Batay Vètyè Pt 1 (Patreon)

Captain TNDI-75567 did her absolute best to maintain her composure, even though every atom of her body was vibrating with excitement. Her first genuine official mission as a a Starship Captain! Sitting at the captains chair, she surveilled the bridge, holopainted a soothing collection of blues and greens, doing her best to capture the disposition of the captains she had known, who had all had this sort of cool, collected atmosphere to them. 

"Droppin' out of warp now, keptin'," Came the voice of her chief navigational officer, Lt. Murkbelch, the chubby Hobbgrot tapping at his console even as the viewscreen located on the vessels front went white, before Iron Shores came into view: a vast cosmic ballet of dancing debris surrounding a bluish white star. 

"Alright," She said, nodding. "Helmsman, bring us to the agreed upon coordinates," She commanded, and PWR 9001 let out a whir of agreement even as the ship shifted and began moving through the vacuum of space, its torch-thrusters firing to make it build up speed. Through the viewscreen TNDI could see Iron Shores pass them by, the engines eventually ceasing, as they found themselves brought to the ferroplanet: the last remaining celestial body on the world, surface covered in a sheen of magnetic ore and vast megaloelectrical storms churning.

"Alright, we're here," TNDI noted as the ship slid to a stop, the gravitic engines acting as a brake of sorts. "Comms, any chance Vlahk is waiting for us?" She asked, jittery. A moment later, the viewscreen shifted, showing a singular red eye, Vlahks user-icon.

"KAMERAD," The ship said, voice deep, bassy, and with heavy synthetic undertones. "I AM SURPRISED YOU SHOWED UP," They said bluntly. "BUT I AM ADMITTEDLY SURPRISED YOUR GOVERNMENT AGREED TO HELP WITH THIS AT ALL."

Right. TNDI steepled her arms together. 'Ryth, if you're watching, I hope you're rooting for me, because I might need it,' She thought, circuits in a tumble, creating a sensation that could be compared to butterflies in the stomach: she'd read the Dossier, and was very aware of what it said: Vlahk was beginning to fundamentally lose faith in the Directorate, and that was to be avoided at all costs, if only for simple realpolitik reasons. After all, when CPUMoon was taken, Vlahk would be a massive voice in autonite politics, and losing his support could severely weaken relations going forward. And to say the Directorate was interested in maintaining good relations with a polity that had access to a literal moons worth of industrial manufacturing was an understatement. 

"The Directorate would once again like to offer its apologies, " She said, prepared to repeat that statement as many times and show belly as much as possible. "It offers no excuse, only the promise to try to do better going forward."

"ONE OF YOUR CAPTAINS MADE ME A PROMISE ONCE. HE SAID THAT YOU WOULD DO YOUR BEST TO HELP US. YOU SEE WHY YOUR STAMENT MAKES ME SKEPTICAL, JA?"

TNDI didn't wince: she had a program to stop that reaction installed. Yeah, she could understand why he was angry: over a century of watching your people be reduced to feral animals was almost certainly not remotely pleasant. "Your skepticism is noted. Now, you said the location was in the debris field?"

"JA. FOLLOW ME: THE LOCATION SHIFTS, BUT I HAVE A MEANS TO TRACK ITS LOCATION. A HOMING BEACON," The Vessel said, and the viewscreen changed courtesy of Navigation, showing the cylindrical vessel, the Accomplishment shifting to follow it, the pair once more entering the debris field. "PLEASE BE AWARE THERE ARE STILL SOME ACTIVE DEFENSES: THEY SHOULDN'T BE ENOUGH TO SCRATCH EIZER OF OUR PAINT JOBS, BUT YOU MAY ENCOUNTED SOME MILD TURBULENCE."

The moment it said so, the Accomplishment began to shake, low yield torpedos bouncing and exploding off their armor. "TOWARDZ ZE END OF ZE WAR, ZE REPUBLIC WAS LOW ON INDUSTRY: THEY BEGAN RESORTING TO UTILIZING EVEN GROUND SCALE WEAPONS TO CONSTRUCT THEIR FORTIFICATIONS," Vlahk commented. "DON'T WORRY: ONCE WE GET IN RANGE, THEY'LL STOP FIRING. EVEN ONCE THEY SAW ZE END COMING, THOSE WHO LED OUR CREATORS WERE LOATH TO RISK THEMSELVES."

After a moment, they came upon the facility. On the outside, it resembled just another asteroid: a very, very large one, but still an otherwise unremarkable bit of space debris. No wonder it hadn't been found, TNDI noted.

"ALRIGHT. PREPARE YOUR GROUND TEAMS: ZE FACILITY IS TOO CONFINED FOR EITHER OF US TO PROVIDE AIR SUPPORT, ZO WE VIL BE USING A REMOTELY OPERATED AUTON BODY TO ACT AS A GUIDE."

Alright. TNDI had to make a choice here: she was GOING to be on that ground team, but who else was she going to take along...

You can take two officers.

[ ] Dr. Orphiatek: The Tekket behind most of the mystical strategems undertaken during the Victory at Yr Albain, Dr. OrphiaTek was on loan: it wasn't expected that his mystical expertise would be needed, but even if it wasn't, his credentials as a psychologist and multiple degrees in robocognition and related subjects meant he still had utility, most likely. 

[ ] Teknik Zappblasta: Unlike most o' his kinfolk, Chief Science Officer Zappblasta had, ironically despite their name, forgone the path of the blasta, forsaking the pew-pew for a career in Da Scienzes dat he used fer the betterment o' all grottkind. Specializin' in advanced robotics, he'd likely bring his Grottbot assistants to act as support. 

[ ] BRK-SMSN-1980: Chief security of the ship, BRK was armed with a variety of heavy weaponry, years of experience, and an inbuilt shield generator. The only concern TNDI had was that the machine had expressed distaste for the Autonites in the past, but he should be professional enough to get past it.

[ ] Teknik Patches: The Zoggin Dok: if TNDI encountered a medical emergency, Teknik would prove invaluable for in-field stabilization and evacuation of injured, though otherwise he lacked many other useful talents here. 

[ ] Byt Chyp: Chief of engineering, Chyp didn't specialize in robotics, but his knowledge of the field was still deep enough to be relevant, and he had a much wider field of experience with technical matters than Zappblasta