Sunday October 15, 2017
Book 18: Mandatory Failure — Part I

Transcript

NARRATOR: The spherical ship hovering eleven hundred kilometers above Jumpstar Prime is large enough to hold most of Chomolungma.

IAFA: Chinook, this is Iafa of TT08-11 Breath Weapon. We're on final approach.

CHINOOK: Cynthetic Certainty and Maxim 39 are already in place.

IAFA: Then the gang is all here. The company is ready for transit.

NARRATOR: It is Cindercone, an ancient Oafan cargo vessel eight kilometers in diameter.

NARRATOR: It is also a teraport cage, an exit from (or entrance to) the mind-bogglingly massive station-world of Eina-Afa.

CHINOOK: Teraporting you now.

SFX: TERAPORT

SFX: TERAPORT

CHINOOK: Welcome to Babirr Oaiaha.

IAFA: You've made improvements!

NARRATOR: With its sister ship, Cindertwin, it allows warships to teraport right under the nose (or analogous anthropomorphized sensory cluster) of even the very finest military-grade teraport area denial systems.

NARRATOR: Which is why every government that is aware of Cindercone and Cindertwin treats the uninvited arrival of either ship into defended space as an act of war.

CHINOOK: I had to.

My secret entrance isn't much of a secret anymore.

IAFA: Then why do I only see six warships on patrol?

CHINOOK: Oh, Iafa. You're so CUTE.

Those are the six I am letting you see.

NARRATOR: This is not institutional paranoia. It's common sense.