“The Harriers!”

  “The Empress’ Chosen is with them as well!”

  “Isn’t she a little small?”

  The roar of applause surrounding them made Chimera flinch, the very energy the people gave off almost fanatical.

  It was a new experience, as Chimera never had the same kind of applause from the people she helped back on Asta.

  Not a bad feeling, but all new experiences tended to be a bit much to handle at first.

  Walking with the rest of the Imperial Harriers helped, as she used their taller forms to block the leering eyes of the public.

  “Hurray! Cheers for the Warriors of our Empire!”

  “Revenge for the Fallen, Victory for the Living!”

  “HOAH! HOAH!”

  So much pride…

  Chimera couldn’t help but smile at the people around her, their infectious fervor for their people a spell all its own.

  A few minutes of walking brought them to the space tree port, or as the locals called her, the World Tree Yggdrasil.

  Mother Tree, Goddess of Nature, and Fertile One.

  So many names for what amounted to a massive tree that stretched out for miles in both directions, but it did hold an energy to it that Chimera could feel and touch.

  It held that same energy she felt in the Militarum Arboretum, the druidic magic that seeped into the land.

  The Tree was jam packed with the stuff, so much that Chimera began to wonder if the Tree was the source of the magic itself.

  As the group began to split to grab supplies, Chimera decided to test a hypothesis she had about said magic.

  “Give me thy bounty, Most Holy One, so that I may work through thee.”

  The incantation she used was one from the memories of one of the druids she entered before on the Meras. It was a means of replenishing ones mana from what she could tell, but since her own magic organ produced mana for her naturally Chimera never needed to try.

  However, as she spoke the words, Chimera could feel a funnel of power flood into her from the mighty space oak.

  With that energy came a voice, something that Chimera would call motherly if she ever had a real one, and not the insane creator she was built by.

  “Chimera, Welcome. Meras, Speaks Highly.”

  “Woah.” Chimera thought as the flood of what she could only describe as pure emotional thought.

  “Indeed, most of the young cannot hear me as well as thee. Good, I need a Voice to Help them.”

  Chimera felt her mind start to fix the thoughts into something she could understand, the emotional wavelength becoming translated.

  “Did you say Voice? That sounds like Work,” She conveyed back through the bonc, to an amused Yggdrasil.

  “Indeed it is, but it is necessary. My Daughter Meras will explain the rest to thee. In recompense, you may draw energy from me freely. No need for My Voice to have to beg.”

  The Mother Tree broke the connection with Chimera, leaving her both dumbfounded and annoyed.

  “Damnit, I don’t want to be some Voice!”

  She grumbled as she moved to pick up a whole shipping container's worth of supplies, ingest it, and walk towards the Meras-102 as if she wasn’t carrying around a shipping container's worth of supplies.

  The looks she got from the crew around her made her laugh for a bit as she boarded the ship and regurgitated the container.

  She offered to do another, but the crew waved her off, stating that the vice-captain wished to speak with her about ‘communing with the vessel’.

  Chimera shrugged and headed into the ship, figuring that perhaps this was some kind of superstition like when new ships had a bottle of champagne smashed against them on their maiden voyages.

  Though this ship wasn’t really new, so that probably wasn’t what this was.

  She pondered a bit more as she walked down the familiar hallways of the vessel she found herself in when she awoke from her stasis.

  It was being retrofitted, Chimera could tell. The cages that likely held specimens before were now making way for spaces that held munitions, supplies and even more crew quarters. Some cages remained, likely for prisoners, but the rest was clear.

  The Meras was getting ready for anything.

  Chimera walked a bit more as she familiarized herself more with her new vessel, though after a while she decided to not keep the not-captain waiting.

  With a sigh and a spring to her step, Chimera made her way to the bridge, the map in her head leading her there despite the new additions to the ship.

  “Empress’ Chosen Mera is on the bridge. Repeat, The Chosen is on the Bridge.” Chimera heard over the intercom for the vessel as two Elfari soldiers parted the way for her.

  Walking through, the bridge opened up before her, a long wide hallway separating several pits that centered around a beating wooden core. The pits were filled with four druids who were practicing magic on stems that all connected to the main core in the room.

  Next to said core was the vice-captain Bark and his adjutant Tarka, the former chief of security for the vessel. Chimera made her way towards them as all the druids and bridge personnel took a moment to salute her as she walked by.

  “At ease, or keep at your stations.” She said back with a salute of her own. The crew complied, some of them smiling back with mirth at her reaction.

  “Captain’s on deck, salute!” The vice-captain matched the earlier druids and their salutes.

  “No need for that Bark,” Chimera nodded back.

  “Protocols should be observed, Captain, but thank you.” He dropped his salute as he turned to motion at the core.

  “Captain Mera, this is the Meras Core, the heart of the vessel and our primary power core for the vessel. Meras shares that duty with several of her sisters, but she’s the main conduit for the rest of the ship systems. It’s a prerogative that every Captain of a World Tree Branch meet with the main core.”

  “Oh, well… pretty sure we met already, ain’t that right Merry?”

  A face appeared on the core, a long haired draped with vines and foliage face that was smirking back at the rest of the crew.

  “Shoot, I wanted to surprise them. Ruiner of Fun on deck.” The ship core spoke back, no small amount of sass in her voice.

  Chimera laughed back, “sorry about that.”

  Meras stuck her nose in the air, which seemed to elongate as she ‘hmphed’ back at her.

  Chimera turned to Bark, “looks like the ship is already going full mutiny on us vice-captain.”

  Bark seemed to sweat on command, “don’t joke about that Captain Mera, there’s been tales about captains being jettisoned from their own vessels.”

  “Woah, well I guess I need to play nice then eh Mera?” She turned to face the core, only for an evil grin to meet her.

  “Oh, I am very aware of that story, Ca-pa-tain. My baby sister got told to abandon the crew for the captain’s sake. So long as you don’t make stupid orders like that, we square.”

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  Chimera gulped, “no worries there.”

  “Good,” the placated ship smiled back, “alright Blobby, let's get this over with.”

  Chimera nodded, “alright, so… what do I-”

  A wooden tendril came out and grabbed onto Chimera, a glow of golden runes appearing on the limb.

  Chimera could feel magic enter her, but unlike the druid magic of the Mother Tree, this seemed more unique. Like a fingerprint of magic, it imprinted on her body, and Chimera could now feel the power coming from the ship.

  She could feel everything on the ship at once, the monitors as they spied on the crew, the hydroponics center that was making air and food, the little imprints of shoes on the floor plating.

  It was such a sensory overload that Chimera was glad that Meras was still holding onto her with the tendril, as she was sure she would have collapsed on the ground.

  “Woah… this is what you see all the time? How do you not go crazy?”

  Meras smirked back with pride, “primitive meat suits like you and the Elfari can’t measure up to a daughter of Yggdrasil. Besides, this ship is my body, how would I not know what's going on in it? It’s just common sense.”

  “Maybe for you, I still have problems figuring out my own weird stuff,” Chimera shot back, the sensory overload beginning to subside as her body adjusted to it, likely with help from the bond with Meras.

  With a flex, Chimera found herself in the center of the loading dock. Another twitch and she was in the ship battery room, which was filled with dryads of war variety and another. The others were smaller, but filled with water from the looks of them.

  She waved at them, and they waved back awkwardly.

  The waving motion sent her into the engine room, where a bunch of mechanics were screaming at each other.

  “Ya daft cunts! The hell are you doing to my baby?! A stocky Elfari screamed at the other men around him who were doing their best to fix what looked to be a fire going on in one of the three massive engines.

  “Sorry sir! We’re on it!” they screamed back as they picked up water to put it out.

  Chimera did them a solid and simply sucked the air out of the area with the fire, snuffing the flames with a bit of vacuum space magic.

  “You're welcome!” she blurted out before being sent to the prison cells, then to the auxiliary systems bay, where the redundant systems were supposedly set up in case of issues.

  “Ughh, no more!” She tried to say, but the motion of speaking shot her straight back to the bridge, face first on the ground.

  “So, how did you like the tour?” Meras said to her as Chimera acquainted herself with the floor.

  “Mrph.”

  “It’s always rough the first time, but it’s good to know you can travel throughout the ship quickly, yeah?”

  “Mrpphss!” Chimera screamed back, indignant of being thrown around like a party ball for the last minute.

  “What’s that? I want to go through it again but faster?” Meras spoke, mirth dripping from her voice.

  “No!” Chimera finally jumped up in fright as the crew chuckled at her for a bit.

  Chimera was a deep shade of red for a while after that, and using her new found ability, teleported back to the loading dock to help out with the supplies.

  It sure beat being in that room with her friend and the hecklers.

  …

  A day and a half is how long it took to fit the ship with the rest of its needed supplies, personnel, and fuel.

  Even Chimera helping along took about a day and a half’s worth of time off of the three days it normally would have taken.

  Granted the Meras was being retrofitted into a warship, a much larger and more incredible change from its old purpose of collecting specimens for ‘energy research’.

  It took Chimera a bit to figure out that it meant, ‘finding a use for the creature as a battery.’

  She shook her head, now wasn’t the time to think about its old purpose.

  The Meras was now hers and she was going to need every bit of firepower if she wanted to help with this conflict.

  Now they were only waiting for the Empress to come and give them their orders.

  Or rather…

  Chimera was standing with the rest of the Imperial Harriers at attention. Her outfit, a smaller captain’s attire with a dark green color, tassels that reached down to her arms, and a cap that was much too big for her head, was entirely made from her own blobbyness.

  There was no way she was getting a child’s uniform when clothing was as simple as thought for her.

  After about ten minutes of being at attention, the Empress appeared with a contingent of her guards as well as the High General Lysandra.

  “At ease,” the General said.

  The group stood with their arms behind their back and legs spread in small ways. Chimera tried to copy it, but it only looked silly to her so she simply copied the arm movements and placed them behind her.

  Not that she couldn’t just move them to the front, but this felt right in the moment.

  The Empress moved forward as she began to place her hands on each of the Harriers, a pulse of magic rushing through each of the soldiers. She spent a bit more time on Bayleaf, a concentrated effort stemming from the Empress as she performed the blessing.

  Finally she got to Chimera, kneeling down to place herself in front of her, not in a submissive way but rather to reach her height.

  “Though I cannot bless you like my Harriers, I thank you once more for taking this charge, Animus. May your mission bring peace to the Empire.” Her voice was solemn, almost pleadingly so.

  “...I will.”

  Chimera couldn’t think of any fancy words to say, but with the Empress in front of her, it only felt right to convey she understood.

  I’ll save those people, heck, I might have done it even without all of this pageantry. Still, It doesn’t hurt to show her that I can care.

  Chimera placed her hand on the Empress, a small tendril inserting into the Elfari woman’s flesh.

  “Well, maybe this might help, if you want it.” Chimera spoke.

  The Empress gasped, “is… is this similar to what you did to Bayleaf?”

  Chimera nodded, “this should help you a bit with your magic, though it's going to hurt like hell in the morning. I recommend taking the day off.”

  The Empress smiled, and that strange pull of attraction that Chimera felt before was amplified.

  “Thank you, Mera.” The words were genuine, but Chimera had to push the feelings down as the pull tried to get her to kneel.

  “Happy to help, but you have to turn down that scent. It's very distracting.”

  Chimera, Imperialis Amicus of the Elfari Empire and Empress’ Chosen, realized too late that she had said those words outloud, to the ears of all the Harriers and the High General.

  Who was now fuming with rage, her normally paler skin a flush of violent red.

  “W-Wait, I mean that the attraction thing is just a bit too strong you know?” She tried to explain, which only

  The Empress only stared at her dumbfoundedly.

  Oh, oh shit! Maybe they don’t know?! I just told them that their Empress smells!

  “J-Just forget what I said!”

  “Oh… okay?” The Empress said, confusion on her face as she stood up to leave.

  However, before she did, she turned to speak to the group who were all staring at her with worry and confusion.

  “The High General will be joining you for this mission, but ultimately will be there to foresee and relay my commands. The rest will be up to the Amicus to decide. Carry on.”

  She spoke with finality, but as she was walking away with her entourage, Chimera noticed her sniffing her robes as she made her way to a hover car.

  I am going to die.

  She turned slowly to the High General, whose face had taken on a deeper shade of purple since she last stared at her.

  “Hey! Soletsgetgoingshallweokayweshall!” She turned to run, only for the General to teleport in front of her in a moment.

  “Did you just say that my sister smells?!” The irate General spoke, her normally calm voice a slowly rising roar.

  Chimera was so thankful that despite the General’s teleportation ability, it didn’t compare to Meras’ as she begged her ship to take her to the bridge.

  In amusement the ship obeyed, sending her through the ship and landing in her captain’s chair, which sat besides the core.

  “Thank you Merry!”

  “It’s what I do.” the ship said back, speaking directly into her mind. Chimera could almost imagine her looking cool with some gum in her mouth.

  Chimera laid back in her chair as the ship began its start up sequence, the crew moving to get the ship powered and nominal.

  Chimera despite her earlier situation couldn’t help but smile as she felt the ship come alive around her, the link giving life to the many systems and sub-systems.

  “All readings are green Captain, the Meras is ready to depart.”

  Chimera nodded to the vice captain as she sent out a hand, “Raise us up.”

  “Aye Sir.”

  “Make sure everyone is situated for atmospheric burn.”

  “Understood.”

  Chimera felt a rush as the ship began to climb up, the magic from the Mother Tree pulling the entire vessel upward.

  “Meras is docked at the launch bay. Beginning engine sequence test burns.”

  One of the crew spoke as Chimera felt the engines come alive, a surge of power suddenly filling the entire vessel with life.

  “Engines One, Two, and Three all testing positive. Beginning atmospheric jump in one minute.”

  Chimera tapped her head against her chair as she sent an intercom message to the crew.

  “All crew prepare for atmospheric jump. T-Minus 30 seconds!”

  Chimera laughed a bit as the Elfari tilted their heads in confusion at her message, but the gist of it came through as she felt the crew prepare by securing harnesses and seat belts. Even the fuming General was stuck in her seat as the engines began to ignite.

  “Launching in 5, 4, 3, 2-”

  “Wooo,” Chimera shouted in glee as the engines roared, launching themselves off of the Mother tree in a blast of magical might, sending the Meras deep into space.

  Her journey to save the Elfari had just begun.

  …