Dragonball M, Chapter 3: In Blood, Bone, and Ash! The Way Forward Unlocked!

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Praxat goes to the engine room." Okay that has to be a computer console, but before a mess, with it. I should check to see if there's a manual for it and maybe a maintenance log book laying around in this room somewhere, Praxat said.

Praxat then checks around the room for a manual and a maintenance logbook.

[grampagen]

Now:

While she might have hoped to have a moment to breathe and think after all she had learned, and said so that she might steady herself for the confrontation to come; their benefactor as always had impeccable timing. So instead, compelled to return to the bridge by Jinzi's comments ... the Oni forced herself to do as she always had: press on.

After all. Everything going as it should, there would be time enough to breakdown, later.

Yet when her golden-eyes set themselves upon the Nebula before them, the Oni could not help but offer a single -- if strained -- chuckle. It was a rather ... potetic choice, after all. "How fitting that the Doctor would sequester himself here, to ... work," she gestured, "in the death bed and birthing place of stars."

Knowing well why she was standing there however, Ishtar swiftly set about doing what she could. Mindful that Ochazuke possessed the means to ensure they struck true.


"As intelligent as he was ... as well as he purported to know me, the Doctor was sloppy when he chose this place." Ishtar commented from over the man's shoulder.

"The stars have a particular ... taste to them. The materials raw, and otherwise fresh." Stepping beside him, the golden-eyed Oni pointed to a span of newborn star matter and exhaled slowly to settle her nerves.

"When you are as old as I am ... have seen as much. You will find that the 'taste' Time imbues, is ... bitter; and it is wont to linger when all else has been reduced to dust and echoes." The Oni fell silent then for awhile, but her pointed finger never faltered and its meaning was clear.

There. Search there.

As they pressed in towards the nebula, Ochazuke had no words, only an unspoken awe of the stellar phenomena. A furnace of raw energy drawing free elements into itself; In a manner of speaking, the crucible of creation itself. The words Ishtar spoke gave a different context to that shape of cosmic dust and ether, and with it an entirely different perspective on the matter.

"Perhaps he has chosen this place to take in a proof of concept. To convince himself of the meaning in his labours," he replied, knowing full well the Doctor was a liminal being in more ways that one. "Removed entirely from the universe he loves, he purports its salvation even as he seeks to destroy it. An end to catalyze a new beginning."

A short pause fell as the words left his lips. For one as long lived as the Oni, even this had been a place she had been before. For one with the mantle of God of Destruction, what else did she see?

Aided by Ishtar's confirmation, Ochazuke found a fixed point to further refine his tracking. The ki beacon outside of the Coldlight solidified its direction, and burned brightly to indicate the way forward.

"Perhaps he does know you. After all, you're the first to have heard it for what it is. The subconscious call of man who wishes to die."

Something ripples across the Nebula as Ochazuke and Ishtar guide the Coldlight in. False paths, deep illusions laid within the Nebula fell aside under their guidance, whirling asteroids avoided as the Coldlight sails gently through the birth and death place of stars. For two hours they are guided through the place, around dangers and traps and illusions, steadily heading closer.

Nail’s Artifact leads true, and with Ishtar’s taste for the oldest place there, they exit into a darker section of the Nebula. Scanners alert and throw up an image of hundreds of asteroids in an upside down U formation, with massive machine factories being tagged in the scanners, identified as unknown and ancient.

The middle section of the U is one asteroid in particular, more a small moon, the rest tethered to it through some means. It is on that larger asteroid that the biggest of these factories lay, and Nail’s Artifact points directly at it.

“We’re here.”

Alerts ring out as ancient ships of unknown design start moving away from the asteroids, heading towards them. Some are only half compete, some full, but all are silent as they move to intercept. Ancient weapons power up and stationary weapons platforms also start powering on behind on the asteroids.





“Evasive maneuvers, Held, let’s show them what we can do! Weapons station get ready and fire at those ships!” Jinzi says as the Coldlight lurches forward towards the enemy ships, a hound eager for the hunt.

When Jinzi gave the order, it seemed under their pilots' swift whim the gargantuan spacecraft lurched to life. Throughout the fervent tossing and sinking of the Coldlight's pursuit and evasion, Ochazuke sat firmly, brows furrowing and eyes closed, locked in focus in maintaining the navigation.

As the craft passed near, he reached his senses out toward the ancient ghost ships with Kyokushin Keihatsu, attempting at a glance to uncover if these were of the same make of the automated ships that assaulted Capital City that day.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

During her search for her seat, Sarada stumbled upon Parsley doing the same. "It's almost time," she stated, even though she knew that her sister was more prepared than she was. While Sarada planned on winging it and making it up as she went along. Parsley probably already had a plan in place. "We don't have much time left, so," she reached into her boot and pulled out one of the capsules she had been holding onto for some time. "I actually forgot I had this."

Parsley took the capsule and opened it. "...armor?"

She grinned and clapped her on the shoulder. "If you're gonna be fighting alongside me to save all of existence, you can't go out looking like literal trash."

Parsley narrowed her eyes and glanced down to observe her outfit. It was in good shape, but was dirty, dusty, and actually did look like trash compared to Sarada newly repaired royal armor. "Hmph." She quickly shed her clothes and redressed in her new armor. "...was this made for you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"The breastplate doesn't fit," she spoke matter-of-factly. She ran her fingers over the red crest emblazoned on the left breast. "Thank you."

She could detect an emotional moment incoming and took evasive maneuvers to avoid it. "Let's not die."

"That would be ideal."

An awkward moment ticked by at a snail's pace. Sarada's eyes danced around the corridor they were standing in, finally coming to rest on the pile of clothes Parsley had been wearing just a minute ago. "Okay. Let's go kick some ass."

This won't be our last battle together, she thought as they walked step-for-step through the ship. Not by a long-shot.

[grampagen]

With a soft chuckle, the young mage flipped the book open. "Honestly....I suppose it can't be helped. Lets see...."

The first bookmarked entry is a informative piece on the history of the Magi Social Structure. The author explains, in sometimes obsessive detail, the particulars of mage social structure, family importance and history. After a brief glance over it, Etrina begins reading....not word for word persay, but a more reader friendly version for Zaofans sake.

"Unless your have the blood of a mage in your veins, you can't be a mage...weither you can learn magic or not is irrelevant. Its a rather, archaic way of thinking...but nevertheless it was our way for a very long time, and with good reason." Etrina pointed to a diagram of a family tree at the center of the page. "All the Greatest Magi Families are said to have special blood that runs in their veins, descended from chosen mages very long ago. Now...anyone can be taught magic given enough time, I've certainly seen it happen....even you can be taught." Etrina gave Zaofan a loving pat on the head. "....But the ones of the old bloodlines have always had a particularly attuned control over it when compared to your average learner."

Etrina pauses a moment, thinking to herself, then chuckling. "....Heh.....Some mage families are very strict on keeping that bloodline pure. Enforced marriage between families, marriage between close family.....siblings.......magical means...." She muttered the last one with something of a sour note in her voice. "In a perfect mage world there would be no way the two of us would be allowed to have a relationship like this......"

Cradled over the seat, propped up with his elbows on the armwrests, Zaofan nonetheless paid rapt attention, even in this state of mild contortion. Heh, gets easier every time! Craning his neck upward, he followed Etrina across the pages.

"I see. Well, suppose it's true of a lot of things, no? They say that some things can't be taught, after all." No wonder the old Stoltengarde manor had charms, hexes and...that...to spare. "Still, lineage, that's hardly the most important part of it. I mean, more than anything, it's the idea of things that gets passed down, isn't it? After all, blood can only carry so much of the spirit forward."

What have I got myself into- His thoughts evaporated under a brush of tingles. The touch of her thin, cold fingers culled up a gentle - if strange - sort of purring hum from the back of his throat.

Turning her head to the side, she gives the cook a kiss on the side of his head. "But this isn't a perfect world is it....So I'm included not to bother with that sort of system. Relationships between mages and non mages aren't rare....but the resulting family is often considered a branch family of its root, since the children would be half bloods, part mage blood and part not.........I mean.....if we have one......children I mean....if we......" Etrina started muttered off as she realized what the topic was moving towards and quickly went back on track. "Anyways....Right.....Moving on."

Zaofan's glowing bubble of comfort quickly snapped, and a soft click of the tongue and a dopey chuckle left him.

"...y-yeah. Branches and fruits- roots!"

Etrina flipped the page, this one having a full page picture of a woman along with author notes.

"Ahhh....this one is interesting." Etrina suddenly brightened, pointing her finger at the picture. "This is an artistic rendition of a mural that was discovered in some ruins on the northern coast, incredibly well preserved. Nobody was sure exactly who was being depicted....but its thousands, if not tens of thousands of years old." Etrina lowers her finger down to the notes. ".....Helena is convinced that its a depiction of the Mage-Queen of Amdapor, The cradle of Magicraft Civilization.....well.....mythical cradle anyways. The place where all bloodlines converge, the source of magic....where our ancestors were born and trained."

Etrina traced her finger back up to the picture. "They say her name was.....Persephone, Magi-Queen Persephone."

"Oh-ho." It seemed the history of magic was a long and storied one. But the genealogy and artifacts of this sort of secret society, it had a decidedly different flavour than what he was used to. Martial Artists - and chefs too, for that matter - earned their place, by practice and cultivation. These storied folk though, they were the creme-de-la-creme, the top cuts, the toasts with the most - and crustless at that. Ms Helena Blavatsky's work was quite thorough, tracing a geneology to tens of thousands of years. Impeccable! If only the Ten Schools had a record keeper of such integrity!

"It's almost as if this is something else, apart from the cash and class, I mean. Like, as if they were convinced they weren't human at all." He cradled his chin on her shoulder, and drew his far elbow in for a makeshift embrace.

"Magi-Queen Persephone, she must have been a really big deal. Was she the first of the Magi?"

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Aided by Ishtar's confirmation, Ochazuke found a fixed point to further refine his tracking. The ki beacon outside of the Coldlight solidified its direction, and burned brightly to indicate the way forward.

"Perhaps he does know you. After all, you're the first to have heard it for what it is. The subconscious call of man who wishes to die."

There was a moment of silence, before Ishtar deigned respond. Though what the Oni had to offer was perhaps more worrisome than insightful.

"Perhaps ... I was wrong."

She had heard the man, after all, without seeing. Come to a conclusion in the moment without taking time to parse a deeper meaning. One those tapes -- and their horrid truth -- had forced the Oni to see with eyes unclouded ... and here she was, on the virge of mental collapse during the crescendo.

A mirthless chuckle escaped.

"Perhaps he seeks the audience of one who understands."

Dispelling the thoughts with a shake of her head then, Ishtar offered Ochazuke a pat on the shoulder before stepping away as the Nebula revealed their quarry.

"I suppose we shall see soon enough."

Something ripples across the Nebula as Ochazuke and Ishtar guide the Coldlight in. False paths, deep illusions laid within the Nebula fell aside under their guidance, whirling asteroids avoided as the Coldlight sails gently through the birth and death place of stars. For two hours they are guided through the place, around dangers and traps and illusions, steadily heading closer.

Nail’s Artifact leads true, and with Ishtar’s taste for the oldest place there, they exit into a darker section of the Nebula. Scanners alert and throw up an image of hundreds of asteroids in an upside down U formation, with massive machine factories being tagged in the scanners, identified as unknown and ancient.

The middle section of the U is one asteroid in particular, more a small moon, the rest tethered to it through some means. It is on that larger asteroid that the biggest of these factories lay, and Nail’s Artifact points directly at it.

“We’re here.”

Alerts ring out as ancient ships of unknown design start moving away from the asteroids, heading towards them. Some are only half compete, some full, but all are silent as they move to intercept. Ancient weapons power up and stationary weapons platforms also start powering on behind on the asteroids.





“Evasive maneuvers, Held, let’s show them what we can do! Weapons station get ready and fire at those ships!” Jinzi says as the Coldlight lurches forward towards the enemy ships, a hound eager for the hunt.

"Evasive ?" Ishtar asked, as the ship lurched forward and away from where they needed to be. No, this will not do.

Transmitting without hesitation outside the ship, the Oni found herself stood atop the Coldlight. A silhouette now in vaccum, against the faint glow of the star nursery; she lifted her gaze and with an outstretched arm gestured soundlessly.

Starapateñti.

For those ships -- and ancient batteries -- that then began to fill the darkling expanse around them with lances and pinpricks of would-be annihilation, it became apparent that their weapons would not find their marks. For as they drew near, the Oni's magic briefly bend space and distorted time to deflect them; the asteroids surrounding them blossoming with the impacts once meant for the Coldlight and its cargo.

Then Pantaloons would hear it, a strained voice in the back of his head. "Forward, Pantaloons. I would see us safely disembarked."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

The Coldlight dips and darts, lancing energy beams of crisp blue firing from its guns as it evades the dull grey beams of energy stemming from the ancient ships. To Ochazuke, there is a familiarity to the other ships he had seen. However they are not the same ones. These are much older. Those that assaulted Capital City so long ago were made in the fashion and image of these, but lacked the ancient and ominous feeling. The Doctor clearly didn’t have the old factories up and running then.

Suddenly the Coldlight seemingly gets more evasive, and it takes a moment to realize the grey beams are arcing away instead. Then Ishtar speaks and Jinzi nods.


“Keep it up, Ishtar! Held, take the controls and get us to that main asteroid. I’m deploying my....questionable device.”

He quickly leaves and goes to the maintenance bay, capsules something, and then moves to the shuttle docking bay and starts setting something up within it.

[MrSandman]

"Evasive ?" Ishtar asked, as the ship lurched forward and away from where they needed to be. No, this will not do.

Transmitting without hesitation outside the ship, the Oni found herself stood atop the Coldlight. A silhouette now in vaccum, against the faint glow of the star nursery; she lifted her gaze and with an outstretched arm gestured soundlessly.

Starapateñti.

For those ships -- and ancient batteries -- that then began to fill the darkling expanse around them with lances and pinpricks of would-be annihilation, it became apparent that their weapons would not find their marks. For as they drew near, the Oni's magic briefly bend space and distorted time to deflect them; the asteroids surrounding them blossoming with the impacts once meant for the Coldlight and its cargo.

Then Pantaloons would hear it, a strained voice in the back of his head. "Forward, Pantaloons. I would see us safely disembarked."

"Pactmaker, you've arrived." A Familiar voice whispered to Ishtar mind as she stood in the void of space.

For a moment, energy flared from one of the partly constructed ships....enough to draw the onis attention and unique enough to give her an inkling of what it was that asked her attention. Sitting upon the hulk that was no veering towards the Coldlight was a single humanoid figure, White clothes contrasting against the dark metal hull. A presence undetectable without the knowledge Ishtar had so recently gained in her interactions with what lay outside.

Graceful, like a fish in water, the figure pushed away from the hull and then vanished in a flash of purple light. Appearing again in the distance between the two, the figure lanced twin beams of void energy towards the approaching ship. The energy danced across the hull, cutting through guns and exterior systems and the twins danced from the front of the ship to the back, redirected a hundredfold by tiny gaps in space.

With another jump, the figure took up an angle near the biggest gap in the ships unfinished design, redirected the two beams that remained along with a fresh new pair and launched it all into the dark heart of the unfinished creation.

[Miburo]

The Coldlight dips and darts, lancing energy beams of crisp blue firing from its guns as it evades the dull grey beams of energy stemming from the ancient ships. To Ochazuke, there is a familiarity to the other ships he had seen. However they are not the same ones. These are much older. Those that assaulted Capital City so long ago were made in the fashion and image of these, but lacked the ancient and ominous feeling. The Doctor clearly didn’t have the old factories up and running then.

Suddenly the Coldlight seemingly gets more evasive, and it takes a moment to realize the grey beams are arcing away instead. Then Ishtar speaks and Jinzi nods.


“Keep it up, Ishtar! Held, take the controls and get us to that main asteroid. I’m deploying my....questionable device.”

He quickly leaves and goes to the maintenance bay, capsules something, and then moves to the shuttle docking bay and starts setting something up within it.

The Nevadian smirked in reply "Hold onto your posteriors, then."

A hand smoothly glided from the yoke to the throttle, accelerating and decelerating in what seemed to be staccato motions, all in service of his objective, as his off hand gently--at at times slightly more crisply--guided the yoke of the ship.

He glanced at the largest asteroid on screen, as he continued to manuever his way between all manner of natural and man(?)made objects.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

The half wrecked ships seem much weaker, and the void beams start tearing them apart. Interestingly, the whole ships, ancient as they are, seem immune to Void energy as any beams slide off their shields and armor. Nor can they be teleported into.

In fact, teleportation within the factories seems near impossible. On Dash’s scanner screen an abundance of data starts pouring in, the main chunk being that the asteroids are laced with a mineral that is almost identical to Katchin, but just slightly different (like Parsley’s ax in-fact). Harder, even, because it seems to channel energy more efficiently, giving the material a further durability while also providing a field that inhibits teleportation within the facilities.

More ships pull into the open space from decaying dock yards as Jinzi rushes back up.

“Ok everyone, hold on to your butts! I have no idea if this will destroys us or not, so here’s hoping! Ishtar, Cthylla, get back in the ship! Deploying Null-Rot Chaff bomb in 3, 2, 1........”

Waiting until all parties are back in the ship, he then deploys his weapon.


The shuttle they arrived on exits the Coldlight under A.I. control and boosts off towards a cluster of four of the bigger, complete, ships. After about fifteen seconds, it blows up and a nexus of swirling green and purple energy, dispersed alongside a glittering cloud of familiar but somehow different Chaff, expands outward in all directions, swallowing the four ships and sending out massive shockwaves that cross the entire area.

The Coldlight heaves and jerks about, warning lights glaring and alert klaxons blaring as Jinzi and Held try to keep it together. After several seconds the entire ship goes dark, the Coldlight dead in space.


Jinzi counts to ten, then taps a button on the dashboard and suddenly light flares back up as emergency power flares through the Coldlight. Images pop up on the screen and the four ships the shuttle went towards have been reduced to less than atoms.

The ships closest to those four appear to be slowly being eaten away by something as their energy protection has failed momentarily.

Half the wrecked ships have fallen apart and are also being eaten away, and power fluctuations all across the factories denote a similar failure. For the moment, the Coldlight sails alone, the only ship still mobile.

Jinzi chuckles nervously.

“Well......better than I hoped. A dash of Null Energy from Terra, a pinch of Tech-Rot from another timeline, add a dose of First Race disruption Chaff and stir in a crap ton of Capsule Corp high end explosives. Bake until done.”

He looks at the group, sweating.

“The Coldlight is hurt, so Praxat start doing internal repairs. I wasn’t entirely sure my plan would work without killing us, so......yeah, kind of waited to see what the defenses would be like first. Figured now or never. Glad the GP listened and added in the last minute extra magical warding on the ship. It’s what kept the Tech Rot and Chaff from effecting the ship.”

He glances back and moves the ship forwards.

“The scanners have located a docking entrance we can use. I’ll drop you guys off there. From there it’s on foot. The altered chaff will only keep working for about another five minutes, then the remaining defenses and ships will be back in the fight. That’s the best window I can give you to get cleanly in. The rest will be up to you. Oh, and it looks like those factories and asteroids are about as durable as can be, so blowing them up won’t be easy, if even possible.”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

"Gods, what a wild ride," Sarada huffed. The ship seemed like it was going to spiral out of control or fall apart at the seams on more than one occasion, but it managed to hold itself together long enough for whatever Jinzi planned on doing to see fruition. Apparently he managed to cobble together a piecemeal bomb with items and components picked up from different places -- or timelines in one case -- that rendered The Doctor's ships and base defenses inert for the time being.

They had a small window and only one shot to get in before everything came back online.

"Small window. Got it," she said. "Just stay alive until we get back."

[bruceleegreyhulk]

For Cleric.

Time rewind.

In the Engine Room Praxat is busy looking around for a manual for the computer console in the room, and maintenance logbook. " Hmm, I should also look around to see if there are any specialized tools and spare parts to this ship. I can use to do repairs on the ship gets damage!" Praxat said.

Praxat then also starts to search around for specialized tools and spare parts of the ship she can use to do repairs on the Coldlight if it suffers damage.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

For Cleric.

Time rewind.

In the Engine Room Praxat is busy looking around for a manual for the computer console in the room, and maintenance logbook. " Hmm, I should also look around to see if there are any specialized tools and spare parts to this ship. I can use to do repairs on the ship gets damage!" Praxat said.

Praxat then also starts to search around for specialized tools and spare parts of the ship she can use to do repairs on the Coldlight if it suffers damage.

She finds both in the maintenance room.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

She finds both in the maintenance room.

After finding what she is looking for. Praxat thoroughly reads the manual and maintenance book taking in the information. She also parts the specialized tools in her sterilize bag and the spare parts of the ship in her jobox. She then goes on the computer console and using the information she read from the manual operates the console.

Praxat pulls up the schematics of the Cold Light and also looks at the EICAS system of the ship.

[Miburo]

The half wrecked ships seem much weaker, and the void beams start tearing them apart. Interestingly, the whole ships, ancient as they are, seem immune to Void energy as any beams slide off their shields and armor. Nor can they be teleported into.

In fact, teleportation within the factories seems near impossible. On Dash’s scanner screen an abundance of data starts pouring in, the main chunk being that the asteroids are laced with a mineral that is almost identical to Katchin, but just slightly different (like Parsley’s ax in-fact). Harder, even, because it seems to channel energy more efficiently, giving the material a further durability while also providing a field that inhibits teleportation within the facilities.

More ships pull into the open space from decaying dock yards as Jinzi rushes back up.

“Ok everyone, hold on to your butts! I have no idea if this will destroys us or not, so here’s hoping! Ishtar, Cthylla, get back in the ship! Deploying Null-Rot Chaff bomb in 3, 2, 1........”

Waiting until all parties are back in the ship, he then deploys his weapon.


The shuttle they arrived on exits the Coldlight under A.I. control and boosts off towards a cluster of four of the bigger, complete, ships. After about fifteen seconds, it blows up and a nexus of swirling green and purple energy, dispersed alongside a glittering cloud of familiar but somehow different Chaff, expands outward in all directions, swallowing the four ships and sending out massive shockwaves that cross the entire area.

The Coldlight heaves and jerks about, warning lights glaring and alert klaxons blaring as Jinzi and Held try to keep it together. After several seconds the entire ship goes dark, the Coldlight dead in space.


Jinzi counts to ten, then taps a button on the dashboard and suddenly light flares back up as emergency power flares through the Coldlight. Images pop up on the screen and the four ships the shuttle went towards have been reduced to less than atoms.

The ships closest to those four appear to be slowly being eaten away by something as their energy protection has failed momentarily.

Half the wrecked ships have fallen apart and are also being eaten away, and power fluctuations all across the factories denote a similar failure. For the moment, the Coldlight sails alone, the only ship still mobile.

Jinzi chuckles nervously.

“Well......better than I hoped. A dash of Null Energy from Terra, a pinch of Tech-Rot from another timeline, add a dose of First Race disruption Chaff and stir in a crap ton of Capsule Corp high end explosives. Bake until done.”

He looks at the group, sweating.

“The Coldlight is hurt, so Praxat start doing internal repairs. I wasn’t entirely sure my plan would work without killing us, so......yeah, kind of waited to see what the defenses would be like first. Figured now or never. Glad the GP listened and added in the last minute extra magical warding on the ship. It’s what kept the Tech Rot and Chaff from effecting the ship.”

He glances back and moves the ship forwards.

“The scanners have located a docking entrance we can use. I’ll drop you guys off there. From there it’s on foot. The altered chaff will only keep working for about another five minutes, then the remaining defenses and ships will be back in the fight. That’s the best window I can give you to get cleanly in. The rest will be up to you. Oh, and it looks like those factories and asteroids are about as durable as can be, so blowing them up won’t be easy, if even possible.”

"Well, I guess that was a certainly clever enough." Held replied warily, wiping sweat from his brow, "I'm sure he never expected you to try and kill yourself on the offchance it would inconvenience him for a few minutes."

He flashed a thumbs up at his friend. "Well done."

He looked out the view port at the dead, immobile carcasses of the enemy armada, halted for the moment, with those unlucky enough to be caught in the radius of the explosion being consumed entirely by Jinzi's bomb.

I guess now the real game begins, though.

"I guess if anyone has to use the restroom, this is the best tim---" He began, before double taking.

"Blow them up?!" Held could scarcely believe his ears, "I want to take over this place. I mean, who has the deed? The Doctor? Can I just move in and call dibs? I don't see why I can't save the plane--err, universe--and take the natural resources the world has to offer me! I don't know what it is, but the fact we can't just blow it up tells me whatever is up here is valuable enough."

He paused for a moment, looking at his comrades. "Dibs. I clearly called dibs. You all heard it, you are all independently my witnesses, you took to long to respond and that's now a verbal binding agreement."

....Come to think of it, what exactly is the point of this place? I get it's a mining facility, but what was being built?

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Well, I guess that was a certainly clever enough." Held replied warily, wiping sweat from his brow, "I'm sure he never expected you to try and kill yourself on the offchance it would inconvenience him for a few minutes."

He flashed a thumbs up at his friend. "Well done."

He looked out the view port at the dead, immobile carcasses of the enemy armada, halted for the moment, with those unlucky enough to be caught in the radius of the explosion being consumed entirely by Jinzi's bomb.

I guess now the real game begins, though.

"I guess if anyone has to use the restroom, this is the best tim---" He began, before double taking.

"Blow them up?!" Held could scarcely believe his ears, "I want to take over this place. I mean, who has the deed? The Doctor? Can I just move in and call dibs? I don't see why I can't save the plane--err, universe--and take the natural resources the world has to offer me! I don't know what it is, but the fact we can't just blow it up tells me whatever is up here is valuable enough."

He paused for a moment, looking at his comrades. "Dibs. I clearly called dibs. You all heard it, you are all independently my witnesses, you took to long to respond and that's now a verbal binding agreement."

....Come to think of it, what exactly is the point of this place? I get it's a mining facility, but what was being built?

Jinzi shrugs.

“If you want the creepy and ancient shipyard-slash-experiment who knows what place, it’s all yours. So long as the Doctor loses it.”

He quirks an eyebrow.

“Of course you’ll need help deciphering everything.”