Nemesis sidled up to Sammuramāt. It was an accusation, not an observation.
Flickers of orange and yellow seeped around the Naiad’s ablative plating.
Sammuramāt matched the longer vessel’s ire with some of her own.
Red One wasn’t even a little surprised that Bathory had told her older siblings about that. i do. i’ve told you everything i know about your new home and you didn’t tell me this>
the Naiad admitted.
Red One protested,
In the Spearsong’s clipped response, there was a sensation very much like amusement, or at least a passable simulacra of it.
The yellow shifted to a pinkish hue Standard hull lighting appeared as the Naiad’s mood sobered.
<recklessly curious... Tzu-hsi scolds me too often for following your example> Her sister, like many Naiads, believed there was little to nothing inherently interesting in deadtone. They truly were insects; small, swarming and chattering in simplistic vocalizations they laughably called language. They were fodder, amusements, distractions and occasionally threats to be culled, but nothing more. Sammuramāt found them fascinating.
Sammuramāt mused.
Sammuramāt agreed with a low-power comm hum. It was the Naiad equivalent of soft laughter, and it would have shredded the nervous system of any organic that heard it. True Speech was jarring and discordant even to an AI, but it didn’t have nearly the same effect on Red One’s systems. No matter how relatable or similar to organics that they might seem in mien or personality, there were always reminders of just how truly, fundamentally different they were.
That had been when she had first brought Sammuramāt, Tzu-hsi and Domitian to the mass grave once known as the United Earth Confederacy and set them loose, giving the predators free reign to hunt and terrorize the squatters and murderers who built their homes atop humanity’s ashes.
A ripple of light cascaded across Sammuramāt’s body, starting at the tip of her bifurcated prow, running along her figure. Sammuramāt’s lights facing Nemesis became a darker violet, vanishing like a gust of wind through cloud tops.