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Kyokotsu was still floating around the lifeless nebula of Sigma 13. Having drifted far away from any installation or patrol path, everything outside, inside and around the ship was completely dead. No supplies, no crew, no power. With little to no chances of someone locating it, the ship was left to drift forever into nothingness.

Following the public discovery of new Sigmas, many groups started sending their finest ships to explore the unknown. Colonization was inevitable, and although publicly they have "just" been discovered, a very selected few knew about their existence prior to that. One of the groups that managed to establish a foothold were the infectees from the Kusari-Rheinland war, or what was left of them. Trying to rebuild what was lost such as manpower, materials and supplies, they were forced to come out of their undiscovered area to the more colonized zones and forcibly get goods from the humans.

One of the areas they often plundered was Sigma 13. The system itself offered great assistance in that, with the nebula which not only lowers visual range but also range of instruments such as scanners. As an addition, the gas pockets were a perfect place to retreat if need be, considering they were all in small snubcraft.

A group of fighters had just launched from Misuto. Their flight was scheduled for a routine patrol of Sigma 13 with the goal of retrieving supplies by raiding human convoys. Using the advanced cloaking technology provided by the Nomads, they set up an ambush near the usual convoy route. Having waited for a perfect opportunity, they caught one convoy consisting of 3 large transports and 3 fighter escorts. The escorts were outmanned and outgunned and fell down quickly. Transports had no choice but to surrender.

The demand was simple - jettisoning the entirety of their cargo intact. Infecteees knew that straight up blowing up the transports would get most of the supplies lost from the explosion. The usual method was forcing them to drop the entirety of their hold and then killing them. Transports, not knowing that, had no choice but to comply, hoping they'll get to live after another day. As the infectees were taking the cargo, multiple new ships show up on their scanners. It turns out to be a large group of Gas Miners Guild's snubcraft. Being outnumbered 2 to 1, the infectees fulfilled the main objective of the flight by grabbing the cargo and made a run for their lives.

As they were cut off from their usual retreat point, they had to improvise and go in a forced straight direction to avoid enemy fire. The direction didn't lead anywhere specifically, and they had to think of something before they get collapsed upon. The GMG fighters were out of range to disrupt their cruise engines, but luckily for them they had a light interceptor equipped with faster engines. Slowly but surely, the interceptor was catching up to the runners and after 20 minutes of cruising through empty space, the Wild ships got disrupted and collapsed upon.

The infectees had to think, and they had to think fast. Should they try and fight them back? That was no good considering the risk of getting themselves, the ships and supplies destroyed. The best solution they came up with was using 2 fighters as decoy while the others try to make a run for it. It wasn't ideal, but there was no other choice. They turned around and distracted the GMG forces for as long as possible while the other 4 were charging their cloak devices.

As the 2 died, it was just in time for the others to vanish. Knowing they're safe, they had to find a way back home. Being in the middle of nowhere far away from any life form, they set coordinates back towards the jumphole. What they had no idea about was the prize they'll soon discover...

4 ships were on the way to Sigma-21. One of them had a severely damaged wing which was slowing them down, but they had enough fuel and supplies to complete the flight. Half way through they entered a very dense cloud with significantly reduced sensor efficiency and visual visibility. Everything was going well and as it was looking like they're exiting the nebula, unknown debris appears in front of them.

Because of how low the visibility was, they had little to no time to dodge it. The ship with the damaged wing could not avoid it in time and crashed into it, causing a large explosion. Other ships immediately stopped to see how a small ship could cause such a bang. It turned out that the debris was an old wreck of a Kusari Gunboat. When the impact happened it activated the old fuel storage which reacted violently. Three remaining ships started searching for any kind of life in the scattered debris caused by the explosion. One of them spotted something misty at the edge of his screen.

He was slowly approaching the unidentified object and the picture became clearer and clearer. Once he reached it, there was no doubt. It was a wreck of a Kusari Destroyer, heavily damaged and floating here for god knows how long. The frontal blade was completely destroyed along with the engine. In place of it was a giant hole through which you could see some of ship's rooms. Considering the current state of the ship, it had to be here for years with the crew long gone.

The remaining infectees, delighted to find such a prize, combined a plan. One of them stays with the wreck and was given supplies from the transport raid earlier, while the second one returns to the secret Sigma-21 installation and the third one heads for the Omicrons. The task was clear - tow the ship to somewhere where it can be made functional again, and repair it. For that, they'll need a place with low risk and good capital ship equipment, which their hidden base didn't have. Tekagi's Arch was also out of the question considering its publicity and possibility of KNF to intercept the towing party. There was only one solution - contact the Nomads in deep Omicrons...

A month passed. The fighter that stayed guarding the wreck was running short on supplies. Having no indication any friendly contact is near, the end was approaching fast. Considering the fact that the dense could they stumbled across the wreck in reduced sensor and visibility range even further than usual, he knew there might not be a possibility that they'll ever be discovered again. Regardless of what happens to him, he decided that the ship will stay and keep emitting a signal in hope of someone finding them again.

Another two weeks went by. As the lifeless cloud slowly kept drifting away into nothingness, friendly ships finally approach. About two dozens of them, most of which snubs alongside 1 gunboat and 2 transport vessels. The aid came from Tohoku where Tekagi's Base was just occupied alongside many ships caught on board. The transports attached their equipment and started towing the wreck. Rest of the squadron entered formation and they started moving slowly towards the deep Omicrons.

The party was moving relatively slowly, but natural camouflage of Sigma 13 provided them invaluable cover. A bit later they approached Sigma 17 jumphole. The task from here forward gets very difficult. Once they jump, they have to get to the unstable Omicron Minor anomaly without any cover until the end, making themselves inevitably vulnerable. The snub escorts cloaked and 3 big ships jumped alongside the wreck.

On the other side they immediately got stopped by a Corsair patrol. Trying to not blow their cover, they identified themselves as humans in need of help. Corsairs, thinking they're easy prey, tried to extort cash from them. Not knowing the presence of cloaked ships, the escort fighters uncloaked and erased the Corsairs within seconds, but the explosion was bound to draw attention. They had to move fast.

The way to Minor was a bloodbath. Constantly meeting Outcast, Corsair, GMG, Cryer and a few other patrols they were desperately trying to keep the party alive. Fighting with whatever they got, they were slowly losing off escorts to the sheer numbers of enemy ships they were encountering. Their main defense, the gunboat, got blown up half way through. As it was looking like they'll get killed by the last Samura patrol near Planet Kurile, they entered the green cloud. The natural camouflage provided great assistance as they survived the last obstacle to Omicron Minor. The remaining forces consisting of only 2 remaining fighters and the 3 main ships jumped through.

The way from Minor to Iota was pretty straightforward, not only having good cover from the natural structure of those systems, but also getting aid from the Nomads. They entered Iota a week later. Badly damaged, they went for the old LSF shipyard, now turned into a large Nomad installation, Altair Research Complex. What remains now is to figure out a way to make the ship functional once again...