We honor those who've stepped into our ranks and give proper recognition to every new warrior who joins our cause.
Silberwolf325 and ByteHaven.
As your Fleet Admiral, I, Crimson_Reapr, welcome you, honor your commitment, and thank you for your service. May our power reach beyond the edges of charted space, and may ruin fall upon all who stand against humanity's strength.
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POV: Mark
I spent the next week in a monotonous cycle of engineering and creation. It kind of felt similar to how Anahrin and I had spent all those months creating the Shepherd, as I spent nearly every waking hour working. Though there was one distinct difference, and that was the classic rock soundtrack I had put Marcos on.
But apart from that, I don't know, work was work. The SPS Class 2 engines were complex, as is anything engineering-related, but they were child's play when compared to the Shepherd's Class 5 engines. I hadn't wasted time when the Dolores was being patched. I had used the schematics that Sean provided me, tweaked the coil housing and plasma injector system just a tiny bit, and voila. I managed to increase the efficiency by 20%, double the efficiency I had promised. It still blows my mind that minor changes can have major impacts.
That being said, assembling the engine itself wasn't that easy. Once I got down to printing bigger parts, I came to the realization that, although they were technically weightless, they weighed a fuckton and a half. The massive parts, mostly just the outer shell of the engines, each stretched for over 20 meters. Try moving that into place without having anything to stand on. Sure, I never really tried to move them myself. I left all of that work to my clankers. The drones moved the parts into place, and then I personally ensured every plasma conduit was properly fused and every magnetic accelerator coil was perfectly aligned.
Then came the most delicate part. Installing the first new engine was slow, taking me twenty-four hours of painstaking work to ensure it all mated perfectly with the Triton's main power bus and structural mounts. But installing the second and third engines went a little faster, as my brain worked wonders and I familiarized myself with them, refining my technique as I went.
I made sure to leave behind a good impression of my work, leaving no tool marks or sloppy welds, and signing my name in cursive with the use of a grinder on all three engines. By the end of the week, I had installed the three new engines and even added a little bit of reinforced plating around the damaged engine mounts on the Triton.
Once I got back on my ship, Sean and Chikie opened a public comms channel. I offered to switch over to a private channel, sending them both a comms request. As soon as they joined the call, I could tell just how ecstatic they were.
"Hey, Mr. Shephard, what in the hell did you do to these engines?… I just ran a diagnostics and they're running hotter, but cleaner than new," Sean transmitted, his voice buzzing with excitement.
"Remember my words from a week ago? Engineering, when done right, opens the doors to the unimaginable, Sean. That right there is just a glimpse," I replied, keeping the mystery alive. "And I did it pretty much for free."
"Yeah, no shit, merc," Chikie spoke next. "You ought to submit a patent for whatever it is you did to achieve over 20% efficiency. Do you have any idea of just how many freighters there are running SPS Class 2 engines? I'm talking about making enough money to set up your next 5 generations for life, hell, maybe more."
"Patent it?" I asked. "Hmm, that sounds like a good idea."
Sean nodded enthusiastically. "Hell yeah, it is. A 20% increase in efficiency is a major boost. You would be raking in tens of thousands of credits for every engine produced using your design."
"I won't lie, merc," Chikie said. "I didn't believe you were worth a shit when you proposed replacing the engines. But you've proven yourself."
I gave a genuine smile. I don't know what it was, but getting a genuine compliment for your work from someone of a previous generation did wonders for a man's ego. "Haha, yeah, well, I guess I am worth a shit."
"At the very least one," Chikie joked.
"Okay, on another note," I said, shifting topics. "Start getting ready to move from here. I'm going to have a quick salvage operation to run, and I need you all to hold position."
"As you wish, merc," came Chikie's response, accompanied by a nod from Sean.
---
I turned to Marcos and addressed him. "I'm going to go down to the cargo hold. Do you think you can take control of the Shepherd for remote operation?"
"I don't see an issue in that," Marcos replied.
I stepped out of the bridge and made my way to the cargo hold as I felt the ship shifting, turning, and finally starting to accelerate. The inertial dampeners made it so that this process was barely felt.
Once I was in the cargo hold, I made my way to the two nanoprinters. During the past week, Marcos had been busy directing 40 drones to salvage and store any valuable remnants from the converted pirate freighters we had destroyed.
My cargo hold, which had been empty at the beginning of the week, was now packed tight with crates of repurposed weapons, salvageable armor plating, and large chunks of high-density pirate freighter cargo, which mostly consisted of low-grade processed ores and some illicit foodstuffs meant for black market distribution.
I put my hand on the smaller nanoprinter, storing it in my inventory. The massive machine shimmered and disappeared, and I moved on to the bigger one to do the same with it. This left the cargo hold looking messy but organized.
"We're arriving at the frigate," Marcos said over the intercom of the ship, materializing beside me. "I already sent out the drones to do their sweep of the pirate command frigate. Give me a few minutes and I'll let you know how things are looking."
"I appreciate it, Marcos," I replied.
"No problem, Captain," he said before dematerializing.
I spent the next 10 minutes busying myself by looking around the cargo the drones had brought in when Marcos rematerialized around me.
"The drones finished their sweep," he said. "The frigate is completely abandoned. No traps detected, only three dead bodies with blunt trauma to their heads. It appears that the initial engine hit also destroyed the inertial dampeners. Might be a miracle that the ones who left on the escape pods even survived in the first place."
"That sounds like good news to me," I said.
The disabled frigate floated about 2 kilometers away. It was roughly 220 meters long and slightly angular towards the edges. The ship also bore the faded but unmistakable white and gold paint scheme of the VIC Navy. She had probably been commandeered by pirates. If I fixed her up, rewrote her coding, gave her a fresh paint scheme, and erased any ties to the VIC, then I could probably sell her for an easy twenty million credits. But perhaps she could be far more as a functional vessel.
I commanded my suit to adjust its configuration. Trading away the heavy, armored plating of my combat suit for an altered version. I imagined a sleek, black armor that was entirely seamless, with miniature thrusters that would push out compressed air for ease of movement in the vacuum of space.
I still liked my swag, so I also imagined it adorned with the same red fur on the nape and wrists, along with a hood and a cape. It retained the internal life support and power generation, as well as the thrusters at my lower back.
I checked the seals and depressurized the airlock. Stepping out onto the hull of the Shepherd, I activated the suit's gravimetric coils, and instead of floating, I propelled myself toward the distant frigate with silent, controlled bursts.
The journey was quick. As I approached the hull of the pirate frigate, I zoomed into the bridge. Its lights were still on, smoothly shifting in hues of red and orange. Inside lay the 3 corpses Marcos had mentioned.
I turned to have my feet toward the ship and felt my speed decrease as the thrusters on my back activated. I landed with a dull thud against the hull of the frigate and made my way to the main airlock door.
I placed my hand flat against the scarred metal of the hull and willed the ship to be stored in my inventory. However, the disappearance of the ship that I expected never came. I then had a notification from my inactive system pop up before me.
Warning! Cannot store item. Please ensure the item does not have a high level of consciousness and/or sentience within it before storing.
The message caught me by surprise. What did it mean that there was a living being inside? Marcos had said that the drones reported that the only people inside were already dead. Unless one of them just appeared that way.
"Hey, Marcos," I said.
"Yeah, Captain? What can I help you with?" Marcos replied.
"We have a problem..." I stated. "I'm going to need you to latch onto this ship because I'm going to need to go into her."
"Yes, sir. Making my way over right now," Marcos said.
I turned to see the Shepherd slowly approach and latch itself onto the hull of the frigate. I climbed back into the cargo hold, the doors closing behind me and the room pressurizing again. I willed my helmet to retract and made my way to the extraction bridge at the bottom of the Shepherd.
Extraction bridges were small rooms at the bottom of ships that would extend a tunnel and cut through the hull of a ship they're attached to. Most ships had them, and they are meant to be used during rescue attempts of a derelict ship, maintaining whatever section is being cut into, sealed, and pressurized.
Once there, I activated a console and commanded the extraction bridge to be extended. I heard the gears moving as below me, a tunnel wide enough to fit two people started extending.
I heard Marcos' voice coming through the console I was operating. "Hey, sir, why are you activating the extraction bridge?"
"There's either something or someone still alive inside that ship," I replied.
"And how does that stop you from doing your magic trick of pulling stuff out of your ass?" Marcos asked.
I had confided in him about my inventory and how I had the ability to put any item in what was essentially a subspace. I just never mentioned anything about it not working with living beings, because I had never come across the warning I came across today.
"Apparently, it doesn't work if there is a being with a certain high level of consciousness or sentience," I said, answering his question.
"Ah, yes, that narrows it down a lot," He said with a tired sigh. "It could be anything from a cat to a human or maybe even another sentient race."
Marcos had a point, but the chances of it being the last one were low. "Well, it's most likely a human. Must've been hiding or something when the drones scanned the surroundings."
I felt a soft thud shake the deck floor beneath my feet, and the console lit up green. I tapped on the console again, and a section of the deck floor beneath me retracted into itself. I equipped my rifle from my inventory, its weight settling comfortably in my hands as it materialized.
I then grabbed the ladder in the room, its lightness surprising me, and hooked it into two holes that were in the deck. I climbed down the ladder and made my way through the still glowing hot hole on the pirate frigate, climbing my way down and into one of the corridors.
Thankfully, this corridor was right outside the bridge of the ship, the place I wanted to visit to see what the recording logs would show me, and so I could find this person hiding inside the ship.
It was an eerie feeling to walk through the corridor of the ship as the lights smoothly switched colors every few seconds. I raised my rifle and activated the console for the bridge, allowing the doors to open.
Inside were the three corpses. A man and two women. One of the women was dressed in shabby clothes that you could barely count as rags, a sharp contrast to the clothing of the other two corpses. I could tell that they all had some severe form of blunt force trauma, all three of their heads split open with their brains partially spilling out, blood staining the deck a dark red.
She had empty wrappers of food around her, and something about the blood caught my eye, so I turned on my rifle's flashlight and saw what appeared to be a series of small footprints around the corpse of the shabbily dressed woman. I felt dread settle in me, and a gut-wrenching feeling started making its way to my throat.
I moved on from the corpse and made my way to the command console, activating it and reviewing the logs from a few days ago, when Marcos had noted the escape pods leaving the ship.
I clicked on a video that had about twenty people cramming into the escape pods. One of them, a bald man, could be seen talking to another man, who had a semi-worried look on his face.
["What are we going to do with her?" asked the worried man.
"Ah, fuck her, don't need another mouth to feed," said the bald man. "Plus, the spawn's slave whore of a mother died during the attack, flew right past me, and split her head open on one of the beams. Bitch got lucky she died so quick."
The worried man seemed bothered by the way the bald man was referring to somebody. "She's your fucking daughter, dude. How can you just leave her?"
"You wanna join her?" the bald man asked.
The worried man quickly shook his head.
"Good, then keep your mouth shut. Leaving the runt behind will only free me of such a burden."]
The recording showed the people finishing boarding the escape pods and leaving. After a little while, a shadow could be seen on the deck floor before disappearing.
I changed recording feeds to the bridge, and there I saw a little girl walking and kneeling beside the corpse of the shabbily dressed woman. The gut-wrenching feeling I had felt earlier finally made its way to my throat, and my eyes watered as the realization of what my actions had caused hit me. I had caused the death of an innocent woman.
It made me feel sick, and I was immediately overwhelmed with a nauseous feeling. I felt as if the world was spinning, and quickly retracted my helmet to spill out my breakfast on the deck floor. Once I was done emptying my stomach, I turned to face the corpse of the dead woman, who I now knew was a slave.
"I-I'm... so damn sorry," I said, my voice cracking as the words that left my mouth were barely more than a whisper. "I had no clue... I'm sorry... I'm fucking sorry, I didn't know this-"
I stopped talking as I heard some light footsteps a little ways away. I turned my head in the direction of the sound and watched as an adorable little girl wearing shabby clothes stained by blood made her way onto the bridge of the ship, carrying a wrapper in her hand.
She ignored my presence and proceeded to make her way to the slave woman's corpse, touching her face before kneeling down in the pool of dried blood. I felt my heart shake at the scene, and my hands trembled. I dropped my rifle, causing the loud crash of metal hitting metal to ring across the quiet bridge.
The girl completely ignored the commotion, opening the bag in her hands and eating whatever its contents were. I approached the girl slowly, my movements seemingly getting her attention as she put one hand on the deck floor and started looking around.
"Hey, kid... are you... Are you alright?" I asked hesitantly. But it was to no avail, as the little girl ignored me entirely and just went back to eating her food.
I crouched beside her and put a hand in front of her face, hoping to get a reaction out of her. But nothing. I was beyond confused at this point, and my mental state, which was already on the verge of breaking, was not doing me any favors.
I slowly reached out and placed my hand, which was almost the size of her back, on the little girl's shoulder. That seemed to get a reaction out of her, though not the one I was hoping for. The girl shot away from me like a cat, letting out a sound that I couldn't even begin to describe.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay. I'm not a bad guy, it's okay," I said, raising my hands in front of me as my teary eyes blurred the image of the little girl I was attempting to appease. The irony of my saying I wasn't a bad guy while I was the one who had caused this did not fail to miss me.
I reached for the girl again, this time softly, but firmly grabbing her flailing arms, an act that only served to make her screams even louder. My mind was blank, and I didn't know what to do. I instinctively brought the girl close to me, pinning her softly against my chest and shoulder while wrapping my hand behind her and holding her head.
Her screaming suddenly stopped, replaced by her rapid breathing and trembling body. It was as if she were a deer in front of headlights.
"Shhh, it's okay, it's okay," I repeated over and over again, instinctively changing my clothing to something soft and less alienating than my armor.
I knelt there for a while, with the little girl's body pressed against my shoulder and chest. I slowly moved away from her when I felt she had calmed down, and that act caused her to pull me back into her. She started to quietly sob on my shoulder, and I just knelt there, confused about what I should do.
I had never been good with kids back on Earth, and I don't remember being around them as an adult in this life either. I was being guided by pure instincts as my now ungloved and fleshy hand rubbed her back softly and caressed her hair.
"It's okay, let it out. Everything's going to be okay," I said to her, though I felt like those words were more of a self-assurance than me reassuring her.
I don't know how long I spent there, kneeling while hugging a sobbing child who could be no older than eight, but it was a while. When she finally stopped sobbing, she slowly broke away from me, slowly putting a trembling hand on my face, followed by her other.
When she did that, I felt a jolt of heartache spread through me as another realization dawned on me. This girl was blind, and her father abandoned her, left her to die, believing he was ridding himself of a burden. And her mother, probably the only person who cared for her, was dead... and I was the one who killed her.
I pressed my eyes closed as tears started to run down my cheeks, tears that this little girl wiped away with her tiny hands. That act only made me feel like an even bigger piece of shit. I had robbed this little girl of her mother, and yet here she was, wiping my tears away.
At that very moment, I started questioning if God Himself was trying to teach me a lesson for my actions. I started wondering if my true colors had changed since I had awakened the memories of my past life. At this very moment, I felt completely dead inside.
"I had no clue... I'm sorry... I'm fucking sorry," I started to say before sobs took over my words.
Just what had I done?
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