Running a few ideas past the scion of the Lawson family, Mac decided it was time to get back to orbit and started doing his farewell rounds.
"You're leaving?"
First up was Mari, as she was close.
"Yeah, I'll be back in a month's time to check up on your recovery efforts, but as it is looking right now there won't be any complications with your new parts."
"You really keep calling them parts."
"Yeah, get used to it."
Ruffling Mari's hair, Mac's eyes lost their focus for a moment as he searched for someone else.
"Take care."
Having found who he was looking for, Mac went outside and found someone who was doing her best to hide.
"I'm here to say goodbye for now. I'm heading back into orbit."
"... Okay."
Still feeling sort of awkward, Anastasia didn't really know what to say to Mac after her earlier outburst, she just knew that it hadn't been very mature.
"I'm sorry for losing my calm earlier."
"No, don't feel the need to apologize. Emotions are essential and the only thing I really miss."
"How do you miss emotions?"
Seeing Anastasia's reaction Mac realised he was creating another misunderstanding and hurriedly corrected it.
"Emotions are peaks and troughs of existence, but living for as long as I have it is hard for me to experience such extremes anymore. It's the same with pain, really."
Thinking back to all the pain and suffering he had endured, all the highs and lows, Mac didn't really see how the stint of sensory deprivation he went through was something to write home about.
"Say someone pinches your arm, does that hurt?"
"Of course it does."
"Then let's say you get a pinched nerve that takes days to recover, would you say that even if the momentary amount of pain you experience was the same as someone pinching you it hurts more than getting pinched?"
Half seeing where Mac was going with his analogy, Anastasia went along with it.
"Yeah, getting a pinched nerve would hurt more, or for longer anyway."
"And there is the crux of the experience, momentary pain is fine, compared to something which took up a long period of time. Therefore, time is the opportune value. I have lived long enough that momentary suffering isn't something to even remember, sure it hurts, like getting pinched, but that moment quickly passes. It is the same with emotions, sure I get sad sometimes and sometimes I'm happy, but it all sort of fades a bit and muddles together."
In essence, Mac was trying to explain the fade that all immortal people tended to experience, but as someone who would rather avoid and ignore his emotions rather than face them he wasn't very good at explaining.
"Are you trying to make me feel better? If so, you're terrible at it."
Although awkward, the attempt did still bring a smile to Anastasia's face as she rated Mac's attempt.
"Yeah, I know, it's one of those fields that I don't really maintain as well as I should."
Feeling a bit of enjoyment at his conversation with the knight captain, Mac found himself wanting to continue talking with her, so of course that's when he got an alert through his neural uplink.
(For fuck's sake…)
With a flick of this wrist, Mac threw a shield spike into the ground between him and Anastasia as his eyes lost focus.
"Mac, what's happening?"
Recognizing the look that told her Mac's attention was somewhere else, Anastasia had no idea what it was he had just tossed, but figured he wouldn't do it without a good reason.
"I don't know, so stay put for a moment, you're safer here."
Accessing his uplink, Mac phased through reports and started to get a picture as his annoyance started to grow.
"Someone or something is attacking one of my cruisers."
In space around Mac's current planet of interest everything was running on schedule. The cruiser Just Call Home was preparing to head to the star and refuel after its 24 hour standby above Mac, and V-190, another one of Mac's cruisers, was arriving to take its place.
[STATION KEEPING COMPLETE, PREPARING FOR SHORT RANGE FTL JUMP; HELM, AHEAD FLANK.]
As Just Call Home's thrusters roared to life and switched away from maintaining orbit to breaking it, a massive thermal signature became visible to anyone watching that area of space. Slowly starting to gain speed as it readjusted course for the sun, Just Call Home charged it's faster than light drive, creating a gravitational signature visible to anyone watching that area of space.
[ALL BULKHEADS SEALED, HARDPOINTS STOWED AND SECURED, READY FOR FTL TRANSLATION. CONFIRM COORDINATES AND RELAY REQUEST FOR TRANSLATION… REQUEST CONFIRMED; HELM, AHEAD FLANK. COMMENCE FTL TRANSLATION.]
Burning particularly bright to anyone watching that area of space, Just Call Home suddenly disappeared from sight as it accelerated to multiple times the speed of light. As suddenly as it had disappeared, V-190 appeared to take its place, dumping coolant out as it transitioned from faster than light travel and did a full sensor sweep of the surrounding space.
[V-190 ON STATION, MOVING INTO DEFENCE ENVELOPE, SWITCH ORBITAL PROFILE FOR PRIORITY ALPHA-1 REQUEST; 9007 MANEUVER NODES ADDED TO NAVIGATION, HOLD; ALL THRUSTERS AHEAD FULL, MAINTAIN HOLD.]
All in all this had happened countless times so far, every 24 hours a cruiser would head to refuel while another one took its place, there was nothing unusual about this and it seemed quite normal.
[ALERT; UNKNOWN SIGNAL DETECTED.]
Until it wasn't.
Out of nowhere something started painting V-190 with inferred light, this could be a simple scan or a more deliberate ranging laser, but before V-190 could find out where that signal came from a hundred meter long tungsten rod impacted the cruiser's stern side, tearing through its whipple shield and causing significant hull damage as compartments were torn apart.
[ALERT; SIGNIFICANT HULL DAMAGE DETECTED, EXTENDING SENSOR RANGE… 2 ADDITIONAL PROJECTILES DETECTED; KILLING WITH COUNTER BATTERY FIRE, NAVIGATIONAL HOLD DISENGAGED, REACTOR TO WAR OUTPUT; HELM AHEAD FLANK BELL.]
Realising it was under attack, V-190 raised the alarms and got Mac's attention as it went to war.
[SHIELDS TO FULL, COMMENCE COUNTER BATTERY FIRE.]
Although stricken and currently bleeding, V-190 was a state of the art weapon and by no means out of the fight. If anything, the machine was just as angry as its master.
As V-190 had started tracking additional projectiles rapidly closing in on it, the cruiser uncovered its 565mm gun batteries and loaded them with soft tipped copper rounds. Dumping reactor level voltage into the helical railcannons as soon as they were loaded, V-190 started firing defensively at the approaching projectiles.
[DIRECTIVE FROM COMMAND: RAISE HELL. T-05, A-5 SLAVED TO FLAC; INTARROGATE CONTACT.]
Receiving command authority over its two escort ships Tempus and Again as a 100 metre long, half destroyed tungsten slug deflected off of its shield, V-190 started hunting for targets with its high powered sensors and escorts in tow.
[T-05 REPORTS: ALL THUSTERS AHEAD FLANK BELL, INTARROGATING CONTACT, SHIELDS TO FULL.]
[A-5 REPORTS: DONE WITH ENGINES, PREPARING TERMINUS DECREE… PREPARATION COMPLETE. KILLING INCOMING TARGETS WITH COUNTER BATTERY FIRE, SHIELDS TO FULL. HELM, AHEAD FLANK.]
[V-190 REPORTS: TRACK ESTABLISHED, TRACING… TRACE COMPLETE, RELAYING TARGET INFORMATION TO COMMAND FOR STRIKE AUTENTICATION.]
Having traced the hostile projectiles to their source, V-190 sought permission to fight back from its master, leading to confusion.
"... What the fuck is that?"
Staring towards the sky with his eyes completely out of focus, Mac's mutter caught Anastasia's attention.
"What's up? Did you find who is attacking you?"
"Yeah… That's the problem…"
Although he was getting precise data back through his uplink, Mac was still questioning what he was seeing.
So he sought a subject matter expert, or at least something close to it.
"Excuse me for a moment."
"Okay?"
Keeping calm, Anastasia let Mac place his hand on her face, although she had no idea what he was doing.
Getting a physical connection, Mac streamed data through his neural uplink directly to Anastasia.
One second Anastasia's sight went black, then she suddenly found herself in outer space.
"What the?-"
Immediately one of Mac's massive cruisers came into sight, its port top side flickering with light as it had sustained damage. Before she could take in the entire sight, a highlighted projectile impacted its shield made out of pure lightning, deflecting off to the side as the cruiser continued firing at other approaching projectiles. Getting more used to the sight, Anastasia found herself able to shift her focus, and as she looked at different parts of the cruiser in front of her, her mind was flooded with knowledge, she could see target information and tracks, status and armament.
"... This is strange."
[Sorry, but I need your opinion on something, bear with it for a second.]
Hearing Mac's voice coming from inside her own head didn't really surprise Anastasia for the moment, but as her vision suddenly shifted and her focus was drawn away from the cruiser she did experience quite a bit of vertigo. Instead of a cruiser, Anastasia's sight was shifted to a natural satellite, a mostly unremarkable lump of loose rock, with one interesting thing on it.
"What is that?"
As if reading her intent Anastasia was provided information on the object, then she got a closer look at the one anomaly. Pillars of chiseled rocks spread out in a complex pattern, a formation of glowing runes the size of buildings and a massive building were all situated on the satellite.
[That's what I wonder, what is that and why is it throwing rocks at my fleet?]
"Rocks?"
As if on queue a 100 metre long tungsten rod materialised in the middle of the pillars and glowing runes, then started glowing before it was launched towards V-190.
"I have no idea what it is, it seems like a dungeon, but that shouldn't be possible."
As far as Anastasia knew, dungeons weren't supposed to appear in space. Whatever this was, it was powered by magic.
[So it carries no cultural significance?]
"No, I don't think so… Wait, what are you-"
[V-190, strike authenticated; bumrush the fucker.]
Getting the vaguest amount of permission he could go for, Mac went ahead with his plan.
[USE OF SPINAL SANDCASTER AUTHENTICATED. CHARGING WEAPON, PREPARING MUNITION STORE…]
Swelling with energy for a moment as it spit open down the middle, V-190 revealed its only true anti-ship weapon of mass destruction.
[PREPARING FOR EMERGENCY SHORT RANGE FTL JUMP, COMMENCING TRANSLATION.]
Surging with power for a moment, V-190 blinked out of existence for a second before reappearing right in front of the natural satellite. As the hostile battery was almost ready to launch another projectile it launched one towards V-190 at point blank, but as the projectile huddled towards the cruiser it evaporated due to the cruiser's spinally mounted weapon of mass destruction.
[SANDCASTER ONLINE, MAINTAINING 5.9 THZ EMISSION, ANNIHILATING HOSTILE CONTACT.]
As it was water hitting a hot stove, the hostile structure started evaporating under the force of thousands of small fusion explosions. True to its name, the spinally mounted, mult-barreled 'sandcaster' vomited hollow balls made out of carbon nanotubes smaller than a grain of sand packed with deuterium. Although puny sounding, these particles hit their target with enough force to trigger fusion in their payloads at the site of impact, and the sandcaster was maintaining a fire rate of 5.9 terahertz.
[EMISSION SUSTAINING; COMMENCING OPEN LOOP COOLING. GOOD EFFECT ON TARGET.]
Rapidly building up waste heat, V-190 started venting red glowing metal out of its radiator ports, but instead of capturing that material it simply let it spew out, creating not a halo around the craft as usual, but a pair of red glowing wings. As it continued spraying pure destruction the cruiser adjusted, shifting its entire mass to point its weapon as it continued to annihilate that which had dared to strike it. Watching this happen in real time, Anastasia witnessed in stunned silence as the entirety of the 15 kilometre wide satellite was vaporised from point blank range by V-190's weapon.
"There we go, threat neutralised."
Removing his hand from Anastasia's head and sizing the neural connection, Mac kept her from falling over as her senses returned to her own body.
"Thank you for the help."
Patting Anastasia on the shoulder as she got her sense of balance back, Mac started issuing repair orders as his eyes lost focus.
(He really could wipe us all out if he wanted…)
Although there were multiple other explanations as to why Mac hadn't used military force yet, Anastasia started believing he was really on this world for diplomacy, if he wasn't they would've already been wiped out.