Look - up in the sky...!

[thespaceopera]

Suddenly, the SS Pathstone and the SS Golden begin to move on their own... slowly, calmly, they drift to two different points, a certain distance apart, away from the other ships of the fleet. Then, just as slowly, they turn to face each other.

And that is all the warning there is before the engines engage -- full speed ahead.

Like a pair of rockets, the ships torpedo toward each other, perfectly lined up for a head-on collision, and there is nothing to stop them. No matter what buttons the crews press, no matter how much they might panic, nothing is going to stop the inevitable. Any other ships watching will not have time to attempt any sort of interception.

CRASH!!

As if to shield spectators' eyes from the horrors of ships colliding in space, there's a blinding light upon impact -- and once it gradually fades, the results can be clearly seen by all: There is no wreckage. Nothing is broken. But where there were once two ships... now there's only one.

One ship that is... very clearly made up of parts from the SS Pathstone and the SS Golden, but somehow seems well put together, at least!

-----------

On the bridge, the crews of the SS Golden and the SS Pathstone arrive, along with the usual pop! of Atroma confetti and ridiculous jingle music upon a successful shuffle. Sitting in the captain's chair is a round cake, just large enough for everyone to have one slice. There's a single candle, and the following message scribbled on top in yellow icing:

"Congratulations - SS Goldstone!
Happy Fusion!"




... What, did you think you were going to die? Sorry about that.

Comments

[ahappylie]

That's very true.

[She's been here about as long as he has, maybe a little less. He spent a good chunk of time after the raider attack recuperating in his room, so it's no surprise he hasn't had a lot of chances to meet everyone.]

I'm Soujirou. [Liar.] It's nice to meet you, Jayden-san.

[He bows his head and smiles.]

I'm sorry I was remiss in meeting you earlier. You seem like a very interesting person.

[stormfist]

[ The -san throws her ever so slightly at first, but she's heard other Guardians back home use the same, so she rolls with it. ]

Nice to meet you too. [ Beat. ] And don't worry about it. Not exactly a social butterfly myself.

[ Seeing as she barely says a damn thing on the network, this likely holds true. ]

[ahappylie]

The learning curve on the devices here is quite steep, even with the things they put in our heads.

[He says by way of excusing both of them for keeping relatively quiet.]

Were you here during the raid?

[stormfist]

[ Hey, it works for her. ]

Yeah. Happened right after I got here. We got out of it okay - could have been worse. [ Beat. ] Hell, if that happens again, we might stand a better chance with both of our crews, huh?

[ahappylie]

I would hope so. I would not like to see a repeat of that attack, but with so many here, we should be better prepared.

[Hopefully he'll have a proper weapon soon, not just scraps of metal and kitchen knives he's stolen from here and there.]

How many are on your ship though? [The...whatever it was called.] We had three security officers at one point.

[stormfist]

Three.

[ She is SO JEALOUS RIGHT NOW FDJSKLJL ]

We don't even have one security officer. Was considering switching since I'm pulling double duty. I'm actually the pilot. And there's five of us. You?

[ahappylie]

Well, we didn't have a pilot until recently when Takeshi-kun decided to change.

[Although now, he supposes they have two pilots? How will that change things, he wonders.]

We had five as well, although we've lost some crew members along the way that brought us to that number.

Perhaps, that has something to do with why we were....pushed together?