Unspoken Promise.

Anxiety washes over the little light and she is consumed by uncertainty. She knows what her duty is, but regardless, she is unsure if she should once again revive her partner.

While she is completely capable of resurrecting him now that she is out of the influence of the Hive's Darkness, she feels conflicted. Finding her partner and exploring dangerous places together has been her dream for as long as she could remember. She spent years searching for him and the joy she felt when she revived him for the first time was indescribable. However, now she feels the down side of this relationship.

She knows, in all likelihood, if she does her duty and brings her partner back from death to face humanity's enemies, like in the legends the Speaker tells, they will eventually face challenges just as difficult as they have today. She knows that she will watch her partner die again and again until one day, she may be unable to bring him back. She knows that if something happens to her, her partner will lose his connection to the Light and eventually die with no way to come back. She wonders if it may be better to let the man's final death be a heroic one and avoid the inevitable suffering that is the destiny of all Lightbearers. Spark thinks for some time as she watches his shadow stretch longer.

Glowing mist dissipates around his body as Klutz springs up to a seated position and takes a deep breath. He breathes for a moment before fixing his attention on his mechanical companion. Moving his hand from his chest, he reaches out to his Ghost with his palm facing up.

Spark rests herself in the Lightbearer's hand and speaks so softly it is almost a whisper, "I'm glad I found you."

Armored vehicles and defensive fortifications lay rusted and undisturbed around the ancient military base. Most of the area outside of the walls is filled with tattered tents, occupied only by the bones of the desperate souls of the old world.

Designated landing zones dot the camp, likely to make mass evacuation as efficient as possible. Thousands of people arrived here with the hope of a better tomorrow.

A better tomorrow that never came.

Silhouetted by the almost entirely set sun, is a relatively intact helicopter.

"You think this thing can fly?" Klutz asks doubtfully as he leans against the side of the large evacuation vehicle.

Spark finishes her scan of the abandoned machine and replies, "Structurally, the vehicle is in surprisingly good shape, all things considered." She flies up to the vehicle's rotor. "Only one of the blades has any significant damage and I'm sure we could get that fixed up in no time." Spark quickly returns to the pilots cabin and scans the controls once again. "The real problem is the internal components. Pre-Collapse engineering is really amazing, but this kind of vehicle just wasn't designed to survive after this much time exposed to the elements." Spark leaves the vehicle and rejoins the man outside.

"I guess those engineers didn't plan for a few centuries of delay on regular maintenance," Klutz jokes, trying to make light of the situation.

"It's going to take me quite some time to fix what I can and replace what I can't. And that's assuming we can even find the right materials…" Spark says disappointedly.

"Time for plan B?" Klutz asks as he stands away from the helicopter's chassis.

"To be honest, I don't really have a plan B… I was betting a lot on good fortune here," she says, looking disheartened.

"Come on, Spark. We haven't even looked inside the base yet," the man says with vocal optimism. "Maybe we can find another heli inside that's more… usable."

Spark looks toward the base. "I doubt it. All evacuation vehicles were likely in use during the Collapse." She looks to the Lightbearer and sees his glow of optimism. "Although, it can't hurt to look, I guess!" the little machine says with a change of attitude. "At the very least, maybe we can find some useful salvage."

The inside of the massive hanger is unusually bare. Possibly already picked through by scavengers. Lockers stand open and empty, with only a few personal effects left to show they ever contained anything at all.

"Yeah… I'm thinking this one's a bust too," Klutz says loudly across the hanger to his Ghost as he looks through an empty room lit only by low power emergency lighting. "There's still one more hanger. Maybe we'll have better luck there?"

Spark finishes her scan of the hanger's maintenance equipment, but finds little of value.

The pair meet at the hanger's door and exit onto the moonlit tarmac. As they approach the final hanger, Klutz turns to his despondent partner and says, "Have some faith, Spark. We made it this far so I'm sure we'll figure something out."

Klutz pushes the massive hanger doors apart, enough for him to fit through easily.

Spark sweeps her light across the empty hanger floor and lets out a small sigh.

Klutz fumbles through the dark control room, looking to find the switch for the emergency lightning. "Hey, could you lend me your light a second?" he asks calmly.

Spark leisurely floats over to help her companion and confesses, "Today has not gone how I imagined at all."

Klutz reads through the panel of switches and replies, "Yeah, not exactly how I thought things would go either. Falling out of that building this morning gave me the impression that my day would be a lot shorter." He says and gives his Ghost a smile.

"A lot less work too." Spark giggles for a second before clarifying, "Please don't get me wrong! You've done most of the heavy lifting here. I just wish ANYTHING went as I expected."

Klutz flips the switch and the lights lining the hanger's ceiling snap on. The duo return to the hanger's main space and find something definitely unexpected. Hanging from a maintenance rail, high above the ground, is an untouched single occupant vehicle with a dark grey exterior decorated with red symbols. Spark looks in astonishment before zooming up to inspect closer.

"It's a jumpship!" She scans across the space vessel and exclaims, "A WORKING jumpship!"

"Seems like the unexpected can be a good thing sometimes!" Klutz yells up from the ground.

"The NLS drive has been removed for repairs, but from what I can tell, everything else is in working order!" Spark races down to the control room to lower the jumpship from the rail and open the hanger wide.

Klutz fruitlessly looks for a way to enter the cockpit before the Ghost quickly returns and scans the ship again.

"Even the transmat is operational!" the little light says before dematerializing into glowing dust.

Klutz is shaken with confusion before the ship suddenly powers up.

Spark's voice emanates from inside, "Oh, almost forgot the pilot! Get ready for transmat!"

Before he even has time to ask, Klutz disappears in an instant and rematerializes inside the ship's pilot seat just as fast.

"I've already set the nav-data for home. It's not as great as a Golden Age metropolis yet, but it's really starting to look like a real city, now with the walls the Titans built!"

Klutz has learned by now that he won't understand a lot of what Spark says, so he focuses on studying the jumpship's complex controls.

"They look a lot more intimidating than they really are." Spark assures the first time pilot. "Just grab the yoke and I'll initiate take off. It's more intuitive than you'd think."

Klutz grips the yoke and the starship leaves the ground. "Alright. Away we go," the man says, pushing forward on the controls.

Bright blue light blasts from behind the vehicle as it rockets out of the hanger doors. Klutz pulls back on the yoke to direct the ship steeply upward and narrowly misses a building ahead. Quickly getting a feel for the controls, Klutz flies up and above the clouds.