(no subject)

[tachycardiac]

“Sprita,” Nikolao says, placing one hand upon her shoulder, voice firm and even, commanding, “Call the others down. We’re ready for them,” and Chiela seriously expects Terasu to punch him in the back of the head and take command of the situation like she seems to enjoy doing, but she just remains quiet, smirking slightly, watching Nikolao intently for a moment, then Sprita as she nods and walks over to the communications console, and whether that’s for show or not, Chiela doesn’t know. Sprita can certainly receive communications without it, but Chiela’s still not totally solid on whether she can send them, particularly that far. Whether or not she can, she’s throwing switches along the board, antennae twitching as she works, and soon enough she says, “They’re coming in cloaked,” and then, after a few minutes pass - during which Chiela twitches impatiently, already wanting to shift, body prepared for a final fight, the sort of thing she never expected to need to prepare for, though that was the inevitable conclusion of their run; honestly, she never expected them to make it this far - after that, she says, “Open the doors,” and the gathered Amorphii shoot nervous looks at each other before Nikolao says, “Well?”

A heavy moment follows, when nobody moves, and Chiela’s afraid they’re not going to listen, going to make this a lot more difficult, before one man among them unfreezes and runs to the command console, sliding into the seat, throwing switches and pressing buttons, and Chiela hears the mechanical groan as the bay doors open and the sudden shuddering impact of heavy artillery, which means the ship’s uncloaked and skimming down along the surface, and there’s a rush like the winds picking up, and the ship lowers down into the bay, dropping to the floor, engines disengaging, and Nikolao shouts, “Close the doors!”