Chapter Two - Sammy

(This is the last flavored bar Captain.)

“Seriously? Please tell me if you are joking, and there are more flavored bars here. Come on Bastion, there has to be more.”

(I am afraid not, Captain. However, we have 302 Type 2 Nutrition Bars.)

I groaned. “I don’t want to eat those, they taste like cardboard.”

(Captain, please return to the bridge. You have a high priority hypercom call. The caller holds the rank of ‘Custos’. That’s all information I have at the moment.)

“What! One of those mad guardians has called me. Argh! I am coming.”

I munched on the bar as I walked to the bridge, thinking about who might have called me. Ah, no use thinking about it now. I am here already. I took my seat and hit accept. Let’s see who it is.

“Hey, kid how are you?”

“Old Man! You are still alive? I thought you were buried on some battlefield, somewhere on a forgotten planet with a gun in one hand and a skull in the other.”

“I can totally expect myself to go out like that kid. But for now, I need a little help. I am stuck on Planet 3, the Icarus system with Alliance troops. Sky can fly but she won’t be able to escape gravity well by herself.”

“No way I am landing Bastion anywhere on that planet. He is a corvette, not a gunboat.”

“I am not asking you to land, Just give me a little boost in the atmo. Say sky how high can we go?”

(To the edge of the atmosphere at current functionality levels if no more power is diverted to shield generators.)

“Oh, that could work. I’m in but, I need a nano forge. No compromise on that. Also, Hi Sky, How are you?”

(I am running at 70% combat capability. That, in human terms, will translate to I am fine.)

“Glad to know that Sky. Now, Old Man, you are giving me a forge or I am not coming.”

“Okay, Come here and get me outta here. Then we will sit down and talk. I am a little busy shooting Congs. See you soon.”

With that, his face winked out.

“Bastion, plot course to planet 3, Icarus system. We need to get there as fast as possible.”

(Aye aye Captain.)

(Course plotted, it will take us approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach planet 3 if we go on full burn through umbraspace and 4 hours through slipspace.)

“Go through the umbra, Bastion, Old Man needs help. I will go to the lower level and configure the struts according to class two Jaeger. Get us there in the meantime.”

(As you wish, Captain.)

I ran to the elevator and hit the maintenance level button. Going through the umbra means the warp bleed and reconfiguration will take longer, Shit. I just hope reinforcements do not arrive before me. I am going to activate the backup reactors. We need all the power we can get to boost Skylark out of gravity well. I got out of the elevator, grabbed black coveralls from the locker, activated the tool bot, and got to work.

An hour later, I was sitting near consoles gulping down water. God, I hate coming down here. It’s always hot, cramped up, and troublesome. But hey, at least I got the job done.

“Bastion, how much time?”

(We will drop out of the umbra in 47 minutes.)

“Okay.” I stood up. “I will run diagnostics and recheck our engine configurations. Inform me ten minutes before we drop out.”

(Aye aye Captain.)

______________________

I was sitting at the helm mentally preparing myself for what’s about to come. I will go in, grab Sky from orbit and then get out of there as soon as I can. sigh

“Bastion, pay full attention to our surroundings, grab as much data as you can. Fight ES if you have to, we need that intel. You, have to grab the data we need. As soon as the warp bleed ends, reconfigure the warp drive and warp us a few light months away. When we are near orbit, transfer control of pick up gear to Sky. She’ll handle it. Okay?”

(As you wish Captain, good luck.)

“Luck Bastion, let’s get this.”

Bluishpurple-Black space melted into planet 5, Icarus system. 5 was a gas giant looming above me. A feeling of nausea hit me, courtesy of the umbraspace. It soon passed over, and I focused on getting us to planet 3.

“Bastion, patch sky on the network.”

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“SKY!! Send me the coordinates. I will be there within an hour.”

(I am currently in Orbit at the edge of the atmosphere. Orbit is destabilizing at a rate of 0.03% per minute and increasing. Sending coordinates. I --)

Bastion suddenly interrupted (Captain, multiple warp signatures in and around the system.)

“Fucking hell, how much time do we have, Bastion?”

(About four hours till we are in the weapons range of the ships that warped in. Ship shapes and numbers are an 83% match with an Alliance task force.)

“Fuck fuck fuck…”

“Calm down kid.” Old Man spoke loudly. He continued “We are going to get out of here in one piece, I promise okay? OKAY?”

“Oka... Okay. I got this. I got this.”

“Good, I have sent coordinates and flight plan follow it, and do not fire that railgun. It will take a lot of energy, something we do not have to spare at this moment. Right now, we need speed, not firepower, no need to kill unnecessarily. Besides, Sky has more than enough firepower.”

“Okay, I will not fire any weapons. I will just use point defense. I am coming in at full burn, we might need repairs. Stay there, Old man I got ya.”

“Good kid.”

From that point, neither of us spoke a word. There was a heavy silence, flying to them as fast as I could while watching the Alliance task fleet on my tail closing in. At the time I was thankful for the ruthless training I was subjected to at Eldra. I miss Eldra, why was I not there at the crucial time when they needed me? Why was I…? I shook my head, no, this is not the time for this. I need to get them out, I will think about this later. Focus.

“Bastion, time till engagement?”

(We are moving at a decent pace to avoid contact with frigates, Captain. Though gunboats are a different story, they will catch up to us when we slow down to clamp Skylark.)

“I am not worried about gunboats, they can’t even get past our deflection shields. Although those frigates will be trouble. sigh Bastion, handle those gunboats and try to grab intel. Keep an eye out for the second task force. Also, run a scan as soon as we grab the package.”

(Aye aye. Warp drive is ready Captain.)

“Good.”

There she is, in all her glory, the Fleet killer, Skylark. I am getting nervous, I was not trained to fly a corvette through a fire field. Give me a gunboat and I will fly it through a fully blown out war and still smile the whole time. sigh

Okay, time to do this. I carefully oriented my ship and matched my speed with Sky. As soon as the clamps were locked in and confirmed to be secure, I was accelerating. There were still faint vibrations running through the ship, produced while grabbing the package. This is a hell of a package with a mass one-fourth of my ship. Darn it, micro fractures in struts, damping generators overloaded and now I have to go to slipspace just great.

Old Man’s smug face appeared on the comm console. There that smile with that twinkle in his dark brown eyes, we are in trouble I just know it.

“There we go kid, you did it. I have faith in you. Now, it's time to get out. I will provide cover fire.”

“Oh damn, what are you up to this time you crazy bastard?”

“Don’t worry kid, those drone squadrons are closing in fast. I plan to discourage them a bit.”

I groaned as he started chuckling, that crazy bastard. Tremors ran through the ship and struts were developing more microfractures. Here we go.

“Bastion?”

(Warping to slipspace in three. two. one. warp.)

Space turned to violet-black.