Vualia was bleeding themselves white to slow and stop the Luxon invasion. Meanwhile, Luxon had found themselves in a position where the productive output of their occupied lands would take decades of investment and securing before they could even start to equalize the costs their invasion had incurred.

I could have told them that. War was a net waste. Productive lives are snuffed out, economic capacity is destroyed, and what is not destroyed is bent towards making things that will be destroyed or at best will be tied up to a pier or stored in a hangar looking pretty.

The only House who came close to coming out ahead of this mess was House Alecto, and even that gave them a reputation hit as ghoulish war profiteers. And honestly, they preferred to sell civil goods and military hardware that just looked pretty in a hangar and racked up easy maintenance fees.

"Does Alecto even want it to stop? Or is this them saving face?" VioletBlood asked. "If they stopped supplying Vualia, the Minor House would collapse. If they stopped supplying to Luxon then the other Great Houses would get upset."

"It's a mess," I agreed. The briefings before we were deployed out here painted a grim picture. One that just showed what happened when the Great Houses had proxy fights. Still, it was better than an open war on Diyu. "Though you're not being cynical enough, Baroness."

She curled her tail inquisitively.

"If this little war stopped, or DarkStar forbid, Luxon pulled out of the occupation zone. Well, that sure is a lot of Janissaries, Heavy Golems, Ritual Plate Air Corps and other troops they can move out of this southeastern front."

Her eyes widened. "Right. We are on the opposite side of House Luxon from the border they share with us."

"Every Luxon hoof-slogger down here is one that can't threaten our interests in central Diyu."

VioletBlood gave me a reproachful look.

I chuckled; she was still young and would need to learn more about reality. "I'm not saying we're here to sabotage this ceasefire talk. Given the factions, it's unlikely to go anywhere and even if there is a hold in the hostilities, it'll be temporary."

"Right, Luxon wants to make use of their occupation zone and Vualia wants their land back."

"But us trying to be peacemakers helps show that House BlackSky is not unreasonable. Or to be more cynical, it reinforces our support of House Alecto. I do worry that our task force isn't strong enough.

The formation we were in had three main assets: there was the ship we were on which could deliver its two Centuries of Legionaries with a Squadron of Legionary Ritual Plate Fliers for decided air support. There was another RP squadron onboard of Fleet Pilots who were normally assigned for Combat Air Patrol roles to protect our ship.

But they could also help the Legionaries, much as how our squadron could help with the mind-numbing, but vital, air defense patrols.

The next asset was our Damocles Light carrier which had three RP squadrons. Combined with the other RP assets that gave us a reinforced Wing. Though not one that could not be deployed in a single strike, not without uncovering our air fleet.

Still, those three Squadrons could be deployed freely. Albeit in that case protecting the carrier would fall on the Squadrons that were watching the other assets in our little formation.

"How are Octavia and GreyDawn doing?" I asked about the two other pilots in my Flight.

"Octavia is settling in. Their Ritual Plate is in good status and they're currently on standby," VioletBlood stated.

"Including yours?" I asked with a light smile.

"Yes, it's working fine."

"Are you getting used to your Polyxo?" Now I sharpened my smile.

"Yes! Your training has gotten me quite used to the new capabilities, thank you!" VioletBlood assured me.

"Good," I purred. I really only had one objection to the baroness buying her own advanced multi-role suit. I even asked my duchess to help expedite her order. And that objection was that I did not want my wingwoman to be a clumsy novice, unable to use such a piece of hardware to its fullest. Thankfully, she was willing to accept some training before we deployed.

VioletBlood nodded. "I can see why you like yours, it really is a step up from the Polydora"

"That is the point. Now, how are Octavia and GreyDawn taking the waiting?"

"Octavia was getting stir crazy until we started doing a bit more patrol flights and recon. GreyDawn is helping her. It'll put more wear on our parts and give our Ritualista more work but..."

I nodded. Idleness was a massive detriment for soldiers. Also I wanted more intelligence about activities on the surface. The Prefect Centurion in charge of the Legionary component on the ship had let a couple Contubernium of her forward recon go out to investigate the surface.

A handful of squads of eight Legionaries had found some activity around the city where the ceasefire was being negotiated but nothing definitive. It was enough to mark a few transit routes and choke points that could be bombarded if enemy forces were detected using them.

Our Task Force's heavy hitter was a Mace class Destroyer. It carried eighteen Fujiwara aerial Torpedoes. Each was a missile about twenty feet long and weighing about two and a half tons. They came in a lot of variants: fleet defense, fleet strike, ground support and more. Ours had a mix which increased flexibility but decreased capacity.

That was the big limit; once our destroyer shot its Torpedoes they were gone. There was a set of reloads on the cargo ships but they would take time to transfer over. And once those were gone the Destroyer would be empty. It still had some value as a persistent platform for an RP Squadron.

Meanwhile, Ritual Plate can be sent on multiple missions, assuming they survived. However, there was something nice about launching an expendable munition to take out a target. Far less risky.

And I was not just saying that because as a Ritual Plate pilot, every target destroyed by a big missile was one less I had to risk my neck over.

Still, this gave a formation that while those two centuries, 160 Legionaries, did not have much in the way of heavy equipment, they had a lot of potential air support. Unless something made a concerted effort on our airships.

"Luxon has been spending a tithe of its military slowly grinding Vualia for decades," I noted, clasping my hands behind my back.

"These minor wars are draining."

"It will be more draining if we're drawn in," I noted. Abstractly, a two front war on Luxon could be interesting, but then with us going after Luxon on our eastern border, Elena might come in on our northern border.

But just because the higher geopolitics were beyond my ability to influence decisions, did not mean I did not want to know exactly what kind of mess I had been put into.

From what I had learned at the briefings the squadron heads had given to Flight leaders, such as myself, current Fleet Intel and the Office of Cultural and Strategic Reconnaissance was fairly confident that while Ritual Plate and several heavy weapons assets had fallen into the hands of the various groups that had been spawned as minor House Vualia slowly fragmented and House Luxon's proxies started getting their own ideas....

There were not the numbers and skill to make a serious bid for an organized Task Force.

Even one our diminutive size.

"How does it feel to be a tripwire?" I asked.

"Am I supposed to prefer I was on the larger vessel?" VioletBlood shrugged. "I mean a Hadian does have nicer facilities. I heard they even had a makeshift pool made out of one of the water ballast tanks."

I shook my head. "I suppose I can't begrudge you for wanting luxuries."

"Oh? what do you want?"

"Quicker mail. There's such a delay for non-critical messages out here." I frowned and sipped my drink. "I know it's indulgent."

"Oh? Anyone... special you wanted to talk to?" VioletBlood teased. "Or just family?"


I blinked. "Before we deployed I was doing an interesting point and counterpoint with an anonymous pilot at a western base in the Journal on Air Combat about the finer points of using Zephyr for thrust vectoring. I don't agree with all her arguments but it was engaging. Ah well."

VioletBlood gave me a big smile. "Well maybe you can just keep up a slower paced long distance relationship."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, yes, we both want little luxuries."

"I mean mine can be met by flying over to Task Force 403," VioletBlood smugly said. "They have a ship large enough for a pool."

In a bid of sanity we were not the only Task Force in the area. Task Force 403 had a Medium Air Trinity of a Maul Cruiser, Mellona Medium Carrier, and Pike Torpedo Bomber Tender, their scouting force, escorts, and fleet train, plus a full Cohort of Legionaries and their VTOLs on a Hadian LRI transport. Said Task Force had been assembled in the same operational area as ours.

That came to over a Wing of Ritual Plat that could be deployed without putting a dent into their defensive formations, over a hundred ready aerial Torpedoes, over seventy more as reloads in the cargo ships, and a light squadron of five Hasta Torpedo bombers.

The Hasta had a combat radius that ranged between about 750 miles to 1,200 miles depending on how fast the bomber was going, and each could carry a pair of Fujiwara Torpedoes. Which extended the functional range of the Fujiwara and could launch them from multiple vectors all while using a platform that was a bit more expendable. The Hasta could also work in a defensive or persistent patrolling role.

"I didn't bring my bathing suit," VioletBlood said and looked down at the land below us. It was largely forested but there were rising mountains and crags and warrens. And if Vualia implodes?"

I frowned and pondered. There really was an advantage that came with a stronger Task Force.

Combined with the Medium Trinity's Ritual Plate Wing, it was a fair collection of assets that could deploy a good distance from their mother airships. And did not even count the dozen Umbra medium VTOLs, the flight of three Spahta Light VTOLs and two escorting squadrons of the Legionary Ritual Plate on the Hadian also attached to the larger Task Force.

The Medium Trinity had as their escorts a squadron consisting of three Kolibri Patrol carriers and three Kolibri Torpedo corvettes. Three times the size of the tiny Venture scout, the Kolibri was a fast, and inexpensive ship that could be configured for a lot of roles. As a patrol carrier it could hold two Light Squadrons for a total of eighteen Ritual Plate and a Spatha Light VTOL. As a corvette it could carry eight aerial Torpedoes and a single Light Squadron.

I sipped my coffee and pondered the baroness' question. "What do you think?'


"Queen Vualia's control of her interior territory has decayed as factions and movements rose up. All upset with the idea that a stalemate would be the best thing that could be promised. What if House Vualia turns into another one of those blank parts on the map that had a notional House, but was really just a mess of city-state tyrants?"

"An end to organized resistance would suit Luxon just fine, They can take on every pretty war-lady brood queen in turn. Who knows, in time with larger land, resources, and population, Luxon might eclipse us in power."

"And even Alecto could make use of that fall. Who could blame them if house Vualia imploded? They had done everything to supply and help the minor House." VioletBlood's tail flicked. "Though it would probably be best for Alecto if instead of being destroyed, House Vualia was reduced to a rump state."

"Something small and manageable that Queen Vualia could control and thus continue to buy arms and support from Alecto? Perhaps." I finished my coffee. "But there's another angle."

VioletBlood tilted her head.

"It doesn't take much from Luxon surpassing us, to them threatening Elena in primacy. And while Elena and Luxon are strong allies, it is mostly so they can stand together against us, and be dominating against the medium Great Houses."

"And Elena wants to stay the senior in their partnership?"

I nodded. It was... not surprising, but still ominous how even a minor brushfire war over a thousand miles from Diyu between a Great House and a fragmenting minor House could, if things went wrong, end up destabilizing the balance of power between the Great Houses.

It was all so wasteful.

I nodded to VioletBlood. "Get Octavia and GreyDawn, I want us to do a Flight exercise. I'll see if either Centurion in charge of the infantry centuries wants to do a little exercise in calling fire support."

VioletBlood blinked. "You think you can get drop permission?"

I shook my head. "We'll all have to war-game it. But our role is to support the Legionaries and we'll let the Fleet girls take the job of controlling our airspace."

VioletBlood nodded, feeling more confident than I did. I had enough experience to know that air superiority could be very ephemeral, but if things went bad and those Legionaries had to be deployed then they would do so without heavy armor. Neither taskforce had any tanks or Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and there were only three Arachne artillery systems in both task forces.


And while there was a number of Fujiwara Torpedoes including anti-infantry and anti-armor variants with large warhead payload and a lot of cleverly-lethal submunitions there was a finite number of them. We did not have the luxury of a bombardment cruiser that could dedicate the majority of its magazines to ground attack munitions. And even with the best telemetry there was a limit to how close you could fire them at friendly troops.

If it came down to legionary fighting, we would be their heavy firepower.

But that was the whole point of being Imperial Legion Ritual Plate Pilots.

++++++

Putting the metal mug and plate into the return bin, I exited the forward mess and went up starboard the forward-aft passageway and around a jog to a small briefing room that was a deck above the main Ritual Plate maintenance bay.

I sat down in one of the chairs that had been secured to the deck. Most compartments on Fleet Airships had tracks in the floor panels that allowed furniture to be attached via latches that did allow relocation when needed, but the rest of the time were fixed in place.

One of the key rules about airships was that unsecured objects can easily become dangerous projectiles if the vessel suddenly jolts or bumps. A table tumbling down a room was one level of concern. A quartet of seventeen ton Umbra medium VTOLs rolling around in the aft hangar could seriously upset the whole airship's balance, stability, and structural integrity.

The squadron commander, Prefect Volantes Centurion Artemis Magnus Quirinus was already in the conference room at the head of the table. Her flickering orange eyes looked over me. Her green braid was a bit shorter than when she had been my instructor.

"Primus," she nodded to me. "You're early. And dressed," she said after noting that I was wearing a loose black tunic over the reinforced, enchanted, and flexible suit pilots wore under the hard shell armor that made up the outer Ritual Plate.

"I finished eating early, no reason for me to hover over VioletBlood, Octavia, and GreyDawn."

"You've been having them do more exercises?"

I nodded. "Focusing on communications training with the Centurions, her subordinates in charge of the Centuries and even some of the Decani in charge of individual Contubernium."

"Good, I'm glad I'm not alone in my paranoia," Prefect Quirinus nodded. She then looked up as her two other Primus Centurion Flight leaders entered the compartment.

With straight pale blue hair, and golden eyes, Primus Caenis was Prefect Quirinus' wingwoman and official commander of the First Flight while also second commander of the squadron. Coming in at her heel was the shorter sharp-cheeked shaved head, crimson-skinned form of Primus Mercy Gabinus.


After them came a tall, solid woman with short blonde hair, deep purple skin, and rather short little red horns. Wearing a white Fleet tunic, Prefect Volantes Centurion Tatius RavenSnow was the commander of the RP squadron assigned to HFV Garuda.

Trailing her was another Flight commander in fleet livery who was almost as petite as I was, but Primus Wencesla had to be at least twice my age, maybe three times. It was hard to tell given her green eyes seemed very remote and reserved but her features were exceptionally fine and delicate.

The two Squadron commanders nodded to each other as everyone sat down.

"I invited RavenSnow over because I feel that this influences all of us. We can't have everyone here because one Flights is out providing Combat Air Patrol and another is on standby as our happy ship's ready reaction force," Prefect Quirinus stated.

"It seems that the negotiations are nearing their end and a ceasefire is about to be signed." Prefect RavenSnow stated.

Most of the other Flight leaders cheered while the Squadron commanders were stiff in posture with stilled tails.

I sighed. "We're going on high alert then?"

Quirinus smiled. "You always were a cynical cadet. That's why I decided to take you under my wing when I got to rotate out of a training billet.

"Our countess is correct." She looked at the rest of us. "Right now, there's a lot of people unhappy with the idea that 'their side' is throwing in the towel for the status quo. And we want to get our people out of the city as soon as possible."

"The signing itself is an obvious target but so is leading up to it, and even afterwards when everyone is leaving," RavenSnow agreed.

Quirinus looked to myself and her other Flight leaders; she made lingering eye contact. "I want you coordinating with the Century commanding officers as I think we'll be doing ground support before long. Tauria has augmented the standard refresher training for this scenario. After this meeting, ask for copies of her plan."

I bowed my horns.

"The whole of Task Force 402 will be shifting to a higher alert. With RavenSnow and her friends on the Syracuse, our Damocles light carrier, I'm happy with our strike and air superiority capabilities. Myself, all my focus will be on our people down there. The negotiation team, their guards, and the poor Legionaries we're probably going to have to send down to get them out. The rest of the city can burn for all I care."

"We're pulling the negotiators out of the city?" Primus Wencesla asked, a rather deep voice coming out of her tiny form.

I frowned, the negotiations themselves were taking place in a resort a few miles to the south of the city. It was mostly a place for skiing and other winter sports. Though in the summer there was some use of mountain, hiking, climbing and base jumping, a sport that was far safer if you could fly.

Over the years though with the occupation inching closer the resort was used less and less, and in the summer months was hardly used at all. Making it an isolated, but luxurious place to try to hold the negotiations.

"The Vualia and Luxon delegations are supposed to leave after the signing, and followed by the Alecto and BlackSky arbitration teams." Quirinus shook her head. "Thankfully the signing itself will be in the resort, but there are supposed to be some ceremonies in the city, provided it's not on fire."

I frowned. Ortov was barely a city but did mark a trade area in what remained of northern Vualia. It was close to a de facto open city as its distance to the border made it untenable to keep major hardware there.

The northern command, and major base, of House Vualia's northern front was kept in the city of Milhen a couple hundred miles to the south of here. If Milhen fell then the eastern and northern parts of Vualia would fall, leaving them with a rump state near their coastal capital of Huburia.

"If things go bad I'm planning on deploying my squadron to help with ground support as well," RavenSnow said. Two of her three flights were Polydora multi-role with One Flight, hers, were Harmonia air superiority models.

Conversely, Quirinus' squadron was half Polydora and half Polyxo advanced multi-role: Quirinus First Flight, myself and VioletBlood. I had the dubious distinction of having a mixed model Flight. Quirinus had flown a Harmonia when she was my cadet instructor, but in a bid to logistics sanity, she had changed to a Polyxo when she took over this squadron.

"I've gotten the approval of the ship's captain. If we all have to go down, Trierarch Melodious will move the HFV Garuda to the fleet train and let the cargo ships' RP squadrons protect this airship as well. This will also put us more firmly under the defensive umbrella of the destroyer Vajra."

I nodded, it was a hard calculus, especially with smaller ships. While a fleet airship did have multi--layered defenses: high power ward shields, banks of Vel interceptor missiles, and Mertis six-barrel heavy rotary cannon, they were still airships. Fragility, large size, and relatively low speed were intrinsic to the platform.

That was what made Ritual Plate and Fujiwara Aerial Torpedoes a natural complement for defending fleet elements.

"Further, baring unpleasantness, our larger cousin, Task Force 403, should be able to help. They can deploy a full cohort of Legionaries and a lot more air assets."

"Not to mention whatever our allies in House Alecto bring," I added.

Quirinus met my gaze. "We are coordinating with them. They have a naval Task Force near the border and assets in the city but given the occupation zone is a peninsula, it would be a bit of time before reinforcements arrive."

"And their base on Meropis Island?" I asked. They based their Epsilon Fleet there, which while mostly being a force to provide escorts to those transiting the area, did have a squadron of heavier units.

"If it comes to a major fleet action from Alecto then we might be the secondary force in this theater, which suits me fine."

"And possible enemies?" Primus Mercy Gabinus asked. She gave me a slight look and I wondered if there was any jealousy. Yes, she commanded Second Flight, while I had Third Flight and she had more experience, certainly as a combat Flight commander. But I had all that baggage that came with my actions four months ago over Narvos.

"Who wouldn't be our enemy?" Wencesla countered. The Household Fleet Primus Centurion was a remarkably cynical little thing.

RavenSnow nodded to her subordinate. "We can count on Alecto to be on our side and the Vualia regulars wouldn't want to get our, or their Queen's wrath. Luxon would be wary of opening another front, unless they had planned it."

"Other than that there's all sorts of irregulars, that's the problem with proxy forces and irregulars," Quirinus said.

"We need to anticipate hardware and Ritual Plate from both Alecto and Luxon." I frowned, my tail flicking. "Well, Alecton export models are a known quantity to us, and Luxon RP is mostly House Elena designs locally built. Still..."

"Still?" Wencesla inquired.

"We don't want to get complacent. There are a lot of Houses who would be happy if this war blew up. Enemies of us, Alecto, or Luxon."

"Which is everyone," Wencesla laughed.

I nodded to the Household Fleet demoness who barely stood taller than me. "Right, and this invasion has been going on for a while, and these negotiations aren't secret."

"What are you saying?" Quirinus asked.

"It would be really nice if some CSR spooks were out and about," I shrugged. There was some on-the-ground scouting being done but that was more tactical in scale of tracking local potential enemy movements and styling terrain.

The Office of Cultural and Strategic Reconnaissance existed to go into a situation and take a full view of the social, economic, cultural, strategic, and logistical factors. To understand the factions, their goals and enemies and allies.

I was pretty sure my duchess's actions in Narvos had CSR claw-marks all over it. I did not press because a young, innocent-looking, but extremely skilled and vicious pilot would be exactly the kind of person CSR would want to recruit.

Not for undercover or infiltration work, but to provide backup in case an operation was blown and their agents needed to be pulled out.

RavenSnow snorted. "Careful about wishing for steak, little countess."

"Aye ma'am," I bowed my horns to her . "Wish for steak and you might get it alive, articulated, and attached to something angry with big horns."

Wencesla quirked a lip. "Or someone angry."

I frowned. It was an... unpleasant variant to the idiom, but the sentiment was true enough.

"Also I want you to coordinate with the Ventus Centurions piloting our VTOLs. Escorting those ships as they drop Legionaries will be the first thing we'll be doing to help the hoof-sloggers make it out alive," Quirinus stated.

With a crew of three: pilot, copilot, and load mistress, the Umbra Medium VTOL was a roughly seventy foot long workhorse utility transport. It could move nearly ten tons of cargo, forty legionaries, their supplies, and support equipment, a pair of small vehicles like Nymph light transports or Nyx stealth scouts, or an Arachne artillery system.

The Umbra was a good mix of small enough to be berthed on most airships and land on all airships and large enough to have a decent storage capacity for airborne resupply or combat drops. With a combat radius of about eight hundred miles it had fair range. It was armed with Vel Missiles and Minerva three barrel rotary canons and protected by some warding, countermeasure launchers and a bit of Veiling. There was a more expensive variant used for more CSR style operations that had full-blown near-invisibility capabilities.

A Flight of two Umbra mediums could deploy a Century of Legionaries. And they could do a much better job if there were some Ritual Plate protecting them.

And more than just the loss in lives and ground combat capability, losing an Umbra was a loss in tactical lift capacity. Which was especially acute when our Task Force only had a heavy squadron of the things. Four on our troopship and one each on the...

"What about the cargo ships in the fleet train?" I asked. Each Opis class Light Fleet Cargo vessel had a single Umbra as a cargo shuttle.

Approval in her eyes, Quirinus nodded. "We've kicked it up and got agreement to have them as a reserve and as a second wave if needed once the four VTOLs onboard this ship launch. That'll help get some of the Legionary's heavy equipment down faster."

"And the Flight of three Spatha Light VTOLs on the Damocles Light carrier? Wencesla asked.

RavenSnow inclined her head to her. "I've contacted the staff on the HFV Syracuse and their Spatha will be used for pilot recovery and any small-scale ground insertion. We've got the scouting group in the Ventures doing more screening to give us a bit more time in case something goes wrong."

Good, I was happy the Fleet officers were more than willing to contribute as much hardware as possible to this. About a third of the size of the Umbra, the Spatha had a quarter the capacity. But that made it useful for delivering or recovering ten Legionaries, medical evacuation, deploying Marius Mules, or a couple tons of cargo.

They had roughly the same layout as an Umbra: aft ramp, twin V-shaped tail, high-fuselage mounted stub wings with rotating Zephyr-powered engine pods on the ends, port and starboard sliding doors, forward cockpit with avionics, scrying, weapons, and canards in the nose.

The Spatha was much smaller, a bit slower, and had a shorter range. But they were great for roles when an Umbra was too large.

"I'm glad we've come to such an accord." RavenSnow gave Quirinus a wry look. It seemed she was pleased with the Legionary Squadron Commander's subordinates. It was an important balance to make your superior look good while not outshining them. "I was worried you might think that we in the Fleet don't work for a living."

Quirinus flashed her teeth. "Not everyone in the Household Fleet is a layabout who rests in a pool after a hard day of watching the ground roll past, polishing levers, and eating honey cakes. Some of you could pass for Legionary Fliers."

"Yes and not all Legionaries need help keeping their horns from getting tangled in their helmets, can't read the instructions on their ammo crates, or have Tribunes who need a map to tell them which direction the ground is," RavenSnow countered.

The two Prefect Centurions laughed.

"I'll renew our contacts with the 3 squadrons on the cargo ships doing fleet defense and the 3 on the Syracuse that can be deployed. I don't want to send our forces in penny-packets because we're underestimating or in denial of the scale of the problem," RavenSnow said.

"What about asking for Task Force 403?" I inquired. "Combining our forces with a Medium Air Trinity and a full LRI Cohort would give us over four times the Legionaries, Ritual Plate, Aerial Torpedoes, and an entire light squadron of Hasta Torpedo bombers. Not to mention a Kolibri Patrol squadron could give us some real scouting in force."

RavenSnow looked at me and an expression of maternal indulgence flickered between one of vague unease. "Honestly, I've made the case, but as you point out, that squadron of Torpedo boats is already within their combat radius. Same as their landing craft and Ritual Plate. It'd be nicer if they were closer but their worry is that if hostilities restart won't just be here."

I bowed my head to concede the point. When to concentrate and when to disperse one's forces was a judgment call. An advantage of BlackSkyvian doctrine was that, at great cost: monetary, infrastructure, manpower, and logistics, we had a considerable range of power projection That is when it came time to deploy Legionaries, Ritual Plate, Torpedo bombers, or Aerial Torpedoes we were not limited to the area immediately around the airship Task Force.

Which was another key part of the defensive doctrine of the Household Fleet, as they liked having distance, and thus time, between themselves and enemies, if at all possible.

Naturally, our enemies knew this, and did their best to deny us that advantage.

"Unfortunately, the window of potential attack is too broad to keep everyone up and awake," Quirinus sighed. "We will be at a higher status alert. We will keep our three shifts but will have one Flight from each of our Squadrons in the air at all times, and everyone in Standby Flights will be suited up."

She held a hand to cut off any minor protest. When airships wanted to keep a 24 hour persistent Air Patrol they typically used a three shift rotation. Each rotation was staggered and had a seven and a half hour rest period, a pair of roughly four hour patrols and a period of seven hours of standby status in the middle. There was also some prep time to get suited up before each patrol.

With the patrols split up it was not that fatiguing, for a short period, but over a long time it did get wearying. Hence ,why earlier we would have one Flight in the air at all times, but with a total of six Flights we could provide some relief substitutions.

This is also why a hitch in a Venture scout could be quite the ordeal. As those tiny airships only had six Ritual Plate, and if they wanted to keep a persistent patrol that required a pilot and her wingwoman to be out at all times.

Some vessels went with a watch cycle of four shifts. This allowed for more overlap in patrolling formations but required the standby part of the watch cycle to be split up. And the largest of airships simply doubled up on having a pair of three Watch Cycles going that were slightly offset.

The worst part would be spending the whole Standby part of the day in Ritual Plate. I would have to remember to bring my paperwork so I could get something done while waiting by my arming chair. Though that could allow my Ritualista to do more fine tuning on the maintenance checklist.

Ritual Plate always needed maintenance, servicing, and checking and most Ritualista crew were never fully satisfied that their suits were a hundred percent.

"It's not just us," Quirinus stated. "We've got two Centuries of Legionaries who will have to be ready at any time to climb onto those Umbra mediums and drop into whatever mess is on the surface because of this ceasefire."

"A lot of Ventus Centurions and their crews are going to be sleeping in the cockpits of their VTOLs," Mercy noted.

Which was fair. While Ventus Centurions, VTOL Pilots, were not as glamorous as Ritual Plate Pilots, they were, if anything, more vital. Ritual Plate can do a lot of roles, but it made for a lousy cargo or troop transport. Not to mention the sheer skill required to thread an aircraft though an airship's stern landing gates or to do a combat drop.

The small size of a Ritual Plate made many maneuvers such as carrier landings far easier than in a fuselage aircraft.

"And all the Fleet personnel will be severely lacking in time to enjoy their honey-cakes," RavenSnow joked.

Quirinus nodded. "Remember, our role here is to do the most we can to prepare for whatever hell the Legionaries end up fighting. We're about as far away from the House as we can without being off-world."

"Any limits on our actions with respect to diplomatic fallout?" I asked.

Quirinus gave me an odd look. "As long as you don't kill the Luxon ambassador or her life wards I think we'll be okay. Or any other ambassadors. Though, I would avoid just killing any Janissaries or Luxon Ritual Plate who are just trying to evacuate their people."

I noted she made no mention of irregulars.

"Right, if there's no other questions, coordinate your training, get the updated lesson plan from our little countess, and update your Flights with the good news about our operational tempo," Quirinus ordered.

RavenSnow gave a nod of agreement.

Passing out some sheets of flimsy carbon paper, Quirinus stood up. "Here's the modified rotation schedules. I've already had them pushed to your Ritualista crews, given they're the ones who have to keep you lot in the air.

I memorized the paper before folding it. I would keep it long enough to brief my Flight and then dispose of it. In the field, burning was the expedient option, but that was not wise given we were in an airship full of munitions, high density alchemical fuels, empowered enchantments, and the contents of our lifting cells.

The various additives to the gas mixture made the Fleet Airships into something other than total death traps. But I was still anxious. On the other hand, I could fly.

For obvious reasons, everyone was trained in damage control, and the dedicated Damage Control crew were all skilled pyromancers. Still, being sloppy with fire was an unnecessary risk. The note could be shredded, eaten, or I could go to the smoking lounge and burn it there.

Quirinus turned sympathetic. "We tried to keep it so everyone would start the new shifts without needing to be up for more than eighteen hours."

"We don't want you to be using any Pep pills right now." RavenSnow frowned as we started to file out. "I fear we may have to rely on those soon enough."

My tail stilled at that. It was a prudent worry, but if the Squadron commanders thought we would be having Wing-sized combat lasting long enough, the better part of a day, that their pilots would have to take military stimulants to keep going....

Pilot fatigue was a limiting factor to Ritual Plate. Fuel cells could be swapped out, munitions systems replenished, even Ritualista could make repairs when Flights came back for replenishment, but the pilot inside, she had only so much mental energy.

I would need to make sure my Flight was ready.

++++++

I sat down into the arming chair with a thud. My Ritual Plate practically sighed as my Zephyr spooled down and my Ritualista team started helping ease them to quiescence.

I leaned back and relaxed. Bolts and clams extended from the chair to support the frame of my armor. My wings went limp and fell behind me. In nearby chairs the rest of my Flight were also getting out of their suits.

And on the other side of the bay, Household Fleet Primus Wencesla and her flight were also getting out of their suits.

My maintenance chief, a sour-faced cynical Optio with long black hair, stepped in front of me. I gave Suzette Gibbs a thumbs up and she motioned and one of her crew started separating my helmet. First came off the faceplate and then came the sides and back pieces. This allowed the Hemet to come apart around my horns.

I breathed in and out. After a thankfully monotonous, four hour patrol mission even the acrid, metal-tinged air of the Ritual Plate bay was a step up.

"Any problems, Primus?" Optio Gibbs asked.

I shook my head. "Everything is green."

She gave a disbelieving look as her tail curled and she pulled up a diagnostic screen that was plugged into the back of the arming chair. "We're nearing the end of life on some of the power regulation enchantments and the alignment of your secondary scrying system is a bit off."

"I'm wearing a Gorgon rig for these flights," I stated, eyeing to the extra equipment on my helmet that sheathed over my horns. Other Ritualista were working on my gloves and powering down the weapons and warding systems in my gauntlets and chest armor.

Matching my gaze, Gibbs frowned at me.

"Okay, if you can get the spares and do the work instead of sleeping tonight that's fine by me."

Gibbs sniffed as her tail flicked, but she allowed it. The problem with Ritualista was they often felt that the suits were theirs. Sure, I flew the thing but that was, on average, only for a few hours a day. Meanwhile Gibbs had a whole team who fussed over the complicated collection of enchantments for the majority of every day.

Not that I would keep them from doing a good job. If they wanted to double their efforts then that was fine by me. When things went bad, I was going to depend on this Polyxo Mark 15 Gamma Block to keep me alive.

I curled my toes as the nearly en point stylized sabatons and their connected greaves were opened up and pushed back. At least when flying the angle those things put my ankles at was not a pain. I knew the reasons why Ritual Plate, at least BlackSkyvian variants, had footwear like that. And while there was some small excuse for better aerodynamics.

And there were mitigating factors that Ritual Plate was not supposed to be used on the ground. Still when it came down to it, the heels were an aesthetic choice. One that irked me as much as how the armor was contoured around hips and torso. To where it gave a feminine form that was exaggerated regardless of how little or how many curves someone had. Thankfully there was not too much of that with my suit.

Again, part of that was functional. Or at least that internal components had to be stored somewhere in the armor. So some areas were going to be thicker than others, and when mobility concerns and overall aesthetics were taken into account, one ended with a certain design form.

Plus wings meant that we could not use backpack style storage. Even infantry legionaries had to carry their kit in small of the back style haversacks and slings over one hip.

It came down to that Ritual Plate was a thaumaturgical collection of heavily enchanted and artificer-built components that had a specific aesthetic and cultural weight.

I sighed and accepted a flask of water from one of the maintainers who was hovering about taking parts and tools to and fro. All while the rest of the crew in their dark blue one piece jumpsuits moved around. They had belts and harnesses over their suits which were used to hold tools and other odds and ends.

Now that my weapons had been depowered and were being disconnected they started working on the fuel cells. I still had a fair bit of reserve but topping them off was standard procedure.

Since my Polyxo was configured in air superiority and interception roles, I had more power to maneuverability at the higher speed performance. And was armed with Ballista weapon projectors.

These were high-power long range weapons that could fire arcane energy at a power and distance second only to the Lances of a Telephe strike unit.

While not capable of breaching capital-grade ship protection, the Ballista had far greater capacity. And could be dialed in power. At the higher end they could take out small ships, attack aircraft, and bombers. At a lower power setting they could fire in burst mode that was useful for strafing infantry targets, or light armored vehicles.

An in between setting was useful against enemy Ritual Plate or more well protected ground targets. While the Ballista was not an ideal air to ground weapons system, it was still a lot of evocation magic packed into an energy dense blast of power.

The key to the Ballista was knowing how to control the trade off between power, firing rate, and capacity. If you could line up and ensure a given shot would hit then a single knock out punch would be worth it. On the other hand, a dispersed pattern of lower power might catch the enemy and disable the ability to maneuver.

This was especially true as at the highest power setting one could empty their munition capacity in not much more than a dozen shots.

Like most aerial combat, being the first to position yourself and get the shot off before your enemy knew where you were was ideal.

I drank some more water as more connections, cables, and links were undone. Even with the power systems off and the suit now pressing on me with its natural weight, the whole thing still thrummed with power.

I looked over and saw the two Flights on standby were basically resting around their arming chairs, having minor maintenance, doing paperwork, and having a bit of a snack. All good ideas.

The waist and chest pieces were unlatched and hinged open. A few of my crew were checking the internal water canteens and the rest of the hydration and nutrition systems. The various drinking and nutrition tubes had to be cleaned on the regular, just another little thing on the maintenance checklist.

I rolled my shoulders but then stopped when the back armor, still bolted to the chair, started to be undone. The armored bits between and above my wings were removed which allowed me to get up.

The last few connections between my bodysuit and the plates of the Ritual Plate were disconnected. In her traditional role, when circumstances allowed, Optio Gibbs held out her hand and pulled me up to my feet.

I stretched out my wings and tail. The dark grey-blue bodysuit I wore under the armor was comfortable enough. It had good heat regulation systems and kept sweat from pooling. It was not the most flattering garment and it was tight in some spots, loose in others. It was edged in enchantments as well and sized to each pilot. With its collection of ports, connections, and harness straps for anchoring armor plates it was a bracingly practical garment.

It made me smile that despite the ornate affections, as possibly justified as some may be, of Ritual Plate on the outside, on the inside it was all function.

"I'll be right back," I told Gibbs before stretching my leg out and up and then the other. It was a bit of a risk to stand on one leg on an airship. But one advantage of my time in ballet was phenomenal balance and flexibility.

Which were useful when your day job was training to fly an armored suit into battle. I then did a squat and arched my back backwards and did a few other stretches. While Ritual Plate was quite flexible and you could do a lot in it, see my ballet experience, there were some movements that the armored suits could not allow.

After doing that, I quickly went to do something that was allowed in Ritual Plates, but I liked to avoid it whenever possible. Which was why airships always had a set of heads near the Ritual Plate bays. And why there would be a bit of a rush to the bathrooms once a Flight, or two, came in and got out of their armor.

After taking care of the necessities, I went to the group of pilots on standby and grabbed a sandwich and some coffee from the cart that was locked onto the deck.

I nodded to them and went back to the maintenance crew. Chewing through some sort of salted pork, cabbage, fish sauce, on a wheat bun I chased it with a bit of salty, burnt Fleet coffee and then crunched on a gritty red orb that was part of every soldier's rations.

At least the bread was fresh-baked. It was amusing that it saved on weight cargo space, especially freezer space, to simply carry the components for bread and bake it onboard the airship.

Flushing with energy, both caloric and life, I had a few more bites. I was hungry now and just wanted something to cut off the edge. Before going to my rack for sleep, I planned to head to the mess and get a more proper meal.

Reaching Gibbs, I held out a hand and my maintenance chief handed me a clipboard. Paperwork was inevitable.

It was best to get ahead of it, though my bed did call to me. It was less of a mattress and more of an interwoven double-layer hammock-like surface with a rectangular frame. With a wool blanket over it, it was surprisingly comfortable, if a bit springy. However its real advantage was that it was very light.

A Phoenician class transport like this could berth nearly four hundred and forty people. Reducing weight on even things like crew amenities did add up.

Eating one of her own sandwiches, VioletBlood walked up to me. She still had her noble composure, despite weariness on her features. I nodded to her. "Any issues?"

"We're good," VioletBlood gestured to the other pair in my Flight.

Octavia had glossy black hair, purple eyes and, nearly black, dark purple skin. Her wings were a bit on the large side and her tail was longer than normal. She looked willowy and like she still needed some time to fully grow into her form. Which made sense as she was only a couple years older than VioletBlood.

She bowed amethyst colored longhorn style horns at me. "Primus." Her tone was respectful.

"Any issues?" I asked her.

"No, Ma'am!"

"Have you had anything to eat?"

"No, Ma'am! I just got out of my suit. I was going to go up to the mess in a moment."

I sighed. It had taken a bit of time to train her out of being so overawed by her Flight leader. Sure, Octavia was relatively green but she had more combat experience than I did and she was four years my senior.

Crazy demons. I flipped through a few more papers on my clipboard. I signed where I could and made a proxy notation for my seal. I was not in the habit of wearing my Preserver award when I flew.

"GreyDawn, get your wingwoman watered, fed, and make sure she does all the necessities now when she'd got the chance.

GreyDawn was the eldest member of my Flight and I suspected was put here by Prefect Quirinus to keep an eye on me. A no-nonsense Legionary Flier with orange hair that was red at the roots and paler at the tips with grey skin and amber eyes; she had large curled horns and was as solidly built as she was phlegmatic.

I felt she was a good choice to round out my Flight and appreciated her calm, professional demeanor. She was over halfway through her first term of service and while I was not sure if she had any desire for advancement to higher rank, she was the type of experienced Flier that made up the backbone of the Imperial Legions' Ritual Plate force.

Naturally, I paired her with Octavia. I could keep an eye on VioletBlood.

"I could go for a snack too," GreyDawn said, giving me an approving nod before pulling Octavia along.

"Sleep would be nice," VioletBlood muttered as she chewed through her sandwich.

"Proper meal, debriefing, then sleep," I said, finishing up the paperwork and handing the clipboard over to Gibbs.

"Is there even that much to talk about?" VioletBlood sipped her water.

"Only a couple things," I yawned. Their performance on the last patrol mission was acceptable enough. I will admit I was looking forward to a nice sit down meal.

And that's when the sirens started going off telling everyone to go to General Quarters.

VioletBlood jerked her head and her eyes widened, but to her credit she went straight to her arming chair.

I gave a long suffering sigh and finished my sandwich and drained the coffee mug. the good news was that it was not the shrill Incoming Attack alarm. The bad news was that it was the warbling, deeper, almost mournful Drop alarm.

A crisp voice came in over the Primary Circuit. "General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands to battle stations. All Legionaries to landing craft. All Ritual Plate prepare for launch."

Lovely. It looks like the fight was going to take place before the ceasefire was signed after all.

I sat down into the arming chair and relaxed as the Ritualista stared bolting me back into the Ritual Plate. The two Flights on standby were already moving toward the launchers further in the bow, while the two flights that had just gotten out of the damn suits, including mine, were putting them back on.

Gibbs handed me a smoked glass display and I read the deployment orders. Thankfully there were no surprises. "Configuration?" she asked.

"Ground attack, I confirmed. Spread it to the rest of the Flight."

Gibbs nodded and shouted an order to one of her crew who dashed off to the other arming chairs. VioletBlood was shaking her head with a weary sigh. GreyDawn was placidly eating a quick meal while she was being armored. And Octavia was trying to copy her wingwoman's actions.


As I was being connected to the armor and the plates were being secured around me, my Ritual Plates' power systems were tuned. The change was less high speed maneuverability and more low speed capability. More warding modules were also installed. They came at an aerodynamic and power cost that made them not as desirable for air superiority roles, but when dealing with slower attacks against ground fire it was a good trade off.

Different weapons systems including gauntlet and chest piece add-ons were installed. "Make sure I have a full spread on my Falx and use the aiming calibrations from that test three days ago," I ordered.

The Falx projector was the standard anti-infantry Ritual Plate weapon. It had a high rate of fire and good penetration and fair capacity. The downside was that the range was best used for close air support roles. The carrier wave that kept the thermal bloom contained was simpler and thus less effective than those used in Lances or even the air to air Ballista projector.

And even with nearly a thousand "rounds" of arcane energy a pilot could run empty pretty quickly if she was not careful. And even that number came at the cost of overall loiter time and number of rounds in the other weapons systems.

The crew nodded. "And your Pilum?" Gibbs asked.

"Configuration B." The Pilum was basically a bigger version of the Falx projector. The emitters were calibrated to a lower rate of fire, and a higher energy density. They were a bit slow for air roles but made for devastating anti-material weapons. And they could be boosted to an anti-armor mode, but that reduced capacity.

I had just asked for the anti-armor mode. "Have VioletBlood and Octavia with Configuration A. That way we have one of each mode in each pair."

That was a good reason, and Gibbs nodded. But she also seemed to accept my unspoken real reason. While a pilot could swap between modes in the air, it took a few moments to do, and added stress to the system. Moreso while Configuration B could be used in anti-material mode it required a cooler head to not waste shots and risk straining the system.

Between the Falx and Pilum projectors I could see how the Sarpedona Ground Support Ritual Plate, or Multi Role models in that role, could fill roughly the same niche as an attack helicopter.

"Anything special with the pebbles for you Verutum Launcher?" Gibbs asked.

I took a moment to ponder and read the updated information on the display. The Verutum was one of the few solid munition-based Ritual Plate weapons. The housing carried a dozen pairs of precisely carved and enchanted teardrops of obsidian girdled with engraved steel spars. The "pebbles", as the munitions were called, could be charged with an arcane energy based on the pilot's desires and then launched out.

They had some little utility as a kinetic kill weapon. Though with only two dozen shots and a small size any other Ritual Plate weapon would be better. Their real purpose was that they could lob something that was charged with a specific magical effect.

The Verutum was considered a utility anti-arcane weapon against various grenadiers, combat engineers, mage artillery, and other heavy-duty magic users.

"Third thaumaturgical paired shots, third counter-veil, third simple charges," I stated finishing my read on the intel brief of what was happening. It was not much: hostiles inbound in potential cohort strength with air cover.

Gibbs simply nodded, doubtless she had read the same info as it came in. If she thought I was being paranoid for expecting to deal with enemy armor and sorcerers she did not voice it.

I was nearly suited up. I gave a thumbs up as they put the helmet in place and then locked my facemask on. My groggy Zephyr had been coaxed back awake and after a moment eagerly filled the various systems as propulsion and power started to spool up to idle.

I voiced the startup checklist as my internal displays turned on and I connected with my Flight, Squadron, and Wing Control. "Systems are green," I announced as the bolts retracted.

Light on my feet, I stood up and flexed a bit in the Ritual Plated, empowered and in its full arcane potential it felt almost like a second skin. I turned to my Flight and nodded.

"Okay girls, first job is we make sure those Centuries make it to the ground. Then we can find and punish those who thought they could attack House BlackSky under a flag of truce."

"Yes, Primus Centurion!" the three replied as we made our way to the launchers.

End Chapter 6

Hey you gotta let me have some cliffhangers

Besides, there was a lot of setup to have Tauria into her first command and the situation she's in.

Also I'm very happy with how much positive reception this story has had for its characters, action, plot and world building. I've got a few more pieces of art in the works.

I'm also thinking on the best way to put up more of the lore and world building essays. (That said there is an interest in lore, and I do have a... fair bit to share, but I don't want to make that mandatory or just dump it on someone's head, but if folks do want to read more of that...).

I'm also planning to do a revision and cleanup of the first few chapters. Which I'll do before I post them on like FF.net.

Thanks again!

 

[Rymu]

The various names of things being hard to remember makes it a bit hard to tell but am I right in guessing that Tanya is about to find her Visha again? Cus I get the feeling that the reunion is coming soon.

 

[moon so bright]

Love the background and lore! However, a dramatis personae might help keep things straight. Still, the plate info was cool. I was hoping for a bit more mothers and daughter fluff, though.

 

[Sunshine Temple]

The various names of things being hard to remember makes it a bit hard to tell but am I right in guessing that Tanya is about to find her Visha again? Cus I get the feeling that the reunion is coming soon.

Click to shrink...

My hope is that they meet up at the end of ch7

Love the background and lore! However, a dramatis personae might help keep things straight. Still, the plate info was cool. I was hoping for a bit more mothers and daughter fluff, though.

Click to shrink...

Excellent!

And you both raise great points. I really do need to come up with a glossary and a dramatis personae. As well as do the editing of the initial chapters.
Maybe I can do that while I go through and edit, add in all the names and terms that pop up.

 

[Rymu]

My hope is that they meet up at the end of ch7

Click to shrink...

Neat.

Though what are the chances that Tanya realizes who Visha is before Visha reintroduces herself?

 

[Teiwaz]

Im using the various succubae from Portals of Phereron as the baseline for the characters in this because otherwise I would have no real idea what anyone looked like

 

[Sunshine Temple]

Neat.

Though what are the chances that Tanya realizes who Visha is before Visha reintroduces herself?

Click to shrink...

Rather high, as Visha's coloration and looks are rather close to human.

Im using the various succubae from Portals of Phereron as the baseline for the characters in this because otherwise I would have no real idea what anyone looked like

Click to shrink...

Heh well there is some art of characters in related fics.
https://www.deviantart.com/sunny-te...kskyvian-imperial-legions-and-household-fleet

https://www.deviantart.com/sunny-temple/gallery/69856343/the-return

And there's some more art on order.

 

[Rymu]

Rather high, as Visha's coloration and looks are rather close to human.

Click to shrink...

That's a good point in favor of Tanya recognizing her Visha, though I do feel like she's dense and self deluding enough to convince herself otherwise on top of it being rather reasonable to not expect to find Visha in her 3rd life.

 

[Dues_machine]

So offensive ships are mainly carriers with missile artillery.

Do they mix in shell artillery for more close in work? You could fit more shots but the trade off is shorter range than missiles

 

[Sunshine Temple]

That's a good point in favor of Tanya recognizing her Visha, though I do feel like she's dense and self deluding enough to convince herself otherwise on top of it being rather reasonable to not expect to find Visha in her 3rd life.

Click to shrink...

Tanya is pretty dense but the physical similarity and having Visha call her out /should/ get through her head.

So offensive ships are mainly carriers with missile artillery.

Do they mix in shell artillery for more close in work? You could fit more shots but the trade off is shorter range than missiles

Click to shrink...

Mainly. The missiles (the Fujiwara ) has a bunch of variants: Fleet defense, anti shipping, ground attack, sea attack, and so on.
https://www.deviantart.com/sunny-temple/art/Imperial-Legions-and-Household-Fleet-Munitions-888545666
Where the carrier aspect is Ritual Plate.
In general the airships don't use shell artillery. To have something large enough to have a good range, would require a very heavy gun, but more importantly, a very heavy framework to support the gun and the recoil.
Where the missiles can be launched out and then once they're away have their motors ignited.
An exception is the Household Fleet's navy (that is the water born portion) does make use of some shell artillery for shore bombardment and other roles.
https://www.deviantart.com/sunny-temple/art/Household-Fleet-Navy-Jarngreipr-Frigate-900875234

 

[Rymu]

Tanya is pretty dense but the physical similarity and having Visha call her out /should/ get through her head.

Click to shrink...

Calling her out should work.