Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 34 There was something comforting about the changes Velia had been making. It felt like progress. After years of stagnation followed by a massive upheaval, things settling into a new normal felt more like progress than anything Krystyn could think of. Even if not everything was progressing in ways she was
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 33 Morian had left sometime in the early morning to do some tests and pilot check-ups. Ilina stayed in the bed for a while longer, shifting into the indent Morian had left in the mattress and soaking up the lingering scent of cigarettes and disinfectant. She grabbed some gel packs from
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 32 Krystyn sat on the floor among the wreckage, worrying herself sick about that face Ilina made before she ran. And because the universe sought to rightfully punish her, the door slid open and Manya peaked in excitedly. "Oh," Manya giggled and closed the door behind her. She raised
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 31 It took begging Velia to create a bunch of work to keep Krystyn busy, and asking Morian to drag out Krystyn's weekly exams, for Ilina to get a whole twenty minutes alone with Manya. It was her only hope, and she felt so stupid the moment she got
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 30 It was challenging to adapt to a new commander. Charlatan was used to being given objectives and figuring out how to achieve them on her own, but the new Control was more vocal and hands-on. Specific instructions and detailed plans. It felt like taking orders from a less charming and
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 29 It was another blistering hell-day on the beautiful, barren, radioactive planet Fucking-Nowhere and Hunter Falke was crawling through more rubble on the freshly bombed outskirts of a city. Didn't matter which one. A month and a half ago people lived here. Went to school here. Commuted to their
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 28 Krystyn was the last to file into Crater's office. Any time she called for a meeting outside of the regularly scheduled times, it felt like something bad was going to happen. Crater sat behind her desk, as usual, barely bringing her eyes from from the endless stream of
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 27 After a week doing debriefs and paperwork and making up for financial losses, Hekate's Call returned to the Gestalt and Gravity. Krystyn had a lot to answer for as the field commander. Paperwork was a fine enough punishment, and Crater was willing to let her off with a
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 26 Adrenaline had long since faded from Ilina's system by the time the titanic stickbug came to a halt in some carved-out hanger in the mountains. She was suspended by a bunch of cables she'd gotten tangled in and she was in a really bad way about
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 25 There was still daylight as Hekate's Call set up camp under a devastated overpass. Tomorrow would be operation day, which meant that they were going to be having a bunch of meetings tonight and then break early and tune up their machines, and rest. For the first time
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 24 FB-number-number was another blasted hell pit of an end-of-life mining colony. Or rather, it was at some point a bustling world with culture and cities and life before its vast wealth of important materials was discovered and it was rapidly converted to a mining colony. The company that owned a
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 23 Dr. Morian Kyrnn was not a licensed doctor. She didn't go to medical school either. Apparently her original trades were the bodily sciences – tissues, bone, muscle, blood, brain – and the rest she either intuited or experimented until she got it right. The woman was a horror show all
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 22 The bar's lights were awfully dim. Another scuffle from the last week had knocked out another lamp or two. It set the mood better that way, anyways. Hid everyone's bruises from getting knocked around all day in their cockpits. Charlotte was three drinks in with a
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 21 The shuttle ride to the staging ground, some DIN-controlled training field, was quiet and dreary. Vigil and Manya sat across the isle in an odd silence. She wasn't used to Manya keeping her mouth shut. Krystyn refused to let go of Ilina, but that was... okay. It was
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 20 The notice that Morian Kyrnn and Ilina Falke had docked in the zipdrive shuttle came only minutes before a ship-wide alert declaring level one battlestations. Kyrnn was bound to bring trouble with her everywhere she went, but as much as Krystyn wanted to track her down on the ship and
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 19 The Gestalt and Gravity sailed through space at a respectable enough speed towards a gate several weeks away. There was an upsetting calm and quiet to things that was driving Krystyn up the wall. The minute Kyrnn was off the ship everything changed. The drugs, of course. Couldn't
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 18 The scent of medical disinfectant and cigarettes clung to Morian Kyrnn so strongly that they might as well of emanated directly from her skin, and Ilina found it so intoxicatingly easy to find peace buried in that scent. Tense memories of her first meetings with the woman in skeleton city,
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 17 The week's training was cancelled and all the machines had to be refitted and tested as the Gestalt and Gravity finally started making active preparations to continue its journey. It wasn't Velia's passport that had held them at port for so long, but Kyrnn&
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 16 The medical bay was just about the only place on the Gestalt that Krystyn had found she didn't get fuzzy-headed from the pervasive drugs being pumped into her system at all times. The only thing that made her head fuzzy in Kyrnn's domain was the scent
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 15 Of all Hekate's staff, the only person that Ilina was ever excited to see was Symeon Vigil. Morian barely counted as Hekate staff, and Velia was a very lovely freeloader. But she'd only ever had good encounters with Vigil. Also she was hot. Like insanely hot.
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 14 The pilot's gym had all sorts of specialized equipment, and access to the flash-fabricator in case you needed new specialized equipment. Fancy stuff with lots of lights and numbers. Manya used some of them, but it wasn't like she needed the additional information they offered with
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 13 Hours passed. Manya really wasn't coming back tonight. Krystyn laid awake, completely alone for the first time in years, staring at the ceiling. Somewhere deep down she didn't want to close her eyes because the nightmares might come back. She was doing fine until those three
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 12 The air on the Gestalt had changed since they got back. It had been nagging at the back of Krystyn's mind. She screwed up trying to get on Ilina's good side. The doctor said there was no real coming back from that screw-up. The girl holds
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 11 ”Disable them.” Manya sighed her little play sigh as she began walking towards them. ”I guess that’s that, then.” Vigil was the first to draw her weapons. A pistol and a combat knife. Krystyn shouted something at Crater, but everyone else knew it was far too late for that.
Hekate's Call Hekate's Call, Chapter 10 If you outperform Charlotte in training I’ll give you another kiss. Manya’s voice was so sweet in her ear in the hallway before the pilots all suited and saddled up. She was so much fairer than Velia. Better than Krystyn was a much clearer and more achievable goal
