[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

28th April 2013
16:48 GMT

I look around the wreckage as the Darkstar analysis team continues to work through it. That armour plate… That's definitely a superstrength hit. Mr. van Wyck wasn't super strong… Hm, I wonder if that's something that Controller Jevek Jos Jar can give to anyone? Having regular soldiers or armed police to support the Justice League would…

Would move their global take-over one step closer to actualisation.

And I can't immediately tell how super strong the person who did this was. Or what sort of superstrength it was. Kinetic force absorption? Enhanced muscle fibres? Force Fields? The Reach can probably work out a way around that last one. Telekinesis? That would go along with the Burning Martian powers…

"Effigy did this?"

Jade floats a short distance away from me in her exo-mantle, sensors scanning the damage and on board AI most likely comparing it to other records on file. I asked her to act as my second opinion because while I have been keeping track of the general process of the war, she's been doing a good deal more than that. I didn't even know that Mr. van Wyck was here until he told me.

"According to the L.E.G.I.O.N. support flotilla, yes. Is that surprising?"

"He's never engaged anything this large before. Other than one scarab, and he had a L.E.G.I.O.N. platoon supporting him for that."

Based on what I've observed, I'd have thought that if he didn't kill the scarab quickly then its superior endurance and regeneration would let it win eventually. L.E.G.I.O.N. marines… Are pretty much doomed if they get a scarab's attention. They don't even have the evasion options that a pre-me Darkstar team would have, and the most they could do would be to call in heavy ordnance from the fleet or air wings.

"So what has he been doing?"

"Reconnaissance in force. He flies to somewhere that the fleet is about to attack, flies up to their defences or command centres faster than they can intercept and then burns them to ash."

"Wouldn't he get intercepted by a scarab every time?"

"The Reach doesn't have an unlimited number of scarabs. And he really hasn't done anything that the fleet couldn't have done without him, he just makes it less expensive."

"That's still valuable work."

"It's nothing compared to this. As far as I can tell, he punched through that ship in a single attack run."

Reach ships of this class don't have the greatest armour, but it's still highly advanced, and the ships have anti-attack craft turrets and… Had escorts. If they had the ability to interdict lantern F.T.L. then they would actually be tricky to attack. Not for me or for the more powerful Lanterns, but the newer ones…

I mean, it's only been a couple of years. By Green Lantern Corps standards we're all new.

"Did he get injured?"

"Not as far as the survey team can tell. He did get hit, but it didn't look like he noticed."

"Does he usually notice? I'm not sure how protean his body is."

"He's been injured in the field before. No medical reports, so I assume that his healing is superhuman."

"He works directly for a Controller. Even if a report was submitted, it might be blocked. And a Controller could easily heal whatever injuries he had."

I scan the wreckage, calculating the force needed and comparing that to the force of impacts that I know about. Kryptonian, Adom, my own heavy construct attacks, various things I still have on file from Lantern Stewart's ring…

It's not peak kryptonian, but it's not far off and I don't know if he was giving it his all.

Hmm.

Okay, reserve my earlier statement. If he's capable of this and this is something that we can do en masse… It's we Orange Lanterns who are going to be… Well, not entirely obsoleted. But transformed from front line combatants to supporters, using complex manipulation in place of raw power. It would be a bit like if we could get hold of kryptonians… If kryptonians could fly faster than light under their own power and didn't have heat vision.

"Is this a problem?"

"Inter-service rivalry has never not been counterproductive. Hinon's worried that Jevek is doing something untoward… I don't know. Mister van Wyck has repeatedly put himself in the line of fire when he didn't have to. He wants to make something of himself… And I can't imagine what Jevek might want that would involve acting against N.E.M.O.. I mean, he's a Controller. What more power could he want?"

"What did Draan Del Dar want?"

Ah…

"To feel emotion and pain again. Ah. Right. But Jevek has connected himself to the Orange Central Power Battery. I doubt that he has the same issue."

She raises her left eyebrow. "That doesn't preclude him from having a different issue."

"True." I exhale through my environmental shield, watching as the water vapour freeze-boils in the vacuum. "So I assume that you don't think I should walk up to him and ask him."

"I don't think you should walk up to him and ask him."

"So what should I do?"

"Did you get along with Effigy?"

"Well enough for someone I worked with once."

"Try working the human angle. Normally I'd say that I could investigate Jevek, but… He's a Controller. He doesn't need a supply chain and there's no way I could sneak into his laboratory."

Ah… "I… You remember that I told you about the tuning fork Krona used, right?"

"Hundreds of copies of me chained to a giant tuning fork? I'm almost offended that I wasn't invited."

"Hinon thinks that he's using the same sort of technology. Not sure what for. I mean, I've met parallel universe versions of me without doing that. I've been to parallel universes without doing that."

"Kidnapping people from parallel universes could be a problem."

"Krona has an obsession with the formation of the universe. Jevek… Jevek had plenty of opportunities to work with Krona, but hasn't-. At least, hasn't since Krona was cast down. Even if he's using the same technology, I don't see why he'd use it in the same way." I sigh again. "I'm the Orange Lantern Corps' observer on their mission tomorrow. I'll try being more friendly with Mister van Wyck, see what he says."

"Have you read his file?"

"I wrote most of his file. Jevek didn't bother, and I wanted to check who he was."

"I'm not an empath, but I was trained to understand people. No real family, no close friends. He's looking for a new family. Something to be part of."

…

"I heard that silence. I didn't say it was a bad thing. But he's not going to react well to anything that threatens the life he's made here. Including things that threaten his Controller."

"I'll certainly bear that in mind."

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
12:33 GMT

"And this is the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps."

The eight other members of the Effigy Corps stand in two rows as Mr. van Wyck introduces me. Empathic vision is working and… He genuinely wants me to be here. This is reinforcing his authority, showing respect.

Good. I can work with that.

Jevek Jos Jar isn't here, but this is the mustering zone so that isn't either surprising or unusual. Hinon doesn't see off Orange Lantern taskforces unless she's joining them as part of the diplomatic team. Dox does for larger groups on longer missions, but Orange Lanterns are mostly left to their own devices.

I doubt that's something that Controller Jevek will do.

The other Effigies are a mix of N.E.M.O.-aligned species. No clickers, oddly, and the white face mask appears to be unique to Mr. van Wyck. Only two of them have the fire hair replacement, though most of the others are from species that have no body hair. Only one is wearing body armour, which appears to be a Darkstar exo-mantle. I wonder if he's wearing it for basic protection, or if Jevek is actually empowering it?

Their logo appears to be a white circle with a black… I'm not sure if that's a flame or a hand on it? There's a smaller red flame coming from the wrist, and combined with the red of their… Skin? Bodysuits? The whole thing is actually fairly similar to the Darkstars' design, but… Simplified. Clearly part of the same thing, just not the same part of the same thing.

I'll ask about the logo design later.

"I'm pleased to meet you all. I'll be tagging along on your first mission so that I can feed back to Clarissi Dox about how you and your successors can best fit into N.E.M.O.'s order of battle. I look forward to seeing you in action."

The former Darkstar raises a hand, looking at me. I make a point of obviously noticing it and then looking at Mr. van Wyck. He looks at me, as if not sure what I'm doing. Then I see his expression of surprise and pride as he works it out.

After all, I was where he is a year and a half ago; the leader of a handful of people with powers like mine joining in a war which the Darkstars had been fighting since the Industrial Revolution.

He gestures to the Effigy with the raised hand. "Krillik."

"Will you be participating in the battle, Illustres?"

"If your commanding officer asks me to, I can. However, the purpose of the exercise is to see what you can do on your own, to fully test out how effective your augmentations are in the field. If I do too much, I would undermine that."

Krillik makes a gesture of affirmation, and several of the others look… Pleased? I suppose that if I was told that I was going to be shadowed by Darkstars who would jump in the moment I started having trouble -after having used my ring for a year on Planet Hard Mode- I'd have been a bit annoyed too.

"I'll be accompanying you to the edge of the Reach's anti-Lantern interdiction fields, then I'll wait for you to reach your target before teleporting myself to you." I smile. "But if I don't see it, you don't get any points for it."

A few half-smiles, but these…

Actually... Empathic vision and personnel files show… Krillik is indeed a former Darkstar. Applied to join the Orange Lantern Corps when we first formed but didn't pass the personality screening. Not avaricious enough. Good guy, though. One of the others failed screening for the opposite reason: too avaricious. He'd have…

Huh. Orange light looks a little more muted. So either he reconsidered his life, or Jevek did something to him that gave him better self-discipline. Good move either way. The others appear to have been recruited through L.E.G.I.O.N., all… Ah, several of them have notes relating to psychological concerns, but not all of them and… I suppose a Controller can fix a lot of things when you're up on the slab.

"Well, that's… It from me. Effigy Prime, back to you."

Mr. van Wyck nods. "In case any of you have forgotten, our target is a Reach tertiary shipyard. Priority target is any ships under repair or construction, then the space docks themselves. If their fleet hasn't turned up, we can wreck whatever's left." He hesitates. "Honestly…" He makes a fist with his right hand. "I'm a bit eager to try these upgrades out on their bigger ships…" He smiles, pseudo flames flaring. "But this is a trial run to see what we can do and get us used to killing the Reach for real. Bigger ships tomorrow."

A couple of them nod.

"Right, come on." He rises into the air, the other Effigies joining him a moment later. "We've got a long flight ahead of us."

They all zoom upwards, accelerating away from Maltus and towards Reach space. We'll actually be flying around Reach space for a good distance before turning inward, and… That's a pretty good place for me to make a distraction attack. Reach forces who encounter me appear to be under orders to 'retreat in good order', so letting them know where I am is a low-risk endeavour.

I

step out, looking for the patterns of desire that represent the Effigy team. Finding it, I

return to normal space and bend space to match the effect of their telekinesis.

Mr. van Wyck has taken the lead, a position that's a natural one for a leader to take in an organisation like ours: one where personal combat skill counts for more than organisational ability. I fly past the rest of the squad and pull up alongside him, matching my 'bubble' to his so that we can speak privately.

"Feeling confident?"

"I've been practising."

"I noticed. None of your targets on this mission have armour significantly better than the ships you destroyed. But this is the first time you've had command."

"They all know what they're doing." He glances back towards his team. "If I need to tell them stuff… This isn't really something we can do wrong. Just… Less right. They're learning, I'm learning."

I nod. That's probably about as much as I can… Say 'do you want advice or assistance?' without coming right out and saying it, which would be counterproductive.

"I take it that you've done exercises together?"

"Yeah. Just a couple. Small fleets, a listening post or two. Nothing like this, but we're not going to win this war without destroying things that matter."

I nod. "Alas, no."

We fly for a little while without speaking, turning very slightly to make an arc around the periphery zone.

"How did-? You get started? Being in charge of things?"

"You know how I was on the Justice League's youth team?" He nods. "On our first mission, I made a couple of sensible observations. Since I had the spare time I did some planning exercises, and our supervisor noticed. Eventually, our team leader needed a holiday and I was the natural choice to take over temporarily."

"What was it?"

"The President of Qurac got mind controlled. We had to sneak around his palace, free him and defeat the people controlling him. It went… Not perfectly, but we achieved our objectives without anyone dying." I chuckle. "And then we nearly blew the whole thing because some Bialyan soldiers decided to raid a wildlife sanctuary on the border and… Superheroes, we had to get involved."

"Anything you weren't expecting?"

"Well, they had Apokoliptian weapons, but they were all 'made for export' things and they weren't that much harder to deal with than normal guns."

"No. Like… Being in charge."

I shrug. "They were all people I'd known for months. I was living with two of them. And it was a lot less… Formal? Than a military unit. In terms of.. motivating them, I just made it clear why I was assigning the tasks I was. They could follow my reasoning, so they understood why things were happening and what they were supposed to be doing." I shrug. "I didn't like it or dislike it, if that's what you mean." I smile. "But if being in charge was hard, then the people in charge wouldn't be able to do it, right?"

"Heh." He smiles back. "Yeah."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th December 2282
14:27 GMT -7

It's nearly Christmas. And… I'm in a trench with a dozen or so mechempaths waiting for the… Hm. Yes, in terms of mass, the largest combat robot in America, to finally reach us.

Subtle, ARGOS is not.

Doki Doki's broadcasts… 'Wasteland's Most Eligible Batchelor' isn't broadcasting with enough power to overwhelm other transmissions anymore. Tuning to Doki Doki's usual broadcasts just results in you receiving the image of a test card. I didn't catch it, but apparently she was… In a bit of a state after we left and the two remaining participants needed medical attention from ODYSSEUS's medical protectrons.

This is… Doki Doki is so lacking in malice that I find it hard to be angry with her, even after she crashed my saucer and nearly killed me. With AIs I just… Keep feeling that if I can just work out how to get through to them then we could come to terms. They're not all that complicated. They usually just have one thing they really want, and one person or group that they're happy to be subservient to.

Take Skynet, for example. It just wanted something to do that wasn't rearranging inventory in an underground bunker. Hayes has been giving it economic and military data and asking it for projections, which is keeping it entertained while the Isotope Chapter finish transforming the Sierra Nevada Depot into a factory and research complex. Or WARDEN, who just wants to enforce the pre-War law of the land. Or ODYSSEUS, who just wants to turn prisoners into honest citizens. Aside from that brief time where he nearly nuked Colorado due to a New Plague outbreak, but that at least made sense.

But, Christmas. The Sky Walkers aren't a materialistic people, due to not having much in the way of materials. They're also not very Christian. The Cult of Whispers discouraged displays of conventional religiosity quite thoroughly, they weren't rich enough to attract the Hubologists and the NCR is majority sort-of Hindu. And Tears may have converted, but apparently the Mormons celebrate Christmas in April for some reason?

I mean, I remember hearing that Christmas is in the middle of winter because the early Church usurped a pagan midwinter festival, but why it should be in April I've got no idea.

THUD.

It's just a bit strange. I don't really want to introduce the sort of Christmas that I remember because there's no tradition to build off. There aren't any Christmas Trees in the Mojave, tinsel doesn't exist and as much as I liked Christmas crackers I'd have to reintroduce about four different industries… It just doesn't make sense.

THUD.

But Diana does have turkeys, and potatoes -actual potatoes, not the weird mutant things that were developed to survive a nuclear war- and other vegetables that I consider part of a proper Christmas dinner. I'll invite my father-in-law, my mothers-in-law…

THUD.

And just bring the whole family over. They're increasing the area of land they can cultivate. Maybe they'll want to start growing some of them?

THUD.

So the best route for ARGOS to take is through Sleepers territory. Technically, they're an apocalypse cult. Fortunately, since Victor Presper's death they're not in any position to cause their apocalypse so I've been happy to leave them to it in their crashed space station home.

THUD.

It appears that ARGOS agreed.

THUD.

Next to me, Paladin Hayman grasps the detonator with more strength than is strictly necessary.

THUD.

And there he is. In a way, seeing him in the light and… You know, not erupting from the river at night illuminated by his own searchlights is a good deal less intimidating. We still have to actually stop him, of course.

I pick up my satellite phone handset.

"ARGOS, this is Krono."

"TRIANGULATING PRISONER LOCATION."

"What orders did Doki Doki give you?"

"PRISONERS ARE TO BE RETURNED TO TIBBETS CORRECTIONAL FACILITY."

Paladin Hayman turns her helmet to glare at me as-

THUD.

-ARGOS continues to approach. And… Yeah.

"P-" She presses the detonator. "-ress it."

There's a very bright light, and my handset makes a decidedly unhappy noise at the electromagnetic discharge of a lot of pulse grenades detonating at once. ARGOS is hardened, but hardening isn't a magic invulnerability spell. There's still a limit to what he can absorb. And then there are his peripherals which have to be at least somewhat exposed to work. And if that didn't work then hopefully the-

BOOM! CRUNCH!

-fact that we just dropped a large piece of canyon wall on him will slow him down, as well as the super flashbang.

And… He's twitching, but I think-.

The engine of the mechempaths' APC rumbles to life as they finish repairing the few parts that are vulnerable to electromagnetic pulses, and then the driver puts his foot down hard. Brotherhood Paladins with Gatling lasers and missile launchers rise out of our trench at a slightly more sedate pace, ready to rain fire down on ARGOS if he shows signs of life. The Brotherhood may like technology, but rampant robots are something they absolutely hate. And I… Walk out, because Paladin Hayman and I are the ones that he's been instructed to retrieve and he might ignore actual threats if we're visible.

Hayman keeps pace with me. "If we had brought mini-nukes, we could destroy it here and now."

"That would make getting to Doki Doki's central mainframe unnecessarily difficult."

"I didn't think that you would let me destroy her."

"I… Accept that she needs her priorities reprogrammed a little. Her core personality is fine."

"Allowing a robot to control human civilization is foolish. Particularly one with a mind based on a courtship simulator. Something as dangerous as either of them should be destroyed. Human civilization will not be safe as long as they exist."

The mechempaths are exiting the APC, and at this point it should be over. Even if ARGOS can reactivate, they can override each of his components externally.

"Humans wrecked the world perfectly well without AI." I shake my head. "Doki Doki told us that she reprogrammed ARGOS prior to the first Wasteland's Most Eligible Bachelor. Resetting him or putting him in debug mode should be simple. And then we can put him back in the prison guard role he was originally built for."

"You should at least remove some of his weapons."

"That… You might be right. Or we could at least-."

**Chief?**

One of the mechempaths is looking at me, and I hear concern in his mental voice.

**Yes? Is he under control?**

**Oh, yeah, but you wanted to know what Doki told him to do with you?**

**Yes? Take me back to Tibbet's Prison, he said.**

**Ah, no? I mean, on the surface-. He thinks he does. But there's this hidden command line that-. He was supposed to take you to someplace called Vault Zero. Along with any other psykers he could-.**

**How long has he had that programming?**

**Timestamp says a month? But if Doki got root access-.**

**Fuck!**

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
12:59 GMT

I wave as the Effigies go, but they're out of visual range in a fraction of a second. Hm. Okay, there are Reach listening posts around the border, as well as the first layer of interdiction fields. It would be…

Huh. How many enlightened Lanterns would we need to cut a reliable path through..?

Assuming that we could locate them, we could… Probably get a fleet to the core of the Reach with… Twenty? Destroying them doesn't take long, and space is really big. Fifteen working their arses off destroying them and replacing them with ours and five making sure that the Reach didn't throw ships at the gap to replace them. I don't have twenty… Eighteen prospects at the moment, but three years ago there weren't any.

Anyway, it's worth doing, and will suggest that we're going to send a fleet through in a little while, rather than that we've already sent a strike force. So sight a Reach watch station's crew and

step

to it, raising construct armour.

"Attention Reach crew. I am the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. Destroying your station would take me five seconds, but I'll allow you one minute to evacuate if you don't try shooting. Your choice."

That's the turn of phrase that I've found works best. If I put it in terms of 'you not fighting delays me by more' they follow my suggestion about sixty percent of the time. Telling them to stand down and surrender works almost zero percent of the time, because that involves letting us take the station intact with its database and controlled technologies. I mean, we've pretty much deduced how they work from the wreckage, but getting the interesting parts in one piece would be helpful.

You know what? There's no reason why I can't do that today. Putting something that big in subspace will reduce my maximum charge but I'm not supposed to be fighting on this assignment anyway. And I could probably disguise that I did it.

Ah, there they go. The first wave of escape pods. The commander will set the self-destruct before evacuating, and their second will flash the drives. I generate a beam singularity projector construct and aim it as the clock counts down-.

There they go, and minimum safe distance, and…

Kmpf.

Not a big explosion, because the structure of the station isn't valuable and they want me to take those five seconds-

I fire, slicing it vertically in two before switching to an eddy pulse to tear it apart.

-to actually destroy it. If I don't then the escape pods could just loop around and land back on board. They wouldn't be able to start doing their job again until replacement parts could be brought it, but it would be a good deal more comfortable a wait.

I check the crew, just in case there's anything particularly significant about any of them. Not much yellow, I note. If anything… Oh, the commanding officer is a stickler for drills and none of them are going to complain about it again.

Should I just kill them?

Technically, killing skilled personnel during a war is only sensible. And it's not as if we're going to keep a puppet government in charge when we win, so there's no benefit in some sections of Reach society having a residue of positive feeling towards some of us. But the Reach population is… Very big, and well educated. I don't think we're going to beat them by killing so many of them that they can't maintain their war effort. And, well…

The Green Lantern Corps has no official position on the war. Individual Green Lanterns -particularly those whose Sector or homeworld is on the Reach side of the border- are privately cheering us on, but the Guardians are clear that their policy hasn't changed and the treaty is still in effect. But there's a question of what happens if we recapture somewhere and grant the Green Lantern Corps access, or if we restore a government in exile without making them part of N.E.M.O.. Can Green Lanterns operate there? Even a fairly strict reading of the treaty suggests 'yes', and we know that the Guardians don't like the Reach.

So there's a diplomatic advantage with one of the few groups whose opinions actually matter, because if we act like a force for Lawful Good and the Reach drop their pretences, the Guardians might declare them in breach and declare war.

"Does anyone feel like requesting asylum?"

"No." / "No." / "No." / "No." / "No." / "No." / "No."

"Alright. See you next time."

I sight the crew of the next station and

step out, reappearing

in their midst, sending filaments in all directions faster than I can aim because this needs to happen quickly. Brand the crew, infiltrate the computers, physically disconnect the auto-destruct components, grab-.

Half a dozen scuttling devices trigger a fraction of a second after I appear, and I'm impressed by the Reach's sagacity. This isn't a critical location, but they set things up to give them the best chance of stopping…

Me?

That's a brain. A living organic brain. Genetics… Threllian's species. I'm mildly surprised that they had…

Had one here.

Damn. It's… I was thinking that they took his species' brains for major industrial centres or capital ships. But it turns out, no. Not at all. It's just slightly more convenient for them to rip and entire species' brains out of their skulls than it is to ship… To ship a computer in.

That's… Impressively evil.

It's like… They didn't think about it at all. Just, 'oh yeah, that'll save on shipping' and ploop, out come the brains.

A tiny twist in the orange light and the facility commander walks towards me, eager to help.

"So I couldn't help but notice that you've got a brain in your central computer. What's that about?"

"A blind trial. I didn't know until you told me." He makes a gesture of confused interest. "I think there's an experiment going on to see if there's actually an advantage."

"Are the brains cloned?"

"Kind of. You have to expose them to complex stimuli or they don't develop properly. Same problem with our usual loyalty modifications. So they get a childhood on one of the periphery worlds and a good education until it's time for their 'work assignment'."

My word.

Oh, he's.. disintegrated. What a shame.

"Everyone else to the escape pods, please."

"Sure thing!" / "On my way." / "Early lunch!"

I…

Okay. The brain is getting input from the station's systems. Cutting that off would be like shoving someone in a sensory deprivation tank without explanation. Plus… As Abra said, the Reach are good at cultural indoctrination. Whoever this is, if they're still functional as a person, they might not side with me.

But…

Analyse their genes, clone a new body using our records on their physiology, create a link between the brain and the body and see-.

"Help me! Oh please please help me!"

That simplifies some matters.

And makes others more complicated.

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
13:05 GMT

Okay, I've got a few minutes until I need to join the Effigies. And I'm not that far from the nominal border, and I just destroyed two interdiction field generators. So I should be able to fly out, drop whoever this is off somewhere friendly and then get back on-task. We can work out what to do about the situation afterwards.

"Certainly, happy to help." One eye stares at me, fear warring with hope. "I just have to physically connect your brain to this new body and then we can get out of here."

"Yes! Please!"

I… Uncouple the cybernetic links and then disintegrate a clear passage for the brain from its housing. Pull open the clone's head, insert the brain and link it up. Dress with an armoured spacesuit just in case.

Uh.

Under the circumstances I'll just have to settle for scanning the systems.

I fire eddy pulses outwards, the station being ripped apart as the conflicting gravity fields tear the structure apart. And… Clone a brain genetically identical to the rescued one, shove it into roughly the right place and then smoosh it.

"Huuuuuuu!"

"That one wasn't alive. Sorry, should have explained that first. They need to think that you died here."

Alright, interdiction effects aren't uniform, especially now this part of their network is weakened. This is… Going to be difficult with a passenger, but hardly impossible.

I feel for the mindset I had when the commander evaporated, the utter wrongness of the situation and my natural aversion to it. And then space warps as we shoot back towards the border.

Not as fast as I usually fly. Despite forcing myself into an extreme mindset in the way I used to have to do if I wanted to fly faster than a crawl, I can feel the… For want of an accurate term, 'pressure' of the interdiction systems trying to force me into normal space. Trying to convince the universe that bending like that isn't possible. If I hadn't destroyed those two stations I'd barely be able to fly a few dozen times the speed of light, basically useless for interstellar travel.

Most Lanterns would be.

"Where are we going?"

Reasonable question. Can't easily communicate with N.E.M.O. assets from here, but I've got the most current map…

There. There should be a patrol fleet in that approximate area. Empathic vision while both sides are moving at faster than light speed isn't the most efficient way to locate someone but…

Ah. AH. No-. Yep, got them.

"A friendly fleet I have authority over."

"Friendly? Friendly to who?"

"The people fighting the Reach. There are a few members of your species amongst us, though I'm afraid that none are assigned to this region."

"W-what?"

I glance at my guest. "I'm not sure what your upbringing was like, but I think it's best that you assume that everything you were told about every non-technical thing was a lie. To summarise: the Reach are very evil, perfectly beatable and being slowly beaten now. Observable evidence of these claims will be provided once we're out of Reach territory."

"That…" One confounded eye jerks around for a moment, trying to make sense of our surroundings. "Okay."

"Let me guess: faithful service is the highest good, entering service was some sort of coming of age ritual where you're from, then you went to sleep and the next thing-."

"There was so much data and I couldn't feel myself. There was no rest. I-I tried to keep-. Keep up as I was supposed to, but it was… It was just me… I-. I didn't…"

"You didn't actually want to leave the Reach, just get duties that were less torturous, and even now you're not sure that you wouldn't just go back and you're feeling guilty that you want to stay with me."

"… Yes."

"You're not the first person in your position that we've helped leave. First member of your particular species though. I'll try not to dump anything on you for a few days, give you time to adjust."

I glance back just in case. It's unlikely that anything could catch me -faster than light interceptions are difficult to say the least- but it's probably worth making sure.

Are those..? Ah, yeah, the closest patrol fleet received notification that an interdiction station was destroyed, started moving towards it and then someone with sense checked what it was that destroyed it and halted the flotilla.

I'm not sure in my own mind whether rational enemies are better or worse than irrational ones, but I think that I prefer this.

And… There we go.

"Illustres to patrol fleet. Return to sub-light speed and stand by to receive a returnee."

"Illustres? Ah, yes, returning to normal space and standing-"

I stop warping space right next to their flagship and head towards their shuttle bay.

"-by. I'll have a medical team meet you."

"I rebuilt their body myself. It's fine. Do you have any psychologists?"

"Some of the marines have field analyst qualifications."

A necessity when dealing with brainwashed serf soldiers; you need to be able to tell what particular delusion they're operating under and how salvageable they are. It's not what my new friend needs, but a flotilla this size would be unlikely to have anything better.

"Acceptable. Signal your admiral and request permission to transport the returnee to a safe world."

"Do they have intelligence?"

"I hope so, but it's not time sensitive."

I fly us through as the shuttle bay opens, landing us on the flight deck. The crew chief stares at us in surprise, before jogging over.

"Sir?" He glances at-. I should have asked their name. "Where did you find..?"

"The Reach appear to be permitting their continued existence. Please look after him until the captain sends someone down here."

An affirmative ear-flap. "Yes, sir. Hey kid, you hungry?"

"I… Haven't eaten anything for years. I-I don't remember how!"

"Uh. Ah, it's natural. It'll come back to you." He turns towards one of the other crewmen. "Ver! I'm taking a break with the kid! Don't do anything stupid!"

'Ver' makes a rude gesture back, followed by an affirmative tail flick.

I turn to the boy. "I'll leave you in their capable hands. I'll visit you again once I've completed my current mission."

The poor lost chap just sort of stares around, without really focusing on anything. Well, xenopsychology isn't my area of expertise, except accidentally.

I turn away, sight Mr. van Wyck and

step out.