Sea of Stars - IC III

[Destro_Yersul]

Sea of Stars
+++Episode 8 - Continued+++

OOC Thread

"Full of brilliant observations," Etula deadpanned. "Yes, I'd love for the rumourmongering to stop."

Then she frowned, eyeing Macharius suspiciously. "More to you than meets the eye though, I wager. They've been indiscriminate, whoever it is. Now they could be doing that to throw off suspicion, but if suspicion's the goal, that wouldn't make sense. It also wouldn't make sense if eliminating political opponents is the goal. As many of them have been Uncle's allies as not. It's probably not politics, which makes my position a lot more complicated, now doesn't it?"

Etula sighed, and slowly started pacing. "All right, fine. Now I'm frakking intrigued, you interfering bastards. If not politics, what could they want? The targets are seemingly random, the only constant is that they don't hit the palace, where security is much tighter. The only person I've seen that's been even close to as paranoid about security as Uncle is our dear hostess this evening. The guards are one thing, the security systems she's put into this place must have cost a fortune or two. She's always been a bit funny about dying though, she's put it off about as long as she can with rejuvenats, so it's on brand. Bad location for the ancestral estate to sit, right now."

Suddenly, she stopped walking. "What if it's access? The palace is out on the end of that huge bridge, at the top of a rock spire. Sure, there's elevators, and smaller bridges, but everything's watched constantly. There's no way to approach without being seen unless you can fly. The Stalker's got wings, we've all been assuming they can fly, but nobody has heard anything as loud as a jump pack, grav generators are too big.. maybe they're for gliding."

Spoiler: Anika Only

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The Kindjal heiress promised to pass on Anika's regards, and moved away through the crowd. Left to her own devices for the moment, Anika had time to look around at the artwork. There were a lot of portraits, mostly of women. The Kindjals through the ages didn't seem to possess a strong family resemblance, but there were things here and there that certainly reminded her of Hannabel. It could have just been because she was looking for it, of course. Hannabel had claimed no relations, which would be unusual if she didn't expect there to be something, right? Anika came away from the experience with an appreciation for the skill of the Kindjal's chosen portrait artists, but no concrete evidence of anything.

Spoiler: Ravia Only

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The gold standard for human augmentation was, of course, the Astartes, but without access to the process that made them, and starting with the sad lot of criminals she'd had pulled from Scintilla's prisons, she wasn't likely to get close to that. Not yet. They'd been treated poorly enough in prison that the general health level wasn't good, but Ravia was able to pick out a few of the more robust specimens with ease, and to assign the rest of her test subjects an enhanced nutrition regimen that would at least see them restored to regular levels of functionality before too long.

The simplest enhancements would be the addition of some vat muscle. The medicae decks were equipped to produce that as medical replacements, given enough base materials. Growing a sufficient quantity would, of course, take time. In the meantime, she knew of a number of interesting substances which could enhance combat performance. Perhaps a modification of the Lostok Augmentation Process? Easy enough to do, and it removed the need to source or build injector implants. Could she perhaps stimulate bone growth? The main material required was calcium, plenty of that to be had. Or... no, best to stay simple, for now.

((OOC: Pick one to start with. Bone density, combat drug glands, or vat muscle))