Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean
Chapter 3: The Journey Begins
Diplo, the flagship of the anti-federation group Quark, cruised lazily in a space at the middle of nowhere. The atmosphere in the bridge of the ship matched the behavior of the ship as well. The personnels were either staring blankly at one screen or another, or simply having a casual chat amongst them. In fact, only one person seemed to be rather alert, the rest of the crew were suffering from major lethargy in general. That person was a young lady with long blue hair and matching blue eyes (AN: Not sure about the eyes, oh well...) wearing light body armor and protective gears over a black garment, with two hand guns stashed away in their holster. Se seemed to be expecting something, for she constantly checked the communication frequency. At last, after another one whole boring hour, news arrived. The display screen in the bridge showed two blond Klausians.
"Hey, we finally tracked him down" The male reported.
"That's good, do you have him with you, Cliff?" The blue-haired female asked.
"Well... There is a slight, ah, 'variable', that's going to cause some complications." Cliff replied while scratching his head.
"Variable?"
"Well, you see Maria, the place just got razed by the Vendeeni." The female Klausian explained.
"Great... So, do you still know his whereabouts Mirage?" Maria asked.
"Judging by the signals we're picking up, I'd say he is most likely to end up in Vanguard III, but it will be difficult to pinpoint his exact location. "
"I see, well, try your best you two." Maria told them.
"Gotcha, oh by the way, it seems like the prof. got himself caught by them Vendeeni" Cliff said at the last minute.
"...Understood Cliff, thanks.." Maria acknowledged.
Once the screen went blank, Maria sat in the Captain's chair and sighed. She had been so close to meeting someone whom she had wanted to speak to for a long time, one Fayt Leingod. How much longer will it take them to find him? There was much she wanted to discuss with him, about something they both shared in common. She had hoped to be able to speak with his father as well, but it seemed like that would have to wait even longer. Maria ordered one of crew members to look into the current status of Professor Leingod, then got up and walked towards the door. A young man named Lieber stopped her for a moment, but when Maria asked him what was wrong, he merely said that it was nothing (after much incomprehensible blabber). The young leader of the Quarks headed to her room and sat in front of the computer once she was in. She stared absentmindedly at it just as her crew had done back at the bridge, while fiddling the gold chain that she wore around her neck. Then she tugged on it, pulling out something that had been tucked underneath her shirt. It was a small golden locket. Upon opening it, she looked at the picture that was placed within. The smiling faces of a little blue haired girl that was unmistakably her younger self looked back at her. Next to her was another face, this one of a young male with long dark-red hair and blue eyes. 'It's been 7 years...' she thought. Maria looked at the youth for a long while before tucking the locket away again and started to check on some data (the same one she had gone over about a 100 times) on her computer.
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Shuyin Magna could not believe his luck. He simply could NOT believe it. He had just arrived at Hyda IV, and expected to have some brief peace and quiet while he was there, when some accursed Vendeeni ships bore down at the planet and started bombarding the place. He had been led to a emergency shelter and then later transported to a federation transport ship, the Helre. The transport ship was currently traveling in gravitic warp space, away from the battle zone. He glanced at two youths, one blue-haired male and one younger brunette female. The two have been friends since childhood, and were among the civilians that had been present on the resort planet when the Vendeeni attacked. He had found them and two other people, a huge man and one young, rather cheerful Velbaysian girl, when they were locked in combat with some Incapacitator machines of the Vendeeni. Spotting them while he was on his way to the transporter, he had smashed the machines into scrap with his lance. Thus, he was accompanying the two currently. The huge man and the Velbaysian were hanging around with their troupe. The young man's name was Fayt Leingod, who had lost contact with his parents ever since the whole crisis began. The young girl's name was Sophia Esteed, a longtime childhood friend of Fayt that had tagged along on this vacation-turned-madness.
"I can't believe this, this was supposed to be a vacation! Why did those Vendeeni have to attack a resort planet!" Fayt spat.
"I sure hope uncle Robert and Aunt Ryoko are safe..." Sophia said.
Suddenly the ship returned to normal space, and Fayt was surprised when he saw a huge battleship firing on them.
"What the? Is that a Vendeeni battleship!" Fayt wondered.
"Apparently so..." Shuyin said passively, as Fayt stared at him incredulously.
"How can you be so calm! A rescue ship is no match against something like that!" said Fayt.
"What good will panicking do?" Shuyin asked, still maintaining that ridiculously calm air.
"I'm scared Fayt..." Sophia whimpered.
Just then a blast of energy hit the Helre's shield. The ship rocked from the impact as the shield struggled futiley against the energy blasts. Soon after, one of the crew member entered the chamber and urged everyone to head for the espcape pods. The three companions hastened to obey. While they were running across the corridors, Shuyin couldn't help but remember a very similar scenario about 7 years ago. A brief image of a small figure with blue hair flashed in his mind for a split second before they arrived in the espcape pod chamber. After promising Sophia to meet up at Remote Station #7 later, Fayt makes her enter the pod. A soldier told them that there were a few pods left in another room and beckoned them to it. Shuyin quietly bade Fayt farewell as he entered an escape pod, the scenario from 7 years ago surfacing in his mind again. He quickly focused on the matter at hand, as the pod blasted off and he saw the Vendeeni ship attempting capture some of them. 'Hm,' Shuyin thought, 'if they are trying to capture the pods instead of destroying them, then they are clearly looking for someone...' One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to be one of those that got caught. His escape pod veered away from the Vendeeni ship and then entered gravitic warp space.
Later in the escape pod, Shuyin decideds to run a check on current status. He requested for information on the nearest life-supporting planet.
"Searching... The closest planet is Elicoor II." The computer replied.
Shuyin suddenly looked stricken upon hearing this. 'Elicoor II... ' He sighed, 'Why there of all places? I never expected to go there again...' He remained still for a moment, thinking hard.
"Very well... Mark Elicoor II as the destination, take care to land in a remote area devoid of any sentient beings.
"Affirmative", the computer replied as the pod continued to wade through the gravitic warp space.
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"Marietta, any news on Cliff and Mirage?" Maria asked the female crew member.
"Negative Captain, we haven't heard a word from them since they contacted us near Vanguard III."
The Diplo was currently floating in space where it was supposed to have met up with the Eagle, the ship Cliff and Mirage had took with them on their mission. Despite having waited for hours, the Eagle failed to show up. The entire crew had been working hard on locating it, with no luck so far. Tension began to rise up among them.
'Cliff, Mirage... Fayt, where are you?' Maria thought to herself.
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On Elicoor II, three figures could be seen running across the Traum Mountain. One was Cliff Fittir of the Quarks, another was Fayt the Earthling boy, and the other was a red-haired female agent of the kingdom of Aquaria, Nel Zelpher.
'Man, this just keeps getting better and better,' Fayt though bitterly.
He quickly recounted what had happened so far. He had arrived on a planet called Vanguard III safely, and was helped by two native children, Niklas and Meena. He then got mixed up in an incident with a Rezerbian fugitive called Norton, who had been using his advanced techonology (which was prohibited to be displayed in underdeveloped planets by Federation law) to terrorize and extort the villagers. Cliff arrived in the scene just in time to prevent Norton from blasting him with a rifle. Together they had beaten the thug and left the planet onboard the Eagle, where he met Mirage. Cliff had explained to him that his boss wanted to meet him, but wouldn't go into details, saying that he would find out when they met her. They they had been attacked by a hostile battleship and was forced to crash-land on Elicoor II, which was an underdeveloped planet, when the Eagle's engine malfunctioned from the damage. To make matters worse, the kingdom of Airyglyph, the site of their crash, thought they were from an enemy country and had captured Cliff and him. Mirage had waited and escaped afterwards. After lengthy, painful interrogation, Nel had shown up and freed them on the condition that the two of them aided her country, which was the one at war with Airyglyph. Once they were out, they met up with Nel's subordinates Tynave and Farleen, who had prepared a carriage. While they were discussing some things (Nel wanted the two to help her kingdom build a weapon, to which Fayt was point-blank refusing), the Dragon Brigade of Airyglyph had shown up. Tynave and Farleen acted as bait while the other three leapt off the carriage and were currently dashing for cover.
"Damn, persistent aren't they?" Cliff remarked as some Dragon Riders flew past nearby.
"We should head for Kirlsa, from there we can rest up and leave for Arias tomorrow morning." Nel told her companions.
As the last of the Riders disappeared from sight, the three crawled out of their hiding place and began their journey to Kirlsa.
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Meanwhile, in a different part of Elicoor II, Shuyin had exited his pod. He looked around and reaized that he was in the Mosel Dunes. Ignoring the terrible heat, he took what supplies he can from the pod and sent one last distress signal out. Once he was done, he stood outside and faced the pod. Stretching out a hand, he murmured something as his palm began to emit a white glow. Suddenly, huge slabs of rock shot up from the ground and slammed into the pod. Within seconds, the pod was completely buried under a mound of rock and sand. Lowering his hand, Shuyin drew his cape around him and started searching for a nearby town.