Chapter 38: One Small Step.
Unlike ground-based Saviours, Hunters, Seekers or even Battle Angels Saviour pilots didn't wear armour, they wore a pressurized flight suit and helmet that was more designed around life in a cockpit than survival under fire, though if she ever made it back to Clan Xipa was going recommend that even pilots start wearing Saviour armour suits.
No sooner had they dragged her out of the strange truck she'd been bundled into they stripped her of it and her helmet leaving her stood as naked as the day she was born, this was also when she got her first look at her captors without their helmets and she not only got the shock of her life but she also found herself saddened greatly, they were human.
She had suspected it when she'd seen them outside but she hadn't wanted to believe it, just like she hadn't wanted to believe it when she'd heard the Grand Patriarch warning that not all humans were like those of the Clan, that there were bad humans out there. but she'd swiftly realised that growing up in the Clan had sheltered her from a hard truth.
Even as a Yautja loving Xeno Xipa still loved her human brothers and sisters, granted she didn't fancy them in a romantic sense, but a great many of her brothers and sisters utterly loved them to the point that every mate hunt that was for a human always had a very healthy population of hopeful Xeno hunters.
But these humans were very very VERY different from the humans of the Clan, no human within the Clan would ever treat another sentient being this way, cuffed and stripped to her bare skin forcing her to walk through the crowded building with her heart burning with shame and humiliation.
But as she walked Xipa picked up on something else incredibly worrying, there were other Xenos here, she could feel them.
As she walked Xipa tried to tune her mind into the telepathic frequency that they were using but it was incredibly hard, it was like being in a little boat in a storm, bobbing about and trying to fight the current but some emotions were standing out far better and stronger than others, these emotions she had no problems reading as they were so powerful.
Anger, rage, pain, shame, fear, these were the emotions that she could feel and they were so powerful that they threatened to drown her in them, to suck her right out of her little boat and suck her into the depths.
It didn't take Xipa long to figure out where these emotions were coming from, as she was lead through the winding concrete and metal tunnels of the facility which looked suspiciously like an underground bunker or maybe a lab she began to see cells.
The cells were made out of a mixture of metal, concrete and what looked like some form of reinforced glass which allowed the guards and what she guessed by their white lab-style coats, scientists to see into them.
That's when Xipa was able to see into the cells and her heart sank like a stone in her chest, they contained Xenos a great many of them, there were hundreds of cells stacked atop each other like boxes each containing a minimum of three Xenos and as many as six.
As Xipa was being led past these cells she could feel their pain but also their curiosity, they looked different to her, this was obviously due to the work of the Clan and the hives of the Clan especially those of her own hive and her beloved mother Citrus and her beloved father Yoshi and their tireless efforts to free the Xenos from reliance on other races for their birth.
This had resulted in a change in the appearance of the Xenos of Clan Mason, things like breasts on females were a dead giveaway.
Xipa was led past the cells and into what was blatantly a clean area, having grown up in a hive whose soul drive was scientific advancement Xipa had seen her fair share of these things.
No sooner had Xipa stepped through a large blast style door into the plastic coated and very white area a young dark-skinned woman who was one of the scientists stepped forwards out of nowhere and snapped a tight metal collar around her long slender neck.
"What is this!? What are you doing?" Xipa demanded making the scientist's mouth drop open, "It can speak!?" she exclaimed.
"Yes I can why would that surprise you? Surely if you have kidnapped this many of my brothers and sisters surely you should realise by now that we are a sentient race!" Xipa snarled angrily glaring at the startled human woman making her shrink back from her.
The other person that Xipa believed to be a female stepped forwards and snatched what appeared to be remote of some kind from the startled woman and pressed a button on it.
Pain like nothing she had ever imagined in her life shot through Xipa's body like lightning running through her nerves sending her muscles into spasms and dropped her to her knees and made her scream in pain.
"Silence! No one permitted you to speak!" the woman said coldly clicking the button again and stopping the pain.
White-hot anger chased the pain through Xipa's body, "Who the fuck do you think you are that you think you give me the right to speak! I am no different from you! I am a thinking, feeling, sentient being!" Xipa snarled which earned her another blast of the pain collar.
"We'll see how long you think like that, we are not the same, you are a thing, you are not a person, you are an alien thing and more than that you are our thing, you belong to us now, you belong to Weyland Yutani and we will do with you as we see fit" the woman growled menacingly lowering her face to only inches from Xipa's though interestingly far enough away that Xipa couldn't get her with her inner mouth.
As soon as the pain stopped the guards stepped in and grabbed Xipa hauling her to her feet while all being careful to keep their weapons trained on her to make sure she didn't get any ideas.
Finally, after what felt like an absolute age Xipa was dragged into what looked to be the dentist's office from hell, dead centre of the room was a chair made entirely of thick solid metal covered in heavy-looking restraints that were designed specifically to restrain a Xeno.
Xipa was forced into the chair and her body was secured at every available point, her feet, her ankles, her calves, her thighs, her tail, her waist, her wrists, her elbows, her shoulders and finally her neck.
Surrounding her were a lot of very scary looking machines covered in lots of very sharp and pointy looking tools.
Once she was secured the guards visibly relaxed and most of them were dismissed by the white-suited woman with a wave of her hand, the sheer arrogance of this woman simply dripped off her like an odious ooze.
"Do you have a name?" the woman asked as Xipa watched change out of her armoured isolation suit and revealing herself for the first time.
"Xipa Longclaw, second Leftenent, two six eight three one seven nine zero, Saviour flight officer CMN," Xipa said and the woman looked confused, she stepped forwards giving Xipa her first good look at her.
She appeared to be of Asian descent like her father and king Yoshi, she had long black hair that flowed around her slender shoulders like black silk, her features were delicate like those of a doll and she was heavily made up.
"That sounds like a military rank and designation," the woman said sounding sceptical.
"That's because it is, I am a part of the Clan Mason Navy, a pilot, how do you think you shot me down in an unprovoked attack' Xipa said.
"Clan Mason Navy? What's that?" the woman asked.
"It's my organization, part of Clan Mason," Xipa said.
"Never heard of them and how did they manage to tame your kind enough to pilot a space fighter?" she asked.
"Nobody 'tamed' us we are as sentient as you are," Xipa said which seemed to cause the woman a great deal of amusement.
"I am a human being, the very pinnacle of creation and evolution so don't you dare compare yourself to me, you are a pet, a science experiment, a weapon its all your kind are good for and believe me when I say we will figure out how this 'Clan Mason' of your did it and when we recreate the technology they used Weyland Yutani will corner the market on bioweapons! We'll make trillions in contracts and you are the key!" the woman said putting a real emphasis on the words, Clan Mason.
"I will not help you in any way," Xipa said darkly and the woman smiled while picking up a needle.
"Did I say you had a choice?" she said smiling a dark and nasty smile while flicking the air bubble in the needle which with a swift movement she plunged into the upper part of Xipa's shoulder.
Eight hours she was prodded, probed and interrogated, but she gave them nothing, all she would say was her name rank and number just like she had been taught, no matter what they'd done to her and she was going to remember every single thing that had done to her for a very long time.
After they had finally grown bored of her answers they had dragged her off to one of the cells that contained two other Xenos and had dumped her unceremoniously on the floor while spraying the other two in the cell with some kind of very cold gas that she felt wash over her naked hide as she was dumped on the floor of the cramped cell.
As soon as the humans retreated and the door slammed shut behind them the other two Xenos rushed forwards and beat on it with their fists while screeching at them, "You bastards! Fucking cowards!" they screeched angrily.
Once they'd had enough hurling insults at the guards they turned to Xipa and moved towards her cautiously, they seemed to be trying to smell her but the chemicals they had pumped into her veins using those Xeno proof needles was making her scent glands malfunction as her body tried its hardest to expel the liquid fire that had been pumped into her.
"Who are you? You are not of our hive!" one of them hissed softly but with a note of aggression in her voice, both of the Xenos in the cell with her were female.
Xipa deactivated her translator which given the new generation of Xeno bio-integrated tech was now implanted right into her throat and could be switched on and off thanks to a control matrix chip implanted in the language centre of her brain, gone were the days of the first generation collars.
She did this because she did not want any of the Weyland Yutani humans outside to know what she was saying as they were obviously recording them, she would have used her telepathy but she still hadn't managed to tune herself into their hive frequency yet though this was usually achieved quickly by the kiss of the queen but contrary to popular belief Xeno's had their own vocal language that only another Xeno could understand, this was how the translator worked.
"M-M-My name is Xipa Longclaw of the science hive of Clan Mason," she said trying to lift herself up but her muscles felt like they were made of jelly and simply wouldn't support her.
One of the Xeno's stepped forwards to grip her arm and steadied her as she lifted her into a sitting position, "Easy sister, the poison they put in you will weaken you for a while" she said.
"Thank you sister" Xipa said softly as she wrapped her long arms around herself as she felt pain pulsing through her with each and every movement.
"It will hurt for a while, they must really not like you, usually they only take us for a little while not as long as they had you in the pain room," the second Xeno said.
"They tried to get me to betray my people and to tell them about Clan Mason and to accept that I was not a person but an animal, we are not animals, I am not an animal, I am a person and I am not property" she hissed softly and sadly.
"Who are Clan Mason?" the Xeno holding her arm asked.
"They are my extended hive, Clan Mason freed my queen and two of her sisters allowing them to set up their own hives on their soil and gave them equal rights as any human or Yautja," Xipa said and the two of the others looked at one another quizzically.
"Humans that do not hurt?" they asked together in unison and Xipa nodded.
"No member of Clan Mason human or Yautja would never hurt a Xeno for being a Xeno, they freed us, they used their science and uplifted us, look at me, I can mate with anyone I want as long as they choose me too and I can give birth to my own children, no need for implantation, no need for face-huggers, human, Yautja and Xenos all living together in harmony and now other races join us too," Xipa said.
"Impossible! Humans hate us! They would never wish to free us or to let us live, they wish only to destroy or enslave us! They torture our beloved queen daily to get her to control us and make us do as they wish but our queen endures and she refuses! They will never control us, we will not be their weapons!" the Xeno holding her arm said.
"And nor should you! Clan Mason would never make you into weapons, I am not a weapon, I am a soldier yes, I'm a pilot, but it wasn't forced upon me, I chose it, in Clan Mason you choose who you want to be and the Clan will die for your right to do so, just you watch sisters, my Clan will come for me and they will punish those who have taken me and hurt me, they will make them suffer as I have because as our Grand Matriarch and Patriarch always say no-one harms our brothers and sisters and lives to gloat about it" Xipa said.
The two Xenos sat down next to her and looked at her hard, they seemed to be examining her body focusing on her breasts and the shape of her, "You can have young of your own?" they asked and Xipa nodded pointing to the place where he womb was located.
"Yes and this was thanks to a human scientist called Grace who lived and worked in my hive, she cracked the genetic key to Xeno freedom, now on my world there are Xenos who is married to humans, Xenos who are married to Yautja, Xeno who are married to other Xenos and soon there will Xenos who are married to both Serpentinus and even to Raptorians, they are all free," Xipa said proudly.
"Who are these other races, we have never heard of them, we are born of humans who came to this world to mine its minerals and tried to destroy our hive, then the soldier humans came and they captured our beloved queen and all of us," one of them said the other looked utterly puzzled.
"How could a Xeno possible ever love another other than their queen, our job is to serve the hive!" she said angrily.
Xipa nodded, "Please do not mistake me here, we still serve our queen but our queen and hive Clan Mason, though not through enslavement because our queen chose to accept the offer our Grand matriarch and Patriarch made, this started our people on a road to a freedom we have never known" Xipa explained.
"We know humans but who are the other races you mentioned?" the Xeno holding her arm asked.
"The Yautja are a race of hunters, who used to and in the case of non-Clan Mason Yautja hunt us for sport because they consider us the most deadly of prey the universe offers, but the Yautja of Clan Mason would never harm a Xeno and would die to protect any innocent Xeno, it is the creed of the Clan to protect the innocent with our own lives because its what we stand for that the strong should protect the weak, the other two races are races we have just met, the Serpentinus are a serpentine race we saved from being enslaved by a bad race called the Scalathor, the Raptorians are a reptilian race that Clan Mason saved from this same bad race, we landed on their planet and fought for them despite never having met them before," Xipa said.
The two Xenos who revealed to her were called Vess and Kess but to the humans were called twelve and thirteen sat and listened to Xipa explain all about Clan Mason, who they were, what they stood for and how they lived, it also helped for Xipa to talk about this because it took her mind off the incredible pain she was still feeling following the torturous procedures they did to her, allowing it to fade into a deep throb in the back of her mind.
The longer she spent in the company of the other Xenos the more her mind was attuned to the psychic frequency given off by the queen and slowly she began to hear her voice as she spoke to her imprisoned sons and daughters.
"I see we have a newcomer among us, speak up and be known young one" the queen's surprisingly soft but incredibly commanding voice spoke directly into her mind cutting through the growing noise of the other Xenos.
"I am Xipa Longclaw of the science hive of Clan Mason born to my queen Citrus and her human king Yoshi," Xipa said through the link.
She actually heard the angry hisses from the others at the mention of the word human, "Quieten down my children I'm sure our sister simply means that she was born to her queen by a sacrificed human" the queen said softly.
"Ummm no good queen I do not mean that at all, I mean what I said, my queen has a human king and they are very much in love, he has sired her many children and thanks to our human brothers and sisters we Xenos are now freed of the burden of having to take life in order for our children to be born, now we can live in peace and harmony with all, now all Xenos can have young ones of their own and have their own miniature hives to add to the greatness of our birth hive," Xipa said.
Her words provoked a lot of angry hissing and shrieking, but also a lot of curious chirping, "Silence!" the queen bellowed so loud that the inside of Xipa's skull rang like a bell adding to her plethora of pains.
Xipa felt the reach of the queen beginning to crawl around inside her skull, it was like having a slimy serpent coiling and twisting through her brain, she knew that the queen was searching for deception and lies among her words and thoughts but Xipa wasn't worried, she had nothing to hide.
After a few minutes of the queen probing her mind, Xipa felt the grip of the queen relax but her presence remained, "You speak the truth young one, I find it both shocking and also curious to see humans can be...pleasant, but I have seen your memories even the ones you try to keep secret from me, the ones are hidden in the deepest darkest part of your mind that only you see, the part where curious images of those naked males live, male hunters, the ones who hunt us for spot, who kill our brothers and sisters, who mount the skulls of our beloved kin upon their walls, but still you fantasise about them about most curious things you'd like to do to them" the queen said.
Xipa felt a burning flush of embarrassment burning up her hide as her deepest secrets were dragged kicking and screaming from the depths of her mind into the light for all to see, the queen was viewing all her deepest secrets like she was reading the pages of a book.
"But these hunters are different from the ones I have seen in my long life, and the same is true of the humans of which you speak, I see your memories like they were my own and I must say they are most curious, these humans of your mind are not the same as the ones that have captured my hive and brought us here to this place of torment, so let me show you what my memories of these creatures are young one let me show you our memories of them," the queen said and before Xipa could say another word her mind was flooded with images like a damn had broken within it.
What Xipa saw in those images chilled her blood like it was made of ice from the polar north, she saw it all, felt it all, lived it all.
The pain, the fear, the humiliation and the sorrow, it burrowed its way into Xipa's brain like a grass tick, she saw what these humans had done to her kin and felt every moment of it like it was her living it.
Xipa had to shake her head and remind herself that these were not the humans she knew and adored, she also saw the queen's memories of the Yautja hunters that had tried in vain to claim her skull, of the hives they had killed and of her pain and sorrow at the children she had lost.
The Clan had always taught her that there were bad in all species just like there was good in all species, just because the humans she knew were all good that didn't mean that all humans were but the same was also true.
"So young one I have seen your humans and you have seen the ones I know, you seem to truly believe that your humans will come to rescue you from this place, do you honestly believe that they would fight against their own kind to save you?" the queen asked.
"Yes and these humans are nothing like my humans, my humans are kind, good people, they would not just rescue me given the chance but all of you as well, they would not leave innocents to suffer at the hands of evil people, same species or not, because while they share a species they do not share a set of morals or an oath, these humans are corrupt, evil and that is exactly what Clan Mason fights against, if I can reach them I can tell them what's happening here and they will come for all of us, I promise you noble queen Clan Mason will not only save you and your beloved children from this place but they can give you a place for you to build your hive in safety all they would ask is that you respect the rules and laws of the Clan," Xipa said.
The queen was silent for a good long while, she seemed to be going over what she had learned from Xipa's memories along with this new information that she had garnered, Xipa could feel her apprehension at the prospect of trusting both humans and Yautja to save her from this terrible place, but it seemed she was also wise enough to realise that two things were always true, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and desperate times called for desperate measures.
"Very well young human born Xeno sister, I will trust you and your Clan Mason but I will promise you this, fail to live up to this trust and we will inflict our vengeance upon you so the choice is yours young one, ally or enemy," the queen said.
"My good queen, myself and Clan Mason would never betray your trust help us and we will help you," Xipa said.
"Very well then young one we will trust you, it seems you need a chance to get to the human technology you refer to as a radio and it just so happens we both where it is and how to get to it, leave it to us, my children will give you your opportunity, do not squander it," the queen said and Xipa felt a ray of hope shining in her heart like a sunbeam, maybe some good could come from this foul situation after all.
Xipa slowly began to get back the feeling in her limbs, with not a lot to do but converse with her cellmates she found her mind wandering to home, it pained her heart to see the horrible reality of how most of her kind were forced to live, forced to prey on others to ensure their own survival which in turn made them hated by all and hunted by others.
This in turn made her think of the powerful attraction she felt for the males of the Yautja species, of course, she knew of the terrible relationship that her kind had with the hunters, but the hunters of Clan Mason were nothing like those hunters, they believed in the ways of the Clan of the unity and the peace that it brought them, they other than the way they looked and the spirit of the hunt that they brought to protect the Clan.
Xipa found her thoughts wandering to one very specific hunter that she had met only very recently, he was fresh out of the Hunter training grounds, recently badged and blooded as a full-fledged hunter, she had heard the tales that a great many other Clans still used the blood of her kind to achieve the status of blooded hunter, but within Clan Mason, the only hunting of sentient beings that occurred was the mate hunt, the best kind of hunt there was in her humble opinion.
Her thoughts wandered to his tan and red skin like desert camo, his strong broad back, his pinched waist and narrow masculine hips, his long thick powerful legs like tree trunks, oh how she remembered the day she had seen him in the showers of the Saviour barracks after he had completed his specialization training with the Saviours and the mere sight of him had frozen Xipa in her tracks.
She couldn't tear her sight away from him, as she stood there frozen like a statue she watched him soaping every inch of that incredibly beautiful masculine body, the way the water cascaded down over his rough skin forming little shining rivers that followed the gaps between his bulging, taught, masculine muscles, oh how while she had such problems tearing her vision away from the cleft of those carved buttocks, she wished he would turn around and let her see the true form of his masculinity, to spy his sacred masculine treasure.
"Such strong desire you have for this male young one, I feel it burning through you like liquid fire, I have never felt anything like it before, in all my years walking the worlds of this universe never before have I felt these feelings, they are strange and alien to me but they come from one of my own kind" the queen's voice echoed in her mind as she lay upon the cold hard floor of her cell.
Again Xipa felt the burn of embarrassment, "Why do you feel such embarrassment young one? Do these feelings you have for this male shame you?" the queen asked.
"Well no I am not ashamed to feel this way about him, he is incredibly beautiful to me, I-I-I feel embarrassed that you see my cowardice good queen," Xipa said knowing that if the queen so desired she could simply pry the hidden truths out of her mind but she was giving her the chance to simply own up to them like her own queen and mother would have done, it was the mark of a good and true queen to guide their young, not to force them but to make them understand themselves.
"Cowardice? Ahh you mean by not acting upon these feelings, well if you desire this male why do you simply not take him?" the queen asked.
"Because that is not the way we do things in the Clan, forcing another sentient being to do such things against their will is a vile monstrous thing, a beauty like his must be earned, it must be wooed and hunted properly, only one who's love is strong enough and pure enough will ever be able to catch and keep a beauty like him but the hunt must be on his terms when he is ready and not a second before" Xipa explained.
The queen was quiet for a moment as Xipa felt her crawling through her mind once more, "Ahhh I see it now, very very strange young one, all these rules that you and the others follow, rules that constrain what you are and shape who you are, tell me why do you follow them?" the queen asked and Xipa instantly knew that she already knew the answer but wanted to hear her say it anyway.
"Because it makes us better, it shows the universe that we are not mindless animals, we are not mindless killing machines who destroy all they touch, that we are so much more than that since our queens were taken in by Clan Mason and given the chance to prove ourselves our queens have done everything they can to show not only the Clan but all the Clan meets, it's up to us to show everyone who we truly are and what we can bring to the universe and that means we have to shackle our baser instincts, so you see good queen I have to earn the right to take him," Xipa said.
"Hmmmm fascinating, simply fascinating, you have such strange and interesting ideas young one," the queen said and with that, she left Xipa's mind and went to consider what she had learned from the depths of her mind.
The queen was as good as her word though, the humans came for Xipa again sooner than she would have liked, a blast of electricity through the collars followed by a blast of freezing cold gas that burned her nerves from the inside and her hide from the outside signalled their return and before she could even issue a scream the humans were in the room and Xipa was being dragged out once more.
As she was being dragged through the winding corridors of the hidden base as she reached a set of doors on the left wall of the Xenos in the cells to her right began to pound themselves against the gas together, this created an incredible amount of noise.
"What's going on?" one of the guards asked.
"No idea but some things got them seriously riled up," one of the others said.
"Fucking animals, if the fucking company weren't paying the Admiral so fucking well we'd have fucking nuked this place from fucking orbit ages ago," another said.
"Oh stop whining Jason they're paying us as well you know and a damn sight more than the Corps ever did and trust me if they ever find out what we're doing up here with their fancy new battle cruiser all the money in the universe won't fucking save us, so just shut up and think of all those credits in your account when you get back," the final guard behind Xipa said.
That's when a slight rattling from a vent above them all made them all look up including Xipa, "What was that?" one of her guards asked looking at the small metal grate.
"How the fuck should I know, why don't you take a look?" the guard behind her said but before the guard could move the grate simply burst.
Xipa instantly recognised the shapes that jumped out of if, face huggers, two of them, they moved so quickly two of the guards barely had time to open their mouths to scream before the small creatures were upon them.
They clamped their heads in their long spindly legs and wrapped their long tails around their throats as they jabbed their long insemination tubials down their throats to inject embryos, the final guard tried to raise his rifle to shoot the creatures but before he could get halfway Xipa seized her chance and remembering something that Matriach Sela eleth had taught her, head-butted him full in the face with all of her strength.
The man folded up like a cheap deck chair at the beach, Xipa never had managed to get the hand of those bloody things, the sheer amount of times she wound up running down the beach on all fours screeching her head off with a cheap deck chair snapped shut on her tail just wasn't even funny.
"I had been keeping that ace hidden for quite some time young one, the humans here are annoyingly observant, you would not believe how hard it is to lay an egg with two implanter's in it but I managed it twice, so do not squander this chance we have entrusted you with young one because we will not get another" the queen said inside her mind.
"Thank you, good queen, I just need to get these shackles off," Xipa said.
"You are a Xeno! We don't need our hands" the queen shrieked and it took Xipa a moment to realise what she was saying and she was absolutely right.
Xipa kicked the door to the comms room as hard as she could and it smashed open with a bang that made the three signals people inside jump out of their skin, before they could even gather their wits she was across the room kicking the closest one full in the face with her clawed foot, the second one drew a pistol and fired at her but her panic made the shot go wide as the large Xeno girl ducked and charged her like an angry bull.
As her head made contact and lifted the human female off her feet Xipa fired out her inner mouth plunging it into the flesh of the woman through her chest, she screamed in pain as Xia bit huge chunks out of her internal organs leaving her bleeding out in a hold filled heap on the floor before turning with a hiss to face the third and final human.
He fired and Xipa dodged, the bullet stuck metal and Xipa felt a shot of pain shoot down her tail but she also felt a warm trickle, she was bleeding and that instantly caused an idea to bloom in Xipa's mind, the needles they used were resistant to her blood but she was willing to bet these cuffs weren't so with a quick flick she caused some of her highly acidic blood to drop onto the chain holding her tail.
No sooner did her blood make contact than the metal began to fizz and hiss before it broke with a pop.
"Oh, shit," the final signaler said as he saw Xipa's tail begin to flick around Xipa snarled nastily at him.
"This is for my brothers and sisters," she said before with a sharp flick she sent a spray of green blood flying towards him, he raised his hands to shield his face and then screamed in pain as the acid ate right through them and his gun.
With a single step, Xipa stabbed forwards with her long tail stabbing the tip right through his lightly armoured chest causing him to make a choking gagging sound as blood rapidly filled his punctured lungs.
Before his body had hit the ground and long before the last of his life left him Xipa had turned and raced across the room to the comms panel which looked like a really really old version of what Clan Mason themselves used, it was covered in buttons and switches but every pilot in the CMN was trained in the use of comms systems and how to tune them just in case the worse ever happened and they were also trained to remember a set of frequencies to use in case of said worst-case scenarios, to go along with these codes they had been taught a set of words, word that they were taught to not only never forget but to also never use in vain because these words were the basis of a sacred oath that every member of the Guardian Core swore to answer the day they joined.
Xipa input the frequency and tuned the radio setting it to as a wide a broadcast range as it was able before picking up the microphone, "This is second lieutenant Xipa Longclaw to any Clan Mason vessel or personnel in range, Dark Star, I say again, Dark Star, co-ordinates to follow" she said and began typing furiously.