…
"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science."
(Edwin Powell Hubble)
…
Derelict Geth Ship, June 14th, 2:59 PM, 2183
…
I could feel the heavy footfalls of my magnetic boots as I ran, turning on and off constantly to compensate for my speed. We hit another corner, stacking up as we checked for mercenaries.
"Clear!" Powell announced, turning back around to face us.
"How much further to the entry point?" Richard asked, taking up the rear as we moved through the cavernous vessel.
"Approximately 48.2 meters toward the port side of the ship, 12.7 meters up." Powell answered scientifically as he always did, his "platform" looking off into blank space for a second before we continued our run.
We stopped at an open doorway that led into a utility area of some sorts. It was easy to see the beams of light moving around on the other side as the mercenaries fumbled around in the darkness.
"Powell, can you hack into the comms that the mercs are using?" I inquired, getting him to look back at me.
"Yes, give me a few moments." He acknowledged, looking down for a few seconds before another burst of static filled our ears, giving way to new voices.
"-nd anything yet?" One of the mercs, a Turian from the sound of it, asked out loud as we cut into the channel.
"I don't fucking know, man." Another voice chimed in as I peeked around the doorway to get a look at the mercenaries. "I don't even know what half this shit is."
There were four mercs in view, two were obviously Turian, one appeared to be Human, and the last must have been Batarian, based on his helmet's design. All wore blue armor, barely visible in the dark if it weren't for the white accents that were characteristic for their group. They looked like were bored, based on how they moved and their posture.
I was finally getting some good use out of all that body language recognition I had taught myself while in the Flotilla.
"Is this the only way through?" I asked, looking back at Powell.
"Yes. The only other way through was destroyed when one of the mass accelerator rounds tore through the ship." He explained, keeping his head low to prevent the light from his "head" being seen.
"Well, I guess we'll have to get through these guys." I remarked, looking back at Ven and Rinno who were gripping their rifles, at the ready and itching for a fight. "Two on the left behind a wall, two on the right out in the open. We'll get as close as we can before opening fire. Rinno, you take the left flank with Powell, Ven, you and I have the left."
They all nodded to me as we crouched down and proceeded into the room. Ven and I stayed low, due to our only cover being a twisted junction of piping, as Powell and Rinno moved around the wall to get a bead on their targets. Richard stayed behind the doorway, due to his lack of combat training, armor or barriers.
"Hey Sergeant, Razor squad ran into some hostiles near sector 12!" I heard a new merc shout as two more ran into the room, sounding out of breath.
"They must have been the ones from that shuttle we destroyed." The Turian from before guessed, turning around to face the two who had just arrived. "Any idea who they were? Scavvers?"
"Yeah, just some suit rats who were poking around the data core room." The runner replied as anger continued to rise in my chest. "Apparently Razor managed to kill one of them before they escaped back into the ship."
"Bosh'tets!" Rinno shouted over the channel, voice dripping with venom.
"You two have your targets in sight yet?" I asked with barely contained anger, poking my head over the pipes to look at the mercenaries.
"We're ready to fire. Just give the order." Powell answered, anticipation evident in his voice.
I waited a few seconds, watching the mercs for any sudden movement changes. When nothing happened, I called down the hammer.
"Fire!" I yelled into the channel as the four of us popped out of our cover, aiming at the nearest mercs.
It was a bloodbath for the unsuspecting mercenaries. The two mercs directly in front of Ven and I didn't stand a chance as we tore through their barriers, piercing their armor and exposing them to the vacuum. One of the runners barely had time to take cover as their Sergeant was cut down in front of them by Powell and Rinno.
"Holy shit!" The other merc shouted, attempting to make a break for the doorway. I put three armor-piercing rounds through his back, killing him instantly.
"Can anybody read me?! We've got hostiles in sector 8, need backup!" The surviving runner yelled frantically, but with no reply. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
"Disarm him!" I ordered as Ven and Rinno bull-rushed his hiding spot. His surplus M-3 Predator did nothing to their overcharged exo shields as they knocked the weapon out of his hand and subdued him. They dragged him, kicking and screaming over to me by the arms.
"Please, I don't want to die!" He begged as Ven and Rinno effortlessly held him in place.
"You are going to tell me everything you know, now." I told the merc, pointing directly at him with my Carnifex.
"Ok, ok, ok." He babbled, forcing himself to calm down. "What do you want to know?"
"What are the Blue Suns doing here?" I started, crossing my arms in front of him.
"W-we were hired to hunt down the ship and mark it for retrieval." The merc answered, looking up at me with his polarized visor.
"Who hired you?" I questioned further, moving in closer.
"I don't know, only Captain Weinberg knows who actually gave us the job." He replied, sounding about as sincere as a scumbag mercenary like him could. "Please, that's all I know."
I aimed my Carnifex at him as he flinched backwards, and Richard ran over and placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Sean, you don't have to kill this guy." He urged, looking at me with his glowing eyeball. "Think about what you're doing."
I looked hard at the mercenary for a few seconds, contemplating the situation silently. This guy was obviously a piece of shit… but I wasn't going to kill a man who was on his knees, begging for his life. I lowered my gun, and took a deep sigh.
"I won't kill you." I remarked, barely able to keep my anger from invading my voice.
I then pulled my arm back and swung as hard as I could at the merc's head, impacting with maximum force due to the lack of air resistance. He was knocked cold. I looked back at everyone as Ven and Rinno let the merc go.
"Let's get moving." I told them, cracking my neck as I snagged one of the floating assault rifles, a M-15 Vindicator, out of the air. I quickly ripped the armor piercing mod out of my Carnifex, throwing it into the Vindicator.
I'd need the extra firepower of a rifle if we were going to fight more of these mercs.
We left the utility room, sneaking up a cargo elevator shaft to the next floor. We had almost made it to the data core before we picked up another Blue Suns comm channel. I signaled for everyone to stop as we listened in on a conversation.
"…didn't sign up to sit around holding my dick all day. I wanted to see some action, not get guard duty on some abandoned fucking wreck." One merc said, likely in mid conversation. "Why did Weinberg want this ship so badly anyway?"
"I don't know. Either he has some sort of salvage plan, or someone offered him a lot of money." Another merc replied, sounding very annoyed. "Now can you please shut the hell up? Your bitching isn't making it any easier to access this system."
There was a bit of a pause, before the first merc chimed in again.
"So, what were those suit rats wearing? It looked like it made it a lot harder for Claymore to kill this one and take the other two prisoner." He asked with newfound curiosity as we all began moving down the hallway again.
"I don't know, it looks like some kind of weird motor suit or something." A new merc answered, as I peeked my head around the doorway to see the mercs inside the data core.
The first and third ones were examining an upright exo which was empty, while the second worked hard at the main console in front of the core itself.
"You think it'll work with someone who isn't one of them?" The first asked, nodding to the suit as the third shuffled in place.
"Well, there's no harm in trying it out. It's not like he's going to complain about it." The third one morbidly replied, pointing to one of Dan's escorts with his rifle.
"Oh, I've always wanted to see this happen for real." Rinno quipped, quickly dashing across the darkened corridor to the other side just to get a better view.
"What is he referring to?" Richard asked, tapping me on the shoulder.
"Just watch." I urged, nodding my head towards the mercs.
The third merc stepped into the exo as it automatically strapped itself to his armor. A few seconds later, the Blue Suns channel was filled with pained screams of agony as the suit forced itself into lockout mode. When the suit does this, it begins to pull the limbs of the current operator in the wrong directions, easily breaking arms and legs in an instant. It was a feature Sira and I added in case an unauthorized user, such as an enemy combatant or thief, tries to use the suit.
And it looked pretty goddamn painful.
The other two mercs rushed over to try and get the poor bastard out of the suit, but it was fully locked and there was no way he was getting out without an override code. We used the confusion created by this to quickly take out the two mercs, and put the last one out of his misery.
"Alright Dimi, we're at the data core room, but it looks like the mercs got here before us." I reported, looking down at corporal's body. "One of Dan's escorts didn't make it."
"Дерьмо!" He exclaimed in Russian, shortly before taking a deep breath. "Alright. We are almost there. Once we meet, we will come up with plan."
I then immediately switched the channel to just me and Dimitri as I thought about what to say to him.
"Hey Dimitri, when you find us... keep your guys under control, OK?" I pleaded, trying to be as sincere as possible.
"What am I keeping them "under control" for?" He asked with emphasis, sounding very suspicious.
"It's a long, long story, but basically Richard was on this ship, previously made contact with the Geth, and Powell now has a Geth platform as a body." I quickly said as silence deafened the channel for several seconds.
"Это, оказывается, чертовски день…" He said under his breath, unable to be translated before exhaling. "Alright, I will… see what I can do."
"Thanks Dimi." I finished as we stepped back into the hallway, Powell purging the data core.
"Safeguards removed. If the ship is in danger of being overtaken by the mercenaries, I can remotely overload the reactor core and destroy it." Powell said over a private channel between me and Richard.
"Understood. Even though the Admirals want this ship for study, I'm not sure I want the mercenaries crawling all over it either." I confirmed, looking back at the two of them as a moment of pause could be openly felt.
"So what's been going on since Powell and I left?" Richard asked, looking hard at me through that visor of his.
"Jeez, what hasn't happened since you left…" I started, leaning against a wall as I crossed my arms. "We helped discover a new star system, fought off a Cerberus battle group, I got romantically involved with Mara, and things have generally been moving fast."
Richard just stared at me for several seconds, his one visible eye squinted in a questioning fashion.
"You and Mara are… romantically involved?" He said with a disbelieving tone dripping from his voice.
"Man, out of those three things, that's what surprises you the most?" I chuckled slightly, despite our current situation.
"Well, to put it in less-than-standard terms, you two seemed like oil and water." He replied, still sounding unconvinced.
"What can I tell you? People change." I shrugged off, gesturing as our comms picked up new signatures. It only took one glance to see they were friendlies.
"Dimitri, I hope you're guys aren't the shoot first and ask questions later sorts." I mused over the channel as bobbing lights could be seen approaching through the darkness.
"They said they'll keep their fingers off their triggers, though they're not happy about it." Dimitri replied, as he and his two escorts came into view, a male and a female, slowing down to a brisk walk. That didn't last too long, though. The moment Dimitri spotted Richard, he broke back into a full run and practically killed him with a bear hug.
"My friend! It has been so long!" Dimitri celebrated before releasing him and looking over him. "My, that blue glow is certainly new!"
"Uh…*cough* t-thanks, Dimitri." Richard squeaked out before Dimitri released him and turned to face Powell and I.
"So, this is your new body, Powell?" Dimitri assessed, tapping Powell's chest with the bottom of his fist.
"Yes, I currently inhabit this platform. It was given to me as a sign of goodwill by the Geth." He explained, looking over at Dimitri's escorts, who were staring right back at him.
I hadn't actually realized how tall Powell now was until I saw him and Dimitri stand next to one another. They were almost neck-in-neck in the height department.
Dimitri nodding in approval, before looking back to me.
"So, you and your guys pick up any information on these mercenaries?" He asked, folding his arms and looking harder at me.
"As far as I can tell, they swooped in shortly after we arrived. They destroyed the shuttle, entered the ship, and at some point found and attacked Dan's group here." I explained quickly, as Dimitri nervously began shifting in place.
"Great, so that means only way we get out of here is either by hoping rescue team arrives, or by stealing shuttle or other transportation from the mercenaries." He began to piece together, pacing back and forth. "We do not have resources to bunker down around here, so that kind of limits options."
"Powell, is there anything you've been able to gleam from their transmissions?" Richard chimed in, getting a little closer to us.
"I've been monitoring their outgoing communication, but I've yet to… hold on a second." Powell began, before pausing and looking into blank space. "You aren't going to like this, Dr. Michaels."
"What happened?" I asked very quickly, barely able to keep all the possible answers from pouring over into my emotional side.
"According to latest radio transmissions, it would seem that Dr. Nemo and his remaining escort have been captured and transferred to the MSV Kylah, the ship the mercenaries arrived on." Powell explained, as I could feel my stomach dipping. "It looks to be a Mirage-class Turian cruiser."
"The Kylah? That is one of most prominent ships in Blue Suns fleet." Dimitri pointed out, managing to sound just slightly intimidated as Ven, Rinno and the other two Marines stepped in closer. "Is there anything else you can tell us?"
"From what I can tell, it appears the Blue Suns are directly connected to our ship with some kind of umbilical." Powell continued, projecting a hologram of some static, flimsy-looking tube that bridged the gap between the derelict and the Kylah. "They are using it to quickly move materials between the two ships."
"There is no way we would be able to move through there. Umbilical will be heavily guarded, especially once they have discovered several of their teams have gone missing." Dimitri assessed, shaking his head in minor frustration.
"We might have an idea." Ven quipped, as we all turned to face him and Rinno.
"By all means, men. We're not shying away from any possible solutions." I agreed, listening in.
"Ok… what if we go out to the surface of the ship, then jump to the nearest airlock on the exterior of their ship from there?" He said, gesturing with his hands. "The Mirage-class ships have manual controls stored behind a small blast shield near the exterior doors. If we can get that open, we can get inside their ship."
"You want to go inside their ship? Are you insane?" Richard rebutted, sounding equal parts angry and slightly annoyed.
"Do you have a better idea? If we stay here, we slowly run out of oxygen and die. If we assault the umbilical, we'll have no chance." Rinno argued, getting up in Richard's face.
"I agree with Private." Dimitri supported, crossing his arms. "Think about it. Most of their men are on this ship now. If we can get there and take them by surprise, we can rescue our people and steal shuttle before they have any idea what happened."
"The plan is quite feasible. Mirage-class cruisers keep a set of manual airlock controls outside for maintenance and emergency purposes." Powell chimed in, agreeing to the new plan. "We would have to be careful, however. Without thruster packs for your suits, any mistakes made while in zero gravity could be disastrous."
I sighed as everyone looked at me. I was the last deciding voice, it seemed.
"Well, we're running out of time. Let's get this over with." I remarked in a deadpan, taking my new Vindicator off my back and extending it. "Powell, you're on point. Find the fastest route to the surface of the ship, and we'll make our jump when in range."
"Roger that." Powell agreed without question as we all got into formation, with Richard at the rear.
"I really hope you know what you're doing. We aren't commandos or black ops for Christ's sake, we're scientists." Richard argued, tuning his channel just to me. "How do you even know half of this tactical nonsense, anyway?"
"Professional paintball." I answered in my unwavering voice as I resisted the urge to look back at him. "Mostly."
There was a significant pause on the channel before a loud sigh could be heard.
"Dear God, we're doomed." He rang in my ear, causing me to crack a nervous smile.
…
Twelve Minutes Later
…
One by one, we all climbed through a charred hole in the hull, making sure not to lose our footing once on the outside layer of the hull. On the outer hull of the ship, we could clearly see the Kylah, blocking our view of the sun and casting a dark silhouette on the derelict. Powell had actually managed to get us very close to the ship itself, which was good for what we were about to do.
"What distance do you think that is?" Richard asked, nervousness clearly evident in his voice.
"I'm guessing… about 400 to 500 yards. Tops." I answered, holding out my arm and sticking my thumb up towards it as a reference. "Powell, you found us a location yet?"
"Yes. From my scans, our best target is here." He confirmed as a small waypoint appeared on my helmet's heads-up display.
"Is there anything you'd like to say to everyone before we fly into the deep?" Dimitri asked over our private channel, shooting me a glance as he kneeled down to manually work on his boots.
"Yeah. Everyone, fall in." I agreed, switching over the squad channel. "Before we do this, I just wanted to address how proud I am of each and every single one of you. I know this hasn't been easy for any of us, and I know there are a lot of disagreements and opinions floating around. Whatever you may think about our current situation, I want you to know we are all in this together. Let's put everything aside, and give these mercenary bosh'tets an ass whooping they'll never forget. Keelah se'lai."
"Keelah se'lai." Our Quarian squad members repeated, as Dimitri shot me a nod of approval.
I nodded back to him, as everyone lined up as close as possible and awaited my order.
"Reverse polarity on my mark… three… two… one… MARK!" I counted down, as we all shot off into space as our mag boots propelled us away from the hull of the derelict.
From this point on, we were completely helpless to the cold vacuum of space. Without thruster packs, there would be no correcting any mistakes. If we missed our target, bounced off the hull, or came under fire, we'd go floating off into deep space.
I was about a small margin away from panicking. I could only imagine what Richard must have been thinking right now.
I hadn't actually noticed how fast my heart was pumping until we were about halfway to our target. I looked off to the sides to look at everyone else, only to immediately focus back on the target as I felt my gut twist up into a knot.
"Twenty seconds until impact." I heard Powell announce as I switched my mag boots back on an raised them to maximum power. "Ten seconds."
"Brace yourselves, we're coming in hot!" Dimitri shouted over the channel as I forced myself to roll forward slowly.
The impact went about as well as my gut said it would. I barely landed with my feet on the hull, a thick, bone-quaking shockwave jumping through my body. I winced in pain, pretty sure I had broken at least two of my toes due to me reflexively curling them before landing. It hurt like a bastard, but I did my best to walk it off.
Dimitri had slammed into the hull pretty hard, barely able to keep his footing in the impact. Richard, due to his nerves, could only make the jump with Powell holding onto him. They both managed to land well enough, though Richard's channel was currently set to "Private" mode. Oddly enough, none of the marines seemed that fazed by the zero-g trip. I guessed it must have been a combination of those exos and their discipline.
Camp Dolor must have been pumping out some badasses.
"Come now, let us not waste time!" Dimitri urged, waving his hand at us as he plodded to the airlock.
"Yeah… I'm on my way." I remarked through gritted teeth, forcing myself out of limp and into a zero-g jog.
We all bunched up at the airlock as Ven pulled out an arc torch and cut into the control panel's cover. Once off, it revealed a simple lever handle that opened the outer airlock door. It seemed like an insultingly simple way to break into an enemy ship, but I wasn't going to complain.
The airlock seemed barely big enough to fit all of us. The moment the atmosphere kicked in and the artificial gravity clicked on, I felt so ecstatic that, for a moment, I forgot that I was boarding an enemy vessel filled with dozens of mercenaries.
It's the small things I life, I suppose.
If anyone had been on the other side of that inner airlock door, they would have been torn to shreds. We quickly moved into the hallway, checking our corners before determining that we were secure for the time being.
I pulled off my helmet, taking a deep breath as I clipped the thing to my belt. Dimitri and Richard followed suit as Powell moved to a nearby terminal and connected himself directly to the ship's systems.
"Found… anything, Powell?" Richard asked, still breathing heavily after the stress of the jump.
"Yes, I've determined that Dr. Nemo and his remaining compatriot are being held on this deck, near the stern of the ship. It also appears that Dr. Vsevolod's prediction was correct. According to the ship's roster, most of the crew is currently on the Geth cruiser." Powell laid out, his head jerking slightly as he "looked" through the ship's systems. "Strange. Encryption protocols on this ship's computers are quite strong, despite the age of the ship."
"It's likely a software upgrade made to "combat" any Geth programs that could have been on the ship." Richard theorized, rubbing the stubble on his chin. "These guys seem to be prepared."
"Are you still able to access security systems or comm network?" Dimitri asked, looking over my shoulder at him.
"Yes, I've been able to get into these fields." Powell confirmed, unhooking himself from the computer, and turning to us. "I will disable the local alarm systems and jam close-range comms.
"Alright, we've made it this far. Let's get the job done." I finished, brandishing my Vindicator as I tried my hardest to ignore the throbbing pain emanating from my foot.
"I can't wait to get some payback." Rinno sneered, popping the muscles in his neck as we moved out.
We followed the corridor, taking out two mercs who were unfortunate enough to be moving through at that moment. Deciding to stick with the maintenance areas for as long as we could, we entered what appeared to be a life support section, dragging the bodies inside with us. It was loud and humid as hell, humid enough that there was water dripping down from the ceiling. From here, we followed a long subsection that ran all the way underneath the main crew quarters. Despite the substantial presence on the derelict, it was still filled with dozens of people.
Once at the end of the corridor, we moved into an auxiliary generator room filled with humming, super-sized batteries. Seeing them gave me an idea.
"Hey Dimitri, you still have those grenades?" I asked, looking back at the tall, bearded Russian man.
"Da. Why do you ask?" He replied, pulling one off of his belt and holding it in his hand.
"I just realized it might be a good idea to set up a few… distractions for when we fly the coop." I remarked, taking the grenade out of his hand and wirelessly linking it to my omni-tool. "When the time is right, I'll detonate this and possibly another to cause a distraction."
"Good plan, it can mask our escape." He agreed, handing me his three other grenades. I clipped them to the back of my belt, and we continued on.
The aux generator room was the end of this section, so we moved back into the hallways, creeping up on the storage areas. From what Powell could tell, they had converted part of that section into a prison hold. It was the only place where they could be keeping Dan and his remaining escort.
We moved as fast as we could, but had to slow down and crouch when we passed the windows that peered into the exercise area. There were a sizable number of mercs in there, at least eight from my single glance. We made it about halfway down the hallway that entered the storage areas before a small explosion shook the hull, and triggered an emergency alert in our section.
"Aw, what the fuck?" I asked out loud as several of the overhead lights turned red. "I didn't seriously screw up a remote connection, did I?"
"That vibration came from storage area, not auxiliary." Dimitri corrected, as the pieces clicked together in my head.
"Let's get in there!" I urged as Powell cracked the door, revealing a smoke-filled hallway. I readied my Vindicator, keeping my eye out for anything. Gunshots rang out father down the hallway as we broke into a run to find the source of the gunfire.
When we got to the source, we found Dan crouched down next to his escort, who looked to be bleeding from a gunshot wound to her abdomen. Dan quickly pulled a Carnifex on us before immediately lowering it as he recognized us.
"Thank God... look, I d-don't know how the hell you guys g-got here, but you've gotta help!" Dan yelled, trying to compress the Marine's wound.
Ven, Rinno, and one of Dimitri's escorts quickly moved into action, pulling out a trauma kit. They gave Dan's escort a shot of biogel directly into the wound, then injected several vials of antibiotics into her. She hadn't lost too much blood from the looks of it, but any infections would kill her regardless if not treated properly.
"I…didn't… expect… to see… you guys… here." She said through gasps of air as Ven helped her back on her feet.
"We don't leave our own behind." I reassured, looking at a battered Dan, who was now covered in ash and missing all the equipment he had arrived with. "How about you? Are you OK?"
"I don't mean to rush guys, but you do realize every merc on this blasted ship is now on their way to our location as we speak?" Richard interrupted, running up to us.
Dan just stared at him in confusion for a few seconds before looking back to me.
"He's right, we've g-got to get the hell out of h-here." Dan said, a slightly frantic look in his eyes. "These guys were hired by Cerberus, Sean. I don't know exactly how they're involved, but we've got to get out of here as quickly as physically possible."
"Powell, you lead. Get us on the move!" I ordered, nearly yelling as we quickly moved through the smokey storage area. We took out three more mercs who were rushing to the source of the explosion, no match for our combined firepower. We moved into the main hold, taking out a few more mercs before entering the main hanger.
The area was large by most standards, about the size of three tennis courts put next to each other. There were three shuttles currently docked, one of which was already open. There looked to be about a dozen hostiles here doing various things, from loading cargo, checking manifests, or just making small talk. We'd have to get through them to get one of those shuttles.
We broke off into two teams, while Ven stayed behind with Dan's escort. I took Dan, Rinno, Powell, and Richard while Dimitri broke off with his two marines. We used the haphazardly stacked boxes of cargo as cover, moving in as close as we could.
Once in position, I pulled out one of Dimitri's grenades, cooking it before tossing it at the largest group of mercs, about four. It landed, exploding with the force expected. Three of the mercs were killed instantly, while the survivor lost one of his legs. Everyone in the hanger turned towards the sudden commotion, giving us the perfect window of opportunity to unleash hell.
Four more of the mercs were cut down by the surprise hail of gunfire, while the final four managed to reach cover. I flushed two of them out with another grenade, as Powell and Rinno cut them down to size. Dimitri and his escorts quickly overpowered the remaining two mercs, bull rushing their position with their overcharged shields.
The moment the area was clear, we all rushed for the open shuttle. Dan took care of the pilot who didn't even put up that much of a fight. Inside, I saw it was an older turian model, but it was still capable of making small FTL jumps. That was all we needed.
"Dimitri, you have the stick! Get us the hell out of here!" I shouted as we all got strapped in to the seats.
The shuttle lifted off as we flew as fast as we could out of the hanger and back into space.
"Powell, do it." I ordered, looking over at him as he nodded and stared into space.
The view outside of the ship was suddenly engulfed in a massive, blue flash as Powell overloaded the core of the derelict, turning the entire ship into a giant fragmentation grenade. As the fireball subsided, there was barely anything left of the Blue Suns ship to look at. The front half of the ship was just gone, and the remaining half was peppered with flaming hull breaches.
We jumped into FTL back towards the Migrant Fleet, as I shut my eyes as breathed a sigh of relief.
What an awful day.
…
A/N: This chapter was one hell of a doozy, and I had to re-write several parts of it over the last month. Either way, I think it turned out quite nice. I got to showcase a lot of personality in this one, even if most of it was through radio transmissions. In the end, it was fun to write.
Like I mentioned previously, new chapter postings will be erratic. I don't really have a time to write, I always end up writing when I'm in a certain mood. Don't worry, in the end you'll still get your chapters, but don't expect them on a regular basis. Especially with the next spring semester starting soon.
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!