“There you are” A female voice spoke up as her Bayonet’s flood lights turned on and illuminated the object ahead of her. She sighed when she saw the mangled state of the ship. Its spine was broken and the holes caused by lasers and plasma were too many to count.
“You thought we abandoned you didn’t you?” she spoke again even though there was no one to talk to. With a faint smile she hooked herself up to an umbilical cord. It would supply her suit with the necessary oxygen for now. After that she locked her helmet in and vented the cockpit. The window slowly opened and the pilot pushed herself out of the small fighter.
With a gentle push off the nose of the ship she was now floating towards that husk. It wasn’t just an ordinary wreck she found. “One day, we’ll get you out of here and home safely. Back to your mother and… sister.”
As she floated by the hull she saw the lesser written on it. ‘Warhammer’. The letters were mostly scuffed with burn marks just like the rest of the ship.
With her hands on the hull she crawled along its side, letting herself float further until she reached a gaping hole at the starboard side of the ship. Its armor plating couldn’t protect it and failed in a catastrophic manner. Turning on the lights of her suit she could assess the damage better. An audible sigh left her lips. “I… can see all the way through you, that’s not supposed to be like that big girl.”
With another push she let herself float inside the hole. She had to be extra careful with the cord following her. If it got snagged on anything she’d have a problem. After observing the damage further she saw the main ship deck that was accessible from here. “I wonder, are you still pressurized in the bridge?”
Once at the deck she turned on her mag boots and set herself down before she detached the umbilical and secured it on the ship. After a life support check of her suit she moved in. It was an eerie sight, wiring was floating loosely around, some of which giving out small sparks, suggesting the ship still hadn’t fully died out. It was interacting with the water of the cloud and was clearly an extreme hazard.
The woman advanced into the depths of the ship, carefully making her way through the maze that had only gotten more complex since the last time she had visited. Almost an hour later she finally made it to the bridge and to her surprise the airlocks were still active here. It made her smile, knowing there really was some life in this husk.
“Of all the places this is the place you decided to keep unscathed? Did they mean that much to you?” While talking to herself she cycled the airlock. The hissing gave away it was far from leak free and when she took her readings she noticed how the oxygen levels were very low but they were stable and good enough to go without helmet. While it was ill advised she took her helmet off anyway and walked inside by the crew quarters and the personal captain’s quarters until she was at the main bridge deck.
The center of the bridge had a strange empty place. Wire were still leading to it but what had supposed to be the center piece was gone. The woman walked over to it and sat down legged with her helmet on her lap. “We didn’t forget about you. I know you barely know and I never even saw you fly in your glory days but I know enough about you… and your captain.” She smiled to herself and fiddled with a the visor on her helmet. “-why did you come out here by yourself, little wings?-” “heh.. that’s what my dad would tell me. They check up on me so much it makes me feel like I can’t do a single thing right. They always have to check…” a small pause followed by a sigh. “I know they are supposed to care, they are my parents after all but since my accident I feel like they don’t trust me with anything. Although my dad did give me assignments, sending me away to Rheinland. I did my best to gather all the intel he needed, there just wasn’t much to be found. But when I showed up with empty hands, he didn’t hesitate to instantly give the assignment to one of his more trusted and experienced associates. It made me feel like I failed – again.”
She paused and looked over her shoulder, as if she was expecting her father to walk in at any moment. A quiver went through her spine as she heard the ship creak. “Don’t you dare to break up. We’ll come back for you I promise. You just have to be… a little more patient. And I know it will be cold and quiet out here, especially without your sister. But she’s safe with your captain. Together they will work on a plan to fix you right up! I know it. I’ll help where I can but I am no mechanic. – just a pilot -.”
“In other news… I’ll be going to the Omicrons soon with dad. Mom said he isn’t allowed to fly without escorts so I guess it’s an honor to be allowed to take him there. I don’t go that far very often. It’ll also give me the chance to thank Hans. You don’t know Hans but he’s a doctor who saved my dad multiple times over by now, I think? He’s a really good doctor and I - … I want to ask for his help.”
“You see, I wasn’t exactly born naturally. I’m more like you than I’m human. Constructed so to say. Yes Yes I know it doesn’t make sense to say I’m more like you but it does feel that way. I was built with a purpose instead of conceived out of love. You were built to fill a role and so was I. That role for me seems to be less and less clear. I just want to be normal but because I was ‘build’, I also have defects. I’ll be seeing Hans soon and hopefully he can help me out. Which leads me to the next topic.”
“You probably don’t know anything about this but relationships are difficult. Love feelings… butterflies. A few years ago, I really felt those. It felt like I had stepped in a whole new world full of emotions, good ones at that. Seth was his name, a guy who I really liked. My parents who do not approve of him I think, considering he was a Corsair. But our little love story came to a close two months after we met. I had an accident and went into a coma. When I came to years later, I lost all trace of Seth. I did look for him but without luck. He’s still in my head almost daily. Especially now with this Bellamy tugging on me.”
“They are a Prometheus pilot. My dad told me to be nice to them since they had no friends or people around them their age. So, I talked to them, and they were a little shy but nice. We had a date which also was very nice, they paid for everything – which felt really wrong since they aren’t exactly wealthy. I have to admit, talking to someone more my age is nice as well but I’ll not forget that night we had. Heh noooo~ we didn’t get carried away like that. Quite the opposite actually. It was super awkward, so we just laid there, trying to sleep, staring at the ceiling. I don’t remember a night that took this long. They are different, physically. I don’t really know what to think of that yet. I don’t really know how to explain it. Maybe it’s just that Seth is still playing in my head but everything felt different with them.”
“Relationships are weird… I really want one, a normal one but what is normal? You know you’re a better listener than most people? I can hear you groaning at all my rambling but I know you’re listening. Now you promise me, don’t go anywhere and don’t hurt yourself. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
Instead of leaving she laid back, staring at the screens that had once served the captain with battle information. They were now cracked and hanging loosely on their hinges. The pilot sighed. “I wonder if it all would’ve been easier for me if I was just an AI like the rest of you…” with her closing statement she put on her helmet and got back on her feet. She gently tapped the captain’s seat and smiled softly before she departed the same way she came.
The young woman was back in her little nest, sitting on a console on the bridge, gently swaying her feet under her while she looked at the rocks of ice float by. The ship creaked. A shiver ran down her spine and a slight frown appeared on her face.
“Hang in there a little longer.” Her voice was barely audible of the creaking of the ship. “I promised we’d get you but there are other things going on right now, so you might have to stay here for a while. I won’t forget you though and I might even invite some other people so you can talk to them as well.”
She let out a soft sigh while she fiddled with her fingers, they were trembling. The gears in her head were churning, even here when there was no one around besides the old wreck of a ship, she struggled to speak freely.
“I’ve met this guy, Edwards.” A small smile tugged her lips when she mentioned this new person that had come to her life. “He managed to be that little spark I needed to light up. And while I know where I want to go with him, the only road we can take is pretty bumpy. I have no idea how bumpy, but I know it’s going to be a challenge for the both of us. I’m thinking of inviting him here, so we can talk, him and I, while you listen to us. You can groan at him if he says something wrong. Bringing him here would be the ultimate test for us. He’s in the Liberty Navy after all, they might recognize you or want you for themselves. You should probably groan now if you don’t like the idea…”
There was nothing but silence. The only sound she heard was her own rebreather of her suit, cycling oxygen around.
“Thanks. Maybe I should cover his -eye- while flying here, so he doesn’t know where you are exactly. Hm… that could work. And yes, only one eye, he lost the other one.”
She chuckled softly to herself, showing a soft smile while she looked around the bridge. She was happy, a buzzing feeling inside of her struck her when she talked about this man. There was no way she could ever get him out of her head anymore, not after the talks she had, amongst other things. “In other news? Your captain is going to get married soon. I’ve yet to hear a date for it but me and dad will be preparing a gift for the couple to be. My dad thought about an original gift that I think they’d really like. And no, her getting married doesn’t mean they forgot about you. I doubt Phoenix forgot about you either, they’ll want you back eventually.”
“As for work, I’ve been roaming around far far away from here. Doing the odd errand left and right. I’ve been doing some hops back and forth between home and the Omicrons, running logistics. Sitting in that little transport alone can be a bit lonesome but I can enjoy the peace. It’s all fine and dandy until I run into those police patrols in Bretonia. While some cops are nice and open minded, others an be a little grumpy to the point where Liberty Rogue has more heart than them.”
“Speaking of Bretonia. I was talking to this guy Adenike. He’s doing a little job for me that’s off the books. Some Corsair equipment I need checked out before showing up with it at home. I’m sure our scientists would’ve been able to get the job done in a matter of days but I’d rather not deal with lying to them about how I obtained this equipment, let alone run into problems if it turns out they are infected with malicious software. We’ll see what this Junker comes up with, if anything, it’s a good way for him to prove he can be useful as a partner and with that comes money, which is ultimately what most people seem to care about.”
“I did meet someone else in Bretonia the other day. Victor Steiner, a retired agent and director of the Bretonian intelligence. Of course, they might just say they are retired to make me trust them but I have to be cautious. Bretonia doesn’t like us much and this guy seems to know a whole lot about my mother. I should probably ask her what they know about us, so I can navigate a conversation with him better, if we do meet again.”
She slowly let herself off the console to get back onto her feet. After dusting off her hands she walked over to the window of the bridge, placing her hand on the glass. There was a silence as her feeling had turned melancholic.
“Like I said, we won’t abandon you but you do have to hang in there. I’m not going to let you freeze to death out here. And next time I’m around, you get to meet my new friend. I’d love to know what you think about them.” She wondered if Edwards would understand the significance of this place, if he would see it as she did. As she spoke about the man again, a small smile tugged at her lips again, a stark contrast to the melancholy that had clouded her features a moment ago.
After a soft sigh she turned around, letting her hand trail over the consoles on the bridge on her way out. “I got work to do, busy busy. I’ll be back before you know it!” she said, cheering up and leaving the way she came.
![[Image: SbMtZ86l.png]](https://imgur.com/SbMtZ86l.png)