The Frontier Spark
Episode 3: The plot thickens
-AGATHA'S ROOM-
"What the heck was that for?! All I did was say hello!" The muffled voice of Burke shouted from inside the maintenance tunnel under the floor.
"I'm sorry but you barged into my room from under the floor, what did you think I would do?!" The orange haired girl retorted in an equally loud voice.
"Not stomp on my skullcap like that!" The future soldier griped to the girl.
"What are you even doing under my room and who are you anyway?!" The girl asked with her displeasure at the intrusion quite evident.
"Let me up there and I'll tell you what I can! Deal?!" Burke asked in an attempt to strike a bargain out of desperation since the girl seemed friendly enough despite her tap dance on his skull.
"Fine!" The girl stepped off of the plate and Burke ascended the ladder again. The girl took a good look at him and was briefly star struck from his appearance. "Woah your armor, guns, and that helmet, where did you get them? I've never seen anything like them before!"
"*Ahem*" The mystery man cleared his throat impatiently.
"Right, now that you're here, can you tell me what you had to say. Sorry again for the whole head stomping thing." Agatha apologized and scratched the back of her head.
"Ugh, that's gonna hurt later, just like everything else the baron's goons did to me. The last thing I needed was a headache on top of a thrashing. Alright, a deal's a deal. Frontier Militia 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Burke at your service. As for why I'm here and all my gear, well that's complicated." Burke shook his head slightly and griped at the memory of how painful his day had been. He then calmly explained some of his identity.
"Hey we had a deal!" Agatha poked him to accentuate her point.
"Our little bargain was that I tell you my name and why I'm in your room, and you let me in." The future soldier stoically countered with his own points of reason.
"Well then I'm still waiting." Agatha tapped her boot.
"Let's just say that Baron what's-his-face really wants to catch me, and I really don't want to stick around to find out just what he has in store for me. Now if isn't too much trouble, mind if I bunk here for a bit? I'm beat from taking on two of the baron's goons head on." Burke explained his situation and started to lay down on the floor.
"*chuckle* Wait a minute you met the baron and who did you fight?" Agatha chuckled at the quip before realizing what he said and she asked him about the whole ordeal.
"I did, and he's a real interesting piece of work. I fought tooth and nail against some crazy pirate lady named Dupree and a cyborg with one heck of a mean streak, Vonn Pinn I think's her name. She hits like brick wall with fists. That answer your question?" Burke complied with her question and kept on talking.
"Vonn Pinn, you fought her?! You fought her and won?!" Agatha was surprised.
"I wouldn't say I won, more like managed to successfully retreat, given the fact that I'm standing right here and my injuries speak for themselves. Gave those two a good beatdown for sure, but I don't call that a win. Which the reasoning behind why I was hiding in the duct. I wasted a lot of valuable resources during that whole mess." The pilot answered another question and began to feel like he was being interrogated.
"If you're trying to get out of here, could you take me and Krosp with you?" Agatha then asked for a favor from the grumpy stranger. The cat seemed to take interest in this and stated to eye the stranger, sizing him up.
"Forgive my skepticism but, I don't even know who you are, let alone if I can trust you. Plus, I'm not in the best shape right now. And who's Krosp, the cat?" The pilot retorted suspiciously and pointed at the cat who seemed visibly irked.
"Fair enough, I'm Agatha, Agatha Clay." The girl stuck out her hand in a gesture of trust.
"Well we did get off on the wrong foot, and I say again that the name's Thomas Burke, nice to meet ya." Burke shook her hand confidently.
"You're Irish, aren't you?" Agatha asked curiously
"Yeah, I'm from a long line of Irishmen, with a hint of Scottish, Italian, and a few other things in between. Let me guess, the name gave it away, right?" Burke replied with a hint of comedy in his slightly gruff tone.
"Kind of." Agatha shrugged.
"Okay, hey is that your cat?" The pilot asked as he pointed to the annoyed looking feline.
"That's Krosp." Agatha gestured to the cat, who rolled his eyes.
"So that's Krosp, Interesting name for a cat, but I don't judge. So, if you don't mind I'm going to sleep now." The pilot tilted his head at eh cat's name and started to lay down on the floor.
"I didn't say you could sleep here! Someone could find you in here!" Agatha exclaimed out of concern.
"Cut me some slack please, I've been through the wringer today and I need a place to hunker down and get my bearings. How about if you help me, I'll help you? I have some friends who might come looking for me and if we're in the right place, maybe I can get some 'heavy duty' help for us and get myself home where I belong. Somewhere preferably off this ship on solid ground. Not that I mind being in the air, it's just that my friends, including my partner, can't help up here." Burke groaned and then made another offer to the girl for his continued safe haven.
"I'd say with your expertise, and support that you claim to have, we could join forces and form an alliance. It would be mutually beneficial for both of our parties." Having finally made up his mind about the stranger, the cat stood up on two legs and spoke eloquently in a clear and consistent manner.
"Oh great, now I'm seeing a talking cat thanks to a concussion I got, glorious." Burke put a hand to his helmet in grief.
"For your information, I am king of all cats, and I am 'talking', and 'we' 'can' help each other. Take off your helmet, because if we are going to work together there must be no secrets. I would ask more about this Militia you mentioned, but for now that can wait." Krosp gestured to himself and then proceeded to strike a bargain with the pilot.
"That… actually makes sense, as strange as this whole thing is. Oh, this has just not been my best day." Burke paused for a moment before agreeing and doing as the cat named Krosp had asked. He removed his helmet and revealed a handsome face with a faux hawk of chocolate hair, blue eyes, and a light goatee. He gave a comedic grin and surprisingly got a chuckle out of Agatha. "So, what do you think?" He asked coolly.
"Y-you're… well…" Agatha fumbled her words and blushed at the sight of the handsome young Irish boy who clearly appeared to be around her own age.
"I'm… what? Is there something on my face?" Burke asked with a look of concern.
"N-no, not at all! I just wasn't expecting you to look so… never mind." Agatha turned away hiding her red cheeks.
"Okay, night." The worn-out warfighter finally nodded off, forgetting to put his helmet back on due to lack of priority in comparison to resting. After a few minutes, Agatha and Krosp decided to carry on speaking about their predicament as well as the prospect of trusting the stranger. The cat seemed to tease her a bit for how she reacted to the reveal of the young man's face. The young spark huffed in annoyance at that and the two of talked until they eventually went to sleep.
-BACK IN THE MILITIA RESEARCH COMPLEX-
The good doctor Vahlen was busy working on a way to track down the wayward pilot. If she failed, she would hear from a very angry commander Briggs with the full might of the militia's higher ups behind her. Mira was not having the best of days as she tirelessly worked with her team to repair the stargate. Her team of renowned researchers and engineers were going to be paid well over their usual rate for the good work they were doing. The doctor eventually sat down on her chair in the office she was assigned as project leader to take a break from her work. She had been trying all sorts of methods to restore the ancient relic to working order once more, and so far, some attempts in tandem with others had been marginally successful.
Another thing she had been lucky enough to discover was the coordinates for the portal's previous exit point. What was rather unsettling though is that it was in alternate timeline in the 1800's. Not to mention that from what limited data VX received from his pilot at the time, it was on board an airship. What puzzled the scientist is the fact that Zeppelins weren't seen on such a scale until shortly before the first world war on earth. That made her quite intrigued though as to how at that was even remotely possible at that particular time period in a parallel universe. There was also the prospect of the strange humanoid creatures the lieutenant had discovered alongside the people before the portal closed and his helmet camera's feed was lost.
It was very fascinating, but she knew that now wasn't the time for curiosity. She knew finding the lost soldier was her top priority in this mess and she had to find a way out of it. If she did not, the consequences would be severe, and coming from commander Sarah Briggs herself. After further time spent on her work, she managed to use some of the gate's excess technology to build a tracking device to locate the tracker in the lieutenant's helmet. Meanwhile, VX had been very eager to return to his pilot as it was part of his programming in two of the three Vanguard protocols. The titan had been patient so far but it seemed to be asking for regular updates from the good doctor.
-THE NEXT DAY-
Thomas had been rudely awakened by Krosp and returned to his spot in the tunnel. Agatha had been nowhere to be found the cat then informed him of the girl's sleepwalking and how she'd nearly disassembled the helmet. This slightly annoyed the pilot as his favorite brain bucket was how he linked to his partner back home. Thanked asked for a thank you and received it turn from a grateful Burke. The cat then informed him of where he suspected the girl had gone during her walk that night. That seemed strange to him but it didn't matter, he had to meet up with her and find a way off the massive airship. As he made his way through the maintenance ducts he found Agatha in the laboratories with another young man. The guy in question seemed personable enough, but something was off about him. Using his grapple line, the pilot stealthily lowered himself down to a safe distance above. He then swung to another low hanging shaft and climbed inside.
"PSST! Hey Agatha!" Thomas whispered from the shaft above her out of direct sight.
"Thomas?! Where are you?" She asked in a whisper as she looked around the room.
"Up here, in the duct." Burke shined his helmet visor down into the room and the girl looked up relieved.
"What you made come here?" Agatha asked her associate in a hushed tone.
"What do you mean by that? You should know why, we're supposed to be getting out of here! Remember?" The soldier from another world reminded the new friend he'd made.
"Oh right!" The girl came to a realization.
"Who is that guy anyway?" Burke stuck an arm out and pointed at the important looking guy with orange hair.
"That's Gilgamesh, the baron's son. Right now, I'm acting as his assistant." She gestured to where the Baron's son stood.
"So, the guy who sent those jerks after me, is this guy's old man?" The pilot said with a hint ire in his voice.
"Yep." She really popped the P to emphasize. "But he doesn't seem too bad."
"Alright, we'll talk later, I think it's best I change my position." Burke said tactically as the baron's son turned his attention back to Agatha.
"Okay Thomas." The girl whispered as the Irish boy disappeared. After finding a new spot to watch and listen, he shook his head at the sight of the various machines. One was way larger than the others and more intimidating. Agatha called it a clank from what he could hear and it made him shake his head more as the two people talked below. A few minutes later, a loud alarm blared and Burke took that as his que to leave with all due haste. Then he saw Agatha briefly argue with Gilgamesh over a guy named Othar. The girl ran into another room and Burke followed after her by his own means. He then finally bore witness to the man named Othar and immediately rolled his eyes in annoyance. A minute later the machine with Agatha took off flying with Othar. He gaped at the sight of the contraption's function and pinched his helmet where his nose bridge would be. A door then creaked open and ugly bug-like creatures bolted towards Agatha. In a split-second, Burke burst from the shaft and dove to the floor firing his dual pistols rapidly, shredding the creatures to bits. As the door was about to open further and more critters would spill through, he instinctively tossed a frag grenade into the hall and slammed the door shut. With a deafeningly loud boom, the pounding on the heavy metal door briefly subsided.
"Burke thank you so much for that! Oh, am I glad to see you again, we have to get out here!" A grateful Agatha huffed as and puffed as she faced the familiar glow of Burke's visor.
"Your welcome for the save, and the feeling is mutual. What in god's name are those things anyway?!"
"Those 'things' are slaver wasps! How have you never heard of-?!" Agatha shouted but was cut off by Burke.
"That door won't hold long, so run for our lives now, ask questions later!" The pilot said as he and the girl took off, with Burke keeping a steady pace for her to follow behind. The two of them ran for a few minutes until a certain baron's son ran straight into Burke.
"OOF!" The two young men slammed into each other and landed on their backs. "YOU?!" They pointed at each other and drew their weapons.
"Miss clay, come with me! That man is dangerous like Othar!" Gilgamesh said to the girl as he pointed his sword at Burke, while the pilot pointed his pistols defensively.
"Oi, she's with me rich boy!" Burke shouted indignantly. There was a brief standoff before Agatha decided to be the voice of reason.
"Thomas, Gil!" Agatha shouted their names in anger.
"What?!" They shouted as they looked at her.
"WE HAVE TO MOVE; SLAVER WASPS ARE COMING!" Agatha pointed to the direction from she and Burke had ran from.
"That cursed hive engine, what was beetle thinking?!" Gilgamesh growled.
"Hey, truce until this is over?" Burke said pragmatically.
"Fine, a temporary truce to survive." Gilgamesh agreed reluctantly.
"Works for me." The pilot shrugged gruffly.
-END CHAPTER-