Azad
Azad was terrible at waiting, which was a bad quality in a covert operative, but since she was excellent at every other part of the job, she generally managed. She spent the journey to the Nicodemidae system disassembling and reassembling her new gun, exercising, starting arguments with Terrak, fantasizing about past debaucheries, enjoying the contents of the fleet captain’s exceptionally well stocked liquor cabinet, enduring Terrak’s culinary experiments with her equally well stocked spice rack, and reading. (Everyone was always surprised when they found out she liked to read. She loved reading. Reading was how you learned everything you couldn’t learn by doing.)
They finally reached the Crystal Stair ’s last known location, and then picked the most logical route to reach Arc Prime. Azad figured the Letani wouldn’t get too close to the actual summit, just near enough to monitor the situation, and since it had such a high concentration of spores in Barony space, it wouldn’t have to get all that close. There was a promising asteroid field where you could easily hide a ship of the Crystal Stair ’s size, and keep an eye on the proceedings through conventional means as well as fungal tech.
The Darkest Mercy approached the asteroid field, and Azad made final preparations. While Azad bustled around, Terrak sat watching the live broadcasts about the Greater Union summit – the footage from the Legion summit preparations on Arc Prime was all state propaganda anyway, and a lot more boring. The capital city of Moll Primus was all polished and shiny, hung with banners, the streets and stadiums filled with cheering people. It felt less like a diplomatic meeting than a festival, with various games and contests and musical exhibitions held all over the city, featuring the most skilled and talented people from all the invited systems. “Ohseroh didn’t plan for all this ,” she said, leaning over Terrak’s shoulder to watch. “It can’t possibly give a crap about cultural exchange.”
“No, but there are plenty of people involved in the planning who haven’t been mind-controlled, and this… is just what people do.”
“Any excuse for a party.” Azad toggled the main viewscreen to show the approaching cloud of rocks before them. The asteroid field was many thousands of kilometers across, dense and deep, perfect to conceal a vessel. “The Crystal Stair is hiding in there somewhere. I’m sure of it.”
“How do you intend to find it?”
“Easy.” She opened a short-range communication band, the sort used for ship-to-ship communications. The transmission was strictly local and wouldn’t be picked up by anyone outside of the immediate area. She turned on the camera and grinned into the lens. “Hello, Ohseroh,” she said. “It’s Azad and Terrak. We need to talk to you.” Time to see if the Letani was capable of curiosity.
The sensors lit up, and there was the ship, barely a thousand kilometers away, hidden in the thick of the asteroids… except it wasn’t trying to hide anymore.
The image flickered. A Letnev man appeared on their screen. His eyes were glazed, and there was some kind of moss hanging from his chin. The air around him was visibly full of floating particulates. “We should kill you.” The voice was monotone.
“Why?” Azad said. She’d only given it fifty-fifty odds the Letani’s puppet would answer at all, so she was feeling good about things. “We’ve seen the error of our ways. You’re clearly going to win this war – you’re smarter than we are. We’ve met some of your faithful, and they’re all happy and fulfilled and sing your praises all day long. We can’t possibly defeat you, and everyone says we’d be fools to even try. So, we’ve come to beg forgiveness. Let us join your fellowship.”
“This is a trick. This is subterfuge.”
“No, it’s not. I would never. You want us to recant all that stuff Terrak said on his broadcast, right? We’d be happy to–”
“That is no longer necessary. Our plan is on the cusp of success.”
“Really? Because–”
The Crystal Stair fired on the Darkest Mercy . Despite being decommissioned, Ohseroh’s ship still had weapons, courtesy of its various fungal loyalists. The fleet captain’s unarmed pleasure vessel was an easy target.
“That was rude,” Azad said, after turning off the comms. But not unexpected, of course.
She and Terrak had sent their message from a shuttle, far enough away from the Crystal Stair to avoid the debris field, but close enough to relay their comms through the larger ship, to make it seem like that’s where the message originated. “So much for throwing ourselves on the mercy of the spore-lord.”
“Ohseroh won’t see us coming now, at least,” Terrak said. “Your plan worked.”
“I’ve benefited greatly over the years from people thinking I was dead.”
The shuttle moved slowly through the asteroid field, careful to keep itself obscured from the Crystal Stair , though the ship didn’t appear to be on particularly high alert – there was no sign of the vessel using active sensors. They’d settled back into a position of concealment over caution. “Is it really so easy to trick Ohseroh?” Terrak murmured.
“Don’t forget, the evil mushroom needed Harlow to come up with an actual plan,” Azad said. “Ohseroh is really good at a couple of things, and not so good at others. That’s the downside of specialization, and why I prefer to be a generalist.”
They settled in behind a large asteroid within visual range of the Crystal Stair , then suited up. “Remember, helmets stay on, even when we board,” Azad said. “There’s no telling what kind of stuff is floating around in there.” She strapped her huge gun onto her back. This mission had involved a lot of annoying sitting around and going to-and-fro, but this was the fun part. She was glad to have the Hacan along for company too. Sure, she was a covert operator, but that didn’t mean she didn’t appreciate an audience. “Ready?”
“No,” Terrak said. “But off we go anyway.”