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Anders stared up at the ship’s bulkhead. He had spent the last several hours in his bunk staring up at that damned bulkhead. What a sorry state his revolution was in. Every single step forward had resulted in unmitigated losses. First it had been Caustic’s capture. Then it had been his own death in Karl Jak’s bloodsport. And now? Now he had lost perhaps the only surviving golden age automaton. And for what? Arcadia’s reckoning had grown no closer. If anything he had only managed to raise their guard. Every step forward seemed to grow only more treacherous than the last. Returning to Arcadia, even a location as isolated as Rura Penthe would prove challenging if not outright impossible.
With a groan he sat up and swung his feet over the edge. This was a fatal mistake. The sudden movement caused his head to spin. He pitched forward and clutched his stomach. Even a week after Hjilda’s attack his head still felt liable to spill open at any moment. The bacta tank had managed to patch up the most serious of his wounds, but he had not spent enough time submerged to have made a full recovery. So he ached around the ship, feeling more and more like an old man with every pain-filled groan. Still, as his head settled, he forced himself to stand. Food was hard to keep down with the near-constant waves of nausea. Regardless, he knew he needed to keep his strength up, so he left his bunk and headed for the ship’s kitchenette.
“Wow, you look rough,” Demetri commented, looking up from a bowl of cereal.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Anders responded, grabbing a bowl of his own, “I feel fine.”
“Uh-huh,” Demetri nodded, “I can tell you are fine by the way you wince when you chew.”
“I’ll be fine,” Anders clarified.
“Right, well what’s the plan?” Demetri asked, “We have been floating around for about a week now without any sort of direction.”
Anders fell quiet. His companions were quite capable, frighteningly so, but after Station Elbrecht he had doubts they would be enough. Hjilda was remarkable, but she was far from uncommon. If some backwater despot could afford her as his personal guard then what sort of hardware did Arcadia have guarding its blacksite prisons? Of course any arcane measures would fall short compared to his expertise, but he was under no illusion that there weren’t beings that surpassed his physical prowess.
“This one would like to know as well,” Nightingale said, seemingly materializing from nowhere.
Anders looked back and forth between them before letting out a slow breath. He shook his head and spoke, “I have no plan. At least not a concrete one. If your informant is to be believed Rura Penthe’s security is nigh impregnable. It was a stretch to imagine success with Aquarius among our number, and now? Now, I have no hope for our success.”
“Well that’s a bit grim is it not?” Demetri was the first one to speak. He looked towards Nightingale and said, “I’m sure we’ve gotten ourselves into and out of worse situations, it’s not like this is our first jailbreak, right?”
Ra’tima answered after a moment’s consideration, “He is not wrong, but this one is inclined to agree with Nazret. Saving one’s own skin is quite different than safely escorting a prisoner.”
“So, then what? We just give up?” He looked towards Anders, “We did mention our ‘no refund policy’, didn’t we?”
This forced a smirk from the old swordmage, “You will still be paid, and you will be paid extra for the hassle. But, no, we’re not giving up. We just need to rethink our approach.”
“And what did you have in mind?”
Anders finished his cereal and stood up to put his bowl away, “As much as I am loath to admit, Rura Penthe will not be an easy target. We need more people. I have no doubt the two of you can get us in there, but when the fighting starts we’ll need some heavy hitters.”
Demetri nodded, “I might have a few people in mind.”
“As do I,” Anders said, “I propose we go our separate ways for now and reconvene once we have our proverbial ducks in a row.”
Anders felt somewhat better. A full stomach and fresh plan assuaged much of the misery he was experiencing. Even the ache in his head seemed to subside. That is until the ship’s power flickered on and off. He shared a look with his companion’s before turning towards the bridge. Something was off. The door did not automatically open upon detecting his presence and it instead stood sealed and silent. He scowled and entered a bypass code into the door’s keypad. It buzzed and the words “access denied” flashed across the keypad’s readout. He tried again with the same results.
“Crew of the Tonegawa, I have commandeered your vessel,” A disembodied voice spoke. It took him a moment to realize that her voice was not coming through the intercom system, but rather was being transmitted directly into his head. From the looks of the others he imagined they were experiencing the same thing. The mystery woman continued speaking, “I don’t intend to hurt any of you, I just need your ship. I’m going to land at the nearest space port and drop you all off, but if you try anything before then I’ll open the airlocks and vent you all into space.”
“Who are you!?” Anders cried out, pounding on the bridge’s door. When no answer came he swore under his breath and turned towards the others, “How did she get onboard?”
They both shrugged and Ra answered, her icy eyes shifting to land on Demetri, “This one imagines she is a stowaway that took her chance when they left the bridge unattended.”
Anders entered the bypass code again, “Why isn’t this working? Damnit!”
He stormed across the ship, looking impotently for a solution. He settled on Nightingale and said, “You can teleport, yes?”
“... Doesn’t he know the answer to that?” She responded cooly, glancing up towards the ship’s surveillance system as her voice lowered, “She could manage something, but when she does she will watch as he gets sucked out into space.”
Anders clenched his teeth and exhaled sharply. She was right. Even if she could reach their stowaway there was no guarantee she could take them out before the rest of the ship was vented. He leaned in close and whispered, “Then we wait until we arrive at the spaceport. There is no world where we leave this ship peacefully.”
Ra stayed stoic, acknowledging him with little more than eye contact. She stepped past him and announced, “This one needs to use the restroom.”
Without waiting for a response she left the kitchen area and made her way to the lavatory. For all of Caustic’s need to record and document he had thankfully kept the restroom free from surveillance. That loudmouthed swordmage had revealed her ace-in-the-hole, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be effective. It just meant she needed to be more discrete. She had no intention of waiting to dock at a spaceport, the last thing they needed was a repeat of Station Elbrecht. So, once out of sight she slipped into the void.
--
On the bridge Ydra sat quietly. Another bypass code was entered into the bridge door and again she denied access. His angry thoughts bled through the ship’s walls and seeped into her own awareness. It was expected. Most people were angry when she took their ship, but he had been brooding nearly nonstop for the past week. The other two were more varied in their thoughts and emotions, but he seemed content to ooze discontent. It wouldn’t matter. She adjusted their course for the nearest port and listened as the ship’s thrusters hummed to life. They weren’t far and she couldn’t wait to be alone again.
With a groan he sat up and swung his feet over the edge. This was a fatal mistake. The sudden movement caused his head to spin. He pitched forward and clutched his stomach. Even a week after Hjilda’s attack his head still felt liable to spill open at any moment. The bacta tank had managed to patch up the most serious of his wounds, but he had not spent enough time submerged to have made a full recovery. So he ached around the ship, feeling more and more like an old man with every pain-filled groan. Still, as his head settled, he forced himself to stand. Food was hard to keep down with the near-constant waves of nausea. Regardless, he knew he needed to keep his strength up, so he left his bunk and headed for the ship’s kitchenette.
“Wow, you look rough,” Demetri commented, looking up from a bowl of cereal.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Anders responded, grabbing a bowl of his own, “I feel fine.”
“Uh-huh,” Demetri nodded, “I can tell you are fine by the way you wince when you chew.”
“I’ll be fine,” Anders clarified.
“Right, well what’s the plan?” Demetri asked, “We have been floating around for about a week now without any sort of direction.”
Anders fell quiet. His companions were quite capable, frighteningly so, but after Station Elbrecht he had doubts they would be enough. Hjilda was remarkable, but she was far from uncommon. If some backwater despot could afford her as his personal guard then what sort of hardware did Arcadia have guarding its blacksite prisons? Of course any arcane measures would fall short compared to his expertise, but he was under no illusion that there weren’t beings that surpassed his physical prowess.
“This one would like to know as well,” Nightingale said, seemingly materializing from nowhere.
Anders looked back and forth between them before letting out a slow breath. He shook his head and spoke, “I have no plan. At least not a concrete one. If your informant is to be believed Rura Penthe’s security is nigh impregnable. It was a stretch to imagine success with Aquarius among our number, and now? Now, I have no hope for our success.”
“Well that’s a bit grim is it not?” Demetri was the first one to speak. He looked towards Nightingale and said, “I’m sure we’ve gotten ourselves into and out of worse situations, it’s not like this is our first jailbreak, right?”
Ra’tima answered after a moment’s consideration, “He is not wrong, but this one is inclined to agree with Nazret. Saving one’s own skin is quite different than safely escorting a prisoner.”
“So, then what? We just give up?” He looked towards Anders, “We did mention our ‘no refund policy’, didn’t we?”
This forced a smirk from the old swordmage, “You will still be paid, and you will be paid extra for the hassle. But, no, we’re not giving up. We just need to rethink our approach.”
“And what did you have in mind?”
Anders finished his cereal and stood up to put his bowl away, “As much as I am loath to admit, Rura Penthe will not be an easy target. We need more people. I have no doubt the two of you can get us in there, but when the fighting starts we’ll need some heavy hitters.”
Demetri nodded, “I might have a few people in mind.”
“As do I,” Anders said, “I propose we go our separate ways for now and reconvene once we have our proverbial ducks in a row.”
Anders felt somewhat better. A full stomach and fresh plan assuaged much of the misery he was experiencing. Even the ache in his head seemed to subside. That is until the ship’s power flickered on and off. He shared a look with his companion’s before turning towards the bridge. Something was off. The door did not automatically open upon detecting his presence and it instead stood sealed and silent. He scowled and entered a bypass code into the door’s keypad. It buzzed and the words “access denied” flashed across the keypad’s readout. He tried again with the same results.
“Crew of the Tonegawa, I have commandeered your vessel,” A disembodied voice spoke. It took him a moment to realize that her voice was not coming through the intercom system, but rather was being transmitted directly into his head. From the looks of the others he imagined they were experiencing the same thing. The mystery woman continued speaking, “I don’t intend to hurt any of you, I just need your ship. I’m going to land at the nearest space port and drop you all off, but if you try anything before then I’ll open the airlocks and vent you all into space.”
“Who are you!?” Anders cried out, pounding on the bridge’s door. When no answer came he swore under his breath and turned towards the others, “How did she get onboard?”
They both shrugged and Ra answered, her icy eyes shifting to land on Demetri, “This one imagines she is a stowaway that took her chance when they left the bridge unattended.”
Anders entered the bypass code again, “Why isn’t this working? Damnit!”
He stormed across the ship, looking impotently for a solution. He settled on Nightingale and said, “You can teleport, yes?”
“... Doesn’t he know the answer to that?” She responded cooly, glancing up towards the ship’s surveillance system as her voice lowered, “She could manage something, but when she does she will watch as he gets sucked out into space.”
Anders clenched his teeth and exhaled sharply. She was right. Even if she could reach their stowaway there was no guarantee she could take them out before the rest of the ship was vented. He leaned in close and whispered, “Then we wait until we arrive at the spaceport. There is no world where we leave this ship peacefully.”
Ra stayed stoic, acknowledging him with little more than eye contact. She stepped past him and announced, “This one needs to use the restroom.”
Without waiting for a response she left the kitchen area and made her way to the lavatory. For all of Caustic’s need to record and document he had thankfully kept the restroom free from surveillance. That loudmouthed swordmage had revealed her ace-in-the-hole, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be effective. It just meant she needed to be more discrete. She had no intention of waiting to dock at a spaceport, the last thing they needed was a repeat of Station Elbrecht. So, once out of sight she slipped into the void.
--
On the bridge Ydra sat quietly. Another bypass code was entered into the bridge door and again she denied access. His angry thoughts bled through the ship’s walls and seeped into her own awareness. It was expected. Most people were angry when she took their ship, but he had been brooding nearly nonstop for the past week. The other two were more varied in their thoughts and emotions, but he seemed content to ooze discontent. It wouldn’t matter. She adjusted their course for the nearest port and listened as the ship’s thrusters hummed to life. They weren’t far and she couldn’t wait to be alone again.