This isn't Earth anymore. NanoTec is now where no man has ever been before. The first successful manned interstellar flight. Two years have passed since their fateful landing on the unknown world and so far, like the European colonists in North America, have only explored the coastline and the area around it in a rough 10 kilometer radius. This is where and when they push further. Extend their reaches and go beyond the blue horizon.

Elleno sat at the foot of his habitation module. The water levels had receded and left the sand on the continental "plateau" slightly damp. It was low tide, probably something to do with the planetary geothermal or tectonic activity which Saegen had not quite pinned down yet. The habitation module on the other hand had been reinforced with collapsible aluminium frames and silvery sheets as protection against solar flares. Sir-Caller walked up to Elleno.

"Sir."

Elleno looked up and nodded. "Done your research?"

"Yes sir. My project on the native flora and fauna is going well. Heck, the big trees taste like bacon."

"What?!"

"Ah, never mind sir."

Sir-Caller sat down next to Elleno. He stretched and yawned.

"Remember how it was like when we first got here Joe?"

"Of course sir. I mean that was only just over a year or two ago..." Sir-Caller's voice trailed off.

Year 2110: The first few months of NanoTec's landing were really hectic. The planet's weather fluctuated a lot and everyone found it difficult adapt every time it did. One day it can be sunny and a hurricane could sweep by the next. The ever so frequent solar flares every fortnight or so would knock out all unsaved data, documents and communications networks for hours. Much effort and hard work was lost, not to mention the few computers thrown out of the window lost due to raging scientists. That was when the inflatable habitations were given their aluminium and silver upgrades. It gave respite to the scientists and engineers, raised morale even though they did not even work at all.

On launch, there was about 120 thousand young men and women on board. A handful of not more than 200 people were unable to board the ship in time and was left behind. They most likely perished in the coming fire. During atmospheric re-entry, a cryostasis sector broke off and fell out of the skies. Another 20 thousand lost. Among those 20 thousand were important crew such as geologists, pilots and maintenance officers the rest had to make do without. Someone had to do their job, be it well or not. Progress was trudgingly slow.

A day on the planet was about 26.2 Earth hours long and a year was about 488 Earth days long. Every hour was pretty much the same. The engineers would be busy constructing more permanent structures in the place of the inflatable ones, looking at graphs, spreadsheets, blueprints and listening to Saegen's rubbish. The scientists on the other hand would be looking at more graphs, more spreadsheets, taking more precise readings on the geology of the planet, failing to develop new technology and this time not listening to Saegen nagging but Claev on his behalf. It was that boring and repetitive.

Elleno sighed and got up. "I guess you are right Joe. Days were tough then... Too bad that old friend of mine didn't make it."

"Which one?"

"The security officer of sector 4. His name escapes me."

Sir-Caller nodded silently.

"By the way, have Saegen and his rows of clowns come up with a name for this planet yet?"

"No sir. But Claev seems to have an idea. 'Serra' in Latin means 'saw' in English as in, I saw something. We saw this planet first... So the name may pivot around that."

Elleno nodded and replied, "Well, I have things to do now, my shift has started again. See you around."

Sir-Caller waved, "Likewise sir."

Sir-Caller was walking by storage facility-01 when he heard some rustling and scuttling coming from within. Sir-Caller stopped and turned his head towards the source. Standing there for a few moments listening, he finally approached the blast doors and toggled them to open slowly and silently. Inside was dark and dusty, clearly poorly maintained. The rustling grew louder and as Sir-Caller stepped in, his footsteps echoed within the structure and the rustling sound suddenly stopped. At the very back of the storage facility, was not a rat infestation, or the alien planet's version of it, but Claev poking his head through the pile of scrap only to be interrupted by Sir-Caller. Claev stared at Sir-Caller dumbfounded, and pretending to look innocent.

"Sir, may I ask what are you doing?"

"Urrr...Looking for something..." Claev replied slowly.

"For what may I ask sir?"

"Nothing much...Um, don't you have something to do Joe?"

"Ah yes of course. See you in a bit sir."

With that, Sir-Caller turned and left, after closing the blast doors again. Claev heaved a sigh of relief. From the pile, he pulled out a nuclear powered coffee machine. God knows how that wound up on the alien planet. Claev picked it up and smiled.

"Welcome back." he mumbled to himself.

Elleno made his way up to the refurbished "wreck" of the TeraNova. Although it could not exactly be called a "wreck" as the NanoTec engineers had already scrapped most of it and the only thing that remained was the bridge, which Saegen had turned into his office. Elleno wondered to himself what exactly had Saegen called him for. It was out of the blue and without prior notice. Elenno shrugged his shoulders and sighed. Saegen was always like that. Looks like he had to deal with that for a while.

Elleno continued up the ever so familiar flight of steps up towards the bridge and walked down the familiar hallway towards Saegen's office. He was certainly surprised to see Sir-Caller there too.

"Ah, good. You guys are all here." Saegen spoke first.

Elleno jumped backwards slightly. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.

Saegen continued, "As I was telling Joe here, you guys are going to be assigned to Geosurvey Vessels (GEV). Your objective is pretty much obvious, but since you look like an idiot, I will tell you that you have to go out and survey the planet's oceans. Simple."

Elleno's face went blank. "...Did you really just say that sir?" he blankly inquired.

"Yes I did." said Saegen nonchalantly. "Now moving on..."

Elleno's expression did not change. This time his mind nearly went blank and would have if it was not for Sir-Caller nudging him with his elbow.

"...your departure will be in a week's time. Your crew on the other hand will be handpicked within this time period. You will be briefed further on the day itself. Dismissed."

Sir-Caller and Elleno nodded and saluted. Just as they turned to leave, Claev walked in, apparently holding a pile of scrap metal which looked much like a coffee machine. Sir-Caller narrowed his eyes and stared at Claev.

"O-Oops, wrong room!" Claev ratted out and dashed off. Elleno glanced at Sir-Caller and shrugged.

"He seems really dashing today..." Sir-Caller mumbled.

"Now don't you start on that." Came Elleno's reply.

The next two days passed relatively quickly and without incident. (That is if solar flares were not considered 'incidents'). The crew for Elleno's GEV had been selected and were on standby at the newly built docks by the edge of the plateau. Elleno walked onto the wooden walkway leading out to the sea. There stood the his Corvette sized GEV, tall and elegant. It was painted a light grey, had a reddish-orange keel and had its name,'Rockmage' painted in bold white paint along its side. It mounted a primitive, bulky and yet effective medium range photon cannon (laser cannon) on its prow and had a two rows of mini-rocket silos aligned along the port and starboard deck. At first glance, they seemed to utilize either stealth anti-ship missiles or anti-missile missiles (Interceptor rockets). The ship's bridge was within the hull, so it was not visible at all. There was what looked like an observation deck mounted next to what seemed to be a funnel or smoke stack.

Elleno shrugged his shoulders. Was combustion not already outdated? He thought to himself as he climbed the gangway onto the vessel. The ship had a wooden deck, planked with the hard native wood. It had the look of an ancient WW2 battleship deck. Elleno walked over to one of the hatches at the base of the bridge and toggled it to open. The door slid open silently, revealing a short and dim hallway. It branched towards the left and right, both which led down into the ship's hull. Down the front was a ladder which presumably led to the 'observation deck'. Elleno went down the path to the left and opened a second door at the bottom.

"Not a bad ship I must say..." Elleno mumbled to himself. "The ship really reminds me of those in the early 21st century... Eh?"

The door Elleno opened led to the crew quarters, or at least the 'living room' and that phrase used loosely. Standing in the middle was a young woman with black hair, clad in a Lab RIG with a pair of myopia glasses hanging from her pocket. At that point in time, she was staring into her RIG holodeck doing final checks on the ship. She jumped backwards upon seeing Elleno. Blushing slightly, she saluted and began speaking, although tripping over her own voice quite a bit.

"Um! S-Sir! I am this ship's S-Science Officer. P-Pleased to meet you!"

Elleno found himself dumbfounded. "At ease. Relax with the formalities." He reached his hand out towards her. "My name is Elleno. Likewise."

She reached her hand out and shook his. "My name is Kagaku Ota. I am really looking forwards to working with you." and she smiled nervously.

Elleno left Kagaku to carry on with what ever she was doing and he proceeded deeper within the ship. Opening a door from the crew sector, Elleno ended up in yet another hallway. There was a blast door in front of him and there was two corridors branching to his left and right. Elleno slid a finger across his RIG and that blast door opened up with a faint sound of scraping metal. The door revealed the ship's CIC section. There were 3 control stations on the walls facing away from the entrance and in the middle was the captain's chair. Elleno walked up to it and stroked the arm rest. It was made of plastic but felt smooth and slightly spongy, much like synthetic leather. On its left arm rest was a holo panel to be directly uplinked to his RIG. Elleno was about to make another clichéd one-liner to himself, before hearing footsteps coming in from behind him.

"Ah, captain!"

Elleno turned around and surprisingly found himself face to face with two other young women. One was nearly as tall as him, had black hair with its ends dyed red and wore a leather jacket over an official NanoTec Engineering RIG. The other, like Kagaku, also wore a Lab RIG, and had long blonde hair.

"Welcome aboard sir. I am Ana Litke, this ship's engineer." The one in the jacket began speaking. "This here is Maria Maybach. She is our ship navigator and First Officer. Pleased to meet you." she extended out her hand as she said this.

Elleno nodded and shook her hand awkwardly. I have an entire crew of females... He thought to himself. Hell yeah!

"Umm... Yeah... Likewise." Elleno half mumbled.

I kinda feel like a male protagonist in a Japanese 'ero' cartoon right now... Elleno continued to think. His thoughts were soon interrupted by Maria.

"Sir here is our full ship status and report. Please acknowledge." she said nonchalantly with an unwavering blank facial expression.

Elleno took the data chip and put it into his RIG. The information panel materialized in his face and he began scanning through it, and reading to himself.

"Ship Data: AGOS/R 'Rockmage' (GEV), 50 meters length, 7 meters beam, 5 meters draft. Crewed by 4 men. 'Reactors' are high pressure steam turbines fueled by coal... ok... and has a fuel time of 36 months when running at standard cruise speed of 31 knots. Armaments include a Prow-Lance 'Mid-R' Photon Beam and AMM Interceptor Rockets. Both of which are of sub-military standards and should be handled with care. Status and Report: All systems have been tested and checked for faults. Survey has shown that the vessel is of up to acceptable standards and is fit for Navel operations as of today, (March 4, 2112)."

Elleno nodded. "Alright then... I guess I will be seeing you all? I think in about a week's time? Yeah?"

Ana laughed and smacked Elleno across the back, "Of course! You've met Kagaku yes?"

Maria took no notice of the two. She bowed slightly and silently excused herself. Elleno tried to speak.

"Y-Yes. Yes I have..."

"Good! Then I guess I will see you around?"

"Of course... Same to you."

A few hours later, Sir-Caller set foot on the docks. Apparently his crew had been chosen right after Elleno's crew. Sir-Caller stretched and yawned. Taking a peek behind him, he ensured that his cryo chamber was still present before walking over to his ship, dragging the cryo chamber behind him. Sir-Caller has a kind of insomnia problem. With so much prior cryo sleep and reliance on the chamber, he absolutely could not sleep without it. Literally. He walked up to his ship, half exhausted from the weight of his chamber. After wiping sweat off his forehead, he looked up at his vessel.

It was almost exactly the same as Elleno's GEV, same color and size. Except for the words 'Petramale' painted in bold white paint and its weaponry. This ship, instead of a energy based weapon, it mounted a VLS-10 Cruise Missile System on the aft deck and multiple Pulse CIWS Laser systems arranged along the port and starboard deck. Sir-Caller also noted someone walking along the ship deck.

"Hey! Sir!" that person called out.

Sir-Caller was already facing her by that time. "Yeah Sir?" he called back.

"Oh, umm, I don't think I should be called... You know what never mind."

Sir-Caller shrugged his shoulders.

That person nervously continued, "Well, I am this ship's Security and Weapons Officer. You are Joe, sir... Right?"

Sir-Caller nodded. "Yes, that is correct sir."

"Right... My name is Aria, Aria West, but my friends call me Ace. Welcome on board Joe...um I mean sir."

Sir-Caller boarded the ship and followed Aria down the ship's corridors. He was reluctant to leave his cryo chamber behind but the Security officer assured him that it would be fine and nobody would steal such a bulky thing. Aria was of American descent, despite being of average height, having black hair and black eyes. One could say she looked half-Asian.

"Our ship navigator is kinda ill right now so he is not around. His name is Dimitri Kolvok by the way. You would probably like him."

Sir-Caller remained silent but nodded to acknowledge. His mind was spent staring at the interior walls of the ship, briefly carrying out his own inspections of the standard of the craft. Just scientists' things. Judging from his previous visit to the Rockmage, even the interior of the ship was exactly the same as Elleno's. It was like the construction engineer's version of copy and paste.

Not long after, after visiting the CIC section, Aria brought Sir-Caller to the engineering deck and engine/'reactor' sector. The engines were inactive and cold at the moment. Sir-Caller imagined how hot the room would get when all four boilers were active. He shuddered at the thought. Each one of the boilers had automatic feeders which used coal dust as fuel. The steam created from the boiling of water would create significant pressures to run turbines with sufficient torque to move the ship and run dynamos. There was one holo deck station fit to the side of the coal dust storage and in front of it stood a man in the NanoTec engineering uniform. Almost as if sensing Sir-Caller's presence, he turned around and spoke almost immediately.

"Sir! Ace! Welcome on board!"

Sir-Caller replied, "Thank you sir."

Aria just rolled her eyes.

"I am the ship's engineer. Name's Dallas Bor. Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise sir. Say... Don't we have nuclear technology? Why are the ships using coal?"

Dallas' reply came immediately. "Well, you see, this planet has no lead. Zero. To build a fission or fusion reactor, we would need it to build neutron shielding for the two. The fusion reactors we have on hand are limited in supply. The fission ones have no fuel to run on. So... yeah. Even the copper used to build these are in short supply."

Sir-Caller nodded his head. "I knew that..." Came his embarrassed reply.

"Oh yes, one more thing." Sir-Caller suddenly spoke again. The two crew members turned towards him. "I have something I want to put into the ship."

Sir-Caller brought the two puzzled crew members to the ship deck closest to where he left his cryosleep chamber. He certainly did not expect the cryo chamber to be in the hands of another man trying to drag it away. Ace was the first to shout.

"Hey! Dimitri! You dirty Russian drunkard! Put that down right now. That is Joe's, not your fridge! Your vodka can survive without it. Come on, drop it!"

"Ill indeed..." Sir-Caller mumbled. "More like drunk and hungover."

Dallas laughed. "Ha ha! They are always like that Joe. Ace and Dimitri are good friends."

Sir-Caller watched as the drama unfolded. He sighed to himself and muttered. "This really is gonna be a long year."

Time flew. Literally. Sir-Caller spent the next four days test flying and fine tuning his VTOL Observation and Survey Drones (VOSD), which were loaded with clocks and watches, around Saegen's office. That drove him mad and the last straw was that Sir-Caller's rubber duckies were also riding on the black fuselage of the drone. Sir-Caller recorded his experimental drones to be a success as it took nearly three direct hits from a 20mm Anti-Armor Cannon chambered with high density composite slugs to bring it down, and even so, three of the propellers and all of its electronics were still operational after falling onto one of the habitats, rolling off into the ocean and being mauled by the native carnivorous fish. Bad news was that the rubber duckies did not fare too well from the ordeal. The clocks and watches were also nowhere to be found.

On the day before departure, Sir-Caller began testing his Submersible Sonar and Seismic Probes (SSSP) by doing deep dives off the edge of the plateau. There were no issues with the probe except for the poor connection through the seawater that was saturated with hydrogen and the same species of carnivorous fish trying to swallow the sub. He made mental notes to add fish repellent to the sub later. (Just like in the old Batman movies) He could not do much about the poor connection. While Sir-Caller thought of putting an extended antenna onto the probe but knowing the fish on the planet, he thought otherwise. He just had to make sure he did not dive too deep and pray. About an hour before putting the probe away, the sonar pulse picked up signals of artificially made objects lying on the ocean floor. On closer inspection, they were the clocks and watches he had lost a day ago. Lucky... he thought to himself. However, his probe was not equipped with sample gathering arms at the moment so he left them there for somebody else to find at a later date.

Elleno on the other hand was, as usual, sitting in his habitat updating the security logistics, having his data deleted due to solar flares, re-doing the logistics, nearly having his data lost again when Sir-Caller's VTOL Drone crashed onto his habitat and on occasion, reluctantly going out on patrol. Elleno also had to deal with problems such as some of the scientists complaining that his watches and clocks had gone missing and he was the one who had to look for them. But alas, the day for departure had finally rolled around the corner. Elleno and Sir-Caller woke at the break of dawn and immediately headed out for the docks.

"You know Joe..." Elleno spoke sleepily. "I really wonder where in the world you got those drones from... And those rubber ducks."

Sir-Caller merely shrugged his shoulders.

"Its like, you are over-prepared for everything."

Sir-Caller then whipped out a boy scout uniform seemingly from thin air and proudly said, "Be prepared!"

"My god..."

Soon enough, the two were walking along the wooden deck towards their respective ships. The dock had space for up to nine cruiser sized vessels. At that current moment, only two corvette sized ships were stationed there and one destroyer sized ship under construction at the far end of the dock. Sir-Caller waved at Elleno and began walking off to his ship. Elleno nodded and did the same.

The crew of the ship was nowhere to be found. "Well, we set sail at 9 am relative time and it is currently a quarter to 7... I guess it is understandable." Elleno mumbled to himself.

Goodness knows what Sir-Caller was doing so Elleno decided to go and explore the ship a little more. He made his way around the red-lit corridors of the ship from the crew sector to the engineering sector and finally stopping at the CIC. Feeling a little drowsy, he sat down onto the captain's chair, or in this case, his chair. The ship was hooked up to the colony's maintenance power grid so he was able to link his RIG to the ship's interface.

"*Welcome aboard captain.*" The ship's computer spoke in a monotone. "*Initiating Windows 10.1 OS...success.*"

All the computers in the CIC lit up. All of them displayed the NanoTec symbol with color spinning on its vertical axix slowly accompanied by a loading bar at the bottom of the screen. The computers finished loading at different rates. The first to finish was the navigation interface, followed by the sensors/science array and then Elleno's Heads up Display. It was a screen about 60 cm away form his face which showed camera footage from the prow, stern, port and starboard, time, date, coordinates, a real time damage report of the ship, which was all blue at the moment, and the range-finding and targeting scope. Elleno felt like he was playing a game. On the screen was also a line of text which read in English, Chinese and Latin, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, Y/N"

Elleno checked the time according to his HUD. It read '8:43 am'.

"Huh that was quick." Elleno spoke aloud as he pressed 'Y' on the screen.

"*Request acknowledged. Reactor...online!*"

The whole vessel rumbled with the sound of a distant whine. The shaking soon stopped as the whining became inaudible.

"*Disconnecting maintenance power supply...complete!*"

A dull clank could be heard from the CIC.

"*Sensors...online!*"

The sensor/science array's blue screen which read, 'Apparatus not detected', changed into a full color screen showing radar, sonar and hydrophone feedback with 3D graphical displays to the right of that.

"*Weapons...online!*

The weapons management screen on Elleno's HUD begun showing the heat and operational status of the Prow-Lance 'Mid-R' Photon Beam and the ammunition count and condition of the AMM Anti-Missile missile silos.

"*All systems...nominal. Good luck captain.*

And the computer ended the sentence with a satisfying 'beep' noise.

That was when the rest of Elleno's crew stepped into the bridge.

"A-Ah, Captain... You're pretty early..." Kagaku spoke first.

Elleno nodded his head. "Where's Ana?"

Maria replied to his question, "She is in the engineering sector. Her station is there."

Elleno nodded his head again as his crew took to their stations. Sir-Caller called over the intercom.

"Sir, you ready for departure?"

Elleno opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Sir-Caller.

"Good. Saegan sir says that you head the fleet. I await your command."

"Ok then... Wait me? Lead the fleet? Couldn't you do it?"

"Yes sir. I can but I don't want to."

"Ughh... Fine. Follow me."

"Yes sir."

Elleno flipped a few switches on his RIG. The engines hummed louder. Elleno called Sir-Caller through the intercom.

"Engines are go, maintain speed. Ahead standard."

"Yes sir."

The Petramale began accelerating and and zigzagging at flank speed. It matched speed with the Rockmage shortly after, but not without exchanging a few flakes of grey paint.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"Sir, this is Dallas, sorry about that, but apparently Joe went into cryosleep."

"Oh..."

The NanoTec colony grew smaller and smaller as the ships sailed away until it eventually went beyond the horizon. As Elleno sat on the captain's chair he began to wonder exactly what they were looking for on the mission. As he stared out into thin air, Sir-Caller opened up a comms link.

"Sir, your ship is sinking."

"W-What?!"

So it was. As Elleno was daydreaming, he did not pay attention to the large Protium (Hydrogen-1) field in his course. The cyan blue water was significantly less dense then the regular sea water on the planet. As a result, the Rockmage was now two meters deeper into the water and still sinking. The Petramale had apparently stopped a few meters away from the field and Sir-Caller only decided to tell Elleno about his sinking after he began to.

"Ah crap... Ana! Hard starboard!"

"Aye sir!" came the reply through the communications link.

Elleno was nearly thrown off his seat by the sudden shift in course. Both Kaguya and Maria seemed to have been equally affected as he was. A thought of what might have happened if he were really in a Japanese 'ero' anime slipped into his mind, but he quickly brushed it aside. The Rockmage nearly capsized if it were not for Ana's skill at ship piloting. The ship rolled back to its upright position and Elleno sighed a sigh of relief.

"Phew... That was close."

"You're welcome sir." Sir-Caller interjected and cut communications.

Elleno sighed and looked out through the ship's cameras, it was dusk, sun almost set beyond the horizon. The cyan blue patch was receding into the distance and the light reflected beautifully off the surface.

"I guess I better watch myself..." Elleno muttered to himself.

He got up from his seat and stretched.

"Alright, everyone, go and get some rest, it has been a busy day." Elleno announced to his crew.

They replied with a resounding 'yes sir' and made their way back to their quarters. Elleno did likewise.

The days went by quickly and without incident. Everyday was the same thing. Being a ship captain is not all fun and games. It was more like a 'sitting down and doing nothing' simulator. Elleno would just give directions to follow and occasionally, Sir-Caller would drop a submersible probe and do some scans, recovering readings no different from that gathered at base. Elleno thought he was going to die of boredom. His crew were a little reserved around him, except Ana, she was an exception. One could say she was a little too over energetic.

About 20 days into their voyage, Elleno was staring out of the ship through the cameras when Sir-Caller called him.

"Sir! Sir!"

"What is it? Stop jumping, what's with you?"

Sir-Caller was so excited that he literally was bounding up and down like a child on a Christmas morning.

"There's a ship! A ship out in the middle of the ocean!"

"R-Really? Where?"

"020 degrees, long range."

"Holy shit! Lets go!"

Elleno ordered a full-speed ahead towards the unknown target. The Rockmage managed nearly 39 knots and the hull creaked under the strain of acceleration. The Petramale followed suit but was unable to quite match the speed of Elleno's ship. (Due to Sir-Callers cryochamber)

"S-Sir" Kagaku turned around and spoke.

"Yeah?"

"T-That ship does not seem to be one of ours... It... does not have the NanoTec symbol on its hull..."

"Nor is it registered under the NanoTec ship database." Maria interjected.

Elleno replied immediately, "Our job is to explore the planet. This is all part of it. Maintain curent heading."

The two women nodded their heads and Elleno was pretty sure he heard Kagaku gulp and swallow saliva.

The distance closed rapidly, and the ship's scanners began picking up the details of the contact. It was a navel vessel no doubt, about 60 meters long and unarmed.

"Joe..." Elleno called over the intercom.

"What do you make of this?"

Sir-Caller took a while to respond.

"Well sir, I don't know. Robert would probably say it might be a breakthrough to freeze water."

"Who's Robert?"

"Someone smarter than you sir."

"Thanks..."

The tiny mast of the vessel poked through the horizon and was brought into visual range. The ship looked very similar to that of the two survey vessels. Grey hull and had smoke funnels. Except that that ship had no smoke coming out of its funnels and what seemed to be a lack of weapons was in fact, its weapons' magazines/ capacitors had overheated and catastrophically failed.

"Wonder what happened here?" Elleno muttered to himself.

"I am working on that sir." Maria spoke without turning her head.

Aria was eagerly pulling on the bulkhead doors which Sir-Caller had quickly sealed.

"Awww, come on Joe! Let me out!"

"No sir, its dangerous. We have to wai..."

"But I really want out!"

Sir-Caller sighed. Aria was literally rocking the ship with her jumping, Dallas was no where to be found and Dimitri had collapsed in a drunken heap at his station. Sir-Caller then heard his RIG notify him that Elleno was calling. He sighed again and the moment he tapped the accept call button, the ship bulkheads immediately unlocked and Aria went racing out, fully geared and ready.

"Joe, I need your security officer combat ready, we are going to... Oh she is here already... Well never mind then."

Elleno cut the communications link. Sir-Caller sighed yet again before proceeding back to his station. As he sat down, he noticed a red flashing light at the top right hand corner of his screen. It was the apparent high concentration of oxygen in the area. Nearly more than 13 percent of the norm.

"I have to monitor this for a while..." Sir-Caller mumbled to himself.

Elleno and Aria boarded the unknown vessel separately. Elleno from the bow, Aria from aft. The prow mounted some sort of a cannon, or what was left of it. There was a gaping hole in the center of the turret with smoke bleaching from it. Apparently the ship had not been out for long. From aft, Aria saw nothing out of the ordinary. It was just a grey ship deck with a entry bulkhead to its mast at the back. Aria approached the bulkhead and attempted to open it. It rejected her RIG input.

"Elleno...umm... sir. The bulkheads are locked, may I pry them open?"

"...Yeah. Go for it Ace."

Aria nodded and smiled. She unstrapped the crowbar that was hanging on her back and jammed it in between the bulkhead hinges and pulled the crowbar to the left. The bulkhead strained as flakes of paint fell to the ground. Aria grunted as she heaved with all her might, resulting in the bulkhead to burst open in a shower of paint and orange sparks.

"Sir! I got it! But something is bugging me."

"Go on, I'm listening."

"It seems that the bulkheads were welded shut. It is as though someone wanted people like us out!"

"Or something kept in... Never mind. Keep going. I am entering through the blast hole on the main gun."

"Copy. Catch ya later."

Aria carefully stepped over the broken door frame as she proceeded into the wreck. The interiors were similar to that of the Petramale but not quite so at the same time. To her, it felt as though the ship was designed by someone of the same caliber. The hallway design and placement were eerily similar too. She went even deeper into the ship, down the stairs leading to its CIC bridge. The blast door sealing the room was, thankfully not sealed. Elleno came down from the hallway opposite to the one Aria came down.

"Find anything Ace?"

"Nope. You?"

"Yeah, I can piece together some evidence on how the ship was disabled. Not sure about the crew though. Maybe they evacuated."

"Go on Elle...Sir."

"Right. So, we can see that the magazine blew and the bulkheads seemed to be wielded together. I suspect a high powered microwave beam was targeted at this ship and thus caused the damage we can see now."

Elleno jacked the control panel of the blast door to his RIG and hacked it to open as he continued.

"But the problem is that the exterior hull has been electroplated with Aluminium which reflects most, if not all microwaves directed at it unless..."

The blast doors jammed once it was about 40% open, just large enough for Aria to slip through and enter the CIC. All the system computers were offline and, like the rest of the ship, was in pristine condition. There was not a speck of dust on anything, but that was not what caught her eyes. At her feet lay a corpse.

"Come on! Work dammit!"

Sir-Caller shouted at his RIG communicator. He was desperately trying to contact Aria and Elleno for the past ten minutes, but there was too many charged particles in the air. He swore to himself. There was not much time left. He smacked Dimitri across the face and shoved a piece of paper in his face.

"Sir! Go to the engineering sector and hand this to our engineer. Now!"

Dimitri blinked twice and nodded lazily. He got up sluggishly and trotted off. Sir-Caller immediately turned and got the high powered lamp sitting in the corner of the bridge next to his cryo chamber. He dragged it by his side up to the ship deck. He mounted it onto the side of the deck and pressed the on button.

"Come on... Why won't you work?! Goddammit!"

Sir-Caller was out of options. With all his strength, he lifted the lamp off the side and he rammed it straight into the side of the mast multiple times. 'Bang-Bang! Bang-Bang! Bang!...Bang!...Bang-Bang!'

Maria saw everything unfold from the ship's cameras.

"You heard the man. Get this ship moving! Flank speed!"

Kagaku instinctively nodded and ran towards the engineering sector. The Petramale was already doing a full 180 degrees turn and running it's turbines as fast as it could. Within seconds, the Rockmage did the same, leaving behind the wrecked ship.

Aria stood rooted to the spot in shock and fear. Elleno continuously called out to her but to no avail. Elleno immediately squeezed through the blast door. It was too small a fit, but he managed it somehow, not without having to leave his vest and M24 A-Rifle behind though.

"Get a hold of yourself would you?" He shook Aria back and forth.

"But..."

"You are a soldier. Now come on! We don't have time."

Elleno threw back her rifle and went to the offline consoles next. He attached his RIG to it and initiated an emergency reboot. With his RIG attached, he was able to access all the computer's data the moment it came online.

"Large amounts of ions in the air... high concentration of oxygen..."

Elleno mumbled to himself. Aria, who regained her composure, approached Elleno from behind and looked over his shoulder. Elleno continued to mumble to himself.

"The last things the ship detected were these... Ah, sensors online now... and reading the exact same readings... Oh no."

Aria's face went pale again. She unconsciously said out loud.

"Now I know how they died..."

The Petramale's turbines were spinning so rapidly, the whining noises they were making seemed to hint at an imminent destruction of the vessel. Sir-Caller was thrown onto the railing of the deck as the ship turned about a dime and afterwards, on his side as the ship accelerated. The lamp was thrown off the deck and would have landed in the ocean if it were not for its large strap hooking onto an antenna. Sir-Caller noted that the Rockmage had also begun moving before crawling back into the ship and shutting the bulkhead behind him.

"I'll come back for you later."

He mumbled as he staggered to his feet and made for the engineering sector. Dallas was working as fast as he could, his fingers moving quickly across his holo keyboard. Dimitri was half-asleep by his side with a bottle of vodka in his hands.

"Sir! We need to go faster!"

Dallas wiped sweat off his forehead and spoke half-panting.

"We can't! Our ship is barely breaking 50 knots now and the engine might blow any moment."

"I don't care sir. Just do it."

"R-Right. Increasing temperature. Are you sure about this??"

"Yes! The ship can take it."

I sure hope it can... Sir-Caller thought silently.

A bright flash suddenly illuminated the whole of the skyline. There was no sound but the wind blew violently opposite to the direction the ships were running to. Sir-Caller immediately shielded his eyes instinctively whereas Dallas ducked down and covered his head. Dimitri stirred and began to inquire what had happened.

"Status report?" Sir-Caller shouted out.

"No good... Our engines are offline. Everything has gone down, I'm working on it." Dallas replied.

"I... well... I think it was an E.M Pulse." Dimitri mumbled slowly. "I could hear my freezer shut off from a mile away."

Sir-Caller nodded and went to Dallas' engineering system. Taking out a portable high temperature mercury thermometer, he removed the electric thermocouple from the engine and stuck his replacement into the cavity.

"θ>1000 degrees Celsius. That does not look too good... Oh wait."

Sir-Caller pulled out four half-melted bag of ice and threw one into each of the boilers the temperature of the engine began to drop.

"I nearly forgot this wasn't ICY Products, just have to remember to get the plastic out of there though..."

Dallas turned his head around and yelled to Sir-Caller. "Sir, got it. Systems booting up... Holy crap!"

Sir-Caller walked up to Dallas' side and looked over his shoulder. The electronic damage report screen displayed the entire ship in a shade of yellow, moderate damage. All the electronic systems almost fried and nearly every hull plating was overheating by an average of 12% over safety limits. No exterior damage to the ship though. No hull breaches, nothing. The only thing was that the aft deck had caught fire but was immediately put out by the on board Fire Protection System (FPS).

"The exact same damage as that derelict ship..." Sir-Caller mumbled. "Everyone, come with me to the bridge." He snapped as he began dragging Dimitri with him.

Elleno got up from the ground slowly and in a daze. He blinked a few times and realized he was lying in a pool of his own sweat. Aria had also collapsed and although still unconscious, her face was flushed and her breathing was rapid. A sign of hyperthermia, not good. The computers in the ship had shut down again and it felt as though he were put in an oven. He looked around, the metal edges of the CIC blast door seemed somewhat gooey and shiny. He had not been out for long. He thanked his lucky stars for his quick recovery. He staggered to his feet, gripped onto the control panel for support only realizing it was burning hot in the last second and collapsing back to the floor with his hand red and painful.

"Ah crap... I should have known..."

Elleno shook his head to regain balance before slowly standing up. His shirt was drenched and felt very uncomfortable. He bent down and picked Aria up and carried her in his arms. She was light, so it was not much of an issue for Elleno to lift her but her body was hot, as though she were having a serious fever.

"I should have paid more attention in chemistry class... I would have been able to see something was terribly wrong at first glance."

He carefully lifted her through the blast door and begun squeezing through himself. The edges of the doors were akin to molten metal, terribly burning Elleno's arms and neck. They left deep red marks in his skin and hurt horribly.

"Oww!... that hurt!" Elleno swore to himself. He should have seen the problem, he kept telling himself. He should have.

"Let's get out of here first... I can ask Joe or Kagaku about this later..."

The hallways of the derelict vessel were unnaturally hot now. Safe to touch but uncomfortable. Elleno limped up the stairs back to the upper decks of the vessel via the route Aria took to get in. The bulkhead was still open but strings of molten metal trailed from the sides of the bulkhead and dripped onto the floor in tiny puddles and blobs.

"Let's hope that our pals are here to pick us up." Elleno whispered to Aria as he stepped out of the ship and onto the deck.

Sir-Caller sat on his Captain's chair as his crew gathered around him. They looked at him with puzzled eyes.

"Well sirs... I found out what's going on. There is a CFC leak."

His crew looked even more confused than before.

"Well, hear me out... Before that, let's move this ship back towards the derelict and pick our dear friends up, 1/3 forwards... If they are still alive that is." Sir-Caller said as he directed his gaze towards Dallas.

"Sorry for calling you here sir. I will explain everything to you later."

Dallas nodded warily and headed off.

"So where was I? Right... So, as you all know, CFCs break down ozone to get you Oxygen gas and Oxy-Chloride or whatever it was. There is a huge abundance of oxygen in this area and oxygen, being denser than air, sinks and gathers at sea-level..."

Dallas strolled back into the CIC after Sir-Caller was done with that sentence.

"I am back sir. The Rockmage is following us as well." Dallas said.

"Good. Shall I repeat what I just said?"

"No need. I got the intercom working again. I could hear you. By the way, why is the engine bleaching black smoke instead of the usual white? Did you do something to it? "

"Ummm, no... I didn't..."

Sir-Caller recalled the plastic bags of ice he threw into the boilers. He quickly changed the topic.

"Anyways, that's not of great concern. So... judging by the unnaturally high concentrations of oxygen here, I can conclude that there is indeed a hole in the Ozone layer here."

Sir-Caller's crew remained silent. Good, Sir-Caller thought. Dallas isn't pursuing the matter. He continued normally and calmly.

"And that is where the solar flares come in sirs. It funnels through the hole and...boom! A mini-death ray."

Dallas put his hand on his chin and Dimitri suddenly spoke up. "And thus the charged particles are the forbearing of the flare eh?"

"That's right." Sir-Caller replied.

"We are approaching the derelict now..." Dallas reported. "Standby..."

Sir-Caller opened up the camera footage from the prow of the vessel with a swipe of his finger. The camera took a while to open and when it did it showed only static for the first five seconds or so. The static cleared, revealing a slightly distorted image of the derelict vessel in the distance. Elleno was standing on the half burnt and slightly blackened deck with the injured Aria in his hands. He tried to wave with one hand but failed as he nearly dropped Aria.

"Ah, good he survived..." Sir-Caller muttered as he sighed. "Rockmage, do you read?"

"Loud and clear." Maria replied through the comms link.

"Sir, you are free to pick your crew up. Copy?"

Sir-Caller heard Maria sigh and smack her forehead with her palm. "...Yes sir. On our way."

The Rockmage began maneuvering and it pulled alongside the derelict ship. Sir-Caller saw Elleno board his vessel.

With another flick of his finger across his RIG he sent a report file over to the Rockmage as he turned to face Dallas. "Sir, I am going to need you to prepare my submersible drone. Have it fully operational in 6 minutes... Oh! And get my lamp from the aft deck too. Thanks sir."

Dallas nodded and saluted. "Yes...sir... Right away!"

Elleno limped to the crew quarters and lay Aria on an emergency inflatable 'bed'. Kagaku immediately ran over from CIC.

"S-Sir! You are hurt! Let me help you!"

"I'm OK." Elleno panted. "Take care of Ace first. She is overheating, risk of brain damage."

"R-Right. On it!"

Aria's condition had stabilized but was not quite out of danger yet. Her body temperature was a shocking 41 degrees Celsius and showed no sign of dropping. At least for the time being. Thankfully, Kagaku Ota, being a scientist, was also trained in first-aid. Sir-Caller called over the comms link.

"Sir, I think we found what we are looking for. Something weird at the bottom of the sea here, right below the derelict ship. It is shallow enough for the drone, about 5000 meters but it is something... well, never thought I would use this word sir but... This looks very alien... Tell you what, get your crew to CIC. Everyone. We don't have much time."

"Ok Joe. I am on my way." Elleno closed the comms link.

As Elleno tried to get up, Kagaku tried to stop him. "S-Sir! Please. You are injured..."

"Relax Kaga, I am fine. Tis' but a scratch!" Elleno laughed nervously.

"S-Sir!"

Elleno patted Kagaku's head, whose face flushed bright red. "Nothing I can't handle. Now, I think Aria should be OK now, her temperature is dropping. Come on, lets go."

Kagaku nodded and Elleno pulled her to her feet. Elleno gestured for her to follow. She did so.

Ana and Maria were already in CIC. "You're really early captain..." Maria sarcastically said.

"Sorry..."

"Yeah captain!" Ana said as she nudged him on his shoulder. His burn wounds hurt from that and Elleno successfully contained his cry of pain. "Nothing like a few injuries for our good'ol security officer!"

"Sorry, sorry. I am here now." Elleno replied rather timidly. "Let's see what Joe has to tell us..."

After sending his report data of the expedition into the derelict ship into his ship's main CPU, Elleno opened the comms link to the Petramale. Sir-Caller answered immediately.

"Sir, connect your RIG to mine. I have the submersible probe running."

Elleno did as he was told. Sir-Caller directed his gaze at Kagaku.

"Did you receive the file sir?"

Kagaku nodded.

"Good. Sir, you seeing this?"

"What the hell is that??"

"Told you... what do you think?"

Elleno's crew also looked equally surprised and shocked. Displaying on the CIC's main interface was the submersible's live feed. What it saw was a kind of cylindrical shaped green wreckage with broken 'engine pods' lying by its sides. Bubbles were coming out from a crack in what seemed to be the aft of the wreck. The hull was also lined with large yellow circles in regular intervals. Sir-Caller maneuvered the drone to enter the wreck through a gaping hull breach.

The crew of both GEVs watched in silence as the drone maneuvered the algae covered white hallways of the wreck, however the wreckage was in such a bad shape, almost all the rooms were inaccessible or had caved into itself.

"One problem after another eh? First an unknown vessel then this... Alien ship?" Ana said out loud unconciously.

The drone then maneuvered into another room, this one intact. It was a large room with what seemed to be a large pylon at the very center of it with many black circles surrounding the pylon. Numbering nearly up to about 100 or more. Within the pylon, there was a little rod contained in an equally tiny chamber that was glowing a dull yellow. Bubbles were coming out of the chamber.

"That's it." Dallas' voice could be heard in the background. "That's the source of the gas."

"I agree. Let's patch it up shall we?" Elleno nodded in agreement.

"S-Same here." Kagaku said.

Ana nodded and inquired. "Joe sir, I don't suppose your little sub has duct tape with it does it?'

"It does." Sir-Caller replied nonchalantly. "Watch."

Indeed the probe did. The probe's robotic arms swiftly pulled waterproof duct tape from it's cargo bay and successfully sealed the gas leak with multiple layers of the tape. That should hold... At least for the time being. Sir-Caller thought to himself.

"And thus no more Ozone hole eh..." Ana commented.

"Yes sir. No more, at least until it repairs itself." Sir-Caller replied.

After the submersible probe had collected whatever seemed useful from the wreckage, it ascended back to the surface where Sir-Caller hauled it back on board the Petramale. He sent all the scrap over to the Rockmage for Kagaku to analyse as it had the necessary equipment and she had the neccessary skill to analyse them. Or Sir-Caller was just being lazy again. As the two ships sailed away from the derelict into the sunset, Elleno, who was standing at the aft deck staring at the receding vessel, called Sir-Caller over the comms link.

"So... Joe. Great haul, don't you think?"

"Yes sir. Indeed it was. No bacon though. That's a shame..."

"Oh you and your bacon."

Sir-Caller snorted.

"So, Joe... What now? I have an idea if you wanna hear it."

"No sir. Your ideas are rubbish and you are an idiot."

"Oh come on! Don't tell me you have already forgotten TeraNova."

Sir-Caller remained silent.

"Well, never mind that. Anyways, since we literally have infinite supplies and our ship is still in relatively good shape, I would suggest we travel up to one of the poles of the planet and circle around. Maybe we can find something up or down there. Maybe some common sense for you Joe... are you even listing to me?"

"Nope. Not a word. Could you repeat sir?"

"Oh forget it... Had fun?"

"Sure did sir."

Elleno smiled to himself. He felt rejuvenated. Never had so much excitement before ever since Ancient Legends captured SkyLab2.

"Well sir, I am sleepy and I am feeling hot. I'm gonna go sleep, OK?"

Elleno recalled that Sir-Caller had some metabolic problems as well. His body has adapted such that it gains and loses heat very slowly as compared to others. Especially for the losing heat part. Sir-Caller would gain heat after leaving the chamber and if he stays out for too long, his body would overheat and he would die. Or so he said then. Maybe it was an excuse for him to avoid work. Who knows?

Elleno replied. "Yeah sure. When will you be awake again?"

"In a year's time sir." He jokingly said.

"...Right... I guess, until we meet again?"

"Yes sir. Until we meet again."

And Sir-Caller cut the comms link.

To be continued.