Chapter 27 - Pinion

Moltezz was stood, deep in thought, strong and silent, her hands clasped tightly behind her back as her sharp halolike eyes stared intently out into space. She was dressed in a distinguished black gown, light and silken with a sharp tantalising 'V' cutting down the length of her entire torso, sparing only a few inches of fabric before the dress opened into a long slit, exposing the Mistress' thigh. Although she looked a true picture of elegance and grace, as she stood before the glass of Barru X's observation deck, hidden from the rest of the room her brow was heavy and her face was stern, as she processed the information currently being thrown around the room. 

Behind her, Leech sat before a set of hastily wired together laptops, slumped in her seat and rubbing her chin as her tired eyes darted between the screens. Her arm was fully healed now, and Moltezz had been quick to put her new hand to work. The desks which housed the laptops were littered with empty mugs, coffee rings and shiny foil wrappers from various different snacks. Around her, Tani, Mina and Mook, as well as various other Nodes, scribbled away at notepads and stared at screens of their own, their expression mirroring much of the same gravatas of the two Controllers in the room.

"Tell me again." Moltezz said softly, still faced away from Leech.

Leech stiffled a sigh, then for what felt like the hundredth time repeated to Moltezz: "We have nothing that can breach the DA border. Nothing. The best ship we had was the Radon, and… well, that's long gone now. Fucked off into space."

"All our efforts over the last seven months, and that's it? That's all we have to show for it? Nothing?" Moltezz's voice was unusually quiet, and yet she still spoke with such projection and authority that her voice seemed to boom and echo around the room. 

"We have nomad tech. Civilian vessels. Some are a little better armed than others, but nomads are who we've been corrupting. So that's what we've got."

"And all our vessels are unsuitable for this task?"

"Unsuitable? That's an understatement." Leech said flatly, drumming her fingers against the arm of her chair. The Nodes exchanged a worried glance as she did so. "The DA will have massively reinforced the border since our little… excursion to their space station. We got lucky we survived at all. But now? They'll be on high-alert. They'll have cruisers on patrol, surface-to-orbit plasma emplacements and anti-grav fighters ready to intercept anyone they deem a threat - the whole kit-kaboodle. We'd get turned into fish food if we even tried to approach the border." Suddenly, Leech huffed and sat forward. "I suppose this is what we get for even daring to cross the DA..."

"But the planet in question isn't near here, is it?" Moltezz asked, ignoring Leech's criticisms, tapping her foot against the floor.

"No. But that's not a good thing either! It's waaaay up, closer to Cyrune territory. The border is even more guarded there!"

"Cyr..? Mpth. Leech, less names, more solutions, please." Moltezz sighed loudly, pressing her fingers to her brow.

Leech cupped her hands over her face and dragged them down, her fingers pressing into her sea-green skin. 

"There is no solution! We've been at this for days now, if there was one, I would have found it! This isn't going to work, Moltezz! We'd be better off trying to ambush Seeth as she leaves DA territory, rather than trying to get to Diego first. And when I say 'better off,' what I really mean is, it's literally the only thing we can do." The Nodes glanced at each-other again, flipping through their notepads desperately as Leech gestured tiredly at the laptops. "I've had the girls do an inventory check of every ship we've got. Anything with an engine and a cockpit. Even if we left now in our fastest ships, ignoring the fact we'd be turned into hole-ridden scrap, we still wouldn't make it before the R-M-Douchebags complete the handover on Monday."

Moltezz did sigh then, loudly, shaking her head gently.

"No. Everything has come together too perfectly for this to be how it ends. We will find a way… I can feel it." A lick of flame accompanied her final words, spiralling its way up and along her exposed leg.

Moltezz finally turned around then, to face Leech. For a second, the radiance in her golden-ringed eyes seemed dulled, somewhat glassy… and Leech looked away.

"W-We have nothing, but… but maybe we can start looking into where Seeth has been, where she might go afterwards? Get some intel, and begin to track her down? I just don't see how else we're going to -"

Suddenly, Barru X started to shake violently, a deep rumble permeating every floor on the station, rocking everything but the two Controllers.

"What the…" Moltezz started, but her voice trailed off as Leech suddenly stood bolt upright, her undersized chair clattering against the floor behind her. She, along with the Nodes, were all staring past her, disbelief on their faces…

Slowly, Moltezz turned her gaze outside once more. 

A titanic wall of dark grey metal stretched out as far as she could see. Something absolutely gigantic had warped right next to Barru X! It was so large in size that it completely dwarfed the station, as though they were little more than a little tin box, floating in space… Moltezz immediately went to raise her defences, flames erupting between her fingers dancing across her digits, however, before she could do much else, she suddenly felt something - a presence - from inside the gargantuan invader.

"Leech. Do you feel that?"

They felt it together. A wave of new, fresh bodies joining the hierclasty all at once. 

"What the fuck…? Is that…? Is that thing full of Nodes?!" 

Tani suddenly went stiff and jolted in her seat, as a voice that wasn't her own boomed out of her mouth.

"COME MEET ME AT THE DOCKS! I WILL EXPLAIN!" She yelled into the room.

"Ink?! Oh my god, what the fuck have you done?!" Leech cried out, reaching up and gripping tightly onto her dreadlocks. But Moltezz paid her little heed, and quickly turned and swept out of the room, her Nodes in tow as a small Darkpaw shuttle docked with Barru X. 

Moltezz and her troupe quickly made their way down to the docking bay, their various shoes, boots and heels all clacking on the floor as they made their way over to the base of the stairs. They arrived just in time to see Ink step out of a shuttle airlock on the uppermost floor, accompanied by a tall, attractive Node. As curious as they all were to hear what Ink had been up to and find out more about her new Node, it was hard for them to keep their eyes off the gigantic ship behind her.

"Welcome back, Ink." A wide smile slowly stretched across Moltezz's face, the stress of the last few days finally starting to ease. Her smile only widened as she eyed Zhali's new curvaceous body, the Node hovering slightly behind Ink. "I see you've been busy. Care to catch us up?"

"I went to Darkpaw!" Ink started confidently, puffing out her chest, her grin almost wider than the one Moltezz was currently wearing. Although there was pride, there was also something more pure, or perhaps naive in her expression as her eyes drifted from Moltezz to Leech, desperate for her approval.

"And what in the orbiting FUCK did you bring back?!" Leech snapped, barging past Moltezz and storming up the stairs to meet the Controller, her buckled leather boots thudding heavily against the metal. Ink was taller than Leech anyway, their height difference only elevated by the stairs, but under Leech's tired but intense, toxic stare, Ink's demeanour faltered.

"I-I… I went to Darkpaw and… corrupted their CEO…" The wind had been knocked clean out of Ink's sails - or rather tentacles in this instance, which were currently gesturing dramatically to Zhali, encouraging her forward. "I… I thought you'd be -" 

Leech slapped her hands over the girl's cheeks, pressing them together.

"- ARE YOU FUCKING DAFT?! YOU WALTZED INTO A MEGA-CORP'S HEAD QUARTERS AND FUCKED THEIR CEO?! DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?! THEY COULD HAVE FUCKING KILLED YOU!"

Immediately Ink began to tear up. She grabbed Leech's wrists, pushed her hands away and stumbled back, her tentacles curling and positioning around her upper body like a shield. 

"I-I thought you'd be happy! We corrupted half of the company! They're all here, for YOU to use! I even brought their secret project ship!"

"YOU COULD HAVE DIED! ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO ME?! WHAT IF YOU HADN'T COME BACK?! NONE OF THIS WOULD MATTER, YOU STUPID SEXY IDIOT FUCKHEAD! I'VE LOST TOO MANY PEOPLE TO… TO… to… UGH!" Leech lurched back, her fingers clenched like claws in frustration. "YOU COULD HAVE JUST DISAPPEARED ONE DAY AND NEVER COME BACK!" She screamed.

Ink visibly recoiled, shrinking on the spot, her tentacles wrapping around her body to shelter her from Leech's gaze. The dark circles around her eyes somehow made her look all the more furious. Before Leech could reprimand her further though, a firm, warm hand clasped the back of her neck, squeezing it ever so slightly.

"Now now. That's enough. You're upset over milk which hasn't been spilt, Leech?" Moltezz purred. She stepped towards Ink, placing herself between the two Controllers. "You've done some amazing work, Ink. You took a risk and it paid off. That is to be commended, not reprimanded." Moltezz smiled warmly up at her.

Leech shook herself free of Moltezz's grasp, a long hot shiver running down her back. She retreated a few steps down the stairs, and stared down at the metal plating in silence. She refused to look at either of them.

Ink on the other hand, couldn't pull her eyes away from Leech. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Why was she so angry? Why wasn't she proud? But before she could dwell on those thoughts for too long, suddenly, she felt Moltezz's glow, her warmth across her body. It soothed the pounding in her chest, and illuminated Ink's soft brown skin in a shining golden light. Slowly, Ink managed to drag her gaze away from the Controller, who was currently stropping in the Mistress' shadow, and looked Moltezz in the eye. 

And in her eyes, Ink saw pride. 

"We-We managed to corrupt lots of Darkpaw's staff before they rallied together." Ink's confidence was returning under Moltezz's strong gaze. "I took what forces we had, loaded them up onto the ship, and used their cell to teleport the ship here."

"What kind of ship is it?" Moltezz asked, her eyes wide with eager excitement. "Tell me about it."

"How about you have a tour instead?" Zhali piped up, desperate to make a good impression.

A wicked grin crept over Moltezz's face, and she placed a firm hand on Ink's shoulder.

"You heard her. Show us your prize, Ink."

*

"So, just how big is this ship, exactly?" Moltezz asked, eyeing the innards of the ship with great interest as they walked down one of its hundreds - if not thousands - of corridors.

"I believe, classification-wise, it's a dreadnought. We measured it at around four hundred and fifty miles long." Zhali responded coolly. She walked beside the Molten Mistress, at the head of the group, and watched her closely - hungrily - from the corner of her eye.

"Definitely a dreadnought." Leech murmured in agreement. "Battleships cap out at around fifty miles long, anything bigger than that is a dreadnought by default."

"I didn't know you were up to date on your ship classifications, Leech. You're even more of a nerd than I thought." Moltezz teased, glancing around at the ship's interior.

"I had a lot of time to read as a kid, okay? Fuck off." Leech huffed, her cheeks reddening.

"Suit yourself!"

The interior decor of the dreadnought was caught somewhere between an old war bunker and a royal palace in its aesthetics. Rather than being made of metal sheeting and plates, a huge amount of its construction was solid grey stone, almost like polished granite. From within, the sheer size of the ship somehow seemed even more impressive, with even the most random of corridors extending for miles. Every angular surface was composed of now ancient but still lavishly thick polished wood and stone, with no expense spared for even the most minor of details. Barely visible in the darkness, the smallest hints of deep crimson injected a spattering of colour between the fortress stone and oak aesthetic on tapestries long since lost to time. Every word uttered by the crew echoed down its imposing lengths. Its uncompromising, unapologetic aesthetic is only broken up by the occasional Darkpaw tech 'outpost' stationed within, adding a splash of neon purple and more modern-looking technology into the floating castle.

While Darkpaw had managed to get the dreadnought online and functioning, much of the ship's expansive interior remained unexplored. Its sheer size meant that it was quite possible to live comfortably within, and never leave the confines of its walls. Entire families could have been born and died within its shell, having never known anything else than its cool, almost brutalist ceramic innards. Its weight and size made it surprisingly quiet for such a vessel. Compared to the likes of the Rewritten freighter that rumbled under your feet, the dreadnought was eerily silent, which was only further emphasised by the fact that the rest of the ship was completely void of life; the Slaves and Nodes corrupted aboard Darkpaw and brought within the dreadnought had been relocated onto Barru X already, out of the way so that the Controllers could peruse the ship in peace, at their own leisure.

Although functional, a significant portion of the local power was off, meaning many of the rooms the group passed by were pitch black, their contents concealed and - for now - unimportant.

They had settled into two groups. Moltezz, Zhali, Tani and Mina at the front, with Ink and Leech trailing slightly behind.

"I thought you would be happy…" Ink huffed, purposely looking anywhere but at Leech.

Leech pressed her fingers against her closed eyes and sighed heavily. Her demeanour somewhat mirrored Ink's; she kept her eyes locked firmly ahead, and couldn't look over at her. Her scathing glare had softened after their initial confrontation, and now, she looked more tired than anything else.

"It's not that I'm not… happy, Ink." 

"Then what is it, Leech? Why are you acting this way? You shouted at me in front of everyone!" Ink started trembling slightly with those words, the tips of her tentacles quivering. She wrapped them tightly around her body. 

"I didn't shout - okay, maybe I did shout, a bit, and I'm… I'm sorry I did that!" Leech flapped her arms in frustration, clenching and unclenching her hands as though she were trying to pluck the right words from the air. "I just… I mean… fuck… Ink, what were you thinking?"

"It worked out good! I did good!" Ink protested, her tentacles pointing at Zhali's shapely figure in an almost accusatory manner.

"You got lucky. Very, very lucky. I've already rooted through Zhali's memories of your little induction, covertly… The cards were stacked in your favour, Ink. Big time."

"This was not luck, Leech!" Ink retorted. "I infiltrated Darkpaw! I got inside! I got into the CEO's office -"

"And her pants." Leech muttered.

"- I TOOK CONTROL OF ALL OF THEM! Look how many Slaves and Nodes I brought back! Look at this ship! This wasn't luck, this was me! This is the biggest win we've ever had. And I did it. Alone." 

"See, this… This is exactly why I asked you to stay out of the way on the DA space station."

"Out of the… What do you mean? You said we needed the servers! You said it was important!"

"And it was, Ink, fucking hell!" Leech hissed through gritted teeth. "How are you this fucking dense?! Ink, I don't know how I can say this to you any clearer: You. Should. Have. Died. You walked into an armed, secure mega-corp with no plan, no weapons, no-one on the inside, you didn't even have a skirt that fit you properly!"

"I am a weapon." Ink muttered, flexing her tentacles.

"No, you're not! And if I'd let you swagger onto a DA space station with that cocky, over-confident attitude, you would have been ripped apart! For all the brains you have in your big thick head, Ink, you don't fucking use them!"

"Well… maybe you should try using your eyes!" Ink snapped back. "Because you keep saying I should have died, could have died, blah blah blah, but here I am, Leech! Right in front of you!"

"What if Darkpaw had known about the corruption, before you corrupted Zhali?" Leech continued as though Ink had never interjected, her voice now deadly serious. "We don't know how much the rest of the universe knows about us right now. Did that even cross your mind? They'd have killed you before you even had the chance to land your ship, and that's if you were lucky! I've broken into enough prisons for one lifetime, I didn't really fancy trying to rescue you out of a trashy mega-corp jail cell."

"That didn't happen." Ink stated firmly, crossing her arms. "There was a reason why I told everyone to stay away from Darkpaw." She huffed stubbornly.

"Look, I'm not…" Leech sighed, and finally looked across the corridor at the other Controller. Ink was doubling down, that much was obvious, and Leech wasn't getting through to her. "I'm not trying to take your success away from you, alright? You brought us a fucking dreadnought! That's… that's insane! This ship is insane! This is all just… insane. More has happened in the last three days than the last six months… I'm just trying to get you to think. You have to admit, things were stacked in your favour. Zhali wanted to put things right with you. She fancied the fuck out of you. And you played to her weaknesses, including stealing Plasia's story." Leech could feel the heat rising in her chest again as she snapped that last part - although she wasn't too sure why. "Don't think I didn't notice that. Devious little thing, aren't you?"

"You should be happy. I tore my old boss apart, took the CEO and got this ship and all you're doing is giving me attitude. I earned this." Ink snapped back, harsher than before.

"I didn't mean to imply otherwise…"

"You were supposed to be happy!" Ink twisted her body towards Leech, flailing her tentacles wide. "You were supposed to be proud of me! I was supposed to come back, and you'd see how good a job I had done, and you'd take me back to your room and we'd fuck and you'd tell me how I'm such a good girl, and I could have you all to myself… That's what I wanted! Why don't you want it too?!" Ink was almost shouting, her eyes narrowed like two fiery black slits.

"I…" Something in Ink's demeanour had shifted. The way she was looking at her… Leech pulled away slightly, putting a little more space between the two of them as Ink's tentacles twitched angrily. Leech wetted her lips uncertainly, and as her tongue briefly slipped out into the open air, it was met with the slightest hint of dried blood."I thought you did this for you. It was your boss, your victory, way before you even met me. Why does what I think matter to you so much?"

"Why wouldn't it?! We're supposed to be in this together! You made me everything I am! And I'd be nothing without you…"

Up front, the conversation was going dramatically differently.

"So tell me about this ship!" Moltezz asked excitedly, nearly vibrating where she stood as she considered the untapped potential of such a vessel. "Where did you get it?"

"We found it. Whoever it belonged to previously made significant efforts to conceal its location, but we found it close to a pulsar, hidden within a dense asteroid field." There was no hiding the surge of pride in Zhali's voice. She easily kept pace with the Controller's strides, and there was a little more swagger into her hips than usual too.

"So you don't know who built it?"

"No. But we do have an idea of when it was built. While the software architecture is certainly usable, the operating systems don't match anything I've seen in circulation from the last three hundred years. It's from one of the big players, certainly, but whoever dumped it made efforts to scrub their data from its drives before leaving. You understand however, discovering its history wasn't as important as getting it working. With Enigma on my tail, it was the utmost priority to get it operational again."

"Of course." Moltezz nodded. "I'm not accusing you of failing in any way. I was just interested, it's not like it's everyday you find a vessel of this size or design just floating around."

"Dreadnoughts are seldom seen. Their construction is more of a passion project than a tactical necessity. That much is obvious in the aesthetics of it."

"Does that mean it's for show? Rather than being effective?" Moltezz frowned, concern audible in her voice.

"Oh, definitely not! When I say it's not a tactical necessity, what I mean is that a ship like this is overkill. It's a show of force. We were still dusting off the weapons systems, but this thing is absolutely loaded. Ship to ship, ship to ground, it's got everything from anti-capital cannons to precision sniper cannons, to point defence flak fields and everything in between. It must have been quite the show stopper in its prime…" She ran a wistful finger over the stone wall to her side, a small sigh escaping from under her breath.

"Fascinating." Moltezz mused sincerely. "And what was your plan with it? Attack Enigma?"

"God no!" Zhali spluttered. "As powerful as this ship would be if we got it fully operational, Enigma likely has thousands of their own dreadnoughts, plus goodness knows how many battleships, and whatever else. No, my plan was to move all of Darkpaw onto this thing, and use it as a mobile headquarters. It's more than large enough! We would have room to spare, even if we moved all our manufacturing onto it!"

"I see! Stay mobile, flexible, out of Enigma's grasp?"

"Precisely." Zhali nodded.

"I like it. We will do the same!" Moltezz declared triumphantly. Her searing gaze meandered down the interior of the startlingly long corridor they were still walking down. The dreadnought had a chilling decadence to its thick stone interior, and the longer she spent in it, the more it warmed to her. It would become the hearthstone of the Rewritten, with her at its blazing core. The more she contemplated the idea, the wider her grin grew, her pace quickening. "We will bring everything from Barru X aboard the dreadnought and convert it for our own use! Did it have a name?"

"Almost all of the data was scrubbed, but we've seen data files and physical plaques that refer to Journey's End multiple times." Zhali replied.

"Journey's End? Hmm. Unbefitting. Our journey is just beginning! No… I'll need to put some thought into it, but for now, a placeholder name will suffice! We shall call it - Renewal."

"Renewal?!" Leech yelled out from behind. "Signing a fucking contract are we? Five dies a month for unlimited download speeds and complimentary pics of Mina's ass?"

"It's a work-in-progress!" Moltezz snapped back, shooting a middle finger back at Leech without even breaking her stride.

It took the crew over an hour to walk from their docking port on the dreadnought's upper wing side to the main bridge, where Darkpaw had managed to establish a controlpoint over the gargantuan structure. Separated into multiple floors, the control room was dominated by two giant staircases on either side, with the control decks situated in between. It might have been a massive inconvenience, if each open deck didn't have its own wing of supporting rooms attached to it, on the outside edge of the staircases. The staircases seemed endless, rising further and further into the bridge's spacious, ever-ascending room. Each control deck felt like the parapet of a castle, thoughtfully spaced with its own control panels, computers and adjustable, worn-looking seats.

"Good fucking lord, look at this place!" Leech gawped, peeping up the staircase. They had arrived at the very bottom, where the staircases started. This deck featured its own, unique staircase in its middle, going further down towards a massive, metal blast door. Zhali led the group to the next deck up, Mina struggling to keep pace as the striders of the group climbed several of the stairs at a time. 

It had been no easy feat, but after months of around the clock work, Darkpaw had managed to get their equipment talking to the dreadnought's computers, and had been able to get the whole thing operational from this very first deck. It hadn't taken them long to figure out that the dreadnought had been designed to be controllable from any deck within the bridge, not just the very top one. Generally, a ship is piloted from the very highest control deck, if it's large enough to have multiple, in which case the top deck assumes control of the ship's trajectory, with the rest to perform other specific roles, such as weapon control or utility management. However, it seemed that every level within the bridge was able to pilot the dreadnought. Which was something they were actually grateful for, as the highest level of the bridge was up a mountain's worth of steps. It appeared that every deck was completely customizable in terms of what it assumed control over. Presumably, when the dreadnought was at full capacity, the one hundred odd decks within the bridge was required to keep a tight reign over it, but for now, only a single deck was required to get it moving, and to save their legs, Darkpaw had picked the very lowest.

As Moltezz ran her fingers along the stone barriers that encircled the first deck, Leech hopped onto the nearest computer, sitting herself down onto one of the plush leather seats. It had aged poorly, but was still remarkably comfy despite that. Wasting no time, she began poking through the ship's files.

"So, how did you get the ship here so quickly?" Moltezz implored, almost waltzing her way around the deck. "It just… appeared!" 

"About that…" Zhali fidgeted and grit her teeth as she grimaced in response. "That… was an expensive manoeuvre…"

"How do you mean?" Moltezz asked, pausing in her stride and raising an eyebrow at the Node. Behind her, the sound of Leech's fingers clacking against the mechanical keyboard in front of her intensified sharply, as deep concern contorted her face.

"We only had one heat cell and we used it to get here." Zhali replied. "I'm not sure the ship will be able to warp again, and without warping, its speed is what you'd expect for a floating fortress."

"Nonsense! We'll find a way! What is this 'heat cell' you described?"

"It's not the heat cell you should be concerned about." Leech interrupted, shifting her glare towards Zhali, her toxic green eyes staring the Node down. "You are aware that the type of engine this ship uses is highly illegal, right?" 

"Y-Yes... It wasn't our priority to fix that, as we never intended to use its warp-strike capabilities."

Moltezz huffed loudly and turned to face Leech.

"Its what capabilities? How can an engine be illegal?"

"This is a 'super-capital spearhead class warp slingshot' engine. Basically, it's a really big engine which can warp, and when it warps it brings along stuff close to it, so it could warp an entire fleet of smaller ships with it without them needing warp drives themselves, and it can slingshot. You know how the Radon could return to its starting point faster than its destination?"

Moltezz merely nodded.

"Well, this is like its alcoholic paedophile uncle who's coming home after a nasty stint in prison. This engine can warp instantly to a destination, and then can instantly warp back to its starting point whenever it chooses. Turns out, most people don't like being carpet bombed by their pedo uncle who can instantly appear on your head and then disappear before you can mount a counter-attack. Most factions agreed to ban their usage wholesale, hundreds of years ago." Leech rubbed the side of her head carapace, deep in thought. "I can't fathom how much fuckin' energy it would take to make a ship this size warp like that though…"

Zhali stared at Leech with wide eyed concerned confusion at Leech's rather unorthodox comparison of the dreadnought, but the rest of the crew carried on without batting an eye, more than used to her colourful vocabulary by now.

"That is perfect!" Moltezz clapped her hands together loudly, startling Leech out of her thoughts with a sudden jolt. "That means we can deep-strike into DA territory, and retreat at will before they can counter us!"

"Yeah, yeah we could do that!" Leech stared at her with maddeningly wide eyes. "We do that, and we paint an even bigger target on our back at the same time! Two for the price of one!" It was obvious that Moltezz was no longer listening to her though; with a sparkle in her eyes she turned back around, and was perusing the ship's interiors again. "But fuck it. Who cares right? We do what we want." Leech grumbled, and begrudgingly resumed her research.

"Now the question is, how to find my prince?" Moltezz mused. "We have the planet's coordinates, but the good Commander Koa did not give us his exact location. Could we send out scouts? Or does this ship have any sort of sensors that might help?"

"Your prince?" Zhali questioned. "I'm sorry, I thought we were only relocating your base of operations onto the Renewal. What kind of rescue mission requires a dreadnought?"

"Tsk Zhali, did Ink not brief you on the way here?" Moltezz looked over at Ink with a playful yet slightly patronising tone in her voice. Ink shot her an angry glare in response, but Moltezz continued unabated. "We are launching a mission to retrieve a man of great importance to both myself and the entirety of the Rewritten. This is a time sensitive goal as his location will change very soon, and he's currently deep within DA space."

"DA space?" Zhali let out a low whistle. "That is… quite the challenge..! But yes, the warp strike capabilities will absolutely aid in that endeavour. We did get some sensor arrays online, but a drone fleet might be better? Without a plan of the planet, it might be tight. The DA's fleet response is supposed to be remarkably quick within their sectors, two-three hours at most before cruisers turn up. I could see if I can knock something together if I can get the help?"

"Hmm… Trying to find one man on a whole planet will be tough…"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Leech cried out, slapping her forehead. "No. No, you don't need a fucking drone fleet. The mystery ship 9000 has you fucking covered." She pointed at the screen in an accusatory tone, the slightest hint of a nervous quake visible to those with sharp eyes.

Moltezz and the others quickly gathered around to see what Leech had uncovered.

"Genetically calibrated organic sensor arrays. Capable of detecting specific species' at long range and their location, down to the nearest couple of metres…" Zhali tapped on the screen. "We hadn't bothered to look at the sensors yet. Wasn't mission critical. That is… convenient."

"These sensors can find Diego?" The excitement in Moltezz's voice was almost… cute.

"If the data banks have his species genetic structure encoded on them. Coralith komodo, right?" Leech tapped on the keyboard again, while the rest of the crew waited in a tense silence.

Leech navigated to the sensor's data banks on the console without too much trouble, revealing an incredibly long, detailed list of different species', many of which she didn't even recognise.

She tapped the down key repeatedly, scanning through the list until -

"- THERE!" Mina jumped, pointing at the screen. "CORALITH KOMODO! HE'S ON THE LIST, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

"So we can detect him from orbit?!"

"The fuck yes we can! We can just appear on his head and grab him!"

Moltezz actually squealed with joy, she threw her arms around Tani and Mina and the three of them together began to jump around excitedly. They even pulled the newly corrupted Zhali into their group hug, who couldn't help but smile and laugh with them. 

Ink shot a confused smirk towards Leech; whilst she was more than accustomed to Moltezz's own unique brand of craziness, the school-girl squeal was a new one on her. But her amusement was not reciprocated by the other Controller, who instead looked very much like she was about to shit herself. Leech hadn't reacted to Moltezz at all, and sat frozen in her seat, hunched forward with her hands curled up around her mouth and neck. 

I shouldn't have said that… Why did I just blurt that out about the sensors?! Why can't I stop myself from being such a cunt… I swear, I'm the cause of all of my own problems! These sensors might not be illegal, but they are incredibly immoral, especially on this sort of scale! I don't like any of this… Why now? Why did Commander Koa give Seeth Diego's location now? What the hell is going on within the DA? Why are they spying on each-other? What is Scyler's game? And, most importantly, what the fuck is Moltezz charging us into? This all somehow links back to that fucking big-eared, dick-dodger Diego, and I haven't the foggiest idea how… But something feels so incredibly wrong, about all of this…

"Moltezz, I know he's your prince but do you think me and Mina could… could sample him? A-After you of course!" Tani was asking shyly, pulling on her ears.

A fierce grin melted over Moltezz's face, her eyes shockingly bright.

"Once I've broken him in, I don't see why my best Nodes couldn't share a little pleasure…"

"Oh fuck yes. YES!" Mina pumped her fist into the air.

As the excitement continued to build behind her, Leech cupped her hands around her cheeks, visibly shaking all over now.

"I-Is no one else immensely concerned about this?" She asked, staring at the group in despair. "A giant fucking dreadnought is delivered to us that just so happens to have the perfect way of getting into DA territory and the sensors to find Diego, and none of us are asking what the hell this ship is, and if we should even be on it?!"

"This is the result of Ink's perseverance and tenacity, Leech. Our reward, for a revenge well served. The fruits of our labour are finally coming into bloom, don't you think?"

"Are you not at all concerned as to why Diego's entire species is on this ship's data banks?! Why does it even have genetic sensor arrays?! Why was something this powerful and expensive hidden and left to rot? Why does it have a long since illegal engine?! Why is it so fucking big?! Also, ALSO, why the fuck are the DA spying on themselves?! You cannot be this much of an idiot, Moltezz, you know this goes far deeper than us, and we're diving in head first! This ship is far, FAR too convenient."

Moltezz sighed dramatically; she'd had quite enough of Leech's negativity for one day. "Zhali, is the ship rigged to blow?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips with a smirk and condescending look aimed straight at Leech. 

"Um, n-no." Zhali replied, a little taken aback at the question.

"Did you encounter any traps or foul play when you recovered the ship? A small net placed above a door perhaps? Or a banana peel left on the floor?"

"No." Zhali repeated, with a small smile. "My teams ascertained that it had been scrubbed and hidden, not rigged or trapped."

"I'm not fucking saying this thing is a trap, Moltezz." Leech scowled, flapping her arms in the air in frustration. "I-I don't know what I'm saying! But this feels wrong. This ship feels wrong. It's cold. It was hidden for a reason… and the fact that the sensor arrays have all these different species' on them has creeped me the fuck out."

"Does it have czarites on it?" Ink asked, tilting her head.

"Not that I saw."

"But we could get them on there! Imagine if we could hunt down fresh czarites to become new Controllers!" Tani chuckled, licking her lips.

"An excellent idea!" Moltezz beamed. "Once this capture operation is complete, you will work on adding czarite genetics to the sensor data base. We can scope out new Controllers from our new home!"

"PLEASE! I AM BEGGING YOU!" Leech yelled, spinning in her chair to face everyone. "This ship will have consequences! I can feel it in my fucking guts, everything about this is wrong! Dreadnoughts are passion projects! Whoever built this…" She trailed off as the rest of the group stared at her, unimpressed, unconvinced, or both. "You don't care, do you?"

"The sins of the previous owner will make a fine foundation for cementing the sins of the future." Moltezz wrapped her muscular arms around Zhali and Tani. "I do not care about its history. We have been delivered a gift of truly epic proportions by Ink, who no doubt should be rewarded for her efforts, not scolded for taking risks."

"Fine. Fine! Fucking choke on each-others dicks! But you still can't get the fucking thing to warp, remember that now-empty heat cell they used to get here?"

"Not just empty. Dead." Zhali sighed. "It wasn't quite ready to go, we couldn't establish a recycling current in time."

"Show me." Moltezz said, with a self-confident grin on her face.

The group quickly made their way back down the stairs and to the metal blast door at the bottom of the bridge. Zhali tapped her credentials into a keypad on the side and the massive door pried itself open with a low, rumbling groan, revealing a blank corridor with another huge blast door at its end. They had to wait for the first door to close behind them before the second towering, fortress-like blast door peeled back, revealing a still large but more intermediate-feeling chamber, at least compared to the sprawling bridge.

There was yet another blast door directly ahead of them, already open and smaller this time, leading into a much more compact chamber, where there was a large circular slot embedded with a solid metal console. The larger chamber had many completely solid metal pipes running over its walls which linked into the smaller chamber ahead of them.

"That is where the heat cell lives." Zhali motioned towards the smaller chamber. "The blast doors we walked through are a last resort in case the heat shielding fails, but our testing has shown that it's remarkably stable; very little heat transfers out of the chamber."

"How hot does it need to be?"

"It's not just how hot, the heat needs to be sustained through-out the entire warp process." Zhali frowned, unsure of where Moltezz was going. "If we lose heat coherency at any point, we'll lose our warp home. It also takes time to warm the engine and it's an uphill fight, the system cools faster as it gets hotter. Do you have a spare heat cell of this size and strength? They're not exactly common."

"Moltezz… you can't be serious." Leech sighed, defeated. She pressed her fingers against her brow, and motioned to Ink. "Ink, assume average density of metal and stone, if the ship has a length of four hundred and fifty miles, and let's say for ease's sake, it has one hundred miles width and fifty miles depth, how much could this ship roughly weigh?"

"4.689x10 to the power of sixteen tons." Ink replied back instantly, provoking a brief look of surprise from the rest of the room before Leech continued.

"That is a light estimate of the ship's weight, Moltezz, that was forty-six-point-eight-nine MILLION GIGATONS. THIS IS A FLOATING COUNTRY, MOLTEZZ! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING TRYING TO POWER THAT ENGINE YOURSELF?!"

A second tense silence filled the chamber as the group contemplated Leech's words. The silence wasn't tense enough to deter her though. "If you can't get it hot enough, for long enough, we can't warp, full stop. You lose heat consistency whilst we're there, and you leave us stranded deep within DA territory on a barely functional dreadnought. Also, if you do this, you will not be able to join us planetside, at all. You will have to keep this fucking thing fired up or it's over. And you heard the new girl, the hotter this thing gets, the more difficult it'll be to keep it going. It's an uphill battle and I can only dream of the amount of energy it'll take to fire it up." Leech shook her head in disbelief. "No one will be able to help you, you'll have to do this alone. This will be the most difficult thing you have ever done, barr none, you understand?"

There was but a moment of hesitation from the Molten Mistress as she stared into the dark chamber that lay ahead of her. She would be sealed behind three heavy blast doors, separated from the rest of her crew. Failing at any point would be disastrous, as Leech had so kindly highlighted.

Tani and Mina looked up at Moltezz hopefully as the Mistress stared the chamber down, her eyes locked onto the heat ports within.

"What do you think, Moltezz? C-Can it be done?" Tani asked, tugging anxiously on her ears.

"Too fucking right it can." Mina nodded, slapping the bunny's ass. "Leech got clouds in her brain, she's been all 'you can't do this' and 'I can't believe you've done that,' how about a little positivity?!" Mina poked her tongue out at the sassy Controller and placed her hands on her thick hips, smiling up at Moltezz, who was still locked onto the chamber in silence.

Before Mina could continue, control of her body was wrought from her by Leech, who sent her marching into the corner, facing away from everyone, before making her spank her own ass with a loud slap.

"Naughty nodes should be fucked and not heard. Naughty nodes should be cucked and not heard." Leech stated dryly, but with satisfaction, through Mina's mouth.

"Leave her alone, Leech." Moltezz murmured quietly, still deep in thought. "I told you, we only do that when absolutely necessary. We should be treating the Nodes like people, not puppets."

With a shrug, Leech dropped her control. Mina immediately spun around on the spot, and flashed a couple of middle fingers at the Controller.

With all eyes on her, the Mistress nodded decisively, having finally made up her mind.

"I want my best Marks up here, now, for a final release before I get started. Tani, I want constant, fresh food delivered to the bridge just behind these blast doors. Tables full. I'll need sugars, fats, high calorie food, the best stuff we've got. Plus cold, fresh drinks. No less than three tables and three barrels full at all times. Mina, get my psyonic amplifier armour, the stuff I used on the DA assault. Leech, you work with Zhali and the Trio. Get the freighter on board this thing and get us away from Barru X so we don't bring it with us when we teleport in. I want all our Slaves, Nodes and Imprinted ready to fight. Every vessel we've got, load them. Every gun, every able body, everything.

"Tonight, I rest, I feast, I fuck.

"Tomorrow, I will begin charging this thing. Either I'll succeed, or I die trying."

"You'll… wait, what?" Leech replied, her mouth agape.

"Oh? You don't know?" Moltezz grinned. "Maybe I can teach you something today. If someone completely drains their psyonic battery to zero, they die, Leech. I will give every ounce, every joule of my being to this task. And if I fail, then I didn't deserve any of this."

"You… You can do that?! That's a thing?! You can just expend too much energy and die?!"

"If you're strong enough. Most psykers will pass out before they can expend that much power. I, however -" Moltezz gently flexed her biceps as flames erupted out of the palms of her hands - "am very much strong enough."

"That's… That's insane, Moltezz."

"That is destiny, Leech." Moltezz grinned again, her body erupting into flames. "I wouldn't expect you to understand."