![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
paradigm_shiftChapters currently alternating between Miller and Holden's POVs.
Flu shot plus five days left on this loan means this is going to get rushed.
Chapter 8 - I am glad that we pick up a short time after the riots, opening up into a lull of uncertainty. Things are definitely not okay on Ceres, and a lot of people are holding on by their metaphorical teeth. Havelock is not having a good time, and has made plans to leave, which fair, what was once subtler is now very much not subtle - he's an Earther, he doesn't fit in and shouldn't try is the basic message.
Miller has to take up the Julie Mao investigation again. (Didn't say this earlier, but the main goal is to get her home by any means necessary, whether she's willing or not.) He has total access to her house. And her emails. He doesn't look into everything, but I do wonder what kind of security measures she may have taken to hide sensitive information related to the OPA, though her affiliation wasn't exactly hidden.
That her parents' messages are sent directly to a folder called "bullshit guilt trips" is a delight. What's interesting, besides the way her mom tries to carrot stick her way home, is the warning her father leaves her. I'm sure the rich and powerful have a way of hearing rumours - so what exactly did he know?
Back to the crew in the Knight, but yeah, I agree, travel sucks, and it's not like anyone truly packed for it. Or are on something that is adequately equipped. They're still on the way to the Mars naval ship the Donnager, and they still have six mystery ships shadowing them (who won't talk back when hailed over comms), and they are all in various states of not doing well.
Shed especially. He has the least experience in dealing with this kind of loss. Spoiler note: Do not get attached. During Holden's talk with Shed, instigated by Noami - who really has her shit together, seriously. Best SIC after that forceful promotion - they plan a drinking night, after a rant about supplies, medical inventory and the needs of the crew on the Canterbury.
→ Aside: I read to get away from real life, not to get a reenactment of supply chains, stocking, and efficient stocking of items.
Which okay - getting drunk could help, and they have at least locked on their course, so drinking and driving isn't exactly an issue. I don't think any of them has had a good cry, and they need something to release that pressure.
And then another player enters the stage. A member of the OPA makes a move to contact them directly. Ex-UN Colonel Fred Johnson... it takes Holden a bit to connect the dots - who is waiting on the wings, and broadcasting a private message from quite a distance away – at a base that seems to have been overlooked, a set of circumstances that must have been carefully engineered – who leaves Holden the choice of getting in touch with him again, and if he does need to make a broadcast re: the Martian navy, to leave a coded message on whether or not it is coerced, because he, Fred, doesn't want a war.
And it very much is pushing towards a war.
Then the drinking. That Alex says Hoo-boy with each shot is kind of cute.
Mars is also aware of the six ships, but on the current track, the Knight should end up on the Donnager first.
Boss says nope to Miller's conspiracy idea. Still has to look, but in between all the other work going on.
More word on the local gang front: there was a pause in gang activity in some areas, seemed like a lot of them had stopped, or left, or had gone missing. But some of that activity seemed to start up again after the riots.
Oh, and an OPA armband on the culprit. Meaning Miller takes point, while Havelock heads back.
Miller makes contact, and it's a hit and a miss. Drops some names, but doesn't get much in return... at least until the next day.
OPA guy was right - they are looking out for the interest of the Belters, especially economically. They took care of Matteo, and want to replace the cops/security services given how those are Earth/Martian controlled.
/Insert image of a building in the brutalist style with the name Donnager on it. That's it. That's the ship.
Curves waste space.
It's okay to have a flying block (also other large ships), because you don't need to worry about friction in space travel. This makes me mad.
On the Donnager: it's true, upper command do not have a sense of humour. They get shared rooms, and guards. The six other ships get a warning to leave, or be shot, with a time limit.
Holden gets interrogated alone by a guy who is really good with body language. And they have drugs to help with that too. For the interrogator. There's a little more worldbuilding re: the circumstances of Earth, but they get interrupted.
Time's up, and nothing's going the way the Martian navy though it would.
To quote: It's all fun and games till someone shoots back.
Shed continues to spout facts and not cope, and they're all stuck waiting to see what happens with those other ships.
Assumed to be belter ships, but certainly much better equipped than anyone would guess. At least Alex was Martian navy and can give a good guess as to what's going on.
There are actually no guards on the door when they finally decide to try to leave... and it's very much a SNAFU. Their section of the ship gets hit. Shed dies, air disappears, and...
We cut back to Miller.
Because of course we do.
Miller's going rogue on Julie's investigation, because his supervisor wants him to drop it. By taking fake sick days! Emotional drinking! Perfect excuse.
OPA sign in a cop bar? Miller can read the writing on the wall.
Havelock: Where's Earth?
Miller: It's a Mars vs Belter conflict, wdy mean where's Earth?
Havelock: When's the last time Earth let anything major happen without input?
Hmmmm.
HMMMMMMMMMMM.
That doesn't sound familiar at all.
Anyway, Havelock will cover for Miller re: drunk bender.
So off Miller goes. Investigating. Tries the jiujitsu studio and learns a few things, though the teacher there is helpfully unhelpful in some ways.
Also, this is the beginnings of Miller's obsession with the idea of Julie in his head. I don't care for it.
In the background, tensions are once again rising.
And the OPA man Miller had talked with once in a bar not that long ago comes calling. He also wants Miller to drop the investigation.
War is looming, and they don't anymore fuel on the fire because Julie's:
a)A rich man's daughter, a man of influence
b) from the inner planets
c) working with the OPA who are very much against the inner planets
and
d) on the Scopuli the ship that doomed the Canterbury
Fun.
Dawes, OPA guy, wants stability and safety for Ceres. That means Miller stops poking about and he'll cut him in on what the OPA find out about Julie, and perhaps some other questions he may have.
Several threads are being pulled together, and while the information might be great to have, Miller doesn't agree to it.
Too little trust all around. Too much tension.
Too much fear?
There's something going on, and no one really knows what it is. Only that it's going to be bad, and that's ignoring the possibility of war.
Enough to prompt Miller to tell Havelock to GTFO.
They fixed the hole in the ship. It's a patch job, but it'll have to do.
Rail guns are NOT NORMAL for belter ships. Unless they had a navy no one knew about.
So goals: extend air supply, get help.
And they do, since a group of marines come to help them to an escape craft. Which is going to be blown to bits because there are boarders, and sensitive information that must not fall into other hands.
It's a lot, and I am not at all surprised at Holden's dissociation through all this.
There's a kind of humour amongst soldiers and people who work with death that's dark, and grim, and not always appropriate in regular society.
We cut away as they almost make it to the ship.
Mars has twitchy fingers after losing the Donnager and the space station. Which means civillian belters get killed. Nothing's been done to deescalate, so I'm just going to say that there is escalating actions at different levels on both sides, and will leave it there.
New partner. Boss wants him to drop the case.
Dawes is waiting with answers. Missing riot gear was taken off planet by organized crime, the whys are not his problem, so Miller should drop the case.
He agrees, but lies about it.
Can I ask what is the sense in shooting a grenade launcher on a SHIP? Unless the point is to kill everyone. Then okay.
At this point, we have one injured marine lieutenant, plus the crew in various states of repair. The voice of another marine in their radio, and a short distance to the escape ship. It's a nice ship.
Holden clips everyone on the crew to him like terrible helium balloons.
Alex is delegated to flying the ship.
Why?
Our other pilot is outside getting killed.
I just hate it when people keep dying on you.
They go. The little escape vessel is called the Tachi. [A sword worn by samurai; Japanese]
I don't think I would like to fly since the G forces sound horrible, and I get carsick.
Holden gets up, and asks Noami what to do. Because Amos has an injured leg. Noami is tired of holding it together and yells. Good for her. She's held it together for long enough.
Oh, and she's been helping him wrt to making decisions when he doesn't know for years? Yeah. No. She needs a break.
And the lieutenant, Kelly is dead. I remember hoping against hope that someone from that squad survives, but I guess it was strongly signalled when he got angry before they flew off re: strapping in properly.
Amos has an open fracture in his tibia. They have to set the bone. Poor guy. Poor everyone. He'll be on the mend.
They are stuck in space, heavily traumatized, tired, soulsick, and not sure what to do. No one knows where they are thanks to Alex's experience and quick thinking in turing off a transponder, but that also means they can't land anywhere. They also can't land anywhere because they're in what is clearly a Mars navy vessel.
What do they do? Call for help.
I do wonder what they have in a small space vessel for preserving dead bodies? And that gets answers in the next paragraph. Cargo bay without environmental controls. Enough to keep a body preserved.
Also Fred Johnson calls back quick.
The ship gets a new legal* ID, and a place to go.
*Paperwork is all good and cleared. How it got there? /Smile&Wave.gif
Start/Previous part || Next part
Flu shot plus five days left on this loan means this is going to get rushed.
Chapter 8 - I am glad that we pick up a short time after the riots, opening up into a lull of uncertainty. Things are definitely not okay on Ceres, and a lot of people are holding on by their metaphorical teeth. Havelock is not having a good time, and has made plans to leave, which fair, what was once subtler is now very much not subtle - he's an Earther, he doesn't fit in and shouldn't try is the basic message.
Miller has to take up the Julie Mao investigation again. (Didn't say this earlier, but the main goal is to get her home by any means necessary, whether she's willing or not.) He has total access to her house. And her emails. He doesn't look into everything, but I do wonder what kind of security measures she may have taken to hide sensitive information related to the OPA, though her affiliation wasn't exactly hidden.
That her parents' messages are sent directly to a folder called "bullshit guilt trips" is a delight. What's interesting, besides the way her mom tries to carrot stick her way home, is the warning her father leaves her. I'm sure the rich and powerful have a way of hearing rumours - so what exactly did he know?
Back to the crew in the Knight, but yeah, I agree, travel sucks, and it's not like anyone truly packed for it. Or are on something that is adequately equipped. They're still on the way to the Mars naval ship the Donnager, and they still have six mystery ships shadowing them (who won't talk back when hailed over comms), and they are all in various states of not doing well.
Shed especially. He has the least experience in dealing with this kind of loss. Spoiler note: Do not get attached. During Holden's talk with Shed, instigated by Noami - who really has her shit together, seriously. Best SIC after that forceful promotion - they plan a drinking night, after a rant about supplies, medical inventory and the needs of the crew on the Canterbury.
→ Aside: I read to get away from real life, not to get a reenactment of supply chains, stocking, and efficient stocking of items.
Which okay - getting drunk could help, and they have at least locked on their course, so drinking and driving isn't exactly an issue. I don't think any of them has had a good cry, and they need something to release that pressure.
And then another player enters the stage. A member of the OPA makes a move to contact them directly. Ex-UN Colonel Fred Johnson... it takes Holden a bit to connect the dots - who is waiting on the wings, and broadcasting a private message from quite a distance away – at a base that seems to have been overlooked, a set of circumstances that must have been carefully engineered – who leaves Holden the choice of getting in touch with him again, and if he does need to make a broadcast re: the Martian navy, to leave a coded message on whether or not it is coerced, because he, Fred, doesn't want a war.
And it very much is pushing towards a war.
Then the drinking. That Alex says Hoo-boy with each shot is kind of cute.
Mars is also aware of the six ships, but on the current track, the Knight should end up on the Donnager first.
Boss says nope to Miller's conspiracy idea. Still has to look, but in between all the other work going on.
More word on the local gang front: there was a pause in gang activity in some areas, seemed like a lot of them had stopped, or left, or had gone missing. But some of that activity seemed to start up again after the riots.
Oh, and an OPA armband on the culprit. Meaning Miller takes point, while Havelock heads back.
Miller makes contact, and it's a hit and a miss. Drops some names, but doesn't get much in return... at least until the next day.
OPA guy was right - they are looking out for the interest of the Belters, especially economically. They took care of Matteo, and want to replace the cops/security services given how those are Earth/Martian controlled.
/Insert image of a building in the brutalist style with the name Donnager on it. That's it. That's the ship.
Curves waste space.
It's okay to have a flying block (also other large ships), because you don't need to worry about friction in space travel. This makes me mad.
On the Donnager: it's true, upper command do not have a sense of humour. They get shared rooms, and guards. The six other ships get a warning to leave, or be shot, with a time limit.
Holden gets interrogated alone by a guy who is really good with body language. And they have drugs to help with that too. For the interrogator. There's a little more worldbuilding re: the circumstances of Earth, but they get interrupted.
Time's up, and nothing's going the way the Martian navy though it would.
To quote: It's all fun and games till someone shoots back.
Shed continues to spout facts and not cope, and they're all stuck waiting to see what happens with those other ships.
Assumed to be belter ships, but certainly much better equipped than anyone would guess. At least Alex was Martian navy and can give a good guess as to what's going on.
There are actually no guards on the door when they finally decide to try to leave... and it's very much a SNAFU. Their section of the ship gets hit. Shed dies, air disappears, and...
We cut back to Miller.
Because of course we do.
Miller's going rogue on Julie's investigation, because his supervisor wants him to drop it. By taking fake sick days! Emotional drinking! Perfect excuse.
OPA sign in a cop bar? Miller can read the writing on the wall.
Havelock: Where's Earth?
Miller: It's a Mars vs Belter conflict, wdy mean where's Earth?
Havelock: When's the last time Earth let anything major happen without input?
Hmmmm.
HMMMMMMMMMMM.
That doesn't sound familiar at all.
Anyway, Havelock will cover for Miller re: drunk bender.
So off Miller goes. Investigating. Tries the jiujitsu studio and learns a few things, though the teacher there is helpfully unhelpful in some ways.
Also, this is the beginnings of Miller's obsession with the idea of Julie in his head. I don't care for it.
In the background, tensions are once again rising.
And the OPA man Miller had talked with once in a bar not that long ago comes calling. He also wants Miller to drop the investigation.
War is looming, and they don't anymore fuel on the fire because Julie's:
a)A rich man's daughter, a man of influence
b) from the inner planets
c) working with the OPA who are very much against the inner planets
and
d) on the Scopuli the ship that doomed the Canterbury
Fun.
Dawes, OPA guy, wants stability and safety for Ceres. That means Miller stops poking about and he'll cut him in on what the OPA find out about Julie, and perhaps some other questions he may have.
Several threads are being pulled together, and while the information might be great to have, Miller doesn't agree to it.
Too little trust all around. Too much tension.
Too much fear?
There's something going on, and no one really knows what it is. Only that it's going to be bad, and that's ignoring the possibility of war.
Enough to prompt Miller to tell Havelock to GTFO.
They fixed the hole in the ship. It's a patch job, but it'll have to do.
Rail guns are NOT NORMAL for belter ships. Unless they had a navy no one knew about.
So goals: extend air supply, get help.
And they do, since a group of marines come to help them to an escape craft. Which is going to be blown to bits because there are boarders, and sensitive information that must not fall into other hands.
It's a lot, and I am not at all surprised at Holden's dissociation through all this.
There's a kind of humour amongst soldiers and people who work with death that's dark, and grim, and not always appropriate in regular society.
We cut away as they almost make it to the ship.
Mars has twitchy fingers after losing the Donnager and the space station. Which means civillian belters get killed. Nothing's been done to deescalate, so I'm just going to say that there is escalating actions at different levels on both sides, and will leave it there.
New partner. Boss wants him to drop the case.
Dawes is waiting with answers. Missing riot gear was taken off planet by organized crime, the whys are not his problem, so Miller should drop the case.
He agrees, but lies about it.
Can I ask what is the sense in shooting a grenade launcher on a SHIP? Unless the point is to kill everyone. Then okay.
At this point, we have one injured marine lieutenant, plus the crew in various states of repair. The voice of another marine in their radio, and a short distance to the escape ship. It's a nice ship.
Holden clips everyone on the crew to him like terrible helium balloons.
Alex is delegated to flying the ship.
Why?
Our other pilot is outside getting killed.
I just hate it when people keep dying on you.
They go. The little escape vessel is called the Tachi. [A sword worn by samurai; Japanese]
I don't think I would like to fly since the G forces sound horrible, and I get carsick.
Holden gets up, and asks Noami what to do. Because Amos has an injured leg. Noami is tired of holding it together and yells. Good for her. She's held it together for long enough.
Oh, and she's been helping him wrt to making decisions when he doesn't know for years? Yeah. No. She needs a break.
And the lieutenant, Kelly is dead. I remember hoping against hope that someone from that squad survives, but I guess it was strongly signalled when he got angry before they flew off re: strapping in properly.
Amos has an open fracture in his tibia. They have to set the bone. Poor guy. Poor everyone. He'll be on the mend.
They are stuck in space, heavily traumatized, tired, soulsick, and not sure what to do. No one knows where they are thanks to Alex's experience and quick thinking in turing off a transponder, but that also means they can't land anywhere. They also can't land anywhere because they're in what is clearly a Mars navy vessel.
What do they do? Call for help.
I do wonder what they have in a small space vessel for preserving dead bodies? And that gets answers in the next paragraph. Cargo bay without environmental controls. Enough to keep a body preserved.
Also Fred Johnson calls back quick.
The ship gets a new legal* ID, and a place to go.
*Paperwork is all good and cleared. How it got there? /Smile&Wave.gif
Start/Previous part || Next part
