He took one last deep breath of the cool air of the world ship and exhaled, like it or not it was time for him and everyone with him to leave the ship.
His time in Aincrad had reminded him and the rest of his crew why they bothered to do anything that they did.
The various hive cities and smaller cities had reminded those who came from more civilized worlds of the pleasers that they had enjoyed before they joined the Imperial Guard.
The mountains, forests, oceans, and whatever wilderness that existed inside of the ship helped soothe the souls of everyone who came from wild environments.
Their stay had been filled with all sorts of emotions, but just like all good things it had come to an end.
While his and his crew's alliance would always be to the Emperor it had been the priest's sermons that helped guide them back to the Emperor's side, when they had lost sight of his light.
However, while their alliance remained firmly placed on the emperor's side, they no longer served the Imperium.
For better or for worse they now served the the World Ship.
They would be its protectors as well as its scavengers, his ship was once one of the Imperium warships but it now had a new purpose.
It would search the stars for those who were in the same situation as they were and bring them back to the Aincrad so that the lost ship could be repaired and what remained of its crew be saved.
If he had to compare Aincard to anything, it would be to a Craft World, something similar to what the Eldar used to live in, and as heretical as that may sound it's the closest comparison that he can think of.
His life on the ship has been peaceful and while there had been some problems they weren't anything that he wouldn't have found anywhere else.
Those problems weren't worth mentioning as he had run into them even in his time on his ship.
He gave one last look at the same vast field of green grass that he had seen when he first stepped foot into the world ship before turning around and stopping himself from walking out of the castle and back into his ship.
The world around him was suddenly coated in a red light as a blue holo screen appeared in front of him and he immediately felt a cold dread spread through his chest.
It wasn't out of the ordinary for the scavenger ships to bring back an alien ship, that would be broken down for its materials, and whatever technology it had within it.
Those alien technologies would be studied and if possible improved so that they could be used against the enemies of mankind.
Yet what he was looking at was something that should have been possible, not because of the size of what the scavengers were dragging with them, but because of what it was and who it belonged to.
The scavengers were dragging an Eldar Cratf World.
That wasn't the only reason why he felt so afraid, what sent chills down his spine and filled his chest with a cold dread, was the state that the gargantuan ship was in.
The craft world had been broken into several pieces.
Anyone who had lived on a ship long enough knew that for the Imperium to destroy a single Craft World, it would have to use so many resources and place more important assets in danger, that it wasn't worth doing.
The craft worlds were an annoyance, but that was all that they were, most of the Eldar living in them never left, and considering that there were more pressing dangers in the universe, the Imperium left them alone.
Then there were the Eldar, the tall Humanoid aliens who copied Humaneties perfect form, were always dangerous because they were always armed.
To put it simply, the Eldar possessed a connection to the warp, that allowed their minds to bend reality into whatever they chose, not to mention that they were faster and stronger than the average Human.
Normally a person could deal with the threat if they had enough firepower that the alien's tricks couldn't save it, but the aliens had an annoying ability that called to others of their kind when enough of them died.
He instinctively grabbed onto his lass gun and watched as the Players walked into the craft world and while he did expect them to be attacked as soon as they set foot in it, he was relieved to see that nothing happened.
The holo screen separated itself into four different screens, that showed the different scout teams entering the broken remnants of the craft world and thankfully the results were the same nothing happened.
As the seconds turned into hours he slowly began to loosen his grip on his gun, but in a single second, he quickly held onto it as tightly as he had held it before.
What the Players had found wasn't the Eldar but their animals, the creatures that lived with them on their ships and the beasts weren't alone, as the craft world was filled with all sorts of exotic plants and insects that no Human had ever laid eyes on and lived to tell about it.
He carefully watched everything that happened after that and while he was tempted to run into his ship and help the players when he saw the creatures attack them.
His worries were quickly proven unnecessary when the Players quickly dealt with the creatures.
So he was forced to watch as the Players went deeper into the broken ship, and he watched when they began to pass the petrified remnants of log-dead Eldar who all seemed to be trying to get to something.
His heart nearly stopped when he found a large group of armored corpses who had their weapons aimed away from a massive machine that had long since been deactivated.
'A Webway portal." he said to himself but he quickly forced himself to remain quiet as his words could reach something that was listening, even if he couldn't see it.
'It seems like there's no one here except animals." he hears Kirito say to the other teams who agree with him.
He couldn't help but exhale in relief, there weren't any aliens living in the craft world, so he began to walk into his ship.
It was time for the two of them to get back to work, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for him and his crew the arrival of the craft world had changed their orders.
While they were supposed to go and search for lost ships, the Craft World's presence meant that his ship needed to remain in the area.
That meant that if anyone came looking for the Craft World and didn't care for the reason that it was being repaired and blamed everyone in it for its condition.
He and his ship would need to deal with the threat before any harm could come to the world ship.