June 2nd 3235
12: 45 a.m. (exospace time)
in Earth orbit
Ryan's ship was a remake of a UNSC frigate, which he called the Thunderstrike. He had another frigate called the Indesesor, but that was on his jumpship. The jumpship was a remade 3066 model named the Punisher. The Indesesor in a docking clamp. "Wow!" Tails said excitedly. "I won her off a guy in a card game." Ryan explained. Once aboard, everyone went to the bridge, which was a hexagonal room with flashing monitors. "Hello, Ryan. How are you today?" a female voice asked. "Very fine, Terra."
A hologram of a lady came about at the front of the bridge. "This is Terra, my A.I." Ryan said. "Since we're all friends, you can use her." Sonic introduced himself first and everyone else. "A pleasure I'm sure." The AI responded. "Terra, can you get a lock on Stuarts hyperspace coordinates?" Tails asked. "Of course I can." She said. Data began to streak through her body. "I've encountered a snag." She said sighed. "A snag?" Sonic said cautiously. "Yeas, a snag. The Emeralds appear to be going into two directions."
"With the Emeralds split up, they'll be harder to find." Chris thought aloud. "Fortunately, I have a solution." "Enlighten us" Sonic said. "Let's split up. All UNSC ships have Shaw-Fujikawa trans light engines. I'm not sure why Ryan had them for the jumpship if they already had slipspace capable engines." "It's because," Ryan began to explain, "The frigates are here for extra firepower. I already knew the frigates had slipspace drives."
"I've got jump coordinates for both ships." Terra explained, "One's for the northern pole for a planet classified as Thoris. The other one is located at Kishaw, an Urban planet in House Kurita space." She explained. "Excellent, Terra," Ryan explained. "Chris, Shadow, Knuckles and Tails will go to Thoris. Terra will come with us." Upon finishing the sentence, Ryan plucked Terra out of a data port in the side of the hologram projector and inserted her into an interface helmet. "Me, Sonic, Sally, Amy and Big will go to Kishaw and look for the Emerald." Ryan said. He snapped Chris a crisp salute and went into the docking port of the Thunderstrike. "Hope you find it, Chris." Sally said, stepping into a lift to the bridge to take the jumpship to Kishaw. Chris walked into the frigate through the docking clamp. Tails was already at a NAV station and Ryan was at a weapon station. Chris took a seat near the pilot chairs where 2 gray-clad mercenaries sat. Tara's voice came up over the ship wide COM, "Destination: Thoris. Heading coordinates, Alpha, Bravo, Tango, Niner. Jump code 345A34T." "Roger, that, Terra." The first Merc' replied. "Preparing to jump in five, four, three, two, one." The second pilot said.
Outside, inside the Punisher, Sonic's team watched the Thunderstrike disappear in a flash of white light and the there was silence. "Well, we'd better get this crate moving, Sonic said. They all moved to another lift to take them to the bridge.