Chapter 51: Mysteries of Deep Space.
22 light-years from the Media sector on the edge of the Clan Mason patrol zone a solitary ship enters a backwater out of the way system with a large solitary star and quite a few planets though only one appeared to be a large M class.
The solitary ship was one of Clan Mason's newest ships, fresh out of the ever-expanding shipyards, a part of the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch's master plan to make the Clan a force to be reckoned with in their sector while at the same time to be able to defend and aid their allies, it was called a Runner class scout ship.
The ship wasn't large and only had a small crew of four and while it had a hyperdrive and had long-range jump capabilities based on the new hybrid hyperdrive systems that were being developed and implemented between the science hive, the Raptorians and the Serpentinus for use on all of their smaller ships allowing them to keep up with the huge drives that were mounted on both the frigates and cruisers, though none of them could match the drive mounted on the likes of the GMF as that ship's drive was bigger than this whole ship by a factor of four.
But the whole point of this ship wasn't meant to be a sledgehammer, that job was left to the heavy cruisers, frigates, the new carriers that were being developed by the science hive and had been nicknamed flying hives by the Clan making thee name stick, as well as the Dreadnaught class battleships like the GMF which while it didn't have the fighter and frigate compliment of the new Hive carriers had but its sheer size and weapons compliment more than made up for it.
But while a Dreadnaught Class was the sledgehammer of the Clan the Runner was a scalpel, it was the eyes and ears of the CMN, it was stocked with top of the line long-range sensors and both system and planetary mapping equipment, it was designed to go into a system and look for everything it could from large mineral deposits that might be of use to either the Clan or its allies, to signs intelligent life blooming on a world.
This might not sound like the most exciting work but every Saviour crew that got assigned to one of these ships were incredibly excited because this was deep space exploration, they were the tip of the spear that was Clan Mason and its allies now being referred to as the Coalition by everyone.
These brave Saviours were gonna see things that possibly no sentient being had ever seen before, new worlds, new species, new phenomenon all right there for discovery and the chance to have their names in the Chronicles of the Clan as the ones who discovered them, it was enough to make a natural born explorer-like Jay Mathers's mouth water.
Ever since his days in the school system of Clan Mason he had had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a burning spirit of adventure, his teacher Miss U'Lanna Darkclaw had picked up his insatiable thirst to see new things and explore new ideas and had taken a special interest in kindling this, she was one of Yautja who had come to the Clan having followed the clues in the Grand Matriarch's diary that was still to this day must have read in the shadowy circles in Yautja society where some yearned to break free of the shackles that their society imposed on them and she told him her own story.
She told him how hard it had gotten in her clan after their clan leaders had gotten wind of what was happening in other clans and they had locked the clan down, especially the females, no more solo hunts, no more going out anywhere without male chaperones, so her plans to run away and to follow the freedom trail or the path of the unchained heart as it was known in these circles had been shelved.
But that's when an opportunity had presented itself, she had been working as an arbiter of their clan and she and one other a male arbiter had been sent to track down a runaway female who was believed to be hiding in a nearby system when she'd found the young woman she'd been hiding in a cave just like Tik eleth herself but that's when it happened, the male arbiter with her was going to kill the young woman so she struck him down instead and the pair of the two women escaped using the ship she and the other arbiter had arrived on, they had followed the trail as best they could never be having a real clue if the trail they were following was real or nothing more than the fiction story that the vast majority of the clans were playing Tik eleth's work out to be, but the pair of them had a dream, a burning need to be free and unchained just like the great Tik eleth herself.
The journey had been long and hard and there had been many moments that had been millimetres from giving up when like the hand of the Lady of the Eternal Hunt herself had just given them a little nudge in the right direction they'd found it, the planet that Tik eleth and her beloved ooman had met on all those years ago and more importantly they'd found the message buoy orbiting the planet.
It had led them to the meeting place where they were to wait in their ship broadcasting a message on a very specific frequency, the message was a simple one, "I am one of the unchained, my chains are broken and I seek permission to follow my now free heart.'
She explained that message was a code and how it alerted the Clan to the fact that it had new members petioning to join, they sent an ambassoder to meet them and she told him how she had never been so scared and exited in all of her life but her taking the chance and setting out on that adventure was rewarded with a life she had never even dared to dream of, she and her new friend had passed the tests of the Clan Mason Saviours sent to meet them and they were welcomed into the Clan with open arms, seeing this place with all of its beautiful things and people had changed her life, it had made her determined to become a teacher within the Clan and to teach the young minds raised in this beautiful place to respect it with everything they were because they were the lucky ones while also looking for those with the same spirits as her and to foster and kindle them, she wanted those young minds to follow their dreams as well as their sense of adventure because sometimes the unknown path you can tread can lead you to the most incredible and beautiful things.
This had lit a fire in Jay's heart, he had been born into the Clan and had never known anything else but hearing all those stories from the elders and teachers of the other things that were out there made him incredibly glad that he was, but it had given him a real drive to go out and see the universe as it was, he wanted not only to find new things to make both the Clan better and stronger but also now the coalition as a whole, his biggest desire was to not only to protect his beloved Clan and it beautiful people but show those beautiful people new and wonderful things that would enrich their lives the way the stories of his teacher and elders had enriched his, he wanted to tell stories of adventures, so that meant getting his black ooman butt out of his seat and getting out there and having adventures that he could tell his beloved Clan about.
So as soon as he was old enough he had not only signed a no consent to be hunted form but he had joined the Saviours, once had passed out and had been badged a full-blooded Saviour he had requested a transfer to the Clan Mason Navy and had been accepted.
Once he had been accepted he immediately began working to get himself trained in areas that would mean he would be sent to the very tip of the spear, so thanks to the multiple options in both education and training that the Clan gave to its people he managed to get himself trained in not only stellar cartography but also advanced signals and signals intelligence.
The result was that he was a fully trained Sigint, Stellar Cartographer and data analyst so when the CMN had been looking to crew these new Runner class scout ships his name had been at the top of the list and now here he was, part of a four-man crew of fellow Saviors all experts in their field all working to further the Clan and its allies knowledge while possibly locating and alerting them to new and potential threats.
The way these ships worked wasn't that they were launched from the Clan's space and ventured out fully alone, they were part of a small battlegroup working under a Praetorian Class Cruiser like the CMN Fury or Vengence, this ship was accompanied by two Hunter class frigates which acted as torpedo boats and two CWIS frigates.
There were six Runner class scout ships in this group and as the group reached a central system the battle group would set up a temporary staging area and lock the system down, from there the Runners would be sent out to neighbouring systems in order to map them and see what they could find, this was all part of the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch's plan to not only secure the systems around the Clan's territory and that of its allies but to also weed out problem elements like the reports of pirates that they had heard from both the Raptorians and Serpentinus, funnily enough, these pirates had never bothered the heavily armed CMN ships instead going after lightly armed trading and transport ships that both the Serpentinus and the Raptorians used.
Both races had reported that the pirates that had repeatedly attacked them were of unknown species plural, so in response to this the CMN had instantly set up escort systems so now these ships were protected by a heavily armed gunboat while in transit and the attacks had stopped, so the commerce and trade had not only resumed properly between the three peoples, the Clan had also shared the tech with both the Raptorians and with Serpentinus for them to be able to produce their warships which they had both immediately began doing with the Raptorians making full use of their new outposts on the surface of their world, three of which had now been turned into full-on spaceports, with the Clan's help they now also had both a space station and large shipyards in the works as well as all-new planetary defence platforms.
But the Grand Patriarch and Matriach did not want these elements operating either close to or within their space so orders had been issued to all the scout groups like the one Jay was currently a part of under the heavy cruiser the CMN Queen's Heart to look out for these pirates and if located not only report their positions to the Coalition and then if possible actively engage though it was not a kill on sight order more a disable and apprehend order but all were given clearance to use lethal force if they either resisted or attacked them first.
So this caused both an added element of danger to this already exiting job and Jay was loving every minute of it, this is exactly where he wanted to be serving his beloved Clan not on the front lines but on lines that weren't even drawn yet and if they were it would be him and those like him who would draw them.
"Hyperspace jump complete, we've come in on the edge of the system, what are you getting on the scopes there Jay?" 1st Luitenant Saviour first-class Vessi Sharptail asked leaning back in her large pilot's seat and swivelling her large domed head around on her long flexible neck to regard him with a warm smile that revealed her large sharp teeth.
"He's probably too busy sketching his maps to even notice that we've dropped out of hyperspace, hey Jay think you I pose for you you could spend that long drawing me?" a deep gravely voice from the gunner's seat which was directly opposite Jay's console and station.
The cockpit of the Runner class was arranged in a large V shape with the pilot's seat at the tip, behind that on the left was the gunner's seat and control of the weapons and defensive systems, in the middle was the commander's station and science station all in one and finally, then there was the signals and sensor station where Jay himself was sat.
"Don't think so Kess'all he's only interested in heavenly bodies?" commander S'Cann Proudheart said shooting the large Yautja female with a sly grin drawing his mandibles up into a smile.
From the front jay heard Vessi snort a laugh and he swore he could hear her inner mouth laughing as well, Kess'all shot the commander a scowl, "And what would you know about heavenly bodies commander?" she growled.
"Only person on this ship who is mated remember, every time I see my wife naked I get to see the most heavenly one of all" he shot back with an even wider smile clicking his mandibles as he did making Kess'all snort.
"Well at least you honour your ooman wife commander I'll give you that but I'm pretty sure our resident ooman there just took the time to draw me I'm sure he'd swiftly find out that my body is just as heavenly" Kess'all said folding her large arms over her ample chest plate and raising an eyebrow at him making Jay shrink into his seat somewhat and already feeling his cheeks beginning to burn.
He'd never been very good talking to females of any species and despite his drive to succeed at what he wanted to do and be, it was hard enough when there had only been three species but now there were five and things were getting more complex now.
As a Saviour he was every bit as much a soldier as any Hunter was so just like them they had trained in billets and close proximity so he had seen naked women of different species, the huge muscled goddesses made flesh that was the Yautja, the lithe, svelte and highly sensual temptresses that were the Xenos and then his own race the most sought after of the three, the highly sensual, loving and adaptable humans.
Now came the Serpentinus who travelled in packs of four who would surround you and flirt as a group that tried to hypnotise you with their highly sensual swaying and soul-soothing voices all while their scales captured your eyes and drew them to their incredible feminine assets, then you had the Raptorians.
Those girls were like miniature, scaly Yautja girls, a lot stronger than they looked, hunted in prides of five or six who would surround you like a pack of hungry fire tigers and try to aggressively protect you and mother you all while flashing their incredibly colourful feathers and flush scales drawing you attention to their long luscious tails, their powerful and taut thighs, silently promising you all sorts of delights if only you would pick their pride and let them steer you away to their safe place.
But Jay had been so focused on his want and his need to make his dream a reality so he had signed something that was still in place to this day, his no consent to be hunted form, something that was in his Saviour file and every one of the officers who commanded a ship that he served on would be aware of.
Commander Proudheart was a respected Saviour officer and had recently been promoted from fighter pilot into commanding one of these new Runner scout ships, he had handpicked his crew and it was one of the things that he had questioned him about before bringing him aboard and when Jay had explained that he just didn't think it would be fair for him to divide his attention between some he would love and chasing his dreams of making his beloved Clan stronger and more secure than it had ever been while finding new and beautiful things and people to show to the Clan by bringing them back the most wonderful of things, stories of adventure.
To his credit, the Commander had simply smiled and nodded, "I understand you young one and just so you know I respect your decision and as a sworn Saviour I will die for your right to choose it and to live by it even if I think you are wrong because that's what it is to be a Saviour we live and die to protect the Clan and its values" he'd said.
When Jay had asked him why he thought he was wrong he had looked him right in the eye and smiled, "Because a loving partner believes and supports the dreams and goals of the one they love and not only that they will drive them to achive them, when they are at their lowest they will pick them up and push them on just like me and my ooman wife, she knew my goal was always to captain on of the Clan's largest ships, to hold the responsibility of protecting and defending our beloved Clan from anyone who would ever want to harm us or destroy us, I passionately believe that a commander should always be a Saviour first and a Captain second, because every person who joins the Saviours do so for one reason and one reason only, to protect every single innocent person within the Clan itself, that belief then filters down and that desire to protect and defend becomes as natural to you as breathing, everyone looks up to a captain as a symbol of how to be and how to act and I am proud to say that i would not be where I am today if it was not for my beloved wife, she is my everything and is the defender of my soul and my heart, though I suppose as a Seeker of Truth she understands better than most, but just remember that going forwards young one, the love of a good person is worth more than anything and if they truly love you then your dreams will be as important to them as they are to you just as their should be as important to you so you can drive one another to achive them, now I have my own ship and she leads her own Seeker team" he said and it had stuck itself right into Jay's mind like a tick.
But that having been said he was still spectacularly shit at weathering the attentions of the opposite sex, when people were still trying to figure out where his attentions fell back in school he did have a rather embarrassing encounter with one of his friends where he had made a hopeful approach before being rebuffed which had been deeply embarrassing for both of them, though to be fair L'Ran had tried to kiss him in the bathroom and it was only thanks to Jay's much smaller and wiry frame that he'd managed to slip out of the Yautja male's grip and when Jay while his heart felt like it was trying to escape his chest by bursting through his rib cage like a chest-burster he had somehow managed to explain to the mortified Yautja boy that he didn't swing that way and that he was only attracted to females.
L'Ran had been both mortified and supremely embarrassed by his actions and it had taken Jay a great deal of time to not only calm him down but also comfort him as the poor male had burst into tears both out of embarrassment but also fear that he'd ruined everything with his misplaced affections and his clumsy attempt to secure himself what he described as the most beautiful ooman he had ever seen, but he was also terrified that he'd now lost his friend.
Jay had explained to him that he had no intentions of dropping him as a friend and that it didn't bother him that he was homosexual and that he was attracted to him and while he didn't share those feelings he didn't hold that against him and would always be his friend and Jay had always prided himself on being true to his word, eleven years later at the grand old age of twenty-two the pair were still best friends and had even passed out of Saviour training together and while L'Ran had remained on the homeworld to be an arbiter Jay had taken to the great black skies in search of adventure, though it had been Jay's proudest moment when he'd stood cheering his heart out for his best friend when he'd carried his husband back to the Clan from his mate hunt and presented him to the Grand Patriarch who had been the Seeker who had overseen his mate hunt that day.
But even after all that he still had problems weathering the attentions of the opposite sex no matter what species they were so now when Kess'all gave him a salacious smile he felt his cheeks burn like their hot coals hidden in his mouth.
That's when Jay's console bleeped and saved him from any further ribbing and aggressive flirting as well as banter, he turned to his screens and began checking the readouts of the four probes that he'd launched the second they had exited hyperspace into the system as was the standard protocol for CMN ships entering an uncharted system.
The probes served to enhance the power of the already powerful sensor suite that the Runner class ships had access to, these probes were tiny little high-speed sensor suites attached to a powerful little plasma engine that allowed them to move at an incredible speed more like a missile than anything else.
Once launched the probes would tie themselves into the Runner's sensor suite via the powerful comms network and feed their data back to the analyst which in this case was Jay.
"Commander got an odd reading here from probe two," Jay said instantly silencing the banter that had been continuing while he'd tuned them out to review the feed from their probes.
"What have you got Jay?" the commander asked living up to his habit of calling his officers by their first names rather than their ranks, a habit that was kind of a double-edged sword as while in an environment like that of the Runner which had a small crew and kind of an intimate atmosphere which was engineered by design to help the crew work better together, but on a larger craft like say a Praetorian where the crew was far larger where a much higher standard of professionalism was the norm it probably wouldn't work.
Jay analysed what the probe's sensors were feeding him and then he switched to a visual read from the probe's camera's to confirm what he was seeing his eyes instantly widened as he realised what he was looking at.
"It's a ship sir, unknown origin," he said and instantly the air on the bridge changed like someone had flipped a switch.
"Powering up defence systems, charging shields and railguns, spinning up the plasma cannons, do you wish to engage stealth systems, sir?" Kess'all said turning to her consoles.
"Any sign that they have seen us yet Jay?" the commander asked making Jay feel his bright eyes on the back of his head.
"Negative sir but then I'm not getting any readings from them at all really, it's like the ship is in low power mode, the probe is closing in on it so I've switched it to stealth mode in case they detect it," Jay said.
The commander clicked his mandibles thoughtfully and scratched his cheek, "Put it on the viewer" he said and Jay quickly set the probe's feed to share to the main view screen which was directly in front of the commander's seat like a holographic TV screen floating in the air as is it was projected from two projector modules mounted in the headrest.
As soon as he saw it the commander's mandibles clicked again this time more aggressively, "That's an ooman ship!" he exclaimed.
"How can you tell commander?" Kess'all asked looking at her own feeds curiously.
"Look towards the left flank near the large solar panels, that name is written in English," the commander said and Jay zoomed in on the area he indicated so they all could see what the commander had seen.
The ship itself was incredibly long but very thin, it was shaped sort of like a Yautja war spear with a large pointed almost diamond-shaped cockpit and flight deck at the front, then a large tubular body that had both a large wheel-shaped spinning Taurus at the centre along with a lot of odd bulbous pods attached to the main body looking like either spots or tumour growths at this distance, those were surrounded by huge solar arrays that stuck out from the ships like oars that tracked the system's sun.
"Activate stealth systems take us to silent running," the commander said and Kess'all reacted and the Runner's outer skin shimmered before their Yautja created and Xeno enhanced cloaking systems made them completely invisible to both the naked eye and sensors.
"Alright let's try and get closer and take a proper look at this beast, Kess'all do you see any weapons ports on that thing?" the commander asked.
"Negative commander unless the oomans are real good at hiding them I'm actually thinking this thing doesn't have any weapons at least not offensive ones," she said.
"Roger that but stay alert, oomans are a very cunning species we all know this very well, keep scanning," the commander said and Kess'all nodded and kept her eyes on her readouts and targeting systems.
Jay was able to fine-tune the probe's sensors and sharpened the image up enough that they were able to make out the name, "The Exodus huh? Certainly doesn't look like the ooman warship that the Grand Matriach sent pictures of after we rescued our beloved sister from that ooman facility" the commander said looking at the now crystal clear name on the side of the ship.
"Commander if I may say something?" Jay said and the commander turned to look at him.
"Jay I do not want my bridge crew holding out on me and staying silent, if you see something or your thinking something you call it out unless I say otherwise understood?" the commander said his voice soft but filled with authority.
"Yes, sir understood," Jay said feeling a little stupid.
"Well let's hear it Jay what are you thinking?" the commander said.
"I think it's a colony ship sir" Jay replied and the commander raised an eyebrow at this.
"Oh? And what makes you think that?" he asked.
"See those large pods at the dorsal section and along the underbelly, I think they are cryo pods they remind me of some of the early long rang Yautja ships that Matriach Sela eleth taught about in Saviour training, but by the size of them they are holding a lot more than the crew, I mean they are certainly not cargo pods and that's the only thing I can think of," Jay said analysing the shape of the pods carefully as well as the readings he was getting from the probe's sensors.
"Is the probe getting any power readings or radio traffic from them and is it close enough for a thermal sweep?" the commander asked.
Jay's fingers flew over his keyboard as he typed in the commands, the large ship changed colour to a blue colour with splotches of orange and yellow in places, "Power output is minimal sir and I'm detecting zero radio emissions, either ship is travelling under low power or it's shut down, I also have detected zero signs of anything like battle damage to the outer hull" Jay said.
The commander looked thoughtful and clicked his mandibles again then he seemed to get an idea as his eyes brightened, "Kess'all keep us in stealth mode, Jay tie the comms system into the probes and set them to broadcast randomly, we're going to open comms and hail them but I want the probes transmitting the message in bursts one at a time in a random sequence and keep them moving around so it looks like there are multiple ships in the system and make's a cubic fuck ton harder for them to pinpoint us" the commander side.
Jay couldn't help but be impressed by the commander's idea, it was an incredibly smart and surprisingly devious thing to do, but then Yautja are natural hunters and they are incredibly good at both ambush tactics and deceptions.
Jay gave him a thumbs up to indicate that he had set up the relay system and that the channel was open once he'd completed what the commander had ordered, "Attention ooman vessel Exodus, this the Clan Mason Navy ship Spectre are you in need of assistance?" the commander said obviously deciding that diplomacy was the best course of action as so far Clan Mason was not at war with humanity and he did not want to be responsible for starting one by being needlessly aggressive to what was quite possibly an unarmed and innocent colony ship filled with civilians.
There was silence on the line and the commander's vision switched from his display to Jay who simply shrugged, "The channel is open commander and I'm reading an established connection" he said quiet enough that it wouldn't be broadcast over the comms.
"Ooman vessel Exodus this is the Clan Mason ship Spectre please respond are you in need of assistance, we mean you no harm and have no hostile intentions," the commander said but yet again was met with silence.
"Are we close enough to get a life signs reading?" the commander asked and Jay nodded scanning the ship as Vessi drew them into close range now they didn't need to use the probe's sensors or visual display as they could see it with their own eyes.
"I'm detecting some erratic signs but they are very strange, it's like they are faint but also erratic, it could be to do with hypersleep pods, don't human vessels lack FTL flight capability?" Jay asked.
The commander shook his head, "That was our initial assumption but from what I heard from the science hive after the Grand Patriarch handed over all the scans that all the ships who took part in the raid on that facility that held our beloved sister captive took of the ooman combat cruiser they don't have hyperspace jump tech but they do have FTL just very primitive ones which would make sense in line with your theory about those pods containing hypersleep pods as it would take them an awfully long time to get out here" the commander said and Jay nodded in agreement.
"So what's the plan commander?" Kess'all asked and now all of them looked at him Jay included as they waited for orders.
The commander clicked his mandibles thoughtfully and then looked at Jay again, "No sign of any response to our presence at all, not even an adjustment of course?" he asked and Jay shook his head.
The commander gave a few more clicks then by the look in his eyes he decided on a course of action, "Report our position and what we have found to the Clan, tell them we intend to board the vessel and see if there is anyone we can help over there, make sure the message is detailed enough to indicate that there are no hostile actions on either side and we are doing it to render aid, I don't want them dropping the GMF in off our port bow guns out and ready to blows holes in shit" he said and Kess'all laughed.
"You always have to be a spoilsport don't you commander?" she said.
He chuckled and then gave her a wide grin with his mandibles drawn up, "I know you'd like to get you hands-on that big boy's guns Kess'all but that ain't gonna happen if you call it in to blow holes in an innocent unarmed colony ship, gotta be a good girl if you want to be on the bridge of one of those big boy's one day" he said and she made a chuff noise.
"Aww and here was me thinking we could get to see that planet cracker they got in action," she said making them all chuckle.
"Honestly if it called for a firefight I don't even think they'd last ten seconds in a fight with us let alone one of those things, the wake of one of those Dreadnaughts alone would tear it in half, you know I heard they got plans for another six of them down the line so there are gonna be a lot of ship captains praying to the Lady of the Eternal hunt and possibly even the Great Tree that the Grand Patriarch and Matriach choose them for it," the commander said.
"You included commander?" Jay asked and the commander chuckled.
"What I pray for is my own business Jay but if I end on the bridge of one of those ships I want it to be because of my own merit earned before our beloved Clan, not because of anything else," he said and Jay nodded, he would remember that.
"Vessi look for a docking hatch and take us in, Jay retask the probes to begin sweeping the sector, Kess'all get the gear ready we're going over there because I will not have it ever said that the Saviours of Clan Mason just flew on by when there were possibly people in need that needed our help, even if those people turn out to be our enemies we will still stand up and show the Clan that we embody the values on which Clan Mason was founded," the commander said passionately.
"Yes sir!" the three of them chorused and they got to work.
Vessi found a docking port on the starboard side that the Spectre could attach to and the small ship moved into position before locking onto the circular hatch plate with its own magnetic docking boom.
"Seal is good and we are attached commander," Vessi said checking her readouts.
"Roger that lock the Spectre's systems down and put her in standby and auto adjustment mode so she will maintain the lock even if the ship tried to pull away," the commander said before all of them locked their system with the bio lockout systems that rendered the ship unusable to anybody but a registered member of Clan Mason.
The team moved from the cockpit into the living area of the ship which was a lounge and kitchen all in one where the crew could relax on their off-hours as the Runners were designed to be both short-range and long-range scout ships meaning that while they operated as both eyes and support in a battle group role they also worked beautifully on long-range jaunts solo.
The four of them filtered into the onboard armoury and picked up their armour and weapons from the cages, the weapons they were using were called ZRT-21's which were cut down versions of the standard Clan Mason battle rifles specifically designed by the genius Xeno's of the science hive for use in ship boarding.
They had been analysing the data given to them by the Hunters, Seekers and Saviours who had been involved in conflict lately to measure the performance of the rifles, they had decided that using the main battle rifles aboard ships could be not only incredibly risky due to their overpowered nature possibly allowing them to punch clean through the outer skin of the ship from inside effectively depressurising it and causing everyone and thing to be vented into space.
So it had been decided to come up with a new design to work around this issue as well as the size issue of swinging around a full-size battle rifle in the tight corridors and confines of a ship, so the ZRT-21 PDW had been born.
It was a variable power cut down version of the main battle rifle that was half the size and was chambered with much smaller smart slugs to prevent over-penetration, the voltage of the weapon auto-adjusted based on the data transmitted to the weapon from the shooter's armour so it would change on the fly to what the user needed and just like its big sister it had access to both plasma shot and tungsten railgun slugs but these ones would self destruct inside the target to prevent over-penetration same out happen if it hit metal to prevent it going through a space ship hull.
Jay's visor snapped up and his display's lit up, his heart was pounding hard in his chest, this was his first time going into potential combat and he kept checking his weapon nervously until a large hand appeared on his arm and he looked up to find Kess'all looking at him.
"Breath easy, young one you are a Saviour of Clan Mason n matter what we have your back just as you have ours, so no fear we stand, fight and if need be die together as one," she said and despite the slightly grim note of her words they actually helped and he nodded.
"Thanks, Kess'all," he said and she nodded.
"You got it now come on let's do this," she said and he nodded before following along with her to hatch where the commander and Vessi were both waiting.
"Are there you two are could you at least wait until after we board the creepy-ass ooman ship to sneak off to the cupboards for a lesion?' the commander said making Jay flush and Kess'all roar with laughter.
"A good huntress takes advantage of any given situation," Kess'all said and the commander laughed and it was only then that Jay realised that he was simply trying to diffuse the tensions of his team.
"Alright Jay you're up crack through the door I'd really prefer not to have to cut it," the commander said gesturing to the white circular door.
Jay stepped up and attached a wireless circuit probe to the control panel to the side of the door before running through a series of commands to interrupt various circuits in the door's system until like he'd picked the lock himself the door opened with a soft hiss revealing the airlock beyond.
"Alright people game face's on here we go," the commander said and with that, he stepped forwards into the ship interior.