With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
00:49 GMT

Orange strands shimmer as Lantern Threllian goes to work on the two cores I was able to recover.

"So that you are aware, the ships used by my people don't have central servers."

"Noted."

"That's interesting." Thaddeus has the laboratory's computer bring up a full genetic workup of the captured and currently paralysed juluuni officers. "Not brilliant, but I suppose I can credit them with being rigorous in their simplicity."

"Any idiot can make something more complicated, Thaddeus." I walk over to him to get a better-. Yeah, I've got no idea what I'm looking at. "The Reach were trying to achieve a particular social aim, not learn more about biology."

"Why?"

I take a moment to stare at him.

He frowns. "What?"

"I'm sorry, for a moment there it sounded like you had a moral objection."

"You remember what you said to Father about 'alternate moral paths'?"

I wince inwardly, but keep smiling. "That… Was a small part of a larger discussion about moral systems w-."

"Yeah, but that bit made sense. I'd kill a few people because I needed something which they had or because I could learn something from doing it. I would not do it simply because they were there. That feels… Wrong." He looks introspective for a moment. "Am I having a moral intuition?"

"Um. Maybe. I don't think that you or Georgia have your father's inability to understand morals or social organisation, so it's possible. But in reference to the moral paths I was talking about, that might just mean that you are far less moral than most people and it takes more to arouse your distaste."

"How would I know?"

I look over to the data cores Threllian is analysing. "How would you feel about me destroying those?"

He looks at them for a moment, then shrugs. "I do not care. The technology is not particularly advanced. I could easily create something better."

"If you're not offended by the fact that I could be destroying unique information, then it's probably not an alternate moral system. If you were actually following a moral code of wissenschaft über alles, it would offend you."

He frowns. "So your conclusion is that I'm not so much dedicated to knowledge as I am monstrously jaded?"

"It's a tentative conclusion based on insufficient evidence, but it does sound like it."

His frown deepens. "I do not like that. I do not like that at all."

Over to our right, Lantern Natu squeezes her eyes closed for a moment before turning to face him.

"You're not supposed to like being a monster."

Thaddeus folds his arms across his chest. "What do you know about it?"

"Thaal Sinestro used to rule my homeworld. He wasn't.. terrible to begin with, but as time went on he became more and more anal retentive. Littering became an arrestable offence with gaol time. He shut down off-world travel because he said it encouraged disorder."

Thaddeus nods. "Yes, contact with out-of-context ideas generally does encourage disorder."

"It paralysed our entire civilisation. Nothing that he didn't approve of was allowed to happen and he-. He genuinely believed that it was for our good. He liked doing things that he thought were for our good."

"I do not see what any of that has to do with me. He doesn't sound like a monster, just an inefficient sovereign. Unless it did actually improve your civilisation, then I suppose that he would be farsighted instead."

"Far-?"

"Yes? Educators frequently compel people to do things that they do not want to in order to teach them. I would never do anything like that. Which I suppose means that Paul is correct about my morality."

"Fascinating as I find moral philosophy, could I please return your attention to the juluuni..?"

Thaddeus nods, apparently dismissing the aggrieved Lantern Natu from his awareness.

"It is custom work, only vaguely similar to the phages they have used before. Humanoid species might resemble one another, but chemically they're all very different. In some places I can tell what they've changed by comparing it to other creatures, but in others I can only… Guess."

"Can they be changed back?"

"These juluuni haven't ever been anything else. These were almost certainly grown in a tank. See here?" He presses a button and calls up a wire frame hologram. "Multiple feed tube scars and no abdominal attachment point. If it were me, I would do the initial work on adults and then work out how to code the alterations into their germline, but I am far better at it than whoever did this."

"So is that a no?"

"I can use other examples from their ecosystem and reconstruct a lot of it. Or just make something new. I have a program which I use for subverting automatons which can learn function from form, and I think I could probably adapt it to genetic programming and biological specimens. But it would not be the same." He brightens up slightly. "It would probably be better. But not the same." He shrugs. "If that matters to you."

Threllian glares at him. "It matters to me."

"They won't even have done the same thing to your species. And you have records good enough to undo what they've done."

"If they're growing extinct species in tanks, that would mean that they have records of their original genetic structure somewhere, wouldn't it?"

Lantern Natu nods. "It should. They can't have known what all of their modifications would do until the… Their slaves grew to maturity."

"Good to know. Sorry, Thaddeus, it looks like we won't need your program."

"How about these ones?"

I look over the juluuni currently on the examination beds. What to do with people the Reach have mind controlled is an issue that the Controllers have had to deal with for the entire war. Not every N.E.M.O. member has the same solution. Most will allow reversions to be performed where the technique for undoing the mental alterations is known. Just about all are fine with summary executions where that isn't possible, though the more technically savvy ones prefer live specimens. Earth standard prisoner of war rules aren't followed by anyone… Or perhaps I should say Earth's official prisoner of war rules. I don't think I'd have to look all that hard into the war with the Sheeda -or any other war- to find examples of prisoners being killed out of hand because it wasn't practical to do anything else.

But I don't think we're quite there-.

I glance at Thaddeus.

But I don't think I'm quite there yet.

"Put them in suspended animation and prepare for the next batch. We can study them more once we're out of hostile territory."

Lantern Natu nods.

"Illustres, I've found something curious." Lantern Threllian creates a construct image of a ship. "The fleet has purged records of its point of origin, but they were visited by this. They were in the process of installing something when you destroyed them."

I frown.

"That's the Free Lancers' ship. What were they doing here?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
01:12 GMT

"Contact Green Lantern Harold Jordan."

"Compliance."

In retrospect, perhaps crushing every ship into scrap wasn't the best idea. The data core recorded that the Free Lancers had visited and that the machine shops had been more active after their visit, but there's no record of what they were making. I was focused on scanning their weapons, shields and engines and I didn't notice anything out of specification, but… I doubt they were visiting for a natural history lesson.

Jordan's face appears.

"What's this I hear about you stealing that power ring?"

"Lantern K'ryssma wasn't being honest with me, so I wanted Controller Hinon to take a look at it." I shrug. "She wasn't all that impressed. Apparently it's an attempt to rework the whole power ring-."

"I don't need to know that. I trust the Guardians. If it's not ready to be deployed, then it's not ready. But if she's finished playing around with it, then I'd like it back."

"Shouldn't be a problem. I'll ask when I see her."

Jodran nods in acknowledgement. "I suppose I should just be glad the Reach didn't get it."

"They did briefly get it. Turns out that Scarab Warriors don't make particularly good Lanterns. I'll send you my-. Hang on."

Ring, send him the recording of my fight.

Compliance.

"My recording should be with you now. Look, I need to ask you something else about that whole situation."

"What's that?"

"Despite not having a power ring to offer them, the Free Lancers are still working with the Reach. They visited one of their fleets a little while ago. I don't know what they did, but when you were in their general vicinity, did you notice anything worth mentioning?"

"Ah… I don't think so. They used combat robots but they weren't anything special." He frowns. "Oh, and Chance had a gun that can drain the energy out of constructs."

Juah-!

"That's somewhat significant, Lantern Jordan."

"Sure, but you've been destroying constructs with those crumbler things for over a year now."

"Yes, but the Reach doesn't know how to make them. If the Free Lancers shared that technology… We've got to go on the offensive right away. We can't let them work out how to work it into their strategies." I exhale somewhat sharply. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"Ahh… No, I don't think-. Look, I'm sorry. I've run into so much weird technology that it didn't really stand out at the time, and this was.. years ago."

"Don't worry about us, worry about you." He frowns, puzzled. "The peace with the Reach was never going to be a permanent thing. The Reach now has the design for shutting down-. Can you just send me the file?"

"Yeah, sure. Why exactly should I be worried?"

"Peace between the Green Lantern Corps and the Reach can't last. But they aren't just going to declare war on you one day, or try sending Scarab Warriors after isolated Lanterns. They're going to sell the technology to anyone who wants it. Below cost. For now they're going to be focusing on retrofitting their ships to fight us, but once they've got the production line set up they're going to make sure that every space capable enemy your Corps ever fights has one."

"And you're sure our treaty doesn't cover that?"

"The wording of your treaty has been studied by the Controllers at length. If they don't use it themselves, there's nothing stopping them selling to whoever they want. You can arrest weapon merchants who sell in violation of local law, but there's nothing that would trigger a war in there."

He clenches his jaw. "God damn. I guess I'm going to have to start wearing armour after all."

"And not before time, but that's not all. Did you ever copy Guy and start using that Halla stun pistol thing? Because you can dodge to save your environmental shield, but any ship with decent flak can shoot out your offensive constructs."

"This is a whole can of worms…" He sighs. "I'll send you the recording, but I'm going to need to talk to the Guardians about… Everything."

"Tell Earth's other Lanterns first. Alan needs to get over his aversion to armour. Maybe Dame Carol can give you all some pointers. Or you can wait for me to come back, but I.. think I'm going to be here for a while."

"Do they know where Earth is?"

"Not as far as I know. But between me and that fleet there's a trail. I mean, the way I normally move isn't easy to trace and the fleet took reasonable precautions, but…"

"Great. Great."

"N.E.M.O. has very effective anti-infiltration strategies if you want a look. And that L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet hanging around two eight one four has an unlimited licence to hunt down and kill anything associated with the Reach, so if a Reach 'trade' mission does turn up you can just clue them in and then turn around."

"Right. I'll get on that. Jordan out."

His face vanishes.

And I scream, very quietly.

"Aaaaaaaaggghh…"

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

Ring, mess… Message to Clarissi Dox. I can't-. I need to confirm this is actually happening before going crazy-. Oh, there's Jordan's file of Chance shooting him in the middle of a Lantern versus Lantern fight and shutting his ring down. Yes, thank you Jordan, that would have been helpful to know.

Message… Ah, 'new information from Lantern Jordan indicates that the Reach may be deploying a highly effective anti-construct weapon, recommend all Lanterns move to fully sealed armour, more information to follow'. Send.

Compliance.

I sigh, then walk into the strategy room where Lantern Threllian is studying a display of his people's fleet.

"Let me guess: they've remodelled."

"There has been a number of changes when compared to the pre-conquest ships my people used. They appear to have more rapid-traverse anti-attack craft batteries, though they might be an adaptation to fighting Lanterns."

I nod. "I'm going to assume that they are. Anything else?"

"My people have had gravity shielding for several centuries. Your singularity beam might still work if you focused on it, but I wouldn't recommend relying on it. Similarly, our interdiction systems are better than what the juluuni use, as are our sensors and… Everything else."

"Marvellous."

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
05:36 GMT

These…

These are scary ships.

Threllian's people were very intelligent-. Are very intelligent, and part of that is that they were good at forward planning. Their history contained relatively little warfare because they were all too aware of exactly what they would be throwing away by destroying lives and property. Theirs wasn't a particularly dangerous region of space, so they'd managed to spread out across their home system before they suffered from a raid by a more martial species.

It was a bit of an eye-opener for them, but they didn't really want to invest the resources into building a fleet that could match their new enemy ship for ship. So they studied and experimented and built a small but extremely sophisticated fleet that could -and did- blow anything their foes could throw at them out of space. They were a major stabilising force in their region for a little under two hundred years by virtue of having more power and at the same time choosing not to use it to forcibly oppress.

And then the Reach happened, reaching out to a regional hegemon in 'friendship' and for 'trade'.

But I'm looking at that fleet's great grandchild. Glowing purple blurs along the sides mark the intrusion into normal space of their fracture cannons. No traversing or charging required, just press a button and space breaks in a line to your target. There's no gun there to disable either; it's literally just a point in space nominated by the actual projection system inside the well-armoured hull.

Well force fielded hull too, I note. And Threllian was right about the gravity shielding. And the flak.

The flak turrets look a bit… Off? Actually. The outer hull looks like it's designed to be as featureless as they could make it, but the small turrets break that aesthetic and… Look almost stuck on. Which means that they… What, that the Free Lancers came almost directly here, gave them the designs and left them to it? Had been working on the turrets for a while and handed over a warehouse worth for them to integrate in their own time?

Jordan's file implied that those turrets were lightspeed, which might mean that I can dodge them if I stay far enough away. It also implied that the weapon was only weakly penetrating against anything that wasn't a construct. So my best defence against them is armour which the big guns will blast through like it's not even there, because from their point of view it isn't. And my best defence against the big guns is a type of physics-warping construct that I can use, but will go down very easily to the anti-construct guns.

Oh, and I can't hide in a ship because the big guns aren't affected by their hulls and their internal sensors are sufficiently good that it would be suicide to try.

But other than that-.

Oh, no, I forgot: while the main guns have a somewhat limited effective range and their sub-light speed isn't that good, the ships can use their gravity shielding to do short range space-bending teleports. So…

So if I can dummy them into teleporting towards me and have a gravity weapon pointing in the right direction, I could get lucky.

Starting to think I.. should have brought more clones.

Okay, actual plus side: though their ships have very good energy generation systems, their guns consume more than they can generate during high-intensity combat. Which is probably why the Reach haven't adopted the design across their entire fleet. So if I get all of the doomguns to fire constantly at the same time then I might exhaust them, assuming that they're far more stupid than I know them to be.

Actual attacking plans, then.

The people on board don't appear to have any actual defence against magic. Orange light manipulation won't necessarily work against people the Reach have reprogrammed, but it.. might be a place to start. Or…

I mean, there's no reason why I couldn't make a construct version of those guns.

Or…

Okay, given the maximum speed of the Free Lancers' ship and the amount of time that's passed… Even if they flew directly between fleets without needing to stop off at a Reach facility to get directions, they… Can't have visited all of them. I doubt that they'd have been able to equip more than… One.. other..? And since this fleet is fully equipped…

It's that or go full Ophidian mode and hope I still understand how to fight sophisticated foes.

I

step out and

reappear in the midst of a swarm of flying rectangles, the crews' gestalt minds collectively having just enough mental freedom for one independent thought, colossal construct claws reaching out, grabbing, crushing! No anti-construct guns here but I take the orange light and pull

and drag it through

the Honden to a swarm of space dragonflies, telepaths controlling their biotechnology using distributed nervous systems. A construct neural chaff generator leaves them twitching and writhing, and whatever psychic defences they could muster are gone as I pull

and head

into the centre of an armoured sphere, mollusc-like internal defence tentacles reaching for me, phasing through my construct shields as I use an intense burst of ionising radiation to fry their central computer and pull

them along with me as

I use construct shields to block shots from the cybernetically augmented marines -ah, some more orange here- who respond immediately to my appearance. But I'm not entirely here any more, and the usual delay while the construct forms just isn't a problem. We'll take those and

head back.

Let us share avarice with you.

And I snap back as the purple beams from eighteen ships flare into being. I counter with shielding for the radiation and spatial reinforcement constructs to block the beams themselves, causing them to peter out before they can touch me. Amped up like this, dropping physical barriers from subspace to block the anti-construct turrets is at least possible and when one-

Like just then.

-slips through, my shields are ablative and it only gets one. I duck and dive, keeping my constructs a little way away from me to make judging my exact position a little harder, and I can see the confusion wrought by the alien desires the Ophidian and I just forced onto the crew. How good is the Reach's programming? Without magic they shouldn't be able to design something that can cope with that, but they've made allegiances of convenience before…

Let's make it a hard choice. I fly closer to one ship, intensifying the spatial stability constructs to -at least temporarily- close down the projectors closest to me. Now the other ships have to make a choice between friendly fire and letting me take cover which for a normal Reach thrall would be very easy. But their desires have just been inflamed and confused, so hopefully-.

Then one of my suppression constructs is gone and I frantically dodge as a fracture gun opens fire and then pans through space to follow me. A shot-. No, all the turrets with a line of sight are blocked, where did it-?

"Orange-"

I ram a crumbler construct into the hull of the ship and the armour abrades, hopefully concealing my deployment of the hellwraith through the side of the ship. My other Construct Lanterns I deploy around me with instructions to-

"-meat."

-distract that Scarab Warrior-.

A rapid flurry of shots from his shoulder-mounted construct disruptors annihilate them before they can move a metre and his main arm-mounted gun charges.

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
05:39 GMT

This-

I calculate angles and shift to put the Scarab Warrior between me and as many of the primary weapons as possible.

-is-

As his anti-construct weapons target my stabiliser constructs I simply abandon them, his shots flying past me and hitting the hull of the ship.

-going-

Physical barrier and create a railgun behind it, load crumbler rounds.

-to-

The shot from the Scarab Warrior's main gun disintegrates the shield, but the follow up shots from the construct disruptors do nothing to the entirely physical railgun. I charge it with ring power and fire.

-be-

The Scarab Warrior ducks behind his shield, crumbler rounds hitting home and abrading it before-

-interesting.

-the fracture cannons open fire. Space around us turns purple, though I've got no idea if they're missing because they're distracted by their own confused desires or they're trying to aid the Scarab Warrior.

This one's orange, for some reason.

But if they're trying to avoid-.

My half-formed fracture cannon construct is destroyed by the ship's anti-construct guns, which activate for long enough to hit me all over. My armour holds just fine but even my environmental shield is driven back inside it. Keep moving extrude-

Dodge!

-armour plates and then dump Construct Lanterns while vision is blocked and then

step out and

appear on the far side of the ship because as thematically significant as fighting an upgraded Scarab Warrior who can turn off my constructs is, I'm actually here to destroy the fleet and acquire biological samples. And keep moving and

evading, because

without a Scarab Warrior to avoid shooting at the gunnery crew are a little more on the ball. Construct armour-.

And it's gone, and this time from a direct hit rather than a specific anti-construct gun.

Dodge harder and recreate the armour, then… Destructive blast.

The ship's shield shimmers, flak turrets locking onto the beam immediately and extinguishing it. Progress… Shields somewhat degraded-

One of my Construct Lanterns is destroyed and returned to my ring, giving me a sudden image of how well the ambush worked. And it did work, but the Construct Lanterns weren't able to do significant damage before-. And there are the rest. Not sure whether or not it would have worked better if I reinforced them… Or if they'd had stronger avarice when I assimilated them. Hellwraith is still going strong.

-so I fly closer and fire again. Same result: some damage, but the flak deals with it before it does anything too serious.

Ah heck.

Construct crumbler fire at the seven closest flak emplacements destructive pulses!

The flak guns start to track the projectiles and then switch to the pulses once those appear. Which means that they're just slightly out of place and slightly too slow in tracking them. The pulses hit the shields and somewhat disrupt them, the crumblers striking just a-

Another volley of destructive pulses.

-moment later and… Shield's down for a second and the second wave of pulses go in and yes, flak emplacements gone.

That doesn't help with all of the others, but at least I've got a viable strategy now. Destroy the flak, then fly back out of convenient range and use con-.

The space around me explodes in a flare of light and radiation!

I shift position, scanning for the source. Constructs. Workable. And since there's slightly less flak now I fire a destructive blast in the direction that shot came from and briefly see the outline of a Scarab Warrior. A different silhouette from the last one, though that could just be shapeshifting. Empathic vision… Yes, there they are. Focus on the ship.

Destructive blast at the ship. Flak response slower. The shield over this section is back up but goes down again after a moment, allowing me to hit the-. To briefly hit the hull before the Scarab Warrior gives up on invisibility and switches to rapid fire construct disruptors, neatly covering the hole in the-

Where's the other one gone?

-ship's defences but who cares now because they're both on the far side of the fleet so same again. More destructive pulses targeting flak turrets, crumbler barrage and a second volley of pulses and same result, good.

Keep moving. Always

keep

moving, and let the purple-. Ah, they finally actually hit their own ship! Nice to see, even if it doesn't actually help me all that much. Shift position up the hull a little and repeat, because I'm still taking fire from three other ships and there's no way that I could try mustering the power to breach the armour just yet.

Lantern-

Suddenly there's a ship in front of me as space bends and it manages

a full broadside

but I'm out of there immediately because a warship appearing right in front of you isn't a good sign. Okay, if they've got their heads straight to the point that they can do things like that I've got to consider another empathic attack to re-stun them.

Threllian-

The Scarab Warriors would probably work as a source, but there's no way that will make them stop fighting. I'm.. not too far away from an actual Reach world here, but I'm not super keen to risk their defences until a good deal more intelligence gathering has taken place.

-to-

Still, I can repeat the process here, by-.

-Illustres.

This time the guns completely ignore the destructive pulses and target the crumbler rounds. They're not.. completely effective, but the shield stays up and the flak turrets are undamaged. Darn it.

"Yes?"

Dodge and

move

and try again, no, they're sharing. Okay. This time I fire a volley not of destructive pulses but of small construct crumbler rounds. The guns ignore them for the fraction of a second it takes them to cross the intervening space and their shield is gone and the constructs keep going! Hah!

The other-

There go their turrets and I get some actual hull damage in before I'm forced to move by the fracture cannons.

-fleets are moving.

…

Darn it.

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
05:40 GMT

Okay, that's not necessarily too bad.

Through the rent in the shields I get a better scan of the interior of the ship, marking out the rupture emitters, shield generators and the location of the crew. A heartbeat later and the shield is back up, but I got what I need. And it's a little weaker now.

Dox wouldn't have sent me now if it was a last minute thing. If the other fleets are attacking that means that they're doing so early. Something that was causing them to remain where they were hasn't been dealt with as their Reach overlords would have preferred. I hope. If they were literally just hanging around to act as a distraction to me… Then as LIIVI said, I'm performing the useful action of tying up a significant quantity of enemy materiel.

This ship doesn't seem to have a dedicated self-destruct system. Probably because if it comes to it then its primary weapon system can tear it apart easily enough. Power generation is also decentralised. There isn't anywhere where I could score a knock-out blow with one hit. Other than by rupturing the entire hull, but… Yes, even then, individual sections might well maintain power and be able to operate their guns. We don't really have ships like this in L.E.G.I.O.N. because our member worlds wouldn't be able to build them, not because they're not good enough.

I

move

to the outermost ship and repeat my-

Dodge!

-trick with the construct crumblers. There's a slight hesitation in the tracking system and I exacerbate it by firing a couple of physical crumblers as well-. I've hit the shield envelope just fine, but the flak took out a few of my constructs rather than just ignoring them. Flak turrets destroyed-.

This time I spot the Scarab Warrior before they can attack, my lance of orange energy forcing them to break off their charge and evade. Another new one. Three Scarabs represents a significant expenditure of resources, Reach resources that they actually care about. Ordinarily they'd be a higher priority target than this fleet. But I suppose that we've proved that we can beat Scarabs; the jury's still out on this fleet.

The Scarab Warrior hangs back, their overdeveloped thruster array keeping them mobile enough to avoid anything short of a dedicated attack on my part. Their actual weapon appears to be a scaled-up version of the construct nullifier, so the counter would appear to be a physical barrier. Straightforward enough.

If I've worked out a way around their flak defences, the next step is piercing the hull. I know that Threllian recommended avoiding gravity weapons, but I want to see-.

Ship! I

leave

at once, a new target on the other side of the fleet finding itself the object of my assault. This time the flak targets and destroys almost all of the oncoming attack constructs, apparently prioritising time-to-target.

Okay, I can work with that.

Illustres?

I-.

And there the ships are again and I'm

moving

again. I think the crew are recovering. And if the other fleets are moving then the solution is obvious. I

follow the thread

into a command centre inhabited by aqua-skinned humanoids with minor cybernetic grafts, lashing out and pulling

and moving

to empty space, the ships matched to the known profiles of a scaly-skinned humanoid species accelerating away as I pull their desires and

then

pink blobs with numerous pseudopods appear for a moment before losing all motivation

as I return

to the fleet I was fighting moments before and pushing the desires at them. The closest ships vanish, reappearing a moment later much further away, presumably as the drive to move overwhelms them. That gives me a clear view of one of the Scarab Warriors who appears to be.. jerking around aimlessly. I

head

towards them, car crusher construct appearing around them and ramming closed.

Now the ships, and this time a little faster.

Illustres?

Comparing primary weapons fire now to primary weapons fire immediately before I left… Yes, slower and the prediction is less good. A bit of a surprise that they're doing manual targeting but I suppose that it could be like the Coluans: they don't really need computers to speed up their decision making.

"Here."

And that's the turrets on this side of the ship gone. Armour plates behind me and crumbler ram!

"Busy."

I keep pushing the ram forward, sundering the hull and smashing into the meat of the ship. There's a flare of purple as I hit one of the fracture generators, and a section of the ship's interior evaporates. Relatively weak internal armour, probably not worth knowing. Ring, find me biology.

Compliance.

…

Oh.

It seems that while the Reach might have considered the brains of Threllian's people to be top notch, they weren't anything like as impressed with their bodies. They're directly integrated into the ship. Their life support is directly connected so I can remove them and stow them… Or wreck the ship around them and come back for them lat-.

The ship before me comes apart as it's impaled by purple lances. They don't seem to have specifically aimed for the crew, but-.

Something hits me, my constructs collapsing and my armour shuddering at the impact. What was-?

A brain. The Scarab-. From the Warrior I just killed, it survived and attached itself to one of the spare brains. It visibly reconfigures as it loops around, generating some sort of energy field that.. my ring is struggling to analyse.

I respond with rapid pulses of destruction, and… They hit home, but are visibly drained of power as they do. Right then. It may have a shield but it doesn't have a gun, and there's enough ship hull around me to shield me from flak from the other ships. I generate a singularity projector construct and take a shot… Which bends away from the target and.. sort of stays there. Right, they're familiar with gravity-based weapons. And they're small and mobile but I'm pretty sure that a construct-generated laser would-.

And they're gone. Gravity teleport…

I'll keep my guard up, but there are still a lot of ships here.

"Okay, I've got a moment. I've got a method for destroying these ships but I don't think anyone else in the Corps could do it. Does Dox have new orders for-"

Dodge.

"-me?"

Not as yet.

"Then I've-."

A ship on the far side of the fleet vanishes. Then another. Then-.

Gravity stabiliser!

A ship shakes, then is reduced to drifting, its fracture cannons going dead. The other ships manoeuvre slightly, then-.

Fuck!

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
05:41 GMT

The space around me turns purple and I abandon everything other than personal defence.

Shieldshieldshield!

Something just happened that caused them to snap out of the confusion my desire manipulation caused. I-.

Ah, duck and get back inside the hull because the flak shots are heading towards me and if they hit I'm dead. The fracture cannons are going through the hull easily enough but the beams from the two weapons can't coexist and I can just about hold out against this. It's not just a matter of maintaining the construct barriers, I've also got to prevent them opening a fracture inside me, which…

Fewer incoming shots. The ships are warping away. I need to

break

out and recreate my gravity stabiliser construct and-. Beam singularity, while they're trying to use their shields for running. That ship-. Yes! Now again, smaller, target their fracture generators! Crippled, good. And then

break

away to hit another ship. Hull broken! Target the weapons and fire-. Another ship crippled and another three warp out because I can't stop them, shield myself and attack at the same time. The next one's-.

Construct broken

move!

Where did that-?

A Scarab Warrior, the first one I encountered. I don't recognise the propulsion system they've morphed, but they're faster than they were-.

No, that was a warp. One of the ships bent space to move them into place, but since a spatial warp is pretty much a spatial warp I've got no way to tell which. Guess the closest? Fly behind that ship to restore my constructs fly out target and-.

And the construct's gone again because someone's-. The ships are feeding him data in real time. He's listening to aliens? Fine then, duck back and pulse orange energy because I spotted that lensing effect-. Hah, weren't expecting that were you? X-ionised sword and lunge, because I can't spare the-

Warning: low power. Fourteen percent remaining.

-charge right now. Been a while since I've heard that warning, but if Dox intends for me to do this sort of mission then he's going to have to accept the inefficiency and grant me a second ring again. Or give me the time to make a decent one myself.

My sword cuts through the left side of his chest as another ship leaves the combat area. Three effectives left, and one less Scarab when my follow-up cut slices his head and Scarab in twain. Now fly and fire!

And the last two go. I can't see either of the two remaining Scarabs, so either they're in hiding or they left with the ships.

"Lantern Threllian, you watching?"

Yes, Illustres. Doctor Sivana was just informing me that he believes he can build an interdiction field to prevent those warps that will be significantly more effective than… Currently-.

"Than the constructs I used. Good; I'll use his device in future. I'm low on power and Dox wants me elsewhere. Do you think you can handle the recovery without me?"

Yes.

"Then come and relieve me."

Because I need to stay here in case they come back. I don't think they will; those reports Guy shared with me suggest that the Reach never found a reliable way to determine how much charge a Lantern has left. If the rest of the fleet did come back I'd fight on until I was on vapours and then head to the Honden to recharge. That would only buy them… A few seconds entirely free of my interference, but they could use that to destroy the crippled ships and warp back out again.

Another Lantern would be stuffed, of course.

I could start the recovery process myself, but I can't spare the power. Because if they come back I'm going to need that fourteen percent. But… This… Went relatively well. I didn't need that clone, which I'm glad about. Didn't get all the ships, but I did get enough to demonstrate a viable counter-strategy to construct-draining attacks and took down some of them. We've got enough of Threllian's species to increase their genetic variety, and study what the Reach did to them.

"That was a rather impressive display."

Of course, I didn't target the ships' communications systems. Which means that my Reach admirer can still speak to me.

"Me or them?"

"Oh, both. If you were a Scarab Warrior your creativity and speed would put you in the top hexile, at the very least."

"Gosh. Are all the Scarabs who can keep up with me on holiday?"

"You know enough about Reach strategy to know that we don't respond at full force to initial attacks. Our best Scarab Warriors are in reserve, for when we need them."

"I didn't know that Scarabs could bond with severed heads."

"As long as the brain is alive. Though the Scarab will struggle to maintain vital functions without organs. I hope that one makes it back; I suspect that it will prove extremely instructive."

"Did you get a report on my peace negotiation attempt?"

"No, but I doubt that it matters. We can't let you get away with this. A purely local arrangement might be possible, but… You asked for something that would cripple us, didn't you?"

"You would have become the trading state you pretend to be."

"With you guaranteeing the peace?"

"Telepaths exist, you know. You wouldn't have to just take my word for it."

"I'm trained to evade telepaths, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you were too."

"Magic, then?"

"Even if you were honest, I don't know enough about the subject to confirm anything you told me about it."

"And even if I could, your people wouldn't go for it."

"You could try teaching us?"

"That sounds like a rather critical security breach."

Though having said that, as far as we know the Reachians aren't capable of using magic. It wouldn't give them a new capacity; it would just let them plan around ours a little better.

…

Yeah, no.

"But you were happy with the performance of the ships?"

"They clearly out-performed the ships we use in our Outer Region Fleets. I invested, and I reap the benefits."

"I should thank you, then. We were worried that those species might have been lost permanently."

Threllian appears next to me, and I nod.

"But I'm afraid I'll have to cut this short. Excuse me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
05:45 GMT

"…keep what is mine, that is my right."

The usual recharge-flare isn't all that big, but I make a point of causing huge arcs of orange light to flow around me to make it very obvious to the N.E.M.O. fleet that the Illustres is back in fighting form.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic was terrible."

N.E.M.O. fleet. Not a L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet. Dox's plan to bring everyone up to speed is a remarkable piece of work, but it's got a lot of moving parts that can get gummed up. We assumed that the Reach wouldn't make a counter-attack at this point, as that would have been in line with their previously observed behaviour. That meant that the plan favoured building up those stellar nations who were nearly to the point where they could build L.E.G.I.O.N.-grade ships rather than rushing ships as soon as possible. By the time the Reach were likely to get serious, we would have the largest possible number of ships. But naturally, that means that we're a little short now.

"Hierarch-Illustres, we detect no lateness and we are grateful for your presence."

Only a little short. L.E.G.I.O.N. ships are moving in on all of the other preserved alien fleets, with reserves to cover any likely location for a Reach attack from the fleets we know about. Not an ideal situation; our fleets aren't really designed to capture ships intact and so we're going to be getting tissue samples at best. But… You go to war with the military you have.

"My pleasure, Admiral."

It's the big sphere ship, the raw power of its shields and armour meaning that these ships… Don't really have anything that can meaningfully hurt it. Colossal size isn't an unalloyed good as every strategy has a counterplay option and making one big ship means that you can't really switch strategy. On the other hand, if your opponent isn't ready for your all-in, they rather get bulldozed.

Big, powerful shield and tough armour and thanks to me savaging their desires earlier I don't think that I can just appear onboard again. On the other hand, having had a good look at the fracture cannons earlier I don't think that I need to.

"Please make sure that your ships stay clear."

The fracture cannon construct appears next to me, its huge size meaning that its appearance is relatively slow. Not sure if whoever's on the sphere knows what it is I'm making, but anyone with any sense gets nervous when a Lantern points something like this at them.

"Illustres to Reach-affiliated ship. Strike your colours, power down your weapons and shields and prepare to be boarded. You have ten seconds to comply."

I don't have to worry about powering the thing, but to make sure this looks good for the cameras I physically take hold of my personal lantern and slot it into the construct. The sphere… It can't really accelerate above its current slow rate, but it's channelling combat power into its shields, interdiction systems and point defences. A quick scan shows none of the Free Lancers' clever guns, and I'd like to take advantage of their absence for as long as I can.

"You have been identified as hostile and have refused to surrender. May Lord Hades have mercy on your souls."

There's a faint purple glow around my construct, then a flash from the ship as a line of purple pierces it pole to pole. The armour isn't worthless -in fact it's relatively intact- but all of the space along that line that wasn't armoured just got horribly damaged. Including their main reactor, because their ship prioritised output over redundancy. After all, if an attacker can punch through the strongest shields and armour they can build, why wouldn't they just fire again if they didn't score an immediate kill? Better to have a more effective reactor to power the strongest possible shields.

And it makes sense. Up to a point.

The speed of light being what it is, it'll be a few minutes until we see the ship lose thrust as the lights on the outer surface start going out, but since I'm seeing it by ring-scan I share it with the fleet. No sense leaving them to worry unnecessarily.

The construct glows purple again as I target the armoured command bunker inside the ship. The tactic they used to use if something went wrong with primary power was to hunker down and prepare counter-boarding tactics, in the not entirely incorrect belief that while an enemy might be able to disable them, breaking a ship that size apart was a whole nother matter. They would sacrifice mass for time as the engineers worked to repair the reactor.

I target their reaction mass containment and fire for a third time.

A normal fleet in this position would retreat, sacrificing a rearguard if necessary. A one-ship fleet like this can't. Once it stops functioning it's stopped, and all of the resources put into building it are forfeit. If I was depriving the Reach of something they invested effort in I'd feel quite good about this. But I suspect it was just in mothballs until a Reach xenophile felt moved to take it out. Probably brought it up to specification using his own funds. And while having me single-handedly destroy it is a good news story for our side, the Reach as a people and a polity aren't going to care at all.

Two more shots targeting emergency batteries, then I dismiss the construct. At this point we could just leave them to starve to death. I doubt that the Reach will spend the effort needed to pick them up, and the ship is damaged beyond what the people on board can repair by their own efforts.

"Admiral, the ship is disabled. Please have your fleet picket it until Orange Lanterns become available to board and clear it."

"We have Citizen-Marines who can perform that operation."

"I appreciate the offer, but this ship comes from a species the Reach made extinct. We want to take the crew alive if at all possible, and it would be entirely unreasonable to put your marines in that much danger."

"For what reason?"

"Because we're not fighting this war to take territory or resources. We're not fighting the Reach because they're offensive to our gods, or our sense of aesthetics. We're fighting them because they're an existential threat to us, and to everyone else. But if we are to be the righteous side, there must be beneficent things we do where they would instead be malevolent. They enslave and exterminate. We will recreate civilisations and make their people free. Quite aside from the moral value, there are few things as satisfying as entirely undoing your enemy's work."

"That is the Zenith-Controllers' objective? I know that they transform worlds for their vassals, but I did not realise that their powers included recreating entire species."

"They're welcome to join in of course, but it's possible for the rest of us as well. It just takes longer. I don't fight because I rejoice in the piles of corpses I create. I rejoice in making the universe more like it should be."

I dismiss my construct and return my personal lantern to subspace, having my ring send me an update on the ongoing fights with the other fleets. The ones I visited are performing noticeably worse than their pre-Reach counterparts, but I need to get moving.

"Moving into position, Hierarch-Illustres. We will stand by until relieved by Citizen-Lanterns."

"Thank you, Admiral."

I

step out

and appear in the midst of a starship dogfight! I generate a construct shield to block a missile barrage that could have crippled a L.E.G.I.O.N. cruiser and retaliate with a destructive lance that rips an enemy heavy cruiser into pieces.

"Illustres to Clarissi, I've dealt with the sphere. Please send Orange Lanterns who can reliably brand to board it."

I'll assign them after the attack is over.

I form construct point defences and an instant later there are no enemy missiles in the combat zone.

"Thank you. I think my secret admirer is behind this attack."

Yes, I heard your conversation. I will continue investigating them. This methodology is irregular for the Reach. I dislike my enemies behaving irregularly.

"Me too. I'll pop by once the attacking fleets are defeated. Illustres out."

 

[Mr Zoat]

25th August 2012
07:23 GMT

Dox nods.

"I am in complete agreement."

Off to one side Georgia is busy taking apart one of the captured construct destroyers with obvious relish.

"Our greatest advantage is that Orange Lanterns can outperform everything the Reach can send against them at anything remotely resembling even tonnage. That advantage is about to be nullified."

His ring shimmers.

"I'm sending orders now. Orange Lanterns will begin striking at Reach targets immediately."

I nod. "Where do you want me?"

He shakes his head. "I don't. Having analysed your conversation with your…" His face twitches in distaste. "'Admirer', I have reached the conclusion that you're becoming a little too visible."

"Clarissi-."

"It's not about my personal pride. Your death would be a substantial blow to our allies' morale. And while there is some advantage in having the Reach focus their research and development efforts on a single individual, I would rather not give them a single thing to focus on at all."

I nod. "If you say so. What do you want me doing, then? Should I head back to Earth, do a tour of our member worlds to spread the good news..?"

"The abilities you used to defeat the byryte fleet aren't shared by other Orange Lanterns. That will be a problem when the Reach reinforce them."

"Yes, but that's been true since we started this. What I did to.. get these abilities, I'm not sure how to replicate that. I've tried teaching my methods…"

"I know. But I want you to focus on it. Select whatever Lanterns you think have the best chance of repeating your success and assist them as much as you can."

"And if it turns out to be impossible?"

"Those Lanterns you've tutored already display measurable improvements in their abilities. It would be useful if they could share your breakthrough, but if they simply improve in a linear fashion then we can use that to improve our training procedures."

I nod.

"Can do. But the problem might be in my teaching techniques." I shrug. "I'm not sure how inclined to share the Guardians are, and Dame Carol has… Suggested that maybe I should avoid Zamaron for the moment… Karax."

"If you think visiting Karax would be productive, you have my leave to do so."

Karax. Saved from the Spider Guild by a Green Lantern Task Force, it's gone on to become the centre of Lanternism in the Milky Way galaxy. Its records on the activities of members of the Green Lantern Corps are second only to the records on Oa, and unlike the Guardians' records are available to the public.

Also, I may have caused a bit of a religious explosion there. And I should probably do something to moderate it before someone does something regrettable.

"I'll take Lantern Onik, then. There's a good chance that he has the right outlook. And… I'll take a look at the rest. See if the shape of their thoughts means something to me or the Ophidian."

He no-

"Oh, that is interesting."

-ds.

Dox turns around, something that thinks it's a smile on his lips. "Already? I thought we might study it to-." Georgia looks up. "Together."

"Naturally, I can't study precisely how it interacts with power ring generated constructs without knowing more about how constructs are formed, but I can tell what this device does easily enough. And, um. For our first joint project. It's-. It's a bit simple."

"Do the Int characters want to explain it to the Wis character?"

"It disrupts the physical manifestation of the construct. The 'draining' part only occurs after the construct has already destabilised, though the switch from one condition to the other is extremely quick. The only thing I can't determine is where the energy is going, but I'm-" She flashes Dox a smile. "-sure we can quickly work that out with a little experimentation."

..

No.

No. No, fuck off. I know that technology.

I spent two months watching that blasted mortician before it occurred to me that there might be more than one man named 'William Hand'.

"Did you ever study William Hand's work? His power beam?"

"Junior and I once made a game of writing total nonsense into his memory book to see if we could get him to actually do it. I think I remember reading about his 'power beam', but I never really thought anything about it. It shouldn't be that hard to steal an example of his work."

"No, I can get one legally."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"The security probably wouldn't challenge you and the analysis will be more interesting?"

"I… Suppose."

"Georgia, this is a serious problem. If-."

Dox nods. "You think that the Free Lancers acquired the technology on Earth. Which means that they may have a full catalogue of Earth's exotic technologies to sell and certainly have the location of Earth. I had already assigned a Darkstar team to track them, but I'll increase the priority of the mission."

I nod. "Thank you. Any ideas on counter-strategies?"

"Your use of physical obstacles was… Simplistic, but effective. I would coat my constructs in a malleable but resilient substance instead. Once the Reach begin deploying them on their ships we will have to retrain the Corps in the technique."

Georgia frowns. "Once I've perfected my understanding of the technology, it should be perfectly possible for m-. Us to find a way to disrupt the mechanism it uses. I suppose that in combat it would be one more thing to think about. Perhaps you could try putting Lanterns on ships and leaving them there, to allow them to focus on exotic effects while their colleagues fight?"

I bow my head.

"I'll leave you to talk about it between yourselves. If you'll excuse me, Clarissi?"

Dox nods, already turning to the device Georgia has partially disassembled. I

step out

and appear a little way outside of Kalmin's workshop.

"Illustres to Kalmin."

His head appears over my ring at once.

"Illustres. I understand that we have negotiations to perform regarding a duel."

I nod.

"Indeed we do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
11:02 GMT +1

Illusion ward in place and Mortalla on my arm, I amble in the direction of the easel where Kanto is giving a small cluster of students a demonstration in Renaissance-era painting. Nearby, Claudia is doing something similar with stitching, a circle of embroidered cloth on her knee as she points something out to a student of historical handicraft.

It's nice that they've found such a peaceful place to fit in. I'm honestly not sure how Kanto is channelling his godly nature into teaching art of all things, but more power to him. I wonder if this is the first actual peace he's had since… Ever? I mean, he went from Granny Goodness's school to working for Cesare Borgia to working for Darkseid. That's not exactly a life that leaves much time for… Painting.

Kanto spotted us the moment I opened the hush tube, but it's Claudia who reacts first, putting her swatch aside and rising to greet us with a curtsey. Mortalla returns the gesture while I bow politely. I've only spoken to her a few times, but she's impressed me with just how well she's managing to function five hundred years out of time.

"Lord Grayven."

"Lady Borgia. I don't believe that you've met my mother, Lady Mortalla."

Which would normally get a few odd looks, due to my preferred illusion being that of a large dark-skinned man while her skin is ivory white.

"A pleasure to meet you, my lady."

"Oh, please. 'Mortalla' is fine. And how are things with you?"

And I smile inwardly as Mortalla takes conversational initiative in my presence without being prompted. I've still only got the vaguest glimmerings of how I'm going to deal with Darkseid and it's quite possible that he could 'request' her return tomorrow… But I've done good work there.

"The Naples of this age is a marvel, and my husband's decision to tell people that we are travellers in time has led to people being remarkably kind about mistakes in my mannerisms. The people of my own age would be far less kind." She turns her attention to me. "But I doubt that you are here to ask after my health."

"No. And I'm sorry. But I'm here to ask your husband to take up the tools of his former profession on my behalf."

"I'm a little surprised that it took you this long. Skills such as his are often sought by great lords." She smiles very faintly. "Do you intend to offer him the same reward as his last master?"

I frown. "I didn't think my father gave him anything other than his name."

"I was referring to my brother, though I will confess that him having more than one name may be convenient in some regards. Iluthin di Milano sounds strange to modern ears."

"Ah. I don't know if I have a sister… That's not the sort of question a man with three brothers by different mothers feels comfortable asking his father, though it wouldn't surprise me."

She regards me with mock offence.

"My girlfriend has a sister who's single, but she's got a face like a horse. You're definitely the superior choice."

"And I don't intend to share, whether you do or not!" She pauses a moment. "Do you require his services immediately?"

"No, no. And I'm sorry if we've come at a bad time."

"You may wish to acquaint yourself with the modern device called the telephone."

I shake my head. "No. Too impersonal, for something like this. Please ask him to call upon me once the school day has ended. You are welcome as well, of course, but we'll be talking business."

"After what happened the first time my husband's business followed him home, I think it best that I keep myself apprised. And I am curious to see your keep."

I nod.

"Then we will see you later. Good day."

26th August 2012
07:11 GMT -5

Artemis exhales heavily when she sees me.

"Grayven, what's going on?"

"Another version of me is bringing his fleet to Vega to kill me and take everything I've built."

She glares.

"How long have you known?"

"A few days. I had to get things ready in Vega-."

"I've-. Felt it you ass! The constant feeling that I'm supposed to be getting ready for something!" She steps up to me and pokes me in the chest. "And you went to Kanto first!"

"He's an art teacher now. He's going to need a while to get ready if he even wants to get involved. And… You're a superhero."

"Yeah, 'cause Earth has civilisation. Vega barely does. How much weaker would you be without me?"

It's actually a little difficult to tell precisely. We are attuned to one another, and can fight like we're one person in two bodies. But how much that actually… Weakens me is a matter of some debate. Most Apokoliptians pooh-pooh the idea, unwilling to add the very definite vector of vulnerability that trusting someone that much creates. And the vector for attack. But having seen… What we did… I know the truth of the matter in my soul.

"Noticeably."

"Which is why you're going to take Lynne." She looks thoughtful. "That's… Yeah. Even if he kills you he can't leave her, because she's part of you as well. She's not any safer on Earth, and she's powerful enough-." She frowns. "We're taking a kid into a war zone."

"Or the war zone comes to her. Frankly, I'm under no illusion that the other Grayven doesn't know about Earth-."

"Because of all the New Gods. Even if he didn't know about you until the Citadelians-." A deeper frown. "That long?"

"I thought he might ignore me. For a while, anyway. Without an established realm he shouldn't be as strong as me."

"Except you've been spending all your time on Earth and he's going to Vega."

"Yeah. Because Vega can take it. Earth can't."

"But you're stronger the more you invest in a place."

I shrug.

"If there was a perfect solution…"

"What's the other you got?"

"An old Apokoliptian dreadnaught and quite a lot of upgraded Gordanian ships. Beyond that, I don't know."

"Then I need to go and take a look." Huntress Seeks Her Prey.

"You do. Which means that you need your own Mother Box."

"How do I get one of those?"

"We go and see Himon, and hope that his son-in-law hasn't spoken to him yet. I think he'll like you rather better than me."

"You're not actually an easy guy to like." She sighs. "What else have we got?"

"Ships, a Lantern Corps and that Kryptonian ship the team were trying to spy on when Lex dug it out of Texas."

…

"I'm gunna need a little more on that last one."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Medidiction

26th August 2012
15:15 GMT

"Hierarch-Illustres!"

I glance down, spotting the female humanoid with the hover camera waving at me. With most of their fleet away picketing a spherical warship with a total mass about seventy times that of said fleet, I felt that spending a little time on the planet might be advisable. A couple of the Lanterns I want to take to Karax with me can't be spared right this moment, and Thaddeus's duel isn't until tomorrow.

"Citizen-Journalist. What can I do for you?"

Carran social hierarchy is a curious thing. It reminds me a little of the turians in mass effect, only rather than being promoted by their superiors they're promoted by their peers. And it's all roles; this woman is a street life reporter who almost certainly encountered me by chance-

Though I give her and her equipment a scan anyway, because I'm not stupid. No, just what it looks like.

-and I actually prefer to do interviews like this rather than something staged. Dox likes controlling the message-

He likes it a lot, actually.

-and while a certain degree of consistency is useful you don't have to be super media savvy to recognise a line when you're being fed it. Something a little more genuine from the Illustres-right-brain side of the partnership should help our credibility with people whose suspicions… While unwarranted in our case, certainly aren't foolish.

"I just wanted to say how completely amazing it was how you disabled that entire ship in a few moments and tried to keep the Inert-Crew alive!"

Or… Maybe a roving reporter just… Isn't going to test me on a planet that already loves N.E.M.O. and hates and fears the Reach, and is genuinely completely happy to accept the party line.

I land and stand at ease.

"As I said to the Hierarch-Admiral, I'm here to fix the universe." I shrug. "As much as I can."

"That's wonderful!"

Oh. I smile and try to make it obvious that I'm trying to be self-depreciating, but I think I've misjudged the audience for that.

"Are we going to be attacked again?"

"We have no information that suggests an attack is imminent, but… As we keep saying, it's going to be a long war. I'd be surprised if your world wasn't in the firing line at least once or twice more before it ends."

"And why are you here now?"

"I thought I'd take a look at the new space docks and industrial sectors. I haven't had the opportunity to speak to the Lanterns involved yet, and I would be remiss in my responsibilities if I didn't look things over."

Because it's generally fairly obvious when a combat-focused Lantern is having a little episode, but when construction or education focused Lanterns start going off the rails it's sometimes not. But we need worlds like this in full production as quickly as possible, so we give power rings to people with a burning desire to learn and then tell them to get on with it. The psychologists follow with the L.E.G.I.O.N. engineering team, but we don't always know enough about the species involved to judge things precisely.

"And to reassure people. I can well appreciate that seeing a ship that size can be a little disturbing."

"I was terrified."

Something else about their culture: the carrans don't censor information releases. At all. Their logic is that someone who isn't fully apprised of the facts can't make educated decisions, so the moment the attacking ship was seen nearly everyone knew about it. And.. the response was fairly rational. Some panicking, no rioting and as far as I've been able to tell the population is still four-square behind the war effort.

"Well, on current timelines your planet should have its own L.E.G.I.O.N.-grade security fleet inside four months, so hopefully you won't need me to make a personal appearance."

"Were you involved in other fighting?"

"Yes. I destroyed one fleet and.. half of another before I arrived here. After that it was more a matter of supporting L.E.G.I.O.N. ships and other Orange Lanterns."

She frowns. "What happened to the other half?"

"They retreated further back into Reach space. Our science people are working on better counters for their guns, so next time I should be able to do a little better."

"When are the recordings going to be released?"

A fairly natural request from a carran. And… Honestly, given the effort that we've made to keep Reach infiltrators out of N.E.M.O. territory, not as much of a risk as it would be to, say, broadcast an equivalent recording on Earth about another earthly enemy. The Reach would need to have a monitoring device in the local data networks with a faster than light communicator, and the Darkstar counter-insurgency teams have been looking for things like that very thoroughly. Without that, even if there is a concealed infiltrator on the planet there's no way for them to tell their domitors. And given that the ships were Reach-controlled, it's unlikely that they don't already have complete recordings of the entire fight.

But it's usually not the technologies you know about that give you trouble.

"Not anytime soon. We're concerned that the Reach might be watching our transmissions to learn what we know about them, and we want their picture to be as inaccurate as possible. When it gets to the point where they can't gain any useful information from it, then we'll release them."

She frowns, because that's very much against her culture. But it looks like a combination of my rank -which implies that I know what I'm talking about- and the fact that she's dealing with an alien and aliens are weird, means that she's prepared to accept it for the moment. Though I suspect that her idea of 'soon' and Dox's are rather different.

"Will you be fighting the Reach again today?"

"No, not today. Today I've got to oversee a-" Duel. "-sparring session between two of our technologists, and then I'm working on improving our Orange Lantern training program."

She nods.

"To reduce their level of mental instability."

And she's fine with that, because… Senior officers don't generally achieve their ranks because they're better fighters than everyone else. They achieve their ranks because they're better at organising and planning. So the fact that I'm actually doing some organising isn't anything like as strange as, say, Kal-El announcing in the middle of the Sheeda invasion that he was taking time off from punching to do some accounting spreadsheets.

"Stability yes, but you have to understand… Power rings are empathic tools. Someone who learns to use them to the highest standards possible isn't going to be like the person they were at the start. It's more about how to manage the transition to avoid the negative potential consequences. Have you had a chance to read my book?"

"Only a summary."

"It explains my transformation fairly well. I have abilities that other Orange Lanterns don't, and this is… probably the only time in the war when it's going to be practical for me to experiment with helping other Lanterns to replicate what I can do."

"Have you selected any of our Lanterns for training?"

"That's part of why I'm here; I want to see if any of them are close to making the transformation that I did. However, they shouldn't be disheartened if the answer is 'no'. This is a new area of study, and… Well, much like how N.E.M.O. is focusing on developing worlds who are nearly advanced enough to fully participate in the war, I'm going to be focusing on Lanterns who have something close to my mental state to start with. Improvements to our training processes will later become available to all Lanterns."

She nods.

"Why are you needed to oversee a sparring session?"

…

"Why indeed."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
17:28 GMT

I suppose that 'because they'll kill each other if I don't' is the obvious answer.

Thaddeus appears to have rebuilt and improved the mechanical frame he wore to get-.

Ah.

"Thaddeus, you haven't actually found a way to access the Honden of Avarice without me, have you?"

"Hm…" He squirms into position. "Accessing arcane realms is relatively simple, but interacting with them in a useful fashion is complicated. I can not do what you do and go there whenever I feel like, and the inertia of people's desires means that it is actually quite-" He checks the range of movement, rotating the right arm in a circle. "-difficult to change it. And the Ophidian would not like it one bit."

"Please don't."

"I am.. more interested…" His frame bunny hops up and down, a cyan… Fizzing effect appearing around the wrists and ankles. "In exotic energy and mechanics than I am in arcane physics..." He wobbles the frame back and forth, nodding as it automatically adjusts to remain upright. "Anyway."

"Have you ever been in a fight before?"

"Yes? Of course I have." The frame begins walking out of the preparation area and towards the arena. "I mean, not a formal duel like this, but the-. The encounter that led to this, that was fighting."

"Right, yes, but if I remember the Justice League files correctly, don't you usually make sure that you have the drop on your target, shoot first from concealment and avoid getting into combat personally?"

"Yes, I do know that I'm not as physically imposing as Magni. But I have engaged in fisticuffs with Lieutenant Marvel."

I frown. "Really?"

"Well. Nearly. He was punching the force field, and I was-. The point is, I'm no stranger to working in close physical proximity to violence."

"Have you ever been injured?"

"A few bruises, a few scrapes."

"No serious injuries?"

"Paul, look at me. There's not that much of me to injure. When we fight the Marvels, if the force fields go down then it is time to throw in the towel. Qwardians like Daciya aren't anything like as strong as that, but if it somehow comes down to a contest of strength then I have still lost."

"Alright, but you need to be aware that she's had a lot more physical conditioning than you have."

"All time wasted." We walk out of the entrance and start out across the arena floor. "Physical effort is constantly being supplanted by machinery in every field of endeavour. If she was serious about being a Weaponer, she should have realised that her time was better spent improving her weapons."

He pulls a lever and his frame's right arm swings in a gesture of dismissal.

"That sort of foolishness is why they assigned her to be a test subject."

Approaching from the other side I see Kalmin walking… I don't think that he and Daciya are actually walking together so much as walking in the same direction from the same place. Daciya's augmented her dull brown armour with additional plates and.. some sort of bracer-mounted assemblage connected to the armour's back. I suspect that her armour isn't made for taking direct hits so much as blocking shrapnel or the radiation emitted by her own weapons, but I suppose that I shouldn't assume where an Apprentice Weaponer is concerned.

"Huh. Her armour's interfering with my scans."

"Yes?"

"That's actually somewhat-. Oh, no, there we go."

Daciya skips a half-step and her armour shimmers slightly.

"And there we go again."

"Worried?"

"I have no objection to working for my successes. Though that may well make it a little harder to leave her alive. I assume that you would prefer that?"

"Ideally. Don't risk yourself."

"Of course not."

We come to a halt in the middle of the arena, slightly ahead of the Qwardian duo. They approach at a steady rate, stopping five metres away.

"Weaponer Kalmin. Is your student ready?"

"She is. Is the boy ready?"

"Always hard to be sure ahead of time, but he thinks so."

Thaddeus looks at me.

"What are you doing?"

"You're here at my invitation. Daciya's here at Kalmin's. Kalmin and I negotiated how this was going to work while you were preparing."

"What do you mean, 'how it's going to work'?"

"Did you think we were in the business of letting people challenge each other to fights to the death? If you want to fight here, you will follow the rules we lay down."

"Why are you bringing this up now?"

"Because I didn't want to give you time to argue. So: the format."

"What's wrong with just fighting?"

"Because it turns the whole thing into rock-paper-scissors. Neither of you have seen each other's best work. So either one of you has an advantage and wins, or you're both vulnerable to each other and both die. And that's boring."

Kalmin shakes his helmeted head. "He actually suggested turning the arena into a junk yard and forcing you to build from what you could salvage."

"That could have been interesting. But what did you agree to on my behalf?"

"Nine rounds of five minutes each, with ten minutes between them to repair or modify your equipment. Rounds are fought to time, until one party concedes or until Kalmin or I call it. The victor is the first to win five rounds, or the one who incapacitates their opponent. When we call a round, you will stop or we will stop you. You will not like it if we have to stop you."

It looks like Kalmin briefed Daciya, but she doesn't look entirely sanguine.

"What happens when I kill him?"

"As if."

"Them's the breaks. Deliberately killing an incapacitated opponent will result in our displeasure, but if they happen to die… That's just what happens sometimes."

Kalmin nods. "This is intended to be a learning exercise. I'd like it if you both left with a few scars, but it's most important that you both learn something."

"Oh, fine." Thaddeus raises his frame's arms into a boxer's pose. "I'll go easy on her. When do we begin?"

I nod to Kalmin, and we rise into the air and head back towards our respective entrances. Engaging arena force fields…

"Go on three. One, two,-"

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
17:32 GMT

"-thre-"

Thaddeus leaps back as Daciya throws her arms forward, qwa-matter forming in front for a fraction of a second before detonating, her force fields channelling the destructive output at her enemy!

"-e."

From what I can see of Kalmin's expression he's not exactly impressed with such a beginner level application of his god's gift. Logically, I can see the utility. There are species that feed matter into singularities in order to use the x-rays it generates as a power source, where I use singularities as a weapon.

Daciya is sliding sideways on some sort of force field roller skate and firing another shot at Thaddeus while he's still in mid-air. He spots it-. He's snorting as he presses a button and teleports half-way across the arena before it can hit, the shot carrying on and striking the shield protecting the stands. One of the Lanterns on the far side suffers from a control lapse and shields their part of the stands as the incandescent plasma splashes and causes the arena's barrier to flare. No, you Muppet, they're easily strong enough to take it.

Thaddeus thumps his frame's hands into the ground with an odd snapping sound. A moment later a chunk of the arena floor has turned to dust, and as Thaddeus raises his arms the crackling dust cloud billows forward!

"Hn."

I glance at Kalmin. "Interested?"

Cables twitch along Daciya's forearms as she reconfigures her tools while retreating in an arc away from the electrified plume.

"Ionised dust is commonplace."

A thin conductive staff flashes into being in her hands and she throws it into the cloud without turning.

"The magnetic steering mechanism is of mild-"

The staff pierces the cloud, a flash of light radiating out as it tries turning the miniature electrical strikes it's suffering into a magnetic field strong enough to disperse the cloud. Some dust falls away, but Thaddeus gestures and the greater mass of the cloud rises up over it or slips to flow around it.

"-interest. The disintegration mechanism-"

Daciya flash-forges a series of balls and tosses them back into the cloud. They do something similar to the staff, rapidly glowing red hot as they generate a strong enough magnetic-

"-is more-"

-field to push the dust away but they're still-

"-interesting."

-glowing and they explode, dust changing to a.. low temperature plasma and surging back towards Thaddeus, who brings his frame's arms together in a block. The cyan fizzing intensifies slightly as the plasma washes over him. Daciya takes the opportunity to reconfigure her bracers again and waves-.

She vanishes from view, though I can still see her as she's still feeling avarice. Her involvement in this fight is as much a result of her need to win as any anger she's feeling at Thaddeus.

"Disappointing."

Thaddeus has his frame jog towards Daciya's last visible location, coils of electrified cabling lashing out-

Daciya reappears, forearms glowing while the rest of her body is-. She's absorbing light and focusing it. That seems inefficient, but-.

The laser beam lances out and touches Thaddeus's shield, which switches to two dimensions, twists, and fires it back. Daciya's light absorption field takes it along with the ambient light and fires it back, triggering Thaddeus's shield…

Which deals with the attack faster this time, the beam of light flickering back and forth between them, visible per instance only because the angle is slightly different each time. I don't know if Thaddeus's defence can run out of power, but I doubt that it would fail against a laser this quickly.

"Ooh, a laser! I have never seen that before."

Daciya changes her angle slightly as Thaddeus stomps around to face her, using the projector on her right arm to maintain the assault.

"What next, a sharp stick?"

Her left arm fires a volley of weaker shots across Thaddeus's frontage, because perhaps he can only block one attack at a time? Looks like 'no'. Several shots go unblocked as they pass through the gaps in the frame, but the ones which would have hit the frame trigger the same response as the going 'main' attack.

Okay, it's not working, where's she going with-?

She clenches her fists and light erupts from Thaddeus's shield-. No, the shield's gone and he's awkwardly staggering backward and Daciya's still in light absorption mode so she's unaffected. A qwa-matter-decay-generated plasma bolt hits his cyan dust and disperses it, and Thaddeus-.

Teleports across the arena, some sort of-. That's a purple healing ray, deploying and giving him a quick shot in the eyes before folding away.

"You broke my shield."

Destroyed the device emitting it too, I notice.

"You might actually have a reasonable intellect after all."

He extends his frame's hands and the top centimetre of the area floor explodes upwards into dust! Daciya fires another laser shot but Thaddeus's cyan cloud effect manages to absorb it as electricity surges through the dust now covering the arena floor!

Daciya shudders, then darts off the ground into the air, her armour regaining its usual colour as her bracers reconfigure again. Thaddeus moves his frame's arms and sends the dust after her, but this time the electrical discharges are more obvious. Daciya responds by changing her direction of travel, heading for the inner surface of the arena's shield with her bracers acting as additional thrusters.

I suppose that if he can only control a finite volume like that, it should be perfectly possible for her to keep away as long as she moves faster than the cloud does. And I don't think that Thaddeus can make the electricity jump to her because her armour's insulated and there's nowhere for it to jump to.

"How are you scoring this?"

I glance at Kalmin with a surprised frown.

"You're asking me?"

Daciya lurches in the air as her right arm is knocked out of alignment. She recovers, then it happens again-.

Ooh.

Thaddeus is using the electrified dust as a coil gun, the rest of the cloud concealing it from visual and electromagnetic detection. Streams of dust are evacuated at speed-

Daciya takes a hit to the chest and slams into the perimeter wall.

-and shoot at the target. Okay, I understand the physics of the coil gun, but how the heck is he aiming?

"Yes."

Most of the rest of the dust cloud falls to the ground as Thaddeus focuses on his gun. I hear the cracks as supersonic grains of dust hit Daciya, her force field active and keeping her safe but she appears unable to retaliate.

"I'm on the verge of calling-"

Thaddeus teleports and his cloud undoes her shield-.

"-this Cease!"

Thaddeus teleports away, smiling smugly, while Daciya glares at me for a moment before running for her workshop.

"Ten minutes. Make the most of it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
18:14 GMT

Daciya waves away the arena's medics, preferring to hobble back towards her workshop-

"Daciya!" Thaddeus smiles arrogantly as purple light plays over the ripped flesh of his right arm. "Would you like to borrow my healing device? Just my little way of thanking you for being a good sport."

-under her own power. Thaddeus's frame has seen better days, but there's no real doubt as to who the winner was.

Kalmin considers the scene.

"I'm sure there is some reason why you and he are letting her live. Explain it."

"On Earth, there's a television series called Dragonball Z. One of the characters by the name of Vegeta was born with the second greatest amount of raw spiritual power of any member of his species, second only to his father. For years he coasted on that, and then he ran into a chap called Goku. Goku started weak, but worked extremely hard to get stronger. When they fought, Goku won. It was close, but it was a definite win. That lit a fire under Vegeta to copy Goku's work ethic. For the rest of their lives the constant presence of Goku made Vegeta obsessed with getting stronger, with always improving himself."

"I just apply electrodes. I find pain and the threat of death to be efficacious motivational tools."

I shake my head.

"You're a Weaponer at the height of his powers. Thaddeus is roughly her age. He's had better equipment for most of his career, but she's clearly more physically able and… Qward is far more advanced than Earth."

"You think that she will focus her efforts on besting him." He nods. "If he were q'ardajin I would approve. As it is, I suppose it could be a useful data point."

"Besides, they weren't, were they? Efficacious, I mean. That's why you're bothering to teach the remedial students."

"Actually, I'm teaching them because the system was too corrupt for me to have any confidence in their designation. Though I do want to be clear: you are not planning on… Breeding them, as you are with the human female and the Coluan, are you?"

"That was more a case of taking advantage of their instincts to encourage them to act in a more useful fashion. Dox's father made him paranoid and untrusting. For him, that was useful because it reduced the chance that Dox would try and escape his laboratory. For me, it makes it harder for him to work with the rest of N.E.M.O. and that's not helpful."

"What do you intend for the male human to get out of this 'rivalry'?"

"Hopefully, Daciya wins the next one and he gets the same encouragement she just received. Failing that, he gains confidence in his interactions with people and becomes a little more social."

BOOM!

I look around as Georgia walks through the portal in the middle of the arena, her brother taking a moment to strike a pose.

"Congratulate me, Georgia. I am triumphant."

"Is that really important?"

"Is field testing important?! What do you think we've been doing since we left school?!"

Inwardly, I sigh.

"I'm sure that Daciya will want a rematch, but make sure that she's got something new to bring to the table."

Kalmin glowers through his helmet's eyeslits.

"Do not presume to give me orders."

"I wasn't trying to give you an order; I was giving you advice on the assumption that our goal here is the same." He appears to be willing to let that go. "How will you handle Daciya?"

"Handle? This is a test for her as much as any practical examination. If this duel had taken place on Qward she would be dead now. We shall see if the effect on her is what you desired."

I nod, and-. Ah, good, he's here. "Excuse me."

Kalmin turns and trudges towards the closest exit, while I fly into the stands and land close to Lantern Onik. And a few of his associates.

"Lantern Onik, a moment of your time."

He takes a moment to check that I'm actually talking to him, then cautiously approaches me.

"Yes, Great Master?"

"I'm heading to Karax soon, and it would be helpful to me if you'd come along to show me around. Clarissi Dox has informed me that he doesn't need you for anything. Do you have any of your own business you need to take care of? Or is there some reason why you can't go home?"

"No, Great.. Master. I… Can go home."

"Any reason why you might not want to go home?"

"It-. I…" He takes a moment to collect himself. "Source worshippers are a minority on Karax, and… Compared to other Source-worshipping religions, my… The monastery where I studied, our practice was far closer to Lanternism than other Source-focused faiths."

"Have you made yourself an apostate?"

"I… No. For anyone from Karax, we all see taking up a ring as a great honour. And I do regard the Source as the ultimate origin of the universe and all order within it. But while what I am doing here is in theory perfectly within the tenets of our religion, this is the first time this particular thing has happened to one of us. I am an irregularity."

"Do you object to coming back?"

"No. Now that I have a better understanding of how the emotional spectrum actually works and the place of the orange light in it, it is far easier for me to justify my decision." He smiles faintly. "When Clarissi Dox first offered me a ring, accepting it was… Something of a leap of faith."

"I can imagine."

"I… Have been reassured by your policy of collegiality. Ah. If that helps."

"In what way?"

He removes a… Paper copy of my book from a pouch, and opens it to a page about two thirds of the way through.

"'No one part of the whole is complete by itself.' You wrote that about the colours of the spectrum. Before you, I didn't even know what the other colours were. My denomination believes that the green light is a manifestation of the Source, but… We also believe that there must be others. And now we know that there are!"

"That's not exactly… I mean, you're making a bit of a leap between healthy psychology and a significantly distinct part of the Source."

"My last leap went well."

"Right, but…" Oh. I didn't actually put much in there about Apokolips or New Genesis, and the New Gods in general. And I think we're still keeping the white light under wraps. "Well, we'll have plenty of time to discuss this on the journey. Please make whatever preparations you need to be away from Maltus for an indefinite period of time."

He bows.

"At once, Great Master."

He steps back and then flies from the arena at considerable speed. I raise my right hand to my forehead

and

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
18:27 GMT

step out and…

Back, appearing just behind Lantern Dul and blocking her immediate plasma shot with a construct barrier…

Training arena, combat ro-

I activate my armour's phasing system and fly over to the observer area as she cleaves a flying.. skeleton robot with her axe.

-bots, probably using Nth metal so could in theory be a threat. I phase back in surrounded by armed Thanagarian soldiers, and… I think that one's a Raven, the Double Oh agents of the Thanagarian government.

"Good evening, everyone."

Hands don't drift towards weapons, because being Thanagarian they never left them. But they're not pointing them at me any more than they were anyway.

"Illustres!" A Thanagarian with the Arena Master's insignia nods at me. "You can join in the session if you want, but we generally call it rude if you jump in without the permission of whoever actually booked the session."

"Yeah, sorry."

"No need to apologise to me. Your problem if you get hit, by the robots or by Paran Dul. Just remember that we don't know much about human medicine, so don't come crying to me if your arm gets stuck back on in the wrong place!"

"An entirely reasonable point. Is she-"

Lantern Dul shoulder-charges a robot, hitting it and using it to soak shots from a nearby turret, casting it aside once she's within axe range.

"-likely to be long?"

"Shouldn't think so. It's a standard course. Mostly I think she's just doing this because it's the only time she can fly with her own wings."

"It is?"

He wing-shrugs. "She's the only Lantern Thanagar's had in a long time. We've got plenty of soldiers who can do-" He points to where Lantern Dul is swooping in and cutting the legs off a large spider-like robot. "-that, but no others with power rings. So the High Council want her to be as good as she can possibly be."

"That's nice? But I don't think that the High Council understand how motivating Orange Lanterns works."

"What makes you say that? They get all the intelligence reports. I'm just the schmoe who's going to have to rebuild all of this-"

The large robot fails to draw a bead on Lantern Dul as she swoops hither and thither before finally slashing into its main torso with her axe.

"-once she's finished. Hey Dul! It's meant to be a speed and agility test!"

Lantern Dul flies over a line and there's a beep, the few surviving automata going inactive.

"Seemed pretty fast to me, Deruoh!"

She looks up, making eye contact with me. I smile and wave my right hand at her. She doesn't smile back, but pulls her power ring out of a pouch and puts it on before flying up to us.

"Illustres."

"Lantern Dul. Are you busy?"

"What's left of the Seven Devil Cults are in prison or in hiding. If you have orders for me, there's nothing holding me here."

I frown. "That's a sad thing to say about your homeworld."

"I mean in terms of my work for the Corps."

"Okay. In that case your new orders are to accompany me to Karax. I've selected you to take part in an experiment in Lantern training."

"What sort of experiment?"

"The Clarissi and I have decided that it's a good time to see if I can teach other Lanterns to do what I do, and you're one of the three I've selected for the first class. So we're off to Karax, and given that it's quite a bit further from Thanagar than from Maltus, I'll be conveying you myself."

"Karax. Why?"

"I'm pretty good with my ring, but I don't actually have a lot of experience as a teacher. Karax-."

Her eyes flicker with orange light as her ring feeds her the information. "They worship Green Lanterns."

"And keep records on them. I'm hoping we'll all learn something."

"I can be ready within an hour. Who else is coming?"

"Lantern Onik has already agreed to come, since that's his homeworld and he already has the right mindset. I'm also going to ask Lantern Xor… I don't think you've met him? He's huge and grey with orange hair. He's from this region of space, so I can nip over and pick him up while you're preparing."

"How close?"

"He's from the Alignment, so…"

I generate a construct map, rotating it along all three axes to give a better idea of the relative location in three dimensional space. Thanagarians are generally much better at picturing three dimensional space than humans, and two dimensional images aren't useful when showing distance in space.

"About that far. Have you heard of them?"

"I haven't, but they're close enough that our government will have. Is there anything about him that I need to know?"

"Very strict sense of honour. No double-dealing, no covert activity without specific authorisation from me, do not start any fights and if you do get in a fight, avoid causing collateral damage."

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"Someone who doesn't want to be reduced to pâté by an enraged supersoldier?" I shrug. "I have a fairly laissez-faire command style, and I feel that's fair warning."

"It wasn't necessary."

"As you will." I raise my right hand to my forehead. "I will leave you to your preparations."

I

step out, reappearing

in the Warhound training area… There he is.

Lantern Xor is momentarily distracted by my arrival, taking a solid punch to the forearm guard before returning his full attention to his opponent.

"When you're finished, Lantern Xor."

"I can fight-"

His right fist hits his opponent's guard hard enough to make them stagger back a step.

"-and talk-"

His left hits under their guard and his right hits their exposed leg.

"-at the same time."

"I'm going on a field trip. Are you avail-"

His opponent attempts a hammer blow but in raising their arms they reveal their face, an opening Xor is happy to take advantage of.

"-able."

His opponent staggers back, then falls to the ground outside of the ring. Xor watches for a moment as their colleagues help the man up, then turns to face me.

"Yes. I am."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
19:15 GMT

Lantern Dul meets us in mid-air over the Thanagarian capital, eyeing Lantern Xor like a…

I'm mildly disappointed with myself.

Like 'a hawk scanning a field', while Xor regards her fairly impassively for a moment before returning his attention to the Thanaldar cityscape.

"Why do the buildings fly?"

"Nth metal. We use it to control mass and gravity."

"No. Not 'how'. 'Why'? Why do you make them fly? Your world has much space. You do not stack buildings because you need to. So why do you make them fly?"

"Status. We like flying. Unlike all the other species in our empire thanagarians can fly. Nth metal is a part of our bodies, so why shouldn't it be part of our buildings?"

"Because it is profligate and unnecessary. Because it adds structural vulnerability. Because it takes a scarce resource and wastes it."

"Do your people live in plain fortified bunkers?"

"No. But only the tallest buildings use systems to stabilise themselves, and none can fly." Xor frowns. "And our population is much greater than yours." His eyes glow. "And you have a city under your city."

"Poor people and aliens have to live somewhere. Where do your people put them?"

"In smaller towns, in the outskirts. In larger cities, in large habitation blocks. The poorest live in the tallest, windiest parts, furthest from the ground."

Her eyes narrow further. "Heights are a lot less scary when you have wings. Though if you want to send us labourers, I'm sure we can find room for them somewhere suitably low."

I smile brightly at them. "Ready to go, or would you like to continue this exercise in comparative anthropology?"

Xor takes a last look before rotating towards me, deliberately choosing to avoid looking at the city.

"I am ready. I do not think that there is much to learn here."

"Which of our species is more advanced? Which controls a larger area of space?"

This time I glare at her.

"Lantern Dul?"

"I am ready to depart. Sir."

I project orange light around us and begin warping space, sending us flying faster and faster away from-. Yes, now invisible to the naked eye Thanagar and in the direction of Karax.

"We'll meet Lantern Onik closer to our destination. In the meantime, we may as well have a lesson." I frown. "Though Lantern Dul, how did things go with the Seven Devil cultists?"

"Eliminated. Between me, the fleet and the Ravens, we scoured everywhere they could hide and every citizen who had contact with them."

"Meet any other Exalted Ones, or anything like that?"

"Nothing on that level. Some manhawks and a few other abominations. Easily dealt with."

"Good, good. And their records?"

"Secured."

"I'd like a little more than that, Lantern Dul. I don't need the access codes myself, but the Seven Devils coming back is extremely bad."

"Only researchers with a long history of loyalty are allowed closely monitored access, and they will be watched constantly for the rest of their lives. The High Council has accepted the broad truth of Sharon Parker's account of that part of our history. We have excellent reasons to be careful."

"The reason I ask is that -as an empath- I'm perfectly aware of how eager certain officials in the Thanagarian Empire's government are to learn what the cults know about Nth metal fabrication."

She doesn't twitch, but she does go slightly still.

"Which isn't a problem for me right up until one of the Seven Devils manifests. I also know perfectly well that your first loyalty is to Thanagar. That isn't a problem for me either, so long as you remember that what serves them best isn't necessarily what they tell you to do."

I give her a hard look.

"But if we're agreed that the worst possible outcome is the Seven Devils returning to life, then there isn't any contradiction."

"No, Illustres. I agree."

I go back to smiling.

"Okay, good work then. Is there anything else in the Thanagarian Empire that requires your attention?"

"I have been trying to replicate your feat of creating Nth metal using your power ring."

"Any luck?"

She pulls her wings in slightly. "Not yet."

"You weren't trying to use your desire to serve the Thanagarian Empire to catalyse your construct, were you?"

"That is my strongest desire."

"No, no…" I shake my head. "That's not how it works. Orange is the colour of avarice. Lantern Xor, can you explain what she did wrong?"

"Altruism does not work, even if the desire is genuine. When I fight, I do so to affirm my nature. My desires. I am an honourable warrior. I will harm none who have not wronged me. I will leave no slight unavenged. I will repay my debts. I will speak no untruth. This is who I am. This is the proper code of the universe, and I will teach it to others in whatever way I must."

He regards her with… Disappointment.

"The Illustres helped me when no other would, so has earned my fealty. My nation is the Alignment, and they took me as a child and turned me into a mindlessly loyal living weapon. And when I understood that, I tore them down. You say you are loyal to a place, a time, as if their nature makes no difference. As if you would serve a liar as willingly as an honest person, merely for the… Fancy hat upon their head. Your devotion is empty of meaning, it-."

I hold up my right hand.

"Okay! Okay, thank you for your plain-spoken denunciation-" Lantern Dul looks a heartbeat from swinging her axe at him, and it's probably only the fact that her anger has shut her ring down that's stopping her. "-Lantern Xor, I'm sure that Lantern Dul will hear it in the spirit in which it was intended. Won't you, Lantern Dul?"

"I… I will try."

"You'll note that despite his obvious contempt for your personal philosophy, his environmental shield is still working. His philosophy is objectively superior when it comes to orange light manipulation. Or… Perhaps you're not being entirely honest regarding your own motivations? And perhaps this far from Thanagarian listening devices, you might like to talk about that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
20:21 GMT

I frown as I look down at Emana, which appears to be on fire.

"I'm honestly a little surprised that they've got the resources for something like that."

Clarissi Vril Dox the Second twitches in a way which suggests that he'd quite like to grit his teeth.

"I have provided you with intelligence updates on all of the worlds of the Vega Systems, including an analysis of the likely results of your isolation edict."

Ah… I…

Dox has been responsible for overseeing… Everything, really, during my prolonged absences from Vega. The rebuilding project, actually running the Tamaran half of the Orange Lantern Corps, training the fleet… Except when I swing by and drop something new on his lap. I… Sort of assumed that he was enjoying the challenge, but I… Think that I've been being a bit… Neglectful.

It's not as if I didn't read any of them, but there are only so many hours in the day.

"Yes, and I read those relating to Tamaran, Euphorix, Karna and Rashashoon. I just didn't regard Emana as being my problem."

"It-."

Dox is biting something down. I don't.. really know if addressing it directly will actually help at this point, but… I've heard of this 'subtlety' thing, but I've never actually seen it.

"Did you..? Want it to be my problem?"

"If you had read the reports, you would know the answer to that."

"Dox, if I were a detail guy I wouldn't have broken you out of prison. Just give me the summary."

"Emana is a society controlled by networks of corporations. When you stripped the assets of some and not others, that created massive instability in their civilisation. The result of that massive shift in internal power is the war we're seeing."

I frown. "What about their government?"

"They didn't have one."

My frowns deepens. "Sounds like they were asking for trouble, then. Who ran their courts?"

"Whoever the local landowner was. The planet's supervisory council was permitted to exercise some power in adjudicating disputes between the various consortia, but they had very little power."

"'Had'?"

"They were targeted in the second round of fighting and no longer exist."

…

"Huh."

I don't really feel bad about that. They sided with the Citadel, and no one made them have a world war. Still, it is pretty wasteful. Plenty of advanced civilisations manage perfectly well with a single planet.

I look a little closer. "Some of those blasts look pretty big."

"They built weapons for the Citadel. With no market and no ships to mount them on, they turned them on one another."

"So long as they haven't launched unrestricted fusion bombardments-."

A rather large explosion appears on the southern continent.

Dox notices it as well. "A little ahead of the most probable timeline, but perfectly expected."

"What on-? They're-." Drat. "More of them are going to do that, aren't they?"

"Yes, but not immediately. That's an escalation, and the various groups have to decide whether to group together against the aggressor or follow suit and retaliate in kind."

"Why did it take this long?"

"Consortia aren't arranged geographically by alliance blocks. For the most part they were clustered by function, meaning that each one had its most bitter rivals as neighbours. They had to seize control of geographic locations before area bombardment made sense."

Makes sense, I suppose. If they're arranged by business rather than nation state…

"So… What are our chances of getting anything useful out of that mess?"

"Minimal."

I sigh softly as a series of smaller explosions pockmark the western continent.

"Could we actually use t-?"

"Yes. Most of our orbital infrastructure is theirs. Most of the people who worked it were still alive."

"I thought that letting the Tamaraneans have their independence and revenge was… Would be more useful in the medium term."

"Possibly."

I glance at him as he doesn't look at me.

"No, come on. You can be honest with me."

"It was a moronic waste of resources. This was a productive world. It would have been easier and more efficient to extort them than to seize infrastructure and ships as you did."

"There's more to life than efficiency. Though I'll admit, in our current situation, that would probably have been a better decision." I turn my attention back to the planet. "Can't help but notice that you didn't do anything about it either."

"You didn't order me to."

"If I'd wanted a Clarissi who did nothing beyond my orders, I would have hired a pocket calculator. You are allowed to exercise your own initiative where it doesn't directly contradict my orders. And if you think I'm doing something 'ill-advised', then you're free to tell me that." I frown curiously at him. "Honestly, a man of your intelligence, I'm a little surprised you can't model my behaviour well enough to predict that."

"I don't have enough data on magic or 'New Gods'. My models for you were always off."

"Okay, well, let's just chalk this one up to experience and…" I nod at the planet below us. "Work out what we're going to do about that."

Dox appears to consider for a moment.

"It's too late."

"That's a little ominous."

"Social order has broken down too much for standard contractual arrangements to be possible. There's no government, and the heads of the consortia won't negotiate in good faith. The more idealistic ones would sabotage us in revenge rather than try and network with us."

"Individual recruitment?"

"Not worth the time it would take to locate useful individuals."

That makes a depressing amount of sense.

"Okay. Anything else you've wanted to do but haven't because I haven't specifically authorised it?"

"Yes."

"Tell me the top three, and we'll go from there."

"I want to try and recreate the circumstances that led to the creation of X'Hal."

"Get volunteers and I'll approve it, though unless you've already made progress I'm going to say leave it until after we deal with my alter-ego."

"I want to study Qwardian technology."

"The Qwardians aren't alien-friendly. If you can talk a Weaponer into sharing, sure, otherwise it's not worth the aggravation."

"And I want to study New Gods."

I hesitate.

"That… Could be tricky."

 

[Mr Zoat]

26th August 2012
22:49 GMT

"…car journey, we'd compete to spot pubs and then score points based on the number of legs on the heraldry."

Lantern Xor nods, taking in this information fairly impassively. I suppose that he doesn't have anything to compare it to, his own childhood having been spent almost entirely in state orphanages or the Warhound training centre. Though… I know from my medical scans that he retains sexual function and virility, so perhaps he's storing it away for when he has children?

Lantern Onik on the other hand looks fascinated.

"Are all hostelries on your homeworld owned by the nobility?"

"No. In fact, very few are. It just became tradition at some point for public houses to identify themselves with a logo rather than call themselves by the owner's name or just plain 'pub'. How does Karax handle it?"

"Most businesses would use a word to identify what sort of business they were, and then put something more abstract after it."

"So, Pub Coach and Horses rather than The Coach and Horses."

He looks puzzled. "No, Great Master. Not unless it was on a coach behind the horses. More like: Pub Third Canto."

"And that would be a pub that had live music?"

He nods. "Usually. Or it might refer to the themes of a particular third canto. Green Lanterns tend to be direct and literal, and see those characteristics as virtues."

I nod. "So your people do as well. I suppose I hadn't fully appreciated-"

I end the warp and drop my three passengers back into normal space at the limit of Karax's home system.

"-what sort of changes that would bring about in the long term. So what's the best way to get in touch?"

"Oh,-" Lantern Onik shakes his head. "-no, Lanterns are free to fly directly to the planet."

"Am I supposed to announce myself?"

"Not to the government, though it would be a good idea to keep the population informed."

"So I should hold a press conference or give an interview?"

"You could, but on Karax we have something called 'social media', wherein individuals broadcast information to the public at large-."

"Yes, I know what social media is. I just don't think it's anything like as important as is sometimes assumed. So I just… What, create an account and post that I've arrived?"

"A few images would be the usual way to introduce yourself. If-?"

"I can manage, thank you. Smile, everyone."

Xor takes that as an order, and… Actually, that's better than I thought it would be. Onik manages a slightly worried smile while Lantern Dul makes an effort to scowl less.

Right, pick an 'alien visitors' server, apply appropriate search tags, upload images and basic biographies and… Would like to meet…

"Okay, done. How-?"

Green Lantern Graf Toren appears a short distance from us, and I raise my right hand in greeting.

"Lantern Toren."

"Illustres. Why are you here?"

"I want to learn more about how mortal creatures like us are changed by using power rings. And to learn from the most capable teachers of Lanterns in the galaxy."

He watches me for a moment, green bands of energy rotating around his right hand.

"Are you aware of any Reach presence here?"

"No. Though I haven't looked."

"You are… Simply here to learn."

"I might also do some tourism? Is..? This a problem?"

He glances at Onik for a moment as he considers.

"Would you accept me showing you around?"

"Is there something you don't want me to see?"

"You have acquired a reputation as a disruptive influence, and Karax is going through a period of religious turbulence. I am concerned about what the result would be if a significant number of people tried to adopt your philosophy without the necessary depth of understanding."

"That's pretty reason.. able…" I frown. "Ah. I… Assume that I was responsible for that turbulence?"

"No. The existence of your Corps is exacerbating it, but it is Sinestro who was the root cause."

Oh. Right. He'd basically be Karax-Lucifer, wouldn't he? The brightest star in the Corps, only to fall and find some alternate power to the green light he'd had for his whole career.

"I suppose there's no problem with limiting our exposure. Do you have somewhere in mind?"

"The abbot of my monastery has offered to accommodate you and your fellow Orange Lanterns. Our records are extensive, and our teachings have produced many highly effective Green Lanterns."

I smile.

"Sounds like a good place to start. Anything we need to know before we arrive?"

"We're going to a monastery. It's over eight hundred years old. I expect you and your companions to treat it with respect."

"And the monks?"

"The monks are students of the green light. We are not easily turned from our path. Most of them would enjoy discussing your philosophy with you."

"Good show. Are any of your predecessors still around?"

"On Karax, we consider a power ring to be a lifetime calling."

"There's no shame in being invalided out, but, okay."

"It's not a matter of shame for failure, but having touched the green light… I can't imagine life without it. I assume that they felt the same."

"A monastery is the last place I expected to hear 'It's better to burn out than fade away.'"

"'Burning out' is an act of will; a triumph of focus over instinct. We go to our deaths embracing the green light."

Lantern Xor nods approvingly. "I respect your attitude. I think that I will like it here."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
02:33 GMT

I look around the ravaged cityscape.

This… Why would any version of me do this?

Nearby, Artemis is kneeling, running her hand along the concrete. No doubt it's very informative, but… "This is fruitless unmaking."

She looks around, her hand still running over the hardened ground. Read the Traces.

"You knew he was a bad guy."

"That's not the point. The version of me I met on Earth Fifty was a bad guy. He killed and he conquered, but he was still me. He was still trying to build something. What's-. Built here?!"

Kanto née Iluthin is looking through some sort of local data recorder, one of the few pieces of advanced technology on this planet.

"A hole in the ground, I'd say. A statement, perhaps?"

"If I had to send two New Gods with hunting and stalking skills to find it, then who exactly was it supposed to be a statement for?"

"Unless he knew that you would send us?"

I shake my head. "Deliberately destroying something without a benefit… He'd be making himself weaker. This place… They were trapped by Avleb's Wall, their world lacking enough fossil fuels to fully industrialise when they reached the level of technology where that would usually happen. He could have worked wonders here."

"Charcoal burning was a major industry, and of course their elites had generators bought from off-world."

I shake my head. "At some point in the future, I'd love to come to a world like this, just for the challenge of raising it up. Did they take anything?"

Artemis shakes her head. "Nothing stolen. Some of their machinery is damaged, but as far as we can tell that's just because there was a fight there. Ingots of metal were left stacked where they were."

"And the people?"

"There are signs of a fight." She points at a wall. "There are three musket rounds embedded in that wall. Plenty more places like that. Just no people. Or animals."

"Did he kill them?"

"It's not just that they aren't alive anymore. They're gone. I haven't even found any blood stains."

Kanto looks contemplative. "And it is not easy to kill an entire planetary population without shedding blood." Believe me, I've tried.

"Nanotechnology?"

"Buildings still stand, plants still live and bones still rest in graveyards. Nanotech weapons are seldom that discriminating."

Artemis nods. "And there aren't any inert machines left on the ground from after they finished."

"Dragged off as slaves? Slavery is pretty common amongst gordanian clans."

She shakes her head. "No residue from any kind of knockout gas. There was a fight here, and no blood got spilled? I don't buy it."

How many people was it? When humans had this level of technology the total population of Earth was less than a billion, but they've been-. They were at this level for longer. Knowledge spread out, rather than being concentrated in a few places. Still, they lacked the capacity to create truly dense urban regions. Call it… Three billion? Still a… Lot of people.

"There are robots that can capture people like that." Kanto strokes his beard. It's shorter than it was. He originally grew it because Darkseid told him to, then shaved it off shortly after we resurrected his wife. Turns out that she rather liked it, and… Since New Gods don't age much past thirty, it was a sign that time hadn't just stopped for him after she died. "But we haven't found treads or tracks or signs from anti-gravity devices, nor fuel residue in the air."

Artemis looks at him. "You think he's got some kinda god-power that lets him go all Pied Piper of people?"

I shake my head.

"He could have disintegrated them with the Omega Effect, but it would take a very long time to do it to this many people. Any sign of a boom tube?"

"No, but he might just use a hush tube like you do."

Another shake on my part. "That would conceal the aperture itself, but it wouldn't conceal Grayven himself. You'd be able to feel him."

She frowns. "Does he.. feel like you?"

"I don't know. I only spoke to him once. Grayven Fifty did. Someone who could depopulate a world… I don't know."

Artemis closes her eyes. Read the Traces.

"Kanto, do-." I stop myself. "Do you prefer 'Kanto' or 'Iluthin'?"

"Given the work we are engaged in, I think 'Kanto' is appropriate. Though you should feel free to greet me as 'Iluthin' when we play our mortal roles." He holds up the data recorder. "We'll get nothing out of this, I'm afraid. Whoever these people were, they didn't record day-to-day occurrences here."

"There's… Something…" Artemis opens her eyes, frowning. "I can feel something. It doesn't feel like you, but... Mother Box, hush tube."

Oh marvellous. If Grayven has other New Gods supporting him then this is going to get a lot harder.

Artemis rises and.. gingerly stalks towards the aperture, stopping every few steps to listen to the flows of the universe with her godly senses. I can't feel much of anything, which implies to me that this wasn't an example of Grayven brute forcing it… But it's not as if I've studied his work in detail.

I follow her, Kanto bringing up the rear. She leads us through the portal and out into another part of the planet, another town. This one is on the shore of a lake, but I… Don't otherwise see anything particularly…

Ruler's Presence.

I nod as Artemis accelerates, dashing through the streets towards.. a watchtower of some kind. Someone was here, someone with authority… Did they try hiding their government here? They couldn't supply settlements over a certain size and it's not an unpleasant place to live.

Artemis waves from the top of the watchtower.

"I've found something!"

I nod and trigger my aero-discs, rapidly flying up to her. "What is it?"

"Someone was standing…" She walks to a position with a good view of the lake. "Here. Looking that way. The shape of their feet and the way they balanced was wrong for the locals. And there's a small amount of residue on the ground from a material the locals don't make."

"Off-world visitor?"

"Yeah, but it's more than that. I can feel them."

I nod. "I felt the presence of someone important, but I can't tell more about it than that."

Listen to the Wind. She nods. "I… Can. I can't draw you a picture or anything, but… It feels like… Wonder Woman."

I frown. "Wonder Woman? Well, yes, she's a little like a New God… We can ask if she's been here, but..."

There's no explanation that makes any sense to me for Diana being here. And the Amazons didn't make any others like her.

Did they?

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
21:51 GMT -5

"Nice."

Mr Hall grins as Donna Troy walks towards us, a local police officer at her side. I haven't had much to do with Diana's other student, but I don't think I've given her any reason to dislike me.

…

Other than the… Obvious.

"Professional, Mister Hall. You're here in an official capacity."

He clears his throat, straightening up slightly. "Okay, but can I ask her out in an unofficial capacity?"

"In your own time, certainly, assuming that she had nothing to do with the incident we're investigating."

Miss Troy approaches to within convenient speaking distance, and I nod to the police officer and dismiss her with a wave. She's obviously curious about what's going on, but the arrangement between the federal and local authorities doesn't give her any grounds to listen in. She nods back and heads back towards her police car.

"Grayven? Ah, Agent Grayven? What is it?"

Because she has a secret identity and there's no reason for her to know me personally in her role as 'Donna Troy, college student', and we're in a public location. Which is why I didn't just boom tube to her location when I left Artemis and Kanto to see if I could find anything.

"Nothing to worry about too much, Miss Troy." I look over to where a group I assume to be her friends are clustered around the library's entrance. "Would you prefer if we moved somewhere private?"

"Do I need a lawyer?"

"You are entitled to one if you want one, but at the moment I'm not arresting you. Or investigating you for a crime. This is really more of a 'due diligence, eliminating you for my enquiries' sort of thing."

"Okay then, yeah. That's probably a good idea."

I nod and smile.

Mother Box, hush tube to that planet.

Ping.

Mr. Hall heads through first, due to a combination of machismo and a genuine concern for what might happen to his brother if he left him alone for any length of time. Genuine, but insulting concern. I head through next, because we're not escorting Miss Troy and I don't seriously think that she had anything to do with this. But 'feels like Wonder Woman' doesn't result in all that many matches.

I step aside as Donna comes through, frowning as she looks around. I'm not seeing anything on her face or in her actions which suggests any familiarity with the-.

She looks up at the sky with a frown. Ah, she's spotted that we're not on Earth.

"Where are we?"

I shut the tube down.

"You haven't been here before?"

"I've been to two alien worlds, and this isn't one of them. What's going on? Where are-? Where are the local people?"

"We don't know. There are signs of a struggle, but no organic remains. Can you account for your movements over the last three days?"

"Yeah, but, why?"

"It's not her." Artemis walks over. "She feels kind of similar, but not the same."

Donna glances at her, then returns her attention to me. "She's waiting for that explanation."

"I'm not used to using my magic senses on people who aren't Sheeda. Someone was here, and their magic feels like yours and Wonder Woman's."

Donna frowns. "There isn't anyone like me and Wonder Woman."

"Far as I can tell?" Artemis shakes her head. "Not true."

"Except-?"

I shake my head. "Not Orana. I awoke her after she ritually accepted my authority. I could probably navigate back to Earth using her. She certainly hasn't been here."

"There are other demigoddesses on Themyscira, but-. Well…"

I nod. "They're a bunch of shut-ins who wouldn't come to an alien world even if they had the opportunity."

"I wouldn't-." … "Yeah." … "I mean… Some of them might."

I nod. "But if they were inclined to covertly murder three billion people they'd have shown some sign during the last three thousand years. Amazons don't do innovation."

"They certainly don't do three billion murders. What.. happened here?"

I make an exaggerated shrugging gesture.

"We don't know! We don't know. There're signs of a struggle but no bodies. No damage relating to weapons that weren't native. No residues of any kind. Other than the fact that someone incongruous stood here we've got no idea."

Artemis nods. "I was trying to track the other Grayven, when-."

"Other Grayven?"

I nod. "I have a duplicate. I don't know where they came from, but he has a fleet and he's heading for Vega to remonstrate with me. We're… Not exactly on a direct line from his last known location to Vega, but it's not far off."

About half the distance, which… The barrels of some of the muskets were still warm. This was recent. So assuming that they're moving at a constant speed, I know roughly when we should expect them. Unless they're just going to set up a base in our area before actually attacking.

"You don't know of any others?" Donna looks at me quizzically and I shrug. "I don't know, no Amazon went on a mysterious nine month long spiritual retreat after visiting the mainland or something? Because there aren't a lot of options here."

"Plenty of Amazons from the old city of Themyscira didn't ever manage to get to the island. But they would have died thousands of years ago. The.. same with any of them who went back; their immortality is tied to staying there."

I nod. "And the demigoddesses?"

"There was.. about two thousand years where Themyscira had no contact with the mainland at all. And the thing about Themyscira is.. there aren't any men on it."

"Right, but there's magic and there's gods."

"And there's an island full of militant lesbians and it still took three thousand years for Queen Hippolyta to create Diana. If someone had children I haven't heard about it."

"Drat. Well, thank you for your time. I'll take you back-."

"No."

"I'm sorry?"

"You can't just announce something like this and expect me to carry on like nothing happened. And Diana's going to want to be involved too."

That's… I mean, I have-. No, I haven't wanted to get the League involved. This is my dog, and…

This Is Mine.

They aren't likely to appreciate how I'm building the place up, and I can't exactly shove them back out of the way once the fight's over. And while I'm reasonably confident that they won't side with someone who'd do this over me…

I'm not completely sure that they wouldn't try doing something ill-advised.

But if I'm looking at exposure anyway, it's best to make it controlled exposure.

"Then let's go and talk to her."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
00:13 GMT

"I like the colour-."

"Yes, we've heard that joke."

If you don't want people to make fun of the colour of your Green Lantern temple then don't make it green. And not just green; anything that's actually coloured is the closest they could get to the actual colour of green light constructs. Variations on the green sigil feature extensively in the wooden coving, and artwork featuring the Guardians portrayed as deific figures covers the walls.

"Do devout Lanterns get interred here, or in the crypts on Oa?"

"Why would we consider it a lesser honour than Lanterns who don't share our beliefs?"

Behind us, Dul and Xor float slowly after us, taking the opportunity to study their surroundings. Onik just looks awkward. I suppose that this isn't his religion, after all.

"Lantern Gardner mentioned that he'd opted for it. Jordan wants to be buried on Earth." I smile. "Savenlovich is donating her body to medical science."

"And you?"

"I'm taking it with me. Saves me from having to build a new one. Lantern Onik, did your monastery have the same overwhelming green theme?"

"No, Great Master." Lantern Toren glances back with a raised eyebrow tattoo, but doesn't otherwise comment on the appellation. "Our symbol is a sphere-and-arc, and we use the entire rainbow of colours."

Hm. Probably more interesting to the eye. Ring, add recordings of my interactions with Doctor Ub'x, Dame Carol and Al Scott, a copy of my book and a summary of my knowledge of the seven standard colours to our social media site.

Compliance. Error, compliance impossible due to server overload.

On a planet this advanced? Ah, okay, rehost it and make those additions.

Compliance.

Somewhere with a better reputation for reliability.

Unable to comply. Karax data servers use a cloud system where the location of data components is uncertain.

Fine.

We pass a training area where monks with shock rods are fighting one another. I see one monk score a solid hit to their opponent who proceeds to power through the shock and return the favour, which causes both rods to go dead. Of course, they're training their willpower as much as their bodies. Backing off isn't to be encouraged.

"Lantern Toren, have you completed your M'eelam Na'aquall?"

"No. I do not believe that I am ready. Does your Corps have an equivalent?"

"Not in the formal sense. I've done something similar, but that involved joining with the Ophidian and then separating. What sort of preparations are usually considered necessary?"

"Intense self-reflection and moral development, combined with the trials of duty in the field."

"Was the way in which Jordan and Gardner passed unusual, then?"

"Lantern Gardner had already touched Ion. I don't know Lantern Jordan well enough to comment on his preparedness."

"Do you know how Lantern Gardner managed that?"

"A tremendous feat of will, putting aside all distractions to focus on a single act."

I nod. "Is that what you're working towards?"

"No." I frown. "Or rather, I would like to achieve what he has, but… Lanterns who gain his level of spiritual elevation usually struggle to maintain balance. I seek to master the green light as a part of my life."

"Very sensible. Lantern Xor. How's your work-life balance going?"

"Yesterday Onigar took me-"

I hear the 'thud' as his environmental shield fails and deposits him on the ground.

"-to a theatre production of The Dream of the Comet. I cried when the lead character realised that he was trapped, for I saw myself in his struggle."

"Good man. Lantern Onik?"

"I… Ah…"

I half-turn and give him a reassuring smile. "It's always awkward when the boss puts you on the spot, isn't it?"

He hesitates, then nods. "Yes, Great Master. A.. little. A short time ago I studied the histories of some of the peoples the Reach has destroyed. When I studied their culture, the wrongness of their loss became all-"

His landing is far more quiet than Xor's.

"-the more clear to me."

"See, that wasn't so bad. Though you might want to consider something that isn't related to the war. Lantern Dul?"

"After the rest of my team died I forced myself to carry on my mission without-"

She doesn't land, though holding her wings open is a little awkward in these corridors.

"-allowing myself to doubt that I would succeed."

"And you succeeded beyond your superiors' wildest dreams-."

"No."

"Alright, you succeeded beyond what they could have reasonably expected. Though again, I would encourage you to develop a life outside of work. We're all members of social species, and I'm firmly of the belief that a greater range of interests is necessary for coping well with the stress of using our rings."

"What do you do, Great Master?"

"I do work both in industrial development and prisoner rehabilitation on my homeworld, and I'm optimistic that we might actually be starting to use our advantages properly. And I've been romantically involved with a Darkstar named Jade Nguyen for about a year now, and enjoy working out how to spend time together wherever she's stationed. Lantern Toren, are you going to want to participate?"

"It is more that I have been advised not to leave you alone." He nods. "But I think that it would benefit me."

"Glad to have you. Do you feel like experimenting with an orange ring?"

For a fraction of a second, he looks decidedly nervous. "I will see. For now, I would like to introduce you to the abbot, who can grant you access to our archives and our records of our historical training methods."

We halt outside a large wooden door and he knocks twice, the doors swinging open as the second knock is complete.

"Enter friends."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
00:19 GMT

The abbot is a tall and thin man, and rather than the robes I half-expected he's wearing light body armour with only small amounts of green sigil decoration. A simple weighted ball sits in his right palm, which he holds straight out to the side without a tremor. It doesn't look particularly heavy, but holding even a light weight in that position for any length of time can be a strain. There's a desk off to one side of the room but the main area is filled with what appears to be gym equipment. Nothing complicated, mostly weighted objects and other devices to improve endurance. Or rather, to improve the willpower.

Makes sense. This order was inspired by the Green Lanterns who fought against the Spider Guild. They're a martial order… Ah. I've sort of been getting 'kung fu monastery' vibes, but the inclusion of modern weapons and armour was throwing me off slightly.

"Welcome, Green Lantern Graf Toren. And welcome to you, Orange Lanterns."

The abbot isn't smiling as he says it, but he isn't frowning either. Maybe that's the sort of thing Lantern Toren was talking about when he mentioned his concern about forgetting how not to be green. Empathic vision of the abbot gives me a green glowing fuzz, suggesting both considerable willpower and spiritual self-mastery. Not seeing much else.

"Thank you, abbot." I perform a shallow bow. "There's no telling what mischief we might have gotten up to if you hadn't agreed to sequester us away here."

"If you wish to learn to be a better teacher, and your students better Lanterns, this is the best place for you to be. Your social media page-"

Error, server overload.

"-just crashed again." He gives me a look of mild disapproval. "And I honestly think that young people like yourself place too much import on those things."

"I'm… I'm inclined to agree." Have to find time to dump a few hundred copies of my book on a local library. "I understand that Karax is having some sort of religious reformation?"

"Yes." The arm with the weight remains completely still as he nods. "Though the precise nature of our social changes would probably be difficult for someone not used to our civilisation to understand."

"Understood. But if you think that there's something I can usefully do, feel free to ask."

"Should such a situation occur, I will certainly mention it. I will make our full library open to you, save for the private words past Lanterns have for their successors. Those are not mine to grant you. Meditation rooms, lecture halls and sparring arenas can also be made available at your request. In return, we ask that you share any particular revelations you have."

"Certainly. I imagine that will come in handy for working out what to do with the orange light."

"If I had been asked prior to your emergence, I would have assumed that the sort of person to use a power ring driven by avarice would be an easily distracted self indulgent monster. And yet, you have created a Corps and aimed it at the largest and most successful empire in the galaxy. Why?"

"My predecessor lived down to your expectations. But for myself, I believe that the measure of my life is the changes I make in the universe. And I prefer it when the universe works a particular way. If we handed out rings at random or to people who experienced the strongest avarice, it probably wouldn't go very well. But by selecting people who want what we want or what we want them to want, we've managed to keep almost everyone pointing in the same direction."

Mild disapproval.

"'Almost'?"

"The orange light is inherently corrupting. Some people lose sight of their higher order desires while using it. They get disarmed and placed in a rehabilitation centre. We're still perfecting the process to screen out people vulnerable to that sort of thing. But orange is hardly the only colour to have that sort of problem."

"Oh? Does yellow have a problem like that?"

"It's not quite as corrupting as orange, but it still encourages its users to see the people around them as vessels for their fears." I shake my head. "The first yellow lantern I met said that was literally why he did anything: to relish the fear he caused and the power he held over others."

"And you believe that was the result of his use of a yellow power ring?"

"I don't know for certain, but I met a parallel universe version of him who didn't have a yellow ring, and he is a really nice guy."

"I see. I would like to discuss this with you further later, but unless you have any questions for me, Lantern Graf Toren can show you to wherever you want to go."

"Just one question, both for you and Lantern Toren. You know how Green Lantern selection works, right?"

Toren nods. "Not in every detail, but a general overview."

"On Earth, we don't have any sort of Green Lantern training program. Jordan got picked because he was competent and close to where Abin Sur died. Guy was picked because he lived close to Jordan. Stewart was the same. But if you've got a monastery full of trained people, why were you chosen in particular? Rather than…"

The man who is still holding that weight smiles faintly.

"I believe that I was passed over due to my age. I'm fairly robust, but I'm not as young as I was. It also becomes harder to learn new things as you get older. I would struggle to adapt to the requirements of power ring combat."

Lantern Toren nods. "Most monks who study here do so to improve their self-discipline. Few make this their home for their entire lives. When I received the ring I was one of the youngest full time monks. I also studied interstellar law prior to receiving this ring."

I nod. It makes sense. The Guardians want strong willed people, but they also need people who can do a fairly complex and risky job. Just having a strong will doesn't guarantee that you'll make a good soldier or police officer.

"Thank you. That makes sense."

"I have a question in return." The abbot looks me in the eyes. "How many Lanterns does your species have at the present time?"

"Four Green, one Blue, one Violet and one-" I spread my arms slightly. "-Orange. In this parallel; I've met alternate versions of myself with every colour."

Except White, but, under wraps for now.

"With such a success, are you sure that you need to be here?"

"If I was sure, I wouldn't be here. And the fact that my species appears to make good Lanterns doesn't help anyone else."

Toren doesn't look quite certain how to take that.

"But if your species has a knack for using power rings, why don't you recruit other members of your species?"

"Because I know what we're like. It's funny when we cause problems for other people, but I don't really want to be stuck on the other end of that."

"Hah!"

The abbot smiles, nodding. Toren seems a little surprised by his outburst.

"Also, we were recently on the receiving end of a planetary invasion. Things are extremely unsettled. And the war the Corps is fighting is a long way away from Earth. People won't be as invested."

But maybe I should consider it? Luthor's out but Lonnie's around… I haven't checked on him since the Sheeda attacks, but I'd be astonished if he weren't still alive. That's probably something I should do.

"I think that's everything. Lantern Toren, please show us to the library."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
00:57 GMT

Oh flip the heck yes.

Onik looks around in fascination at the printed books. They're not printed on paper; it's actually a type of plastic with the words being made of the same stuff in a different colour. But they're designed to look like leather-bound paper books, just like mine is. Toren has clearly been here before, so rather than stare at the books he's staring at the strands of orange that are radiating out of me to touch all of them.

Dul is standing at ease, waiting for me to start. Xor is next to her, but that's more because this part of the library isn't designed to be accessible to people of his size.

"Lantern Toren, it feels like the books and passages relating to fear have been accessed considerably more frequently than the rest of late."

"My fellow monks are the most likely to be called to replace me if I die. Sinestro has killed more Green Lanterns than anyone else in centuries."

"I didn't think you'd ever met him."

"I have not. But this monastery is the sort of place that he has shown himself inclined to attack. A place with a serving Green Lantern and others loyal to the Corps."

The Orange Lantern Corps doesn't have an official position on Sinestro. He hasn't allied with the Reach, so he isn't our problem. Dox told me that he hasn't spoken to him since their initial conversation, and there isn't any obvious reason for him to lie to me about it. Personally, I'd like to learn a little more about what he's trying to achieve before making a decision. Silver Age Sinestro was a Dark Kantian sort of guy, while Modern Age Sinestro was acting in the belief that order was the highest good and that it was best maintained through fear. I'd probably just kill the first one, but the second… Not sure.

"So you wanted to read about how other Green Lanterns have confronted and overcome their fears?"

Toren nods. "Since Sinestro's constructs are strengthened by fear, it seemed like the logical thing to do."

Ah, so many stories! And… Mostly lacking in the sort of detail I'd need, but they're a start!

"Well then. If fear's what you're worried about…"

I transition back to Xor and Dul.

"Let's do some sharing!"

Dul looks dubious. "What sort of sharing?"

"Fear. From what I'm reading, it seems that learning to respond to fear by strengthening their focus helps Green Lanterns punch through their problems. Several trained to confront their fears until the response was instinctive. Feel fear and focus, though…" I turn to Lantern Toren as he walks out of the stacks. "Don't try that against Sinestro. He knows that it's a standard technique and would almost certainly prepare to take advantage of your focus narrowing."

He nods. "I thought that he might. Of course, completely defeating my own fears is far more difficult than learning to work through them."

I frown.

"Wouldn't learning Sinestro's fears work better? He needs to command them to even use his ring."

"Sinestro did not become First Lantern by being weak-willed."

"Great! If he just focuses his mind to shut out everything else then his ring will stop working." I look at Onik. "Lantern Onik, would you mind demonstrating?"

He nods floating off the ground for a moment before his environmental shield shuts down and he lands lightly on the floor.

"Thank you. Sinestro spent a long time as a Green Lantern. If some responses from that time are ingrained, tricking him into falling back on them might work."

"I will try and turn that into an actual tactic and bear it in mind."

"I still catch Alan out like that sometimes."

"Who is 'Alan'?"

"Alan Scott? Got hold of Green Lantern Yalan Gur's power ring, used it for decades and then switched to a blue ring. Since that-."

"You mentioned a 'blue' Lantern earlier, but I don't know what those are."

We stare at each other for a moment.

"Isn't knowing this your religion?"

"I understand that Earth is a strange place."

"Alright, fine. The spectrum." I take a holographic display out of subspace and show the image. "Red, for rage and hate. Though Weaponer Kalmin uses a single word for it and I've never heard of anyone catalysing it with cold and calm hatred, so my label might be a cultural artefact. The Qwardians experimented with it, but couldn't ever harness it in a controlled way. Then orange for avarice, yellow for fear, green…"

"Then blue for hope, and as far as I know Alan Scott of Two Eight One Four is the only blue ring user currently active. Lovely man. Then we have indigo for compassion. They're active and recruiting, by the way, though I've only met one. And last of all violet, love. The favourite colour of the Zamarons. Two violet ring users are active on Earth, both running off sororal love, though one is highly interested in this 'romantic love' she's heard so much about."

"I have personally seen power rings of each of these colours. Each of these colours is an emotion you -collectively- have to learn to integrate." I reach out and take hold of Toren's right hand, and after a moment's consideration he doesn't resist me touching his ring. I pointedly make eye contact with Onik as I start to float. "This is not something that I have a problem with. I cannot be weakened by exposure to other emotions. And neither can Guy Gardner-"

Tora blushed when we told her how we were testing it, but I think she was pleased. Whow, I haven't spoken to her since… A… While.

"-and I'm pretty sure that Green Lantern Illustres Chaselon can't be either. Though remember that certain emotions are built into the universe while others aren't; you can feel any amount of joy or pride or boredom without it affecting ring use at all. One of the things I want to teach you to do is to redirect impulses from the other colours to fuel your use of the orange light."

Dul considers my monologue.

"Is that what you did to gain 'enlightenment'?"

"No. That was a rather different process."

"If we're trying to get what you have, shouldn't we do that instead?"

"You can. Step one, learn to turn off your ring without feeling a contradictory emotion. I did this without practice while merged with the Ophidian because I realised that continuing to feel avarice was making it impossible to get what I wanted. Step two, openly and honestly examine all of your desires and accept them all as part of who you are. Some of them will probably horrify you; that doesn't matter. They're still you."

"There is no step three." I smile sarcastically. "Simple, yes?"

Onik frowns, then raises his left hand slightly and stares at his ring.

His environmental shield stays on.

"Maybe you don't want it off hard enough."

"I don't think-"

His shield flares.

"-that's how it works, Great Master."

"No. It isn't. So since Lantern Dul was having trouble with rage earlier, let's start with that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
01:23 GMT

Lantern Toren stares at his ring, which stubbornly remains active.

"I don't think this is going to work for me."

"Not now, no. It requires a very particular mindset, and this wasn't how I wanted to teach you all anyway."

Xor -who actually paid attention to what I was saying and only briefly participated in this diversion to show willing- nods.

"Would we have to survive bonding with the Ophidian?"

"I don't know, but I don't think so. Lantern Xor, have you ever lost control under the influence of the orange light?"

He thinks for a moment.

"No."

"Well, there you go. It's a very specific mental state to be in. Just staring-. Lantern Dul, stop, please."

Onik has managed to keep his environmental shield down to a minimal level, which I'm pleased to see as it means that he, A, gets the idea and, B, has engaged in sufficient reflection that he has a rough idea how it might be done. Dul on the other hand is at the centre of an orange bonfire and I'm starting to get a little concerned.

"Why won't it turn off!"

"Because you're being excessively direct. Rather than just wanting at it, consider… Pride. Focus on how much you want the intrapsychic reward that you would receive by achieving this objective, on how much you want to impress your political overseers with your skill."

She takes a deep breath and her environmental shield shrinks a little.

"That worked for you?"

"It worked for us."

There's a peculiar echo as we taste the desires of those around us. This place worships the Green Men. It makes them taste strange. We don't like it.

Onik smiles weakly. "Could you demonstrate it for us?"

I shrug and sit down cross-legged on the library floor.

"I originally did this on my homeworld's moon. My homeworld's moon doesn't have a breathable atmosphere. This-"

I raise my left hand, fingers pointed downwards.

"-is a far more benign environment."

The ring drops from my finger to the floor.

"If any of you were empathic you'd feel a curious lassitude in my thoughts. My desires are there, but they're partially disconnected. But it's not-"

My ring jumps back up onto my finger.

"-a particularly pleasant way to exist. Especially if you're used to having an orange ring."

Lantern Toren nods, clearly intently interested. "An admirable self-mastery."

"I'd say it's not about mastery, but about learning to direct the flow." I shrug and shake my head. "But we've been distracted from the point. Lantern Dul, please-."

"That is all?"

Xor looks bemused.

"That is all."

Xor raises up his left hand, frowning as he looks at his ring.

"That would make me a better Lantern?"

"That is part of how I became such a powerful Lantern. 'Better' is far more subjective."

"I… Think…"

His environmental shield blinks out for a moment, then he starts and it reappears.

"Oh."

Lantern Onik stares at him. "How did..?"

"In the Warhounds, we have it beaten into us that personal desires are wrong. That selfishness of any sort is a betrayal of our comrades and our people." He exhales through his nose. "That any desires of our own were a betrayal. I wanted to be a better Warhound. I wanted it-." Another exhalation. "I wanted it so much."

His eyes narrow.

"I no longer want it."

"I'm impressed. Good work, Lantern Xor."

He breathes in and then out. Then he turns away and walks towards the exit.

I nod as he goes. That sounded like a fairly big deal for him, and since he's ahead there's no problem with him taking a few minutes to collect his thoughts.

"Did that give anyone else any ideas, or can we go back to what I was trying to teach you?"

Lantern Dul glances at Xor as he lets the library door close behind him, then stares at me.

"That's it?"

"Lantern Xor's been doing a lot of thinking. I was teaching him my philosophy while he was under arrest on Earth. And he's had a life that lends itself to this."

"No struggle?"

"The struggle is internal; the Lantern is forced to feel or think things they would rather not. You heard what Lantern Xor said about your loyalty; he didn't like it because he used to feel that way about the Alignment. And now -with all the zeal of the convert- he doesn't."

Her face goes slightly blank and she's not quite meeting my eyes.

"Can you think of a time in your life when you genuinely wanted to not want something that you wanted?"

"That-."

She bites down her initial response.

"I will not share that."

"Okay. But you're going to need to revisit it in the privacy of your own head if you want to overcome this. You're going to need to accept your feelings and decide how you want to feel."

"I… Will do so."

"Glad to hear it. Now then Lantern Toren… Let's talk about fear."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
01:29 GMT

"And since I'm sure that this will be awkward and uncomfortable for everyone, I'll go first. I used to fear my own death. Not pain; I've been hurt before and I could get my head around the idea of injuries which caused more pain than what I had previously experienced. I'm talking about the sheer incomprehensibility of the cessation of my conscious existence. When I arrived in this parallel, one of the first things I did was investigate local religious beliefs in an attempt to find out if anything they said about post-mortem existence had any validity to it. When I discovered that it did but that as an outsider I wouldn't benefit from it, I immediately took steps to rectify that."

I send all of my clothes other than my pants into subspace in order to show off my tattoos.

"Now I have a soul. And I don't think that people like you who come from a parallel where that's normal understand exactly how great it is to have built-in budget immortality. Furthermore, I've actually experienced organic death twice, so the idea that an enemy might bring enough force to bear to kill me again just doesn't have the same psychological weight."

Lantern Toren nods. "You have no fear of change, then?"

"We learn to fear things that have hurt us in the past. All the change I've experienced over the last two years has been either positive or a step on the way to a positive change I'm reaching for. I no longer fear death because it's a solved problem. I still fear non-existence, it's just further away now than it used to be. I still fear decay, but thanks to my ring I'm not troubled by physical decay any longer."

Another nod. "Environmental shields can filter out disease organisms. Wearing it full..." I'm shaking my head. "Time-. That isn't what you mean?"

"I fear decay, due to the association with death. I fear losing functionality. But early on I was so accepting of the idea of using my power ring to solve all of my practical problems that I don't age any more. I cut bits off myself as a demonstration of my ability to regrow parts of my body with my ring. If I got crippled now, I wouldn't despair at permanently losing a capacity, I'd either fix it with my ring or -if I didn't have it on me- work out how to get it back and then fix the problem. At a fundamental level, I no longer believe that there are problems I can't fix with my ring."

I make an amused snort.

"At this point, if I received a severely crippling injury it might actually be easier to die and resurrect in a new body than to fix the one I was in."

"You don't lose functionality?"

"It's constantly restored by my ring, so, effectively, no."

He looks awkwardly at Lanterns Onik and Dul.

"Is that the same for all Orange Lanterns? I can see the advantage in not retiring veterans."

Lantern Dul looks mildly contemptuous. "I have never feared death."

"Which is why you can't do what I do. Tell me." I take an x-ionised sword out of subspace. "If I took this and cut off one of your wings, would-"

Armoured wing-cowls appear over her wings.

"-you be able to restore them? Well done on responding rationally like that, but I'd still like an answer."

She holds out her right arm and draws a dagger with her left hand. Making sure that she has my full attention, she stabs herself in the right bicep. It bleeds freely for a moment, then the wound is concealed by the orange glow.

"Okay, but you're missing the point. I can tell by your scars that you've had injuries to your arms before. And most other parts of your body. But not your wings."

Lantern Onik nods. "They are totemic for your species. Losing them would be a greater psychological shock than even losing an arm."

The glow dies down and her arm… Has a new scar, actually. The flash that cleans her knife is far more thorough.

"I don't fear-."

My sword flies towards her right wing, her eyes widening and armoured cowl collapsing as it stops a millimetre from the flesh of her ulnare.

"Yes. You do."

I recall my sword, and wait patiently as Lantern Dul flares her environmental shield and looks about a heartbeat from going for me. Which I'd be fine with; it might help her, actually.

"It's perfectly natural to fear losing your extremities, but when you're a Lantern-"

Her environmental shield dims back down to normal levels.

"-it actively impedes your ability to defend yourself."

"So I have to let you cut off my wings, huh?"

Her voice is fairly level. She's not angry, or even afraid. I've demonstrated that it's perfectly possible to heal with a ring. She's healed with a ring. She knows that it's possible. And she wants to expunge the weakness just a little more than she wants to protect her wing-based ego.

"No, of course not. That would be ridiculous, though I'm sure that there are some Orange Lanterns who do that."

Onik looks awkward for a moment, then nods. I'll have to talk to Lantern Ragnar about that.

"It's entirely natural to want to avoid injury, but you allowed your fear of losing your wings to overwhelm your desire to keep them. You see why that's bad, right?"

"Yes." She nods.

"You've been in combat many times. Have you been worried about losing your wings before now?"

"Only as a.. background thing. Our wings have enough Nth metal in them that it's hard to destroy them with something that doesn't kill us outright."

"Are there cybernetic replacements?"

"They don't feel right. And you need to use them as a pair, which…" She flexes her wings. "If you'd only lost one, they would cut the other off as well."

"Chay'ara manages."

"Sharon Parker wears the wings of a three thousand year old corpse. That's even worse. Did she tell you that she intends to try to die on Thanagar next time?"

"No, but that's a fairly sensible thing to do. Even if it doesn't work, she'd learn something." Have to see if there's enough DNA in those wings to clone her. "But to return to your wing issue, do you understand why it's such a big deal for you?"

"I'd be less of a Thanagarian without them. Just a common humanoid."

"Just so. It's not the injury, it's the loss of status and the violation of your self-concept. You are a Thanagarian before you are a soldier. Even before you are Paran Dul. And certainly before you're an Orange Lantern."

"I…" Her voice is quiet, subdued. "Understand. You're right."

"Of course I'm right. It's my job to be right. Need anything else?"

"Not at this moment."

"Rightoh. Lantern Onik-."

"I fear that I have horribly misunderstood the nature of the universe and my place in it, leading to me making increasingly poor decisions in search of spiritual validation while pushing people away and so entirely missing the point of life itself."

I hesitate for a moment, then nod. "Good. Good. Well done." … "Lantern Toren?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
08:32 GMT

I hold up the lumpy purple fruit.

It looks edible, scans say that I can digest it and it smells faintly of custard. I slice it in half with a construct knife… Yes, odd fig-like interior but…

Ah. I send construct peelers to remove the skin and then pick-

"Customarily, those are eaten-"

The abbot sits down opposite me at the canteen table, a bowl of muesli in front of him.

"-with the skin intact."

"I have a bit of a thing about textures."

I cut off a small piece of the fruit's flesh and put it into my mouth. It tastes… Well, that's not custard. Maybe more… Floral? It puts me a little in mind of a potato, only… Not, obviously.

"Seems edible enough."

"I assume that you scanned it?"

"Naturally, but the fact that I can digest it doesn't necessarily indicate that I want to. I mean-"

I take an apple out of subspace and put it down next to his bowl.

"-do you know what this-?"

"Apple." He picks it up in his right hand and bites into it. He chews, smiling slightly as he tastes it. "A little sweeter than I was expecting, but I imagine that your species have developed multiple commercial varieties by now."

I frown. "Okay, I know that we don't export fruit… Or anything, so how do you know about 'apples'?"

"The records of Green Lanterns of Sector Two Eight One Four. A few of them took the time to describe the societies they encountered when they visited your homeworld."

He takes another bite and chews it slowly. I do the same, focusing on my own fruit. With my power ring abilities being what they are I don't strictly need to eat. Regularly, anyway; the desire to ingest is so built in to the human psyche that it wouldn't be a good idea to stop eating completely even if I could. But there's no real link between my health and my diet. I could just eat chocolate for every meal if I wanted. Or that ridiculously sugar-rich cereal with the 'marshmallows' that Wallace eats despite not needing to any more. But instead I mostly eat a normal diet. It's a good habit in case I'm forced to go without a ring for an extended period or eat in company.

"Are you making progress?"

"Yes, though that's about all that I can say. Xor managed to turn off his ring yesterday, and Dul is a little more engaged with the program."

"And Lantern Toren?"

"It's a rather different way of thinking, and Green Lanterns aren't selected for their adaptability. The Guardians actually have Guy Gardner going through their list of abilities that former Green Lanterns developed to see if he can replicate them."

"I don't believe that I've heard of him."

"Really? Guy Gardner, Host of Ion? I thought-"

The abbot freezes in shock.

"-that would be bigger news."

"He is.. merged with Ion constantly?"

"No, but he's pulled it off at least twice. The first time wasn't deliberate; he was just focusing really hard and had a breakthrough. The second time was. I'm not sure what not having Ion in the Green Central Power Battery actually does to it, but Guy's only using it sparingly."

I frown.

"I think he converted to Lanternism, actually. I'm a little surprised that he hasn't visited."

"We will be happy to receive him if he appears." He loads his spoon with muesli. "Your quarters were sufficient?"

The quarters we were offered were Spartan and possessing of a Green Lantern theme. Perfectly adequate and free of distractions. Naturally, I redecorated, changing the theme from green to orange.

"Yes, thank you. I assume that we're not besieged by the curious masses?"

"There has been some interest. Fortunately, the people of Karax respect our work enough that they have merely been messages of curiosity and enthusiasm rather than anything too intrusive. What are your plans for today?"

"I want to do more work on instinctive emotional responses. We touched on fear yesterday, but really we need to do all of them."

"Yes, you mentioned that you encountered a yellow power ring user other than Sinestro." He frowns. "I thought that he was the only one."

"Parallel universes. Al Scott lives on a parallel universe version of Earth. If I had to guess, his ring was an early prototype Kalmin-"

The abbot's eyes dart to stare directly into mine at the mention of his name.

"-made before he could complete his masterpiece for Sinestro. Or… Parallel universe. Maybe they have their own Kalmin, or their own Krona, or perhaps all of their Guardian-equivalents are evil. I don't know. And… He wasn't the only yellow ring user I encountered. The other one was a parallel universe version of me."

"If there are so many other rings, why don't Green Lantern Corps records mention them?"

"The Green Lantern Corps is a paramilitary police organisation. They're not explorers or scientists. Going to parallel universes on a jolly isn't really their job."

"Did you learn anything about how they used their rings? Anything that might give us some clue about how Sinestro uses his?"

"I didn't see Al Scott fight. And frankly I didn't enjoy his company enough to want to-."

"You didn't-" The abbot frowns. "-fight him?"

"No, that whole situation was a mess. I mostly-. Here." I generate a datapad with my full report on it and slide it across the table. "In summary, I had a choice between a devastating war which would probably eventually be pyrrhically 'won' by the 'good' guys, who weren't particularly good, or arranging for a mutual de-escalation that allowed some of the bad guys to temporarily escape justice but caused the least collateral damage. I didn't spend time socialising or training with him."

"I see. And the other?"

"He'd achieved enlightenment by constantly reflecting on his fears and forcing himself to feel them. Accepting them as part of his psyche. He did that because he didn't have a personal lantern and had to come up with an alternate way to recharge."

"Is it possible to recharge a power ring through meditation? There's no mention of that in our archives either."

"Not without access to certain types of arcane artefacts. It's like the difference between plugging a battery into a recharging station and building a wind turbine and a transformer." I shrug. "But yes, it's possible."

"Fascinating. Tell me more."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
08:49 GMT

"Back with us, Lantern Xor?"

He nods, slowly lowering the 'ultra strength' training loads back into the 'neutral' position. This portion of the gymnasium doesn't appear to see much use, but the heavy metal cowling protecting machinery that allows it to test even beings of his strength is in full working order.

"Yes. I apologise for leaving."

"Orange Lantern Corps. If you've got something better to do, go and do it."

He turns away from the machine, shaking his head.

"That is not sufficient. I should have controlled myself better."

"That's green." I shrug. "We're dealing with strong emotions and deeply personal issues. And we're not on a time limit here. If you need a few hours to think about things, that's fine."

"This was your intent. That I would come to know myself better."

"That's been something I've wanted from the start. But I'm also trying to learn what these sorts of emotional stress do for Orange Lanterns. If people need a little while to decompress after a study session, I can alternate between teaching two groups."

"Should we see if I have become stronger?"

"I'm not expecting that learning how to turn your ring off has made you stronger."

"No, but understanding my desires better should. Shouldn't it?"

"I honestly don't know. I noticed an increase in power when I achieved enlightenment, but I didn't check part way through to see if there was an improvement."

"So it would be useful knowledge."

"I suppose." I look around and spot the monk in charge. "Could we please use a sparring arena? Probably one of the big ones."

"I'm sorry Illustres, but we don't have a sparring arena that can reliably withstand the level of force that Lantern Xor can generate."

I shake my head. "Of course you don't. The arena is there to prevent accidental collateral damage. If we were actually intending to go all-out we'd head into space. And for any Lantern, their physical strength is the least of your concerns."

That's true even for someone like Lantern Xor, who can punch construct barriers down with his fists.

"Besides, there are plenty of ways to assess a Lantern's strength that don't involve wrecking things."

"As you say, Illustres." She nods. "This way, please."

Xor and I follow her as she leads the way out of the gymnasium, past a couple of conventional rings-. Ah, Lantern Dul is testing herself sans ring against two locals, attempting to maintain an appropriately orange frame of mind. Her opponents aren't so restricted and she's taking a.. bit of a beating. I suppose that's the challenge.

The monk briefly pauses in front of a fortified double door, then enters a code which causes it to clank open. Another press deactivates a force field.

"You are right." Xor nods. "This is not adequate for a Warhound."

I smile at the monk.

"Do you want to watch? You might find it educational."

"Yes. That's a requirement." She nods. "From the control room, with the secondary force field."

"Alright."

Xor ducks slightly to get under the lintel, heading into the arena. Ah, I see they have fortified doors at both ends. I wonder what this was designed for? The monk follows him part way, then opens a side door and heads upwards towards the control booth. Then I fly after Xor, emerging into the… Pretty barebones, arena. The walls are covered in an armoured material made of a combination of carbon nanotubes and ceramics. Were they focusing on heat resistance? I mean, it's still tough, but it wouldn't have been my choice for a super strength brawling arena. It's ten metres across and five high, so it wouldn't really be possible to use flight-based evasion here.

Xor turns to face me, looking up at the control booth as the monk takes her place and closes the fortified doors.

"What was this place built for?"

"Last time we had neophytes in Lantern Xor's weight class, they used this to perform our standard training exercises."

"With the.. shock poles?"

"We had some difficulty making the discharge strong enough. They had to replace them after each strike."

"Alright. Set it up."

Force fields shimmer into being around the walls, designed to absorb energy rather than block shots completely. It's probably a better design for a place like this.

"You may begin."

Xor and I walk to the middle of the arena. I remove my ring and lay it on the ground. Xor starts to do the same thing, then stops himself and closes his eyes. A moment later his ring falls off, landing next to mine.

"Do you practise pushing your desires away, Illustres?"

"No, but there wasn't much time between me learning that I could do that and me attaining enlightenment. There aren't that many uses for it in itself. Perhaps if a Lantern realised that they were having control difficulties?"

"Or avoiding empathic detection."

I shake my head as we walk away from each other.

"I'm afraid not. I'd still see the desires… I suppose it would allow them to dodge my empathic manipulation abilities."

I turn… Yes, that's far enough. I sit down on the hard floor, and he does the same.

I raise my left hand.

"Ready?"

He closes his eyes, taking a few moments to centre himself. Then he opens them again.

"Yes."

He raises his left hand and our rings rise into the air until they're half a metre off the ground exactly half way between us. Ever since I took Lantern Zartok's ring from his finger this has become a fairly standard 'test of strength' between Orange Lanterns. Initially, they tend to use it purely as a test of raw power, but now? Now a few understand that it's not about that. It's not about the power you can draw at the peak, it's about resting power. About the unity of one's desires.

I understand exactly why the rings should fly towards me, and the ring's systems react to that. My ring is already drifting my way, its systems finding my desires to be a perfect match for me. Xor's ring isn't immediately convinced-.

Ah, there we go. I feel it as Xor begins to apply himself. His ring begins floating towards him while mine slows.

I respond by increasing my focus, the rightness of my fingers bearing rings. Xor's ring stops again. We've done this exercise many times before and we're… Just taking the strain at the moment. I'm interested to see if he actually has become stronger.

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
09:01 GMT

The air between us glows orange as Xor's ring wobbles back and forth. He lost control of my ring fairly early but we kept going since his own is still in play. I'm confident that I could take it, but he's been getting continuously stronger as we've been going.

An evolution, or a genuine breakthrough? How much was that sense of obligation holding him back before?

"How is the new government coming along?"

"As well as could be expected."

"Felt like putting the boot in with the old officer corps? The people who approved the creation of the Warhounds might still be around somewhere."

There isn't even a wobble.

"If the Warhounds did not exist then I would have been strangled in my crib or starved to death on the side of the road. I can understand people trying to do something good but being restrained by their job."

"So you think that they created Warhounds because that was the only way they had to save orphans?"

"Even if they placed us in state orphanages to draft us into the regular army, the expenditure would not have been justified. Conscripting or enlisting free citizens is cheaper. The only unique facility we children had is that we could adapt to war bodies more easily. So that was the justification."

"And your trainers?"

"Followed the orders that were necessary to keep us alive. If the first generation had been failures, the program would have been cancelled. They did not choose the conditions to determine if the project had been a failure or not. If I am given a choice between a beating and a summary execution, I will choose the beating."

"And the politicians who decided that orphanages were an unnecessary expense?"

The wobble isn't from his anger or hatred. If that had been the problem then his ring would have shot into my hand. Rather, he appears to not have fully resolved his own desires on the subject. But the wobble only lasts a moment.

"Why must justice and retribution be at odds?"

"No reason at all, depending on the system. How do you feel about retroactive law? Because I doubt that you could prosecute them under existing law."

"An agreement on the tribunals will be part of the peace settlement which ends the civil war. Government officials who believe that they will be only lightly punished have already either killed those who want to fight on or placed them in 'detainment' so that they can assuage our bloodlust. They will agree to what we ask."

"And who is 'we'?"

"Me. Lantern Canar has given advice, but I have followed your lead when dealing with Green Lanterns in places where they have clearly failed is concerned."

"And Onigar?"

The ring jerks a metre in my direction before Xor regains focus.

"Are we expanding our focus?"

Which is the closest he'll get to accusing me of cheating. It was a little sneaky, switching from avarice skill to empathic disruption. But…

"I can talk about Jade if you like."

A quiet grunt.

"In theory, it should be possible for anyone to use different colours at one time. Your constructs are powered by your avarice; other colours only weaken them inasmuch as they distract your focus from that."

"I shall wait to experiment with that."

"Probably wise. Ready to get stronger?"

"Yes."

Lantern Xor desires most strongly to conform to his own ideas of honour. Part of that is repaying his obligations; on one level he doesn't want to keep me-

Xor trembles.

-from getting this ring.

It starts floating my way.

"Xor, I want you to get better. You're not doing me a service by letting me win."

"I am not letting you win."

"Xalitan. I'm proud of your achievements, and once the war with the Reach is over it will be your example that I use to demonstrate to new generations of Orange Lantern Corps Sector Lanterns what their job is. But the obligation, the.. gratitude you feel towards me, you need to refocus it."

"You want me to beat you."

"I want you to get stronger. I don't mind losing the occasional test to make that happen, though I'll.. be annoyed with myself if it keeps happening. As you want to build an honest and honourable society, I want to build an Orange Lantern Corps that is a force for good. You're part of that. Your excellence is my excellence."

I point to the ring.

"And that's your tool. You'd be a good man one way or the other, but you wouldn't as effective as you are without it."

He nods solemnly.

"On a related note-"

I smile as the ring begins drifting back in his direction.

"-have you had any trouble with the Dominion?"

"None. Will they be next, after the Reach?"

"Probably not. Not if they keep going the way they are. Rebuilding after this war is going to take a lot of effort, and honestly Apokolips is more dangerous. And of course, without an imminent threat the N.E.M.O. alliance might break up."

"That would be foolish."

"Sure, you and I know that, but we've got privileged access to information. Most stellar nations will see that the regional threat is gone and that they have good relations with their neighbours and disarm. They certainly won't want another war right away, if at all."

"I.. see. I will stand with you in whatever wars follow."

"Thank you, Lantern Xor. I appreciate the faith you show in me."

Hm. I take a deeper look at Lantern Xor's desire network. It's still not as unified as mine, but there aren't any major irregularities. He's done well to bring his desires and ideals into alignment. But this is still slow going.

"Come on Lantern Xor, don't keep me waiting. This ring is the instrument by which you realise your desires. Take it."

"Very well."

He catches it in his left hand as it rockets towards him, his environmental shield reappearing. I cease my attempts to pull it and nod respectfully.

"Well done. Now let's go and find Lantern Dul. We need to work on her defences."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
09:09 GMT

"Again!"

Lantern Toren fires construct shears at Lantern Dul's wings, and she responds by generating large construct wings and slapping his constructs aside with them. They don't shatter, but he isn't quite able to force them to hit home.

Lantern Xor and I watch impassively for a moment.

"Is this a good training method, or has she missed the point?"

"I lost my fear of heights by flying regularly. Even without my ring I don't really feel anything anymore."

"Again!"

"Of course, Lantern Toren doesn't want to cut her wings off, and she probably doesn't believe that he can-. I mean, doesn't know for certain that he can in the way she's certain that I could."

But while I could shoot out her defensive construct with a crumbler round or anti-construct ray, and while that might provide a better lesson than having her block attacks she knows that she can block, I'm not going to do that unless she specifically asks for it.

Xor watches them for a moment.

"You can see our souls."

"Something like that."

"You know our fears. You know why we fear things."

"I either know or could find out with relatively little effort, yes."

"Then why this?"

"Because I don't need to know. You need to know. You need to go through the necessary mental steps toward that realisation yourself. Me just telling you isn't the same thing. And in some people… Like Lantern Dul, there's resistance to being told about things like this by someone else."

"But not me."

"I don't think you'd fight against the ideas I present you. But I still think you'd have an easier time internalising them if you went through the steps-" My ring blinks. "-yourself. Illustres here?"

Lantern Onik's face appears.

"Great Master, in light of what we discussed I am visiting my former monastery. If possible, I would appreciate it if you could visit later today and speak with people."

"Certainly."

He smiles. "Thank you. I know that-."

His face vanishes.

"Lantern Onik?"

…

"Lantern Xor, follow me."

I

step out, the line representing Onik's desire to speak with me leading me directly to

his previous location, construct armour forming around me and absorbing a rocket barrage from.. that robot. Cheap and cheerful Spider Guild model, devastating to unprotected civilians and light infantry but-

I put a destructive pulse through its central processor and each of its targetters. Those things are usually set to blind fire their rockets if the signal from the CPU gets interrupted, but if I destroy the launch system-. Yes, dead.

"Lantern Onik, re-"

Plasma bolts punch through the wall to my left, slamming into my environmental shield! I form a construct shield and respond with destructive pulses.

"-port."

I'm getting good returns on my scans, though the robots aren't mentally complex enough for me to see with empathic vision. Spider Guilders tend to fight Lanterns using ships, legions of regular robots or small numbers of super-robots. There aren't enough here to stop me. The only thing that makes sense is that it's a terror raid.

I think I may need to have a word with some people. Starting with the local defence force.

Ring, analyse robot computer program.

Compliance.

The Guild isn't supposed to have Lantern-compatible interdiction systems, but I settle for flying through what's left of the wall and shoot dumb railgun rounds through the plasma repeater robot. As it falls I grab the overloading plasma bottle and-

And as we're under a dome on a dead planetoid I can't just throw it into space, darn.

-stick it in a safe construct as it explodes. No hole in the dome so they can't have punched through there. Tunnels, tunnels, there. Don't know how they got this close, but that's a problem for five minutes from now.

"Lantern Onik, report."

If he'd died then his ring should come to me, so I'm assuming that's not what's happened. I can see flares of desire and hope throughout the building but nothing that specifically looks like Onik.

Analysis complete.

I head for the closest path to the interior of the monastery, calling my heavy armour out of subspace and phasing through a wall. Two robots are holding position inside and this time I send filaments to burrow into their CPUs and rewrite them to answer to me. Records… They don't even record the route they used to get here. They're just reacting to environmental cues. I disarm their if-destroyed directives and switch their targets to robots.

Simple programming. No one's watching and no one's feeding them instructions. They're shielded against electromagnetic radiation at levels that wouldn't fry organic creatures as easily as it would them. No easy way to destroy them.

Or rather, no easy way to destroy them all at once.

I send filaments ahead of me, having them latch onto any robots they find as I head for what looks like the monks' panic room.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to anyone listening. Report."

A swarm of vaguely spider-shaped minibots fall from the ceiling and land on my construct armour, trying to stab me with electrified leg-knives. They get nowhere in the few seconds I allow them to persist before subverting them and tossing them aside.

"Another Orange Lantern? Please, we're in our fastness but the robots will break through soon."

"Nearly there."

Down a corridor, down another, and there's the fortified retreat. And the heavy siege robots trying to blast their way through the force fields, and the dead defence turrets they targeted first.

Filaments go first, easily subverting the medium robots. Unfortunately, the siege robots have integrated force fields which means that I need to hit them with a crumbler construct-

And ignore the weak laser fire from their point defences.

-before breaking into their control centres and turning them to my purposes. There are still robots in the monastery and me destroying them will cause far less collateral damage than letting my robots do it, but finding out what happened to Onik takes priority.

"Do you know what happened to Lantern Onik?"

"I… I think the Yellow Lantern took him."

Wonderful.

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
09:14 GMT

The last of the surviving robots -now firmly under my control- marches out into the monastery's space dock. I finish patching up the armour and defence turrets of the upper portion of the monastery as the monks continue laying out their dead. It turns out that this monastery prefers to store the bodies of believers until they can be transported to the Source Wall, reuniting body and soul before their creator.

"A Yellow Lantern."

Now with the immediate threat to people under my protection dealt with I rather need to get on with rescuing Lantern Onik.

"Ah-. Yes. I thought it was just some sort of teleportation system, but then I saw the sigil of fear on their chest."

"Not Sinestro?"

The monk shakes his head. "I would recognise him. It was a Spider Guilder."

So is Sinestro lending his ring to people now? Kalmin said that he only made the one, but… How hard would it be for other Weaponers to make more once they'd seen it done? Sinestro would certainly be able to contact them; heck, in the comics he just straight up enslaved them and forced them to work on making rings for his new... Corps.

Manhunters. He convinced Hank Henshaw to work with him by promising to find a way to kill him. But Doctor Henry Henshaw 16 is an astrophysicist happily employed by NASA-. Or he was last time I checked before the Sheeda attack. But he definitely didn't go into space and get turned into an energy being who could jump from machine to machine.

Anyway, Old School Weaponers would have died before working for an alien under those conditions. But given how far they'd fallen… I mean, Varnathon would have taken a cash payment, and the others… Yes, I could see it.

And of course as First Lantern I'm sure that Sinestro could have gotten his hands on a portal to a parallel universe at some point.

Right. We're fairly close to a couple of big and old Spider Guild Septs here. The Green Lantern Corps has made it clear that continued expansion at the cost of others will not be tolerated, but that doesn't mean that they won't launch the occasional raid just to test the defences. I could easily see a Guilder making a deal with Sinestro to break the status quo. Or just taking a natty weapon. I doubt the Guildmasters would commit to something big without some fairly convincing proof…

But they're a highly internally-unified culture that invades people's homes and eats them, but who have never quite made it into the top tier. They wouldn't be a bad place to start if he wanted an Army of Fear.

"Do you have any idea why you were targeted?"

"I assume that the Guilder was seeking Novice Onik. Though how they knew in advance that he would be here, I don't know."

I didn't notice any sort of Guilder monitoring device when I went through the monastery. Given the damage, I'll have to take their word for it that their network wasn't subverted. So either the Guilder was monitoring the area, or someone in the monastery back on Karax tipped them off.

Or it was pure chance.

Right.

"Did the Guilder say anything?"

"Not in my hearing."

I access the monastery's monitoring network, but from the images I'm getting it looks like the Guilder didn't say anything out loud at all. Can't really get a good idea of their skill level from how well they overran a monastery full of scared monks, but I'm not seeing anything too scary.

How did Onik lose?

If he was caught in the middle of confronting his fears, and the Guilder could detect that, it certainly would be plausible. Otherwise… Onik doesn't have all that much combat experience. He might have been overwhelmed. Or outfought by someone trained by Sinestro. I'm certainly not afraid of a random Guilder with a ring.

"Illustres to Lantern Xor. Finished the lower repairs?"

"Yes, Illustres."

"Work with the monks to repair their monastery. Defend it if necessary. I'm going after Lantern Onik."

"No support?"

"I'll have Onik, once I find him. And we're never entirely alone."

"As you will, Illustres."

Right, that's the monks looked after. Guilder space is in that direction. Core worlds… There, border territory where they tolerate alien traders across there…

Those places are usually fairly fear-filled. Aliens are tolerated but they aren't protected. Cannibalism is perfectly normal, Guild worlds being 'good' places to offload slaves without specialist skills. There are always buyers, even if the price isn't all that good.

Honestly, the fear's so intense that I'm not sure that I could pick out a Yellow Lantern.

Easier to just make them come to me.

I

step out

, reappearing on the bridge of a slaver ship with packed holds. I don't bother mucking around, I just send a beam of orange energy into both brains of the members of the slug-like species that are running the ship before having my ring savage the ship's computer for recent news. No mention of a Lantern, but they have some data on Guilder space that I lacked. No crew outside the bridge, so I set the auto-pilot to fly the ship back to Karax-controlled space. Then I

step out

and reappear outside of the ship before warping towards… Chughraghahh. I suppose that I can just about pronounce that. As I approach I feel the interdiction system try and stop me or slow me down. Spitefully, I push it away, a reaction which will most likely cause the emitters to explode quite enthusiastically.

And then the warp ends and I'm there, in the high orbital plane above Chughraghahh.

And there's the largest ship in the defence fleet.

And there's the area of densest habitation.

A colossal orange dragon claw appears around the ship, tears through the shields without apparent effort and then pushes. The ship deforms as it drops, and moments later the friction causes the now-unshielded outer portions and leaking atmosphere to catch fire. The ship wasn't designed to ever enter an atmosphere, but all things considered it's doing fairly well. For a first attempt. The dust cloud when it hits isn't quite as big as what I got from the Citadel Complex, but it's a respectable first attempt.

"This is the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. I believe that the Guild has one of my Lanterns. And one of its own Lanterns. Until they are brought before me I will keep killing until every one of you disgusting insults to sentience on this miserable rock are dead, and then I will move on to the next world. I am not interested in your surrender. Get me what I want or die."

Shots plink off my construct armour from one of the monitor stations, so I make that my next target. A claw forms and squeezes, inflicting critical structural damage before a flick of the hand tosses the station downwards.

"Take as long as you need."

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th August 2012
09:18 GMT

Warning: Fear detected.

Good thing too, I've run out of ships.

I turn away from the slowly-burning planet and head in the direction of the Guilder. Scans show that he's got Lantern Onik wrapped in construct chains. Onik still has his ring, but his environmental shield is barely there.

My ring shimmers.

"Yes?"

"You are the Illustres." Guilders physically can't smile, but this one is moving its mandibles in an attempt to replicate the gesture. "I thought that you would take longer to arrive."

Given how far out they are, they can't see the damage I've done to their world. Their ring could tell them, but it wouldn't necessarily occur to them to ask. Not if they're used to Green Lanterns.

"You attacked a monastery and abducted one of my Lanterns. I assume that you wanted my attention, because otherwise this is very stupid."

"I thought I would have more time… But I suppose that it doesn't matter. Do you want to know how I-"

I warp, stopping about ten metres away from… Her, as it turns out. Male and female Guilders usually look quite a lot like each other to standard pattern humanoids, but there are differences if you look for them.

"-broke his mind?"

She blinks her primary eyes twice before fully focusing on me as I raise my left hand and use a construct knife to cut through my right forearm. I send my forearm armour back to subspace and use a construct to propel my severed limb towards her. She catches it with two of her upper left arms.

"Eat it."

"I'm not hungry at the-."

"Eat it."

Onik shivers.

The Guilder blinks her primary eyes, then shoves my forearm into her mandibles. My ring helpfully ensures that the crunching and slurping sounds traverse the airless void between us. I wait for her to finish.

Then I reach down and cut off my lower right leg, and throw that her way.

"What are you-?"

"Eat it."

There's a slight bulging as my chewed up forearm makes its way down her throat.

"Normally, I'd-."

"Eat it."

"Do you-?"

"Eat it. Eat it. Eat it."

She's clearly not stupid. She knows that something is going on, and she scans the limb a little more thoroughly than she did the first one. But she finds nothing. And we nudge her physical hunger a little to ensure that it follows my arm down her throat.

"You taste bland. Why did you give me your limbs?"

"To demonstrate beyond all possible doubt that I- "

For a second, the missing parts of my body appear as orange scaffolds. Then they are fully restored to flesh, and I take a moment to hold my right arm up and point it at her.

"-am not afraid of you or anything you can-"

She blinks again, this time looking past me. Ah yes, that should have been about enough time for the damage to Chughraghahh to become visible.

"-do." I restore my armour. "Have I communicated this point effectively?"

"You burned the planet."

"Would it help if I burned a second one?"

"Are you..? Trying to scare me?"

"How long have you had that ring? A week? Two?"

"And you think that means I don't know how to use it?"

"And no training, because the Green Lantern Corps would have detected that. So you've been sitting in a hole until someone gave you your marching orders. Sinestro wouldn't have given that to you; he had the same contempt for the Guild that I do, and-"

She yanks Lantern Onik forward and modifies his bindings so that there's some sort of ratchet-operated choke collar around his neck.

"-would only have given one to you as a trap of some kind. Yes?"

"He fought poorly. Perhaps I could eat him as well?"

"Yes, you caught him at a moment of vulnerability. I'm encouraging my Lanterns to confront their fears; naturally as a Karaxian he's been raised on stories of how evil your kind are. Combined with the problem of confronting his own flaws with his fellow monks, he couldn't match even a neophyte like you. Hot or cold?"

"He was weak-."

"I wasn't asking you. Lantern Onik? Many of the first batch of recruits were selected to see if people with those characteristics could make good Lanterns. You have an orange power ring and an opportunity to strike back against your ancestral enemy. If you do not take that opportunity then you will die. Do you want to strike them down? Do you want to continue this campaign? Do you want to continue your discovery of the spectrum? I cannot decide these things for you. The key to your freedom is on your finger and-"

Orange light bubbles under the yellow restraints as Lantern Onik begins to struggle against his bonds.

"-it's for you to use."

The spider woman gives him her full attention as her collar breaks, swiftly followed by the manacles.

"Take her power for your own."

"Corrupt."

The chains still binding him begin to turn orange and the spider abandons construct and backpedals to increase the distance between them.

Jam space warping.

Compliance.

"Adequate, Lantern Onik. But I'm not going to be satisfied with your performance until this Yellow Lantern is dead. Get on with it."

"Yes, Great Master."