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Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Forty Seven
🕑 Added 2024-10-06 13:16:51 +0000 UTCIf anyone had ever told her Xela that she’d be sitting in a shard being piloted by a plebian one day, she’d have struck them for the insult.
And it was an insult.
Though I can’t help but wonder if the fact that this particular plebian in question is pretty decent behind the controls makes it better or worse, she pondered idly as she reached down to grip the secondary controls.
She didn’t think she’d need them, as the craft seemed to be coming in for a smooth rolling landing – but she preferred to err on the side of caution. She’d already had a few close calls this month and was less than inclined to experience another if she could avoid it.
Fortunately, despite her caution, no input or correction was needed from her, as Private Shelly’s deft manipulation of the Shard’s controls soon had the wheels touching down. Indeed, she did so with such skill that there was barely a jolt as the shard started rolling down the dirt runway they’d set up. What few bumps Xela and her student felt as the shard slowly rolled to a stop were entirely a result of the fact that said runway still wasn’t entirely even.
Fortunately, that would be changing soon enough, as the Alchemist’s guild were finally scheduled to start putting down tarmac in the coming week. Proper tarmac.
Assuming our lords latest ‘request’ hasn’t delayed that, Xela thought as she glanced to the distant shape of the Jellyfish – the great airship covered in scaffolding and moving figures.
She’d seen the plans for the new ‘flat top’ that was being installed.
She wasn’t a fan.
Because she wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t hard to see the commonality between her liege’s request for his new air-corp to practice rolling landings exclusively and the new design being implemented on his airship. In her opinion, rolling landings were already more complicated than they needed to be; the notion of performing one on a moving ship a few thousand feet up in the air bordered on insane. An opinion she had every intention of making known the moment her liege lord returned for his ‘check in’ next weekend.
“Good job private,” Xela congratulated the woman as the pair clambered out of the machine. “A textbook landing.”
“Ah, my thanks ma’am,” the brunette young woman blushed at the honest praise.
Xela just grunted. Her feelings on the matter aside, she couldn’t fault any of her student’s enthusiasm for the role they’d signed up for.
Which is only to be expected, Xela thought as she gestured for the young woman to return to her fellows. I’d be pretty damn enthusiastic too if I was plebian and I got given the opportunity to fly a tree-damned Shard.
That kind of shit just didn’t happen. For obvious reasons, given that a shard core would only produce aether for eight minutes without a mage to ‘prompt’ it to continue. Oh, William could talk about how deleterious the coming war might be to combat-mage numbers until he was blue in the face, but Xela just couldn’t imagine a world in which any house got so desperate for bodies that they’d be throwing plebians into pilot seats.
Still, her's wasn’t to question.
Well, it was. She’d questioned loudly and at length, but ultimately her lord had given the order and she’d obey.
Even if the fool boy’s set on wasting my time – and his coin, she thought as she glanced out toward a distant hanger where one of her former navy buddies was giving the rest of the cadre a lesson on aerodynamics with the aid of a large blackboard.
Likewise, off in the distance she could both see and hear the dull drone of Redwater county’s second training shard – the one that had until recently been little more than a science experiment, before rapidly being converted back into a two-seater training craft.
Two people. That had been all she’d been able to get on short notice using her contacts. The rest either hadn’t responded, were retired, were off playing mercenary on the continent, or were still serving in the royal fleet.
So, she only had two. Which while not nearly enough for what she needed, was still a not insignificant drain on the county’s finances. Even just two veteran mage knights pulling down salary was a considerable expense for a small territory like theirs.
She knew that for a fact given that she’d been responsible for said finances for five years. She knew better than anyone what the median tax yield of the county was after the Queendom took its cut.
And William had wanted her to hire on more? In addition to the small army of craftswomen they were already employing?
Oh, she’d received assurances of the fact that there’d be some kind of new income stream on the way, but her liege’s reassurances on the subject had been more than a little lacking in details.
Which was… both in character and not. The boy loved to talk about his little innovations – even if most of them didn’t do anything to hear the workshop workers talk about them. But he also liked to keep his plans close to the chest. Which was part of the running theory that said workshop creations were but a part of some greater whole that none of the workers had been able to figure out as of yet. Assuming it even existed.
Much like this supposed revenue stream, Xela thougth.
Fortunately, the issue of hiring on more instructors – and the expenses that would entail had become a moot point. Oh, she could have gotten more if she’d needed – because she’d be damned if she was about to train up forty pilots with just the help of Sandals and Merry – but in the end that hadn’t proven necessary.
“What the fuck are you waiting around for!? A fucking written invitation? Stop wasting daylight and get in the fucking shard already!”
Xela winced a little at the shouting, before turning with weary eyes to see a terrified guardswoman turned pilot trainee practically sprinting in her direction. Or rather, in the direction of the shard the wood elf had just vacated.
And behind her, stomping forward with an intensity that would have made actual Academy Instructors jealous, came Lady Sveta Greygrass.
“Why your lord thought a worthless piece of refuse like yourself would ever be worthy of piloting a shard is beyond me. But I’ll be damned if you waste his mercy!” The dark elven mage knight shouted at her human charge – even as the latter woman clambered onto the wing and towards the cockpit. “Good. Now I expect you to be able to read off your pre-flight safety check flawlessly by the time I clamber up after you or you’ll wish your worthless moon-cow of a mother never managed to catch your daddy’s eye.”
Xela didn’t bother to look and see if the trainee responded, instead she turned to greet the dark elf with a wry smile.
It was not returned.
“Marshal,” the other woman nodded. “Anything to report regarding the operational status of the craft?”
It should have been a fair question, given said machine had been pretty much running day and night for the last few days – as instructors worked in shifts to give as many of their students as much flight time as they could. Which was also why a number of technicians had also jogged out and were quickly giving the machine a once-over before it went up again.
The reason why Xela thought it should have been a fair question was simple.
“Given you’ve asked me that every time you’ve relieved me, don’t you think I’d tell you unprompted if there was something like a shudder in the airframe?” she asked.
“Perhaps,” Sveta said, completely unphased. “With that said, as an instructor it’s my job to ensure that any craft I take a student up in is both safe and flight worthy. To that end, I will continue to ask – rather than assume that you would see fit to inform me of a given issue.”
Xela stared. “You know, I had the privilege of acting as your daughter’s flying instructor for a few weeks a while back. She’s intense too. I think I see where she gets it from.”
Something akin to pride flashed across the other mage-knights features. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Xela hadn’t really meant it as one. She hadn’t meant it as an insult either though. It was simply an observation that the Greygrass’s were a bit… high strung. Indeed, even though she couldn’t actually see the other Greygrass’s about, the wood elf had little doubt that the two other knights that had arrived with the woman in front of her were off haranguing someone.
Which, while useful in a fellow instructor, was more than a little irritating in a colleague. A few nights ago, Xela had made the mistake of asking the Greygrass half of their contingent if they wanted to hit the local tavern with her and her navy buddies. The reaction she’d received had been… well, quietly scornful was probably the best way to put it.
“Well, in regard to your question of flight worthiness, I can say that Unicorn One is still holding up strong,” the wood elf said.
Satisfied, Sveta gave what might have been a smile on someone else, before storming off towards the craft in question. As she went, Xela whispered a quiet prayer for the poor trainee that was about to spend the next thirty minutes with the woman.
Because for all that the plebian-pilots would only be capable of eight minutes of flight time themselves, Xela and her people would be damned if they were forced to restrict their practice sessions to that kind of time. Even with them practically throwing a new trainee into the pilot seat each time they sat down before taking off again, a mere eight minutes of flight each would have them spending about as much time standing on the tarmac as in the air.
…Though after spending the last four hours sat in a pilot’s seat, Xela couldn’t say she’d have begrudged more breaks to get out and stretch. Indeed, that very thought reminded her.
“I need to take a piss,” she muttered.
Seeking to put words to deed, she mentally tuned out the sound of yelling that started up as a result of the recruit behind her obviously not reciting her pre-flight safety check to the satisfaction of her dark elven instructor.
Still, I’ll not deny I’m a little curious as to what hold William has over House Greygrass to get three mages working for him practically for free, Xela thought.
Talented mages at that – as much as it burned her to admit it. Xela didn’t exactly consider herself soft, but she could freely admit that she’d let her instincts dull a bit on the fighting front over the last five years.
The same could not be said for the Greygrass gals. Which, she supposed was only to be expected given they’d somehow managed to wrangle up an airship core from somewhere just a month ago.
And while the official story claimed they’d ‘found it’, everyone knew that the unofficial story would have involved a lot of blood – and likely more than a few dirty deeds done in the dark.
Again, they were talented knights.
Probably a betrothal of some sort, but if that was his groom-price he’s definitely wasted it on getting them to train a bunch of plebians to pilot shards, Xela thought derisively.
Something they’d made abundantly clear they thought of as equally foolish – though that hadn’t stopped them from throwing themselves into the task with a fervor.
Indeed, the enthusiasm they were showing almost made Xela sad that the program was probably going to come to an end sometime in the next few weeks. Roughly around the time the esteemed Count Redwater realized that his team couldn’t compete with the other house’s Shards using just the Academy machines.
No, this training program would wither on the vine just as soon as she got the orders to convert Unicorn One and Two back into competitive frames and ship them up to the Academy.
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William was having the time of… well, this life. All was right with the world as he pushed lightly on the control stick of his shard, sending the plane into a shallow dive. A thrill rushed through his chest as the mild acceleration forced him back into his seat. Though he didn’t have long to dwell on the gloriously familiar sensation.
No, his focus was on the outline of the craft in front of him. A craft that moment by moment crept closer to the crosshairs of his machine. Not directly into it. That was folly. No, he wasn’t aiming for where the craft was – but where it would be half a second from now.
There, he thought as he squeezed gently on the trigger of his machine.
In less than a second, dozens of bolts leapt forth from the Unicorn’s four nose mounted bolt-throwers, each one heralded by a momentary spouts of blue-green aether. Fortunately, for his vision of the skies around him, said aether quickly vanished beneath his craft as a result of the extruding barrels being mounted south of the machine’s horizontal centre line.
And while four of every five shots was all but invisible to the naked eye, the fifth blazed with an unnatural glow, allowing it to stand out against even against the evening sky as it plunged through the air in the direction of his target.
Only to miss, barely skimming the left wing of the opposing unicorn as it banked to the right.
“Not enough lead,” a deadpan voice from seat behind him informed William of what he already knew. “Bolt-cannons pack a bit more power than a hand-held bolt-bow, but even with that extra velocity you’ve got to account for distance and speed.”
“Aye, ma’am,” William said, vocally acknowledging the instructor’s words.
She wasn’t wrong. Bolt-cannons were a bit more potent than bolt-bows, being powered by the shard’s internal mithril core – but at the end of the day they were still just gas powered machine guns.
Essentially more energetic air-rifles, with all the drawbacks that entailed. Indeed, the only upside of the design was that the lack of a casing to eject allowed for a seriously wicked fire rate.
Though in the world of dogfighting, where a pilots ability to squeeze the trigger before running out of ammo could be counted in seconds, it was debatable how much of an advantage that truly was.
With that in mind, he resisted the urge to try for a follow up shot as the enemy unicorn banked away. He also felt the temptation to turn after them, but he resisted that too.
They were both in unicorns and they had the same specs. Which meant the same turn-speed. His foe had gotten out of the sight of his guns by juking after William missed, and so long as he kept turning he’d able to remain there – with William fruitlessly turning with him.
As Marline was so aptly demonstrating in the distance, albeit as the defender rather than the aggressor. The two unicorns were all-but sat on the deck as they spun in a sluggish circle.
Both were sitting ducks for anyone coming in from the outside. A fact William’s opponent had tried to take advantage of after losing William himself in the clouds above them.
Now though, said opponent had been forced to bank away from that direction to escape William’s fire. She’d need time to come around again, and even then said turn would have cost her precious speed.
She couldn’t catch him now, as William dove towards her teammate and his own.
Ideally, this’d be the moment he radioed Marline to inform her of his plan, but the shards lacked that capability. They had flags that could be raised, but they were for communication in low speed cruising, not dogfights. If he attempted to raise one now it’d probably snap off.
That was something he intended to rectify once the inter-house matches started and they transitioned from two-seater unicorns to single seater Drakes. Certainly, the fact that said machines still came from a communal pool meant he wouldn’t be able to modify them, but there was nothing stopping him outfitting his people with radio ‘chest packs’ that they could bring into their shards with them. It’d be cramped and uncomfortable to be sure, but it’d also be well worth it.
Indeed, only the fact that radio was still supposed to be a secret while Yelena installed it onto the ships of her most trusted captains and he had an instructor in his shard kept him from bringing radios with him today.
So it was that it likely came as some surprise to his teammate when his shard shot past her own, weapons blazing to stitch a line across her opponents hull.
A quite visible one at that, given that the practice rounds they were using were made from reinforced wax.
And barely a second later, William was rewarded by the sight of said shard starting to trail railing black smoke as a result of instructor inside pulling the release cord and declaring the vehicle ‘dead’. Indeed, a moment later is started ‘falling’ from the sky as the Instructor took over the controls from her likely rather annoyed student. The woman would simulate the shard falling just until they were beneath the thousand foot flight floor, before leveling out and heading off back to the airfield.
Which meant that William and Marline now had their foe outnumbered two to one.
Unfortunately, Marline was still slow from her circling. Doubly unfortunately, William’s own opponent had come around and was bearing down on her. Which meant she was about to experience a fate not unsimilar to that which had just occurred to her opponent.
Fortunately for William, that gave him the time he needed to bank up, converting the speed he’d built up back into altitude without fear of being shot in that moment of vulnerability. At which point he’d once more have the altitude advantage.
And in a prop? That meant victory was all-but a foregone conclusion.
On that note, good game, he thought as he watched his opponent race towards Marline.
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“You used me as bait!”
“You used yourself as bait,” William said offhandedly as the pair towards the hangar changing rooms. “I just took advantage of it. Don’t like it? Don’t get into a turn fight with a shard with the same energy state and turning capability.”
Even as he said the words, he wasn’t really focused on them. Instead, his gaze was on the shards they’d just vacated, where a ground crew was in the process of refilling the ammo-bins.
Nearly a year ago he’d thought himself clever when he’d thought to create an item, enchant it, then break it into many pieces. Sure, in doing so he’d educed the efficacy of the enchantment and turned it from permanent into temporary, but at the time it had been worth it to create multiples of something he only needed for less than twenty minutes.
Of course, he’d not been so arrogant as to think he was the first to come up with that idea. After all, he’d read about the concept of shatter-enchanting in a textbook in the Ashfield library. With that said, he’d thought himself amongst the few to come up with practical applications for that brand of spellcasting.
“Harden. Harden. Harden. The world shall not break you. The elements may not take you. Harden,” one of the crew members – and the only mage was chanting as a long spool of paper covered wax rounds were pulled out of a nearby crate.
Though his magical senses, he felt as the enchantment took place, an almost ethereal pressure brushing up against him. He also felt it when said enchantment was shattered, as the wax coated string that connected all the faux bolts was pulled loose.
That’s probably why we were supplied wax rounds in the final match of that duel, William thought.
At the time he’d thought it was a special consideration. And in a way it was. Enchanted ammo was still more expensive than harpy venom. But not as much as he’d been thinking. Instead the wax rounds had likely been pulled from the Academy’s pre-existing stock.
“Impressive isn’t it,” Marline said from beside him, having noticed the direction of his gaze. “That the academy has enough mages employed to pump out two batches of rounds like this each time some cadets go up to practice.”
Indeed, as if to prove her point, the menial-mage turned to a second box and pulled out another – smaller – belt of rounds.
“Burn. Burn. Burn. Bright. Sunlight. A blinding blaze. Let all who see you know the sun’s splendor.” Almost instantly, the woman needed to look away as the belt became a string of mini-torches.
Eyes averted, she continued. “Harden. Harden. Harden. The world shall not break you. The elements may not take you. Harden,” she said before handing the belt off to another crew member, who set about loading it, along with the other, into the ammo bin of the shard.
“You’re not wrong,” William said.
With those three enchantments, that mage was done for the day. And nearby, another mage was likely performing a similar spell on the other shard’s ammo. That was the spellcasting of two mages for an entire day. And multiple shards went up in a day. Indeed, William found himself wondering just how many mages the Academy employed just to enchant ammo?
It couldn’t have been a small number. And it only served as further evidence of why the Academy held such renown – and why it was also the only one of its kind in the country. The kind of funding required just to keep it operating was likely only available to the Crown.
“I didn’t know about the enchanted ammo belts,” he said finally.
“Really? Even though you did that… thing last year?” Marline said.
He shrugged. “I read about it in a book.”
The dark elf hummed. “Well, I suppose it’s not too surprising. Enchanted ammo belts are fairly new. Both here and in real combat.”
William glanced over. “Really?”
Marline nodded eagerly – the expression of genuine excitement on her features at odds with her usual taciturn disposition. “Oh yeah, it used to be that most pilots wanted to go into a dogfight with a full roster of spells on-hand so they could pull off a handy drive-by lightning bolt if need be. And some still do. A lot of the of the new generation though prefer shoving a bunch of enchantments onto their ammo belts instead. Mage light. Heat metal. Fireball. That kind of thing.
Tracer. Incendiary. High Explosive, William mentally translated. Not totally dissimilar from back in my world. Just a different vector.
…And he’d been completely ignorant of it until now.
“Huh, I’m surprised I didn’t know that,” he said, fighting down the frown that threatened to spill across his features.
Marline nodded. “Well, it’s a fairly new practice. At least, as a standard practice. And I don’t imagine you were privy to a lot of military secrets back home.
“Well, no,” he admitted. “The only pilots on the Ashfield estate were my family, and given I was a guy, one who wasn’t supposed to anywhere near the shards, they were less than inclined to share stories or tips.”
Marline patted him on the shoulder. “Well, now you know. I mean, that’s why we’re here isn’t it? To learn?”
Well, he couldn’t argue that. In fact, that reminder actually made him feel better about coming back to the academy rather than remaining in Redwater county to focus on developing it.
Know your enemy and know yourself, he thought.
Well, now he knew one more thing about them.
“How much longer until the inter-house shard duels start, you think?” he asked as he turned once more in the direction of the changing rooms.
“Two weeks, give or take, I’d say.”
“Great.” He grinned.
Comments
bioenthusiast
I get the anti-slavery agenda, but I dont think the pro-democracy thing will work. especially when some of the hypothetical voters and interest groups could live multiple human lifetimes. also they arnt primed for democracy at all, forcing them to completely hard shift their culture to something completely alien could massively backfire. And any capitalist/ socialist / comme system that democracy would bring would probably end up way more corrupt than what they currently have.
Bas van Lissum
Yaay!!
Trevayne
Great news.
Blue Fishcake
Beta readers have it :D It's a bit shorter than average at 2.8k, but that was intentional so I could get back to a Friday release schedule.
Trevayne
Thinking some more about the spellbolt, William has a lot more work to do. As Chillyrabbit stated, the Spell-Bolt doesn't use gunpowder. It's literally a bolt fired via a fireball exploding in the barrel. Which is a revolution in the dynamics of the locals, as while they do use mundane means to deliver magical payloads (enchanted ammunition), the notion of 'wasting' a spell to deliver a mundane payload with more power is relatively new. This is fine as a special-purpose weapon for use by mages. The problem is that without conventional chemical propellant machineguns, any internal combustion shards have no useful anti-shard weapons. A shard without a core can not use aether cannon. A shard without a mage can not use a spellbolt gun. Even if a shard is piloted by a mage, the spellbolt gun would be a very bad shard weapon. Compared to an aether autocannon, it might have more range but its rate of fire and ammunition capacity is seriously limited, since each shot requires a spell. A strong mage might fire 15 shots and then be stuck. Unless the idea is for IC shards to be unarmed aside from anti-airship bombs, they are going to need machineguns with smokeless powder. Otherwise they have no automatic weapons suitable for antishard use.
Trevayne
Sounds good although I doubt he will try to hide the gramophone from her. It has already had a very public debut when he arrived in his cruiser at the academy. Just how he will handle his sister's security is a really good question. If he thinks she has been annoyed with him before, the combination of costing her another prestigious marriage and then putting her under house arrest for her own safety is going to infuriate her. For that matter just how do you keep a noble teenager under house arrest for the next few years? His mother might just be chuckling at the thought her daughter is going to aggravate William nearly as much as William has annoyed her.
Trevayne
Thanks for the information. I take it this is a reduced strength fireball so that the spell bolt user gets more than one shot per full sized spell slot? It is also a very limiting weapon because a typical mage just doesn't get that many spells. William IIRC only has three full slots and a half sized one. Verify only has one full sized slot.
Blue Fishcake
As Chillyrabbit stated, the Spell-Bolt doesn't use gunpowder. It's literally a bolt fired via a fireball exploding in the barrel. Which is a revolution in the dynamics of the locals, as while they do use mundane means to deliver magical payloads (enchanted ammunition), the notion of 'wasting' a spell to deliver a mundane payload with more power is relatively new.
Conrad34xdsa
So, it’s Thursday night. My predictions goes as follows, The next time William arrives at his county is to deliver money he has gained from his royalties and to meet his sister. Considering that Xela is not aware of the gramophone, William might keep that knowledge a secret knowing if his sister learned it came from his mind she would blast that knowledge to everyone. Williams aunts might tag along as guards and spies. William might keep them secured in a far off and safe location away from his base of operations to prevent any information leaking out. He loves his family but he would not trust them if they think they can still pull off some maneuver to learn as much as they can and send the information to the Blackstones and leave for the Summerfield Scuffle. plus he can keep them away from the Queens agents. We might get to see the full joust that will commence and William might dominate with his radios. Now all we have to do is wait and see whether we will know the results on Friday, Saturday, or the much deeper Sunday. Good work so far Blue. Will we see a cliffhanger tomorrow? Will we receive a hint about the chapter? Find out next time ( in 1-5 days) on KrakenBlueSteam!
Trevayne
It could be, but I still think sending her trusted agents (the three instructors) is enough, especially since Greygrass has acknowledged that they will be supporting William for the next three generations. I also think the current leader of Greygrass can't just delegate everything in her holding just to help William. There are probably things that she is the only one authorized to do like renewing her oath(s) of fealty to the Queen and/or her duchess. I don't know how far the concept of a power of attorney extends in this setting.
Vonbaron
I imagine Marline's family was doing all kinds of dangerous "freelancer" work for money. It was mentioned the house was spending a significant amount of money on "rent" for the location where their airship crashed. The Greygrass family members could of been trying to be in position to get a core for a while now and just lacked the opportunity. Marline was basically their supersoldier chance to get even closer to chances for stealing a core. I agree with your theories about the RN.
Vonbaron
I was hoping that wasn't the actual top lady of the house. I really wanted to see her interaction with William :(
Chillyrabbit
Bluefishcake has "retconned" or updated the chapters on patreon to the royalroad chapters to make the spellbolt not use gunpowder. The spellbolt is an adaptation of the gas cannon technology, using a reduced fireball charge to accelerate a bolt like gunpowder instead of manually charging and storing aether akin to an air rifle.
Jay
In chapter 14 Marline explained that Greygrass are unlanded nobility after their land was reclaimed from them by the crown after they lost their core, so they definitely have an actual title. That being said, the head of the house showing up for training duty is completely understandable. Greygrass owes Will a debt it can never repay. This is likely the first request for assistance Will has made of Greygrass. It makes sense that they would respond by sending their "best" as a sign of appreciation and respect, and the head of the house showing up in person to make sure they fulfil that request (no matter how ridiculous) with adequate performance is understandable. Handing off administrative duties to a competent law-sister seems exactly like the sort of thing that Marline's mother would do given the circumstances. It's not just Will they're trying to make a good impression on either. Yelena would know where Greygrass got their core from, and Greygrass would know Yelena knows. Responding "appropriately" to an act of obscene generosity is expected of nobility. The head of the house showing up personally would send a message to they are respecting etiquette and acting like nobility should. It also sends a message to anyone watching Will (and there would be a LOT of people watching him at this point) of Greygrass's feelings towards him. The head of the house showing up for such a minor issue telegraphs what House Greygrass's response would be if Will were to ever request something significant of them. Remember that to the rest of the country he's just a teenaged member of the "weaker" sex, one who has been pretty much disowned by his house and so has no older family members to lean on for support. In universe that makes him appear vulnerable, no matter how much of a show the crown makes of protecting him. The head of house Greygrass showing up sends a message to potential plotters that Will doesn't stand alone, and that any attempt to mess with him might be met with an absurdly violent response from a cadre of women who have have spent a few decades doing nothing but train to win against impossible odds or die trying.
Trevayne
To expand on the previous question, how much of William's ideas are known and how widely? We know that it is now the beginning of his second year at the academy. In the middle of the first year, he demonstrated his magic radio, the spell-bolt rifle, and the ability to kill krakens. In the winter break, he demonstrated the gramophone and he has gotten his craftspeople, especially in the Alchemist Guild, to work on additional projects. We think they are working on the parts for an internal combustion engine, and we know they figured out an interruptor gear. Most of these developments are at least 6 months old, except for the gramophone and the interruptor gear. My question is how much is known and by which groups. We know the gramophone is known because William publicly demonstrated it when he returned to the academy at the start of the second year and because he has contracted with the Mecants to manufacture and market them. This quote from chapter 42 indicates that some knowledge has gotten out: Yes, the Flashbang, Bolt-Bow and Kraken-Slayer. Now the origins of the first were in debate and the last he was but a contributor to, the fact remained that the young man across from him was quite a font of clever ideas. The existence of the Interrupter Gear and Radio was theoretically further proof of that, even if they weren’t known to the public yet. Indeed, even within the Mecants the existence of those devices was limited to him and Bonnlyn. My question is how much more has gotten out? For example, the instructors know that the spellbolt used a spell to activate it and that it makes a loud noise and can penetrate armor. Everyone watching the team duel between William and Tala knows that much. However, does anyone outside the Queen, Griffith, and the team know just how the bolts are constructed and propelled. I am not even sure the rest of his team knows how the spell-bolt projectiles work, just that they do and that they have a very impressive range. We know the Queen and those she has producing them know the secret of the krakenslayer. The nobility and general public know that the RN has a weapon that can kill krakens, but not what it is or how it works. William's team may have guessed, but they don't know. Marline may have more information, but she is bound by a geas. The team knows that his radio exists and how to use it. The Queen and select RN personnel also know because they are being fitted to several airships. The real big question is just how much has leaked about the spell-bolt rifle. In particular, has any of the ammunition leaked, because it probably uses black powder and I think William is trying to keep that as tight as possible. This is important because as soon as someone else finds out about black powder, they can try to slay krakens and build guns themselves. As soon as they build a gun, they will figure out that gunpowder weapons can have significant range advantages over aether air guns.
Trevayne
It is tricky. Under normal circumstances, I think they would demonstrate the full capabilities. However, this was a special purpose demonstration. It was intended to demonstrate the armor penetration capabilities of the spell-bolt and that they could be safely used with the wax bullets in a team duel.
O
You’re right. My bad
Trevayne
Satellites still have their uses. They are harder to shoot down and even if an aircrew can sleep in their plane, they will eventually have to return to a base for food and water. Satellites can stay up and watch indefinitely, especially with the later generations using digital cameras. The earlier versions didn't need food or water, but they did run out of film.
Trevayne
No, it wasn't. Here is the quote: To that end, the pair’s plate armour was more than up to the task of deflecting any kind of incoming bolt fire at these initial ranges. And their close range volley-bows would make short work of any first years hoping to also seize the- A salvo of cracks rang out from across the arena and Tala made out the dull thud of something striking the armoured plating of at least one of her vanguard. How peculiar? That was unlike any kind of bolt-bow she’d ever heard- “Cadet: Sala. Eliminated,” rang out across the arena. It is clear that they expected their armor to be proof against boltbow hits at that range. What surprised them is not being hit at long range, but that their armor was ineffective.
O
Im pretty sure it would have to be demonstrated at long ranges. Referring back to the team battle, they made a call about it penetrating the armour and killing one of Tala’s members in the first volley ( out of bolt-bow range). The only way they could make that call is if they seen it could be done at such ranges in the first place
Trevayne
Thanks for the clarification. I am still curious as to whether the spell-bolt is spreading to the rest of Lindholm, or is it regarded as merely a boltbow alternative?
Blue Fishcake
She's talking about the radio, which he made by shaping a dagger, enchanting it, before snapping it into pieces and distributing it. Same basic principle behind the ammo belts.
Trevayne
“I didn’t know about the enchanted ammo belts,” he said finally. “Really? Even though you did that… thing last year?” Marline said. He shrugged. “I read about it in a book.” The dark elf hummed. “Well, I suppose it’s not too surprising. Enchanted ammo belts are fairly new. Both here and in real combat.” Yet another interesting question. This sounds like a reference to the spell-bolt, but Marline doesn't seem to fully understand it. Does this mean that William and thew Queen have managed to keep its secret? It seems unlikely. Lots of people were interested in the flash-bang, and the spell-bolt is a far more important weapon since it out-ranges common offensive spells like lightning bolt by 200%. However, there is one interesting possibility. Griffith was shown that it could hit targets and punch through armor at 300 meters at the personal demonstration Team 7 did for her. However, during the demonstration of its effectiveness for the faculty referee group, there was no mention of the distances used. It is possible that they only showed its use at normal bolt-bow ranges. Thus, the information might have leaked that it is a variant boltbow that uses a fractional spell charge to improve its arnmor penetration. That is useful, but not nearly the game changer that being able to penetrate standard knight-defender armor at 300 meters would be. We know the referee group was shown that it could penetrate armor, because it was credited with doing so in the battle between William's and Tala's teams. We don't know the ranges that it was demonstrated at.
MaybeASquid
Magic computer programming and problem solving probably isn't something Will has time for
Vlad Cold
So, if long-range radio will become a reality, something like 2-seater U-2 with toilet and bed might become ultimate reconnaissance for this world? Who even needs satellites with practically infinite endurance planes.
Carlos Torres
I think we're closer enchanted sidewinder missiles.
Trevayne
We strongly believe he was a pilot. We don't know if he was a military pilot or not. He could have fought in Korea, or he could have just watched too many episodes of Baa_Baa_Black_Sheep (later Black Sheep Squadron) when in his 20s or 30s. We just don't know his background unless Blue Fishcake decides to tell us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baa_Baa_Black_Sheep_(TV_series)
Trevayne
Is she the actual title holder? I would have expected the current head of the house to have a lot of work getting the house back in order. We know that William, has gotten three mage-knights from Houise Greygrass and the name of one of them, Lady Sveta Greygrass. We do not know that Sveta is the head of the house and it seems unlikely. Her title of Lady could just be a courtesy title as being a sister-wife of the actual head of the house. I expect it depends on what type of house is Greygrass. Do they have an actual title like Ashfield (Countess) or Blackstone (Duchess), or are they like a Baronet (British title, effectively a hereditary knighthood) where the lady in charge would be called Lady Greygrass. Sveta may be the actual head of the house, but it isn't that likely. Xela does refer to training her daughter, presumably Marline, but that could also mean that Sveta was one of the Greygrass sister-wives. It still seems unlikely that the head of House Greygrass has time to work as a flying instructor for William, given everything else that needs to be done as House Greygrass is taken off life support and returns to its regular noble house existence. Thinking about it, is Marline's father still alive? I don't think there has been any mention of him, alive or dead. We just know that she had an intense upbringing because she was being relied upon to restore the House's missing core. If we ever get a POV from Marline's mother, I would love to see a flashback to the conversation with her daughter when she gave the code phrase that indicated she had a core. I can just see her thoughts "How the blazes did she manage..? She hasn't even finished her first year."
Hunter
That’s easy enough to activate automated controls with radio signals using a series of on/off controls. Sorta like fallouts tech.
Jacob
It would be fun to see Xela noting the Greygrass's feelings towards William (the Lady herself is training plebeians at his request), the timing of them getting a core, his association with Marline, William's involvement in and the timing of the invention of the Kraken Slayer, and start to put the pieces together.
Jacob
Still need way to drive control mechanisms from the communicated information though
mike wade
they are a within spitting distance of unmanned vehicles between radio and communication orbs.
Vonbaron
Thank you for the clarification on your meaning. That's fair. Cores are a renewable resource albeit of an unreliable nature in finding them. Ore is found. Cores are refound, stolen, recovered. Well as stated it's a known "secret" that some families have hidden cores. There's multiple ways for a family to have an extra core and an eye on something bigger. We don't know enough about the world itself to know what opportunities the Greygrass might present. We could speculate for ages on potential matches and scenarios leading to them. What we do know is that elves are essentially a high caste lording over the rest in the world. William had his contract bought out by his mom. Otherwise he would of been stuck serving out the full contract including being a marine. While I might like the idea of Marline being Tarcil in disguise I'm more interested in lore being consistently applied.
Conrad34xdsa
My main point is if he has a literal Wikipedia in his head, he might be too young to be from the second world war. But he could have fought in Korea as Corsairs where still in service with the US NAVY and Marines. The latest point in time that he could possibly have combat experience with a piston aircraft would be during the Football War in 1969.
Trevayne
Yes, and the rest of it isn't wrong either, just incomplete. The full quote is as follows: "And while the official story claimed they’d ‘found it’, everyone knew that the unofficial story would have involved a lot of blood – and likely more than a few dirty deeds done in the dark." It certainly did involve a lot of blood. Al' Hundra weighed over several hundred tons and that probably means at least 50 tons of blood. As for dirty deeds done in the dark, just when did Marline's two aunts go digging through that latrine? :)
Trevayne
All we know is that he was some kind of pilot. He could have been military or he could have been civilian, commercial or private. we don't know. The Corsair references don't prove anything. It is a pretty good WW2 fighter plane. Thinking about it, it is probably a poor choice for carrier operations because pilots had to invent new techniques for landing it. Although maybe he is unaware of the problems or just figures they can learn and don't have to unlearn habits from previous IC planes since there aren't any. The Corsair wasn't used by the USN until late in the war because it was a pain to land on a carrier due to the cockpit position relatively far back on the fuselage and the long nose. This gave pilots problems seeing the deck they were trying to land on. from wiki "Other problems were encountered during early carrier trials. The combination of an aft cockpit and the Corsair's long nose made landings hazardous for newly trained pilots because of the lack of visibility due to said features." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F4U_Corsair In addition, the carrier operations part is mostly irrelevant. He isn't contemplating flying off a wet navy aircraft carrier or landing on one. They aren't going to use catapults because they don't need them. It is much easier to launch off an airship moving at 40-50 mph at 5,000 plus feet than it is to take off from a carrier on the ocean surface moving at 25-30 mph. There is much more margin for error either way. It isn't as if launching shards from airships is a new concept. Every noble house uses shards that way. The closest things to shard operations are probably the Akron or Macon operating their F9C fighters or a B-36 operating an F-85 parasite fighter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_F9C_Sparrowhawk
Andrew Lechner
If we went by narrative foreshadowing, George was most likely a ww2 USN carrier fighter pilot. He is currently making a corsair inspired design and a flat-top to fly it off of after all. It is technically possible that he was a USAF vet or even a civilian pilot, but I don't think he would be anywhere near this confident without actual air combat and carrier operations under his belt. That points to Naval Aviator experience. Also, the man lived a full life, died at 78. That's easily enough time to fit in an engineering career after getting out of the Navy.
Found&Lost
I made a comment many chapters ago saying that I thought he'd be making a flat top carrier because of the folding wings because that is the only situation where it's practical. Because ground launched have space and conventional airships have a dedicated bay per fighter Babylon 5/battlestar galactica style. You only need the trade offs for folding wings if you have a large central hangar and a flattop. Hence my wondering if I helped the idea along with blue or that was his origional idea.
Trevayne
It is possible that he was a military pilot, but he could also have been a commercial or a general aviation pilot with an interest in WW2 aviation. There are lots of people who like Corsairs or Mustangs or Thunderbolts but still have never flown them. He does seem to have been an weapons engineer or at least a weapons buff but we don't know much beyond that and that he apparently died at 78.
Conrad34xdsa
Great update. One thing the thing is to be clarified, is George American? The personal weapons that we saw back in chapter 30 represent Vietnam era Tech. Plus, we do you not know when he was born. Theoretically, he could have fought in the Korean War or Vietnam which would give him a few more years in the timeline to potentially see Wikipedia be invented. Alternatively, he could’ve been part of a different nations Air Force like for instance, South America bought a bunch of Corsair aircraft and continued using them into the 60s and beyond. Considering that he named the aircraft corsair and looked at it with nostalgia, he must have intimate knowledge of the plane in question.
Ryan Gammon
I kinda find it scary that I fully see the logic for George/William here at every turn. It might not have been picture perfect decision making but damn could I see myself doing these same things if I was downloaded like this. I wonder how long he waits to let his team in on his tech advantages. He obviously wants them to get the basic teachings first though. Also fuck yeah flying carrier!!
22junk
I mentioned 1 gay and 1 straight, meaning Tarcil and the Rooster respectively. Since cores are a nonrenewable resource that shrinks every time an overwater battle takes place and determines whether or not you can be a proper noble I doubt someone would trade a core for a son-in-law. The Blackstones were willing to marry off a daughter and put up with embarrassing behavior to flip an entire dutchy secretly. That’s a much better deal than “take our son because someday we might pull off a miracle and actually put our ship in the air”. Fair point about the shower. I assumed men wouldn’t be allowed to join the royal navy as marines. When did William get that option? I don’t have the patience to reread the whole story.
Haschen
"dirty deeds done in the dark" I mean... that's not wrong...
Trevayne
The real problem is that shards are still experimental when it comes to taking down airships. They don't have a good torpedo-equivalent. OTL aircraft used both bombs and torpedoes against enemy ships, but the torpedoes were seen as more dangerous since a torpedo hit would let in water that could sink a ship, while a bomb hit is more likely to let in air that can't sink a ship. The current impression is that shards are like OTL aircraft in the 1930s. The professionals and amateurs are still debating the effectiveness of shards against airships. I think everybody acknowledges that they are important for scouting and for defeating opposing shards. That said, the debate as to whether shards can reliably kill airships is still open. The equivalent of the OTL gun clubs that insisted the battleship guns were the decisive weapons is still there.
Vonbaron
What is the female to male ratio? Magical men to magical female ratio? I have seen multiple reasons why someone wouldn't shower with anyone including their own sex. From William's suggestion of a misguided sense of chivalry to outright hating to shower with other people. I found it incredibly awkward to shower with other guys so I avoided it. It wasn't because I was secretly female or anything that complex.
Vonbaron
Really wish there was some means to quote so I'm going to do separate lines to address you sentences. William was given the same choice Marline was so that makes no sense. The only reason a male doesn't end up on the front lines is because they are CONSISTENTLY portrayed as incredibly valuable/rare. So matriarchs are the ones deciding to keep their male heirs from the dangerous stuff. If you lost your land title and core then a male heir would be the best tool to get that back via a betrothal. Having a house heavily indebted to you is a massive thing in this world. Look at what William got. Look at what the blackstones were willing to deal with just to get a tiny county on their side. People IN THE STORY say over and over that noble borne magical men are a rare commodity. From a meta perspective that's absolutely irrelevant and Blue should be careful to not fall into such lazy predictable writing. I'm also not sure who you're trying to claim is the gay guy in Sexy Sect Babes. The rooster has extremely potent in story reasons for hiding his true sex. The lore dictates that the rooster has to be pretty. In Sexy Steampunk Babes the lore dictates that a male heir isn't going to pretend to be female. EDIT : Keep in mind as an elf Marline as a male would be worth even more than William as elves are the ruling class.
MaybeASquid
I don't think guns will play much of a part, Williams going all in on the carriers reach, probably going to keep things like a CAP and potentially an early radar set. From what has been said, the current tactic is to launch shards after the enemy is spotted. They can't even patrol because shards can't reliably find the ship again once out of sight
Trevayne
Yes, we did. The Brimstone carries 20 shards. from chapter 39 The Brimstone’s twenty shard complement had cut a swathe through the beasts before they even got close to the carrier or her escorts. What few of the drakes did manage to land, were cut down with their riders in short order, while the shards moved on to savage the orc’s stolen ships with aid from Blackstone-Marine Knight boarders. The interesting question is how many guns does it carry? The impression was that shards were launched directly out of the individual shard bays on the side of the ship. This presumably restricts the number of guns that can be fitted. IIRC that was one of the objections to William's ship, the Jellyfish. It only carried four shards, which wasn't enough to ensure winning the shard-to-shard battle, but it did mean that it could not carry enough guns to beat an equivalent regular cruiser. I would not be surprised to learn that the Jellyfish could now beat Brimstone in a gunfight while having an equal or greater number of shards.
MaybeASquid
Did we ever get numbers for how many shards were on the blackstones carrier? I think it's be hilarious if their carrier has like 10 and Wills conversion rocks up with 40
Vlad Cold
Considering the multiple cannon barrels on shards you can feed a belt (or two for selective feed) to each barrel, and make them shoot in turn... thus achieving any reasonable sequence of enchantments fired. Hardly a problem worth noting.
Trevayne
Thinking some more about Marline's family, they clearly have some hardened and disciplined people if Sveta and her two fellow Greygrass instructors are examples. This raises the question of why did they wait until Marline could go to the academy and join the RN to try to get a core? My guess is that Sveta and her companions were too senior. They could join the RN, but would not be allowed to be saboteurs, so they would not have a good chance to even try for another shard. Instead, they would be used as more senior officers and after joining the RN, they would be assign according to the needs of the RN and not those of House Greygrass. On a separate note, I would really love to see the scene where Marline had to explain to her aunts that yes, she really has gotten a core and where it has been hidden. Extra points if it is from one of the Aunts' POV and she reflects that William has managed a gift to their house that will take at least three generations to even try to repay and he has required her to slosh around in a latrine as part of it. Her feelings would be interesting, to put it mildly. Bonus extra points if it is Sveta's POV.
Trevayne
Good question, but I expect an even more important question is how the Alchemist guild is doing at producing fuel. IC aircraft use a lot of fuel and if he wants to start with forty or so, he is going to need large quantities. I would love to see the scene where William tells Piper just how much refined Earth blood he is going to need and she goes "WTF!!! You want how much?!?!"
Trevayne
Rockets are a possibility, but unless he invents better propellants than gunpowder, they will probably struggle against airship armor. A shard like the Basilisk that can do a dive bombing attack delivering a 1,000 kg "lance" (aka AP bomb) would fill the attack (SBD or TBF) role.
Trevayne
In theory, yes, but there are practical difficulties. Unless they have magical diapers, shard pilots are not really going to like 8 hour plus flights, even if their shards can handle it. Also, sleep is a good idea and I haven't heard anything about magical auto pilots. In short, there are good reasons why shards are based on airships and don't just make long range missions from land bases.
Blue Fishcake
Not a coincidence :D
Lei Fu
Damn this slow buildup. I can't wait for a flight of of corsairs to do a flyover of an unexpecting airship
Lei Fu
Rockets as a torpedo analogue? A big slow plane like the dauntless doing a fly by with a load of 120mm dumb rockets would be pretty effective.
Exec_Jack
Here's my big question: Do Shardcraft have infinite fuel? Since they run off of a Mithril Shard, it certainly seems that way. If that also equates to infinite range, then why mount your Shardcraft on airships at all? Why not forward deploy them from airfields and simply fly to wherever they're needed? Obviously deployment from an airship means you're much closer to the fight, but theoretically it means that a shardcraft could (if it's pilot chose to) fly across the ocean without stopping to refuel.
Jack
The Corsair can divebomb, and has better stats than the F6F. Don't see much use for torpedo bombers at all. Plus, with the limited manufacturing capacity of Redwater County it probably makes sense to stick with one plane for now.
Trevayne
I agree that Marline is probably gay, but I can understand those who think she is a hidden male. Her refusal to shower with anyone else certainly suggests she has something to hide. And given the male - female ratio, I would not at all be surprised that lesbian relationships are more accepted than during OTL's medieval period.
Trevayne
Yes, I think Blackwater's new shard carrier can operate 20 shards. IIRC it is the world's first and it was used to retake two of the three airships the Orcs had captured.
Dankenobi1
i imagine, a house will have 2 to 4 shards pair air ship, think i remember it being said that 20 shards was consider alot earlier on
22junk
I think the idea is that Marline can join the academy as a male but would never get on the front lines of a ship boarding to snag a core, hence the deception. A male of a house with proper standing is a valuable tool for forging marital alliances, but if that house has no land and no core? Most nobles wouldn’t see the benefit in tying yourself to a house with little chance of ever recovering. So instead of a son waiting around for a marriage offer that will never come, a daughter joining the royal navy is their best bet. From a meta perspective we’ve had one pretty male, one gay and one straight, in both the other sexy babes stories, so if the pattern holds Marline is the most likely candidate. Or maybe she’s a lesbian. Who knows?
Dancingrage
Mmm..Escort carriers with a set of SBDs or TBDs and Hellcats or Corsairs.
Trevayne
Good update and a nice look at the basics of shard training. It looks like it resembles WW2 pilot training with the difference that a shard can hover, so they are harder to crash. An interesting question is just how many shards are there? Are they all carried by airships or have they started to create ground-based shard squadrons that are not tied to airships? As I see it, the shards were invented to give airships fast scouts that could go and locate the enemy and keep the enemy's scouts from doing the same. Now that they exist, navies are trying to come up with ways to use shards against airships directly. This means that the minimum number of shards is two per airship. The RN has 36 airships IIRC and the two Northern duchies have about 60-70. The other two southern duchies probably have about 40-50 between them, so overall Lindholm probably has around 140-160 airships, so say 320-400 shards based on airships. The shard estimate is more than double the ship count because while most ships carry only two shards, there are dedicated shard carriers that have more. I think most of them are in the 4-10 shard range, but the new Northern carrier has 20.
Trevayne
Good point. Right now they are far enough from mass shard production that they can get away with houses making their own in a quest for an advantage. In addition, the nature of mage-crafting avoids the pitfalls caused by a lack of standardized parts. I figure most shards are repaired by magically fixing damage and getting parts to fit. In OTL military aircraft do not have magecrafting mechanics. They have to rely on standardized designs and parts. In someways, the shards in this story remind me of the battlemechs in Battletech. Lots of individual designs that are kept operating by really gifted mechanics who can somehow keep cobbling them back together.
Trevayne
I think the real reson for the flat top is to allow internal combustion shards to land. Regular shards are piloted by mages who can use Aether gas to fly slow and/or hover. That allows them to essentially match speed with their home airship and effectively dock with it. An internal combustion-powered shard can not do that so it either lands at an airfield or on top of the airship. The interesting question is whether the airship's internal arrangements can be altered to move shards from the landing deck to the shard bays. I suspect that might be too big of a change and the shards will have to launch and land from the flat flight deck on top. On the positive side, that would let William convert the existing shard bays back into gun positions, so the ship is not stuck between the two extremes of not enough guns to fight another cruiser and not enough shards to be a good carrier.
ZBTmaniac
“He’d educed the efficacy” Looks like it should be “He’d reduced* the efficacy”
Vonbaron
The problem is you can only use one enchant on any ammunition that is linked.
Vonbaron
Marline is going nowhere. She's in the perfect spot from the perspective of her family. Marline is not a guy and it's a terrible theory considering the lore of the universe in question. There's no logical reason for Marline to be a male pretending to be a female. Male or female Marline would be able to enter the academy just like William. So why bother with a charade that could backfire and create a scandal? Why send a male heir that could be used to recover their lost land title and core to the academy as a female? Why bother with the extremely long shot chance of Marline getting near a core to steal it instead? I don't get why some people are so insistent on something that makes no sense in universe. Marline being gay is completely possible as a big secret. Even today there are whole swathes of the USA where being gay is dangerous to your health. Now imagine an unenlightened feudalistic society where slavery is perfectly legal and some races are considered naturally superior (elves).
Morpheus
If anyone had ever told her Xela that she’d be (lose the "her")
Marius Petrauskas
great update, thx.
MarakEvans
Edit suggestions: [Through] his magical senses, he felt as the enchantment took place, an almost ethereal pressure brushing up against him.
MarakEvans
!
aj0413
Can’t wait for Xela to be put in her place when Will shows back up and just tosses the table with all her assumptions
Ido Pazi
thanks, without this chapter tarcil being in his apartment etc makes no sense
Bookwyrm
No, you should probably reread that section, that’s Xela responding to the Greygrass. The Greygrass is the one who asked about the state of the shard after Xela’s flight and in the literal next sentence is the one who was described as satisfied from receiving an answer.
Vlad Cold
I wonder if William looking at the process of batch bolt enchanting was thinking about linked and belted ammo... From described properties, until belt started to feed into weapon, it could be stored a long time with enchanting preserved, cause no breaking. BTW, HOW ammunition fed to the shard bolt-cannons?
Andrew
Thank you!
O
It’s greygrass
Andrew Lechner
In not too long William will soon get show off the skill he most loved from his previous life. And he'll do it in an unmodified Academy Drake, just to prove the point. After all, the USAF/USN aren't exactly fans of personalized or bespoke aircraft.
Found&Lost
“Well, in regard to your question of flight worthiness, I can say that Unicorn One is still holding up strong,” the wood elf said. Pretty sure that should be DARK elf as I believe that's a Greygrass responding TO Xela
Carlos Torres
I can see how Marline being the way she is if she was raised by multiple dark elf versions Major Payne.
MaybeASquid
I wonder how far IC engines are for Williams' training shards back home, figure they're gonna have to switch over or at least prepare the infrastructure soon
22junk
Thanks for the chapter. I wonder if Marline’s family will start treating “her” differently now that they have a core. Since they no longer need a daughter to help them storm an airship and steal its core they might decide to reassign her to safer duties. Or maybe they want her to stick close to William until they can earn some land to park on and serfs to work it. Regardless, if the theories are right, sooner or later the purpose of the deception will be fulfilled, and a son will become more useful to the family than a daughter. Marline’s identity and sense of purpose will be upturned. I’m curious if this will be devastating or a relief.
Found&Lost
I'm curious if my comment about the folding wings going to a flat top a couple of chapters back influenced you blue? I doubt it, but seeing it now...
Blue Fishcake
It was for the Amazon release. https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/kvx1qq/sexy_space_babes_chapter_eighteen/
Ido Pazi
was the tarcil chapter deleted / edited out? (Ive actually already read from the link you sent, feels like a chapter is missing).
Blue Fishcake
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42955/between-worlds
Arkyrion
Is Marline's family name Greygrass or Greengrass, because I'm seeing both.
Ido Pazi
hey fish cake, ive been looking to re Read sexy space babes but I can't seem to find the first 20 chapters in the patreon. same with on RR
Blue Fishcake
Freudian slip, fixed thanks :D
Nicholas Roberts
Question: who's Greygrass and who's Greengrass? I might need to do a re-read, but I'm getting tripped up by those two names in close proximity
Ryno Botha
9th
