The Gardens of Deathworlders: A Blooming Love (Part 111)
Part 111 Punish and reward (Part 1) (Part 110)
“Alright, Marzima…” When Atxika had initially started this meeting, she needed to quell her urge to aggressively question the Captain. It didn’t matter who was being given a warning, and she needed to prioritize her job above all else. After all, Marz is one of the most trusted and respected members of the honor guard. If she was giving Tens an official warning for misconduct, there was a very good reason for it. But now Atxika had heard that reason and saw Marzima was uninjured, she was trying her best to hold back laughter. “I am going to need you to explain this to me once more just so I can be sure I fully understand what happened.”
“I can present to you the security footage, Admiral.” Marz knew submitting something official into Tensebwse's record would catch Atxika's attention. If anything, the Captain was using this as a test of her own willpower. She will be taking on the rank and responsibilities of a Sub-Admiral soon. If she can't handle a situation like this appropriately, it would reflect poorly on her leadership skills. Though Atxika might be a bit perturbed that it was her paramore being punished, she would have been furious if Marz had done nothing. “That would be the most accurate record of the events. I'm still a bit… Irritated with the Lieutenant.”
“Please, Captain Marzima. I just want to be absolutely certain that I understand what exactly happened.”
“Lieutenant Tensebwse smuggled a small crate of snow from our last mission location onto Karintha’s Dagger. He kept it hidden for nearly two days, which I assume he spent plotting. Then he took some of that snow, formed it into a sphere, hid that sphere in a thermos, brought that thermos to the weight room I was exercising in, and pretended like he was getting ready to use one of the other machines. Right after I finished my workout and was about to get up to walk to the showers, he pulled out the ball of snow and threw it at me, hitting me square in the side of the face. What's more is that he took off running out of the weight room so fast that there would have been absolutely no way for me to catch him. I then took a very hot shower, filled out an incident with a report, and submitted what I felt was the appropriate form of warning. Oh, and I verified everything through the security system, Admiral Atxika. That is how I know the snow came from the recently visited planet and wasn't made on the ship.”
“Just out of curiosity, did Lieutenant Tensebwse say anything either immediately before or in the days leading up to this event?”
“He may have tried to get my attention right before he threw the snowball. However, I had my headphones in and was listening to music.” From Marzima’s perspective, the hologram of Atxika's face was perfectly stoic and almost completely devoid of emotions. The Admiral's smooth, blue face and piercing, crimson eyes showed no signs of judgement, irritation, or humor. Just a flat, blank expression. “Let me be entirely honest with you, Admiral. If I hadn't already explicitly told him not to do it on several occasions while we were on that frozen world, I would have let him off with a simple verbal warning. It was a surprising well executed ambush without any witnesses. As a simple prank, it was fairly harmless. The issue is that he refused to take a ‘no’ from a superior officer.”
“Oh, I completely agree with you and believe you chose the correct punishment.” The amount of force it took Atxika to not start laughing could have kickstarted a fusion reactor. “I would also say you let him off light considering you didn't fine him as well. And let's hope that bringing snow from the planet either means he doesn't know how to use the ship's systems to create more snow or that he finds that unsporting. I'm just glad you weren't injured by him throwing a clump of frozen water at your face, Captain.”
“Uh… Well… snow is rather soft, Admiral.” Marz's eyes grew wide for a split second as she realized Atxika had likely never actually seen snow before. “Aside from the fact it was very cold, it didn't hurt. More vexing than anything else. Like being hit by a fluff-cake.”
“Ah… That would make sense considering I don't see any bruising.” Atxika's composure was about to break and she knew it. Marz was right to issue Tens an official warning. This type of reprimand wasn't uncommon, especially among new or contract personnel, both of which applied to Tens. It would be a mark on his record, but not one that would really affect him in any major way. However, the idea of her paramour executing such a perfectly planned and entire harmless ambush was simply hilarious. It also reminded the Fleet Admiral of her first few years of service to her Matriarch. “Overall, Captain Marzima, I feel you handled this situation exactly how a Sub-Admiral should. Tolerant enough of an innocuous prank to not issue a full punitive punishment, but not too much as to encourage further insubordination. I feel even more comfortable with your impending promotion.”
“Thank you, Admiral Atxika.” Marz bowed her head and slightly smiled, completely unaware of just how hard Atxika was fighting to keep a straight face. “Is there anything I can do for you, ma’am? Would you like an update on our mission progress?”
“No, no. That was all, Captain. I have already read your most recent report and will await an update once you have finished with the next target. You are free to go, Marzima.
“Thank you, Admiral Atxika.”
With that, the hologram of Captain Marzima disappeared from Admiral Atxika’s office. And not a moment too soon. Before even checking to be sure the comms link was fully disconnected, Atxika burst out with eye watering laughter. Of all things Tens could have done to entertain himself, he seemed utterly incapable of choosing the mature option. But there was something endearing about that. A daring youthfulness that reminded Atxika of herself back when she first joined her Matriarch's military. While she now understood and mostly adhered to the standards of a high ranking fleet officer, she never truly lost herself to her rank. Despite the weight of her responsibilities as a Fleet Admiral pressing her own impulsiveness to the side for more than a decade, a well executed prank was something she could still appreciate.
After nearly a full minute of belly-aching, knee-slapping cackling, Atxika finally calmed down enough to bring up the evidence Marz had submitted with Tens's official warning. No matter how much she approved of the Captain's disciplinary action on a professional level, there was still a faint voice in the back of head telling her to make it all go away. Part of her wanted to protect the man she was growing attached to. However, such an action would be utterly intolerable to her Matriarch, the Third Matriarchy’s Military Supervisory and Accountability Office, and herself. If a few official misconduct warnings hadn't affected her career, it wouldn't affect him either. After all, only the most boring and middle-of-the-road members of her crew maintained a spotless record. So when she finally watched the security footage of Tens throwing the snowball, she broke down laughing all over again.
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When the frame and hull of Karintha’s Dagger was constructed, the vessel had been intended as the first in a new line of cruisers for Sent'chuloxa Group's shipyard. Two and a half kilometers of total length, vaguely wedge-shaped with a flat bottom size, and designed with the express purpose of planetary assaults. Like many other drop cruisers built throughout the galaxy, the Dagger had all its most powerful weapon systems mounted to its flat underside, could carry a few hundred infantry at max capacity, and only featured the specific systems necessary to complete its mission. Food production, basic entertainment, and other bare essentials were all present but quite limited. It had more than enough storage and production facilities to meet the needs of a large company of drop troops, interior docking space for ample recovery shuttles, and enough weapons and armor to survive a skirmish against multiple hostile vessels.
When Admiral Atxika first heard of the BD-series mechanized combat walkers, she could think of no better vessel to host them than Karintha’s Dagger. Considering that Qui’ztar were the first species to truly go all in on drop pods as a means of mass troop deployments, many of the First of the Third's drop cruisers feature the full-size launch tubes necessary to deploy a BD. However, the semi-modular design of the Dagger allowed for the quick and simple modifications required to change in purpose. The drop pod maintenance and drop bays were easily converted to house the Nishnabe mechs. And thanks to the Kyim’ayik engineers who had been contracted to act as engineering staff, one could be forgiven for assuming the Dagger has been designed as a purpose-built BD carrier. However, where this drop cruiser could produce weapons, munitions, and spare parts for extended deployments, it lacked the capability of manufacturing anything requiring advanced techniques.
“This should be possible…” As Hompta looked over the very rough sketch Sub-Lieutenant Anacaona just handed him with a perplexed expression, the ingenuitive part of his mind was already hard at work. “My only concern would be the added cost.”
“How much do you think it would cost?” Ana knew she wasn't exactly suited to be making this kind of suggestion. Though her training as an interceptor pilot ensured she had a functional understanding of engineering, the fairly young woman was anything but mechanically minded. Nevertheless, she just couldn't get this idea out of her head. “I mean, don't most interceptors have some degree of pivot on their main thrusters?”
“You'd have to ask Binko about void craft but…” The notes and simple drawings Ana had given Binko were surprisingly detailed despite being obviously amateur. “You need to remember that the BD reentry packs are designed to be reusable but also simple enough that they could be expendable. Even the limited degree of mobility you're calling for here would require some kind of ball joint. And considering the amount of thrust and mass that are involved with a BD making planetfall, those joints would need to be incredibly strong. We'd need a fusion-forge to produce metallic ceramics, which the Dagger doesn't have.”
“Oh! Uh, I- I didn't mean to imply this was something we try to build immediately.” As the Sub-Lieutenant stammered, the furry man glanced up at her with a devilish smirk. “I was more just curious about what you thought of the idea.”
“Giving the BDs more vector control by giving the reentry thrusters more freedom of movement? It's a great idea! Just one that we'll need to use The Hammer's fusion-forge to test.” Hompta pulled out his tablet, held out Ana's rough sketches, and took a few pictures. “I'll ask Binko if he knows of any good licenses for strong ball joints for interceptor nacelles. This is really more of a void craft thing. Mech joints are very different.”
“So we couldn't just the shoulder or hip joints from a BD?”
“No, but that is smart thinking.” The Kyim’ayik engineer handed the paper back to the Qui’ztar soldier, his eyes shifting between his tablet and the mech he was standing beside. “The force vectors, tolerances, and material requirements for the joints of a BD, or really any other mech, are very specific. We'd basically be hanging fifty tons from these joints while applying up to eighty tons of thrust in the opposite direction, all with zero flex. And we'd be doing it for seven minutes straight. BD joints can handle those kinds of loads, just not in the same way. No, we'd need something special for this.”
“Do you think there's already a license for something like that?”
“Again, I would have to ask Binko… However… This does seem like the kind of thing a small transmedium shuttle or attack craft would use. Very few species can utilize drop pods as effectively as Qui’ztar or Nishnabe, so there are a lot of smaller void and atmospheric craft that use these omni-pivot nacelles joints. The only real issue would be finding ones small enough to fit our use case. Worst comes to worst, I could clean up this drawing of yours, add a few more technical details, and send it off to Zone 14 for them to come up with something.”
“You- You're taking this far more seriously than I thought you would.”
A smile and wave of light began to spread across Anacaona's face. As one of the few members of the honor guard who wasn't a prime, she was used to fighting tooth and nail for proper acknowledgement. Though she was rather tall and strong for a standard Qui’ztar female at two-hundred and twelve centimeters tall and a hundred and fifteen kilos of mass, her star-fork chromosome pairing and relatively small tusks meant she stood out among the rest of the First of the Third’s honor guard. She may struggle at grappling and direct hand-to-hand combat compared to her fellow elites, but she is also the fastest runner with the best endurance. Ana also wore her deep reddish-brown hair in a single long, loose braid as opposed to the rows of thin, tight braids that most of the honor guard sported. So for her to be receiving praise and appreciation this easily was wonderful.
“Of course! Why wouldn't I?”
“Well, when I showed Txatlia, she-”
“Don't take this the wrong way, Anacaona…” Hompta cut Ana off, his eyes quickly scanning the room to ensure no other Qui’ztar were within earshot, then motioned for the young to get closer while stretching his body up towards her head. “Never ask for technical advice from your fellow honor guard. They're great warriors but terrible engineers. One of them even suggested making the reentry packs a permanent attachment. Even Tens would be considered a master technician compared to most of them. And that guy's as sharp as a sphere.”
“Sharp as a…” The Qui’ztar couldn't stop herself letting out a soft giggle as she quickly covered her mouth. “My, you two must be best friends!”
“More like brothers.” Hompta retorted with a scoffing but quite high-pitched chuckle. “His grandmother raised him, Binko, and me. Banitek's from a different clan, but he went to our school and always hung out with us since his parents were busy working. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but the four of us actually designed and built the first BD prototype. I'm just the only one who stuck around on the engineering side.”
“Seriously?!?” Ana’s crimson-red eyes grew wide. “No! No one ever told me that! I don't even remember Tensebwse mentioning that he was involved with their creation!”
“Yeah, that sounds about right. Like I said, Tens is about as sharp as a sphere. As bright as the empty void! But seriously though, the original scrap nacelles that Binko scavenged for the prototype had the same kind of omni-pivot joints that you're proposing. Mami and Frimp, the main Chiefs over at Zone 14, never even considered it for the production models since they just wanted to modify and reuse drop pod retro thrusters. Cost, time, and material savings and all that. But now that we're six iterations in, the reentry packs have changed quite a bit, and void combat has been added to the mission profile, it may be time to consider the idea. No matter what, I'll try to figure out something for you to test once we get back to The Hammer.”
“For me to test?!?” Now the Qui’ztar Sub-Lieutenant was utterly flummoxed by the cheerful beaver-otter's attitude. He wasn't just acknowledging her, he was acting as if her abilities were unquestionable. “Shouldn't experimental modifications be tested by someone more senior or specifically qualified as a tester?”
“Nah, that takes too long.” Hompta was actively scribbling on to his tablet, taking Ana's rough sketch and turning it into a real engineering diagram. “Back in the Nishnabe Militia, operators were constantly offering suggestions on how to modify and optimize their BDs. That's how we've been able to produce a new iteration every year or so since the first production models. Since we usually had a line ship with fusion-forge nearby when on deployment, it was easy to fabricate test parts before sending the designs over to Zone 14.”
“We're allowed to modify our BDs?” When Anacaona decided to present this idea, she had been fully prepared to be ignored and dismissed out of hand. But now, her mind was full of hope and positivity. While she may struggle to gain full acceptance among her fellow honor guard, this little Kyim’ayik had granted a sense of pride she hadn't been expecting or even knew how to properly accept. “Does the license agreement even allow for that?”
“They couldn't stop me if they tried!” Hompta peeled his eyes off his tablet just long enough to give Ana an overly confident look that made her laugh. “But seriously though, that clause is in the license. So long as any modifications are sent to Zone 14 for further testing and possible incorporation into the next design iteration, we are free to make any modifications we want. And if we can make this idea of your practical and cost effective enough to be used in the BD-7, whenever that gets finalized, then you will get a five thousand credit reward.”
Posted Mar 22, 2025, 6:07 PM UTC