Megaera sat in the pilot seat and booted up her systems.
"I have not talked to Golanski for over 2 months. Last time was after the Kepler incident and wanted to repay the Blood Dragons for blowing up those labs. I just want to make sure he knows I am still alive and he does not have to worry."
The screens came online and Megaera accessed her communications database.
"Lets see... There he is."
Megaera selected the name 'Golly' on her list with saved contacts and started fixing her hair as the system started to lock into his signal.
Mi was surprised. Sending signals off the planet surface could be risky, then again who the hell would scan for it? "Uhmm... so you. Oh, you really want to message him now?" Mi leaned close, no way she wouldn't join the fun. "I tell you, when he calls me by this made up nickname again..."
"If we get picked up, I will blame you for not camouflaging the ships well enough. You only had one job. Besides that, the explosions and your burning ship were far more concerning. This short burst transmission wont last long enough to pinpoint our location even if they do bother to scan for it."
"Tsk, I doubt we were located at all! So yeah.." She just replied while leaning closer. She lost her breath for a second on Meg's comment and blushed. "H-Hey..d-don't say this now!"
"We should actually prop up the Dino Shrimp on the pilot seat, so when Golanski picks up the phone, he will see that thing sit on the pilot seat and upon tracking the location, nuke this planet to oblivion."
She looks at Mi again.
"I will have to see what other weapons to bring next. The rifle I brought was pretty useless. The creatures are too quick to take proper aim, they cant be seen with heat vision and the dense forest makes the sniper capabilities obsolete."
"I would love to see his reaction on this.. but.. do you really want to do it? I bet his face will be much funnier when we sneak into his office and put it right on his desk with a nice letter.." She chuckled a little. "And.. hmm, regarding another weapon, I will have to test out my Blaster, if it does the trick I will keep using it.. otherwise, well you have enough guns, don't you?"
Megaera stood up from the chair and walked back to the weapon's cabinet. On the computer screens were still the words: Attempting to lock into signature Golly.
"I will give you the access code to my armory."
She typed in the code on the keypad and the heavy door slid open. She took the scope off the rifle and took the remaining bullet out of the chamber. Afterwards she placed the scope and battle rifle back in the cabinet.
Mi followed Megaera to the cabinet. Smiling surprised, she didn't expect to be allowed this. "Arigatō, Meg. Don't worry, I will treat them as gentle as I treat you!" Mi couldn't hold back a short laughter, taking a closer look at the armory Meg has then. She had really no clue what to choose from all this...
Admiral entered his house. It was late night by the Sirian Galactic Time although there was no sunlight reaching the surface for the past thirty hours. Akabatian day and night cycle would not translate well even into the local time as Nebet’s passage through the sky still blotted out the star and would continue to do so for at least consecutive four more hours.
Connection time was painstakingly long. Gaia was not a planet close to the neural net bearing trade and gate network and many communication satellites fell in the Gallic blitz. Meg’s signal however reached suitable transmitter and ventured forth though Sirius faster than light communications towards Dublin.
Wolfish pet followed Michal like a shadow, stalking him anytime he would be planetside either for rest or duty. First thing he would had done since changing his officer uniform to more casual attire was to feed this wolfdog hybrid he called Weiss due to complexion of its fur. Within seconds, incoming call bounced across shortest possible path though Freeports and infrastructure laid out by first Zoner settlers in the Omega region.
It wasn’t long until dedicated buoys laid out by The Order traced data packages forth the Omicrons, transmitting burst to heart of The Order’s hegemony: moon-world of Akabat. Sheer distances involved, meticulous encryptions and firewalls governed by near sentient algorithms and limited throughput of edge worlds networking capacity all contributed to rather poor initial quality of the transmission.
He was not expecting a private call at this time and wondered who would be bothering him at his precious down time. It was separate account, albeit just as heavily encrypted and secured as official Order channels that not many had privilege to know about. Quick glance showed him the reason for all the commotion. This mad woman Ishikawa was contacting him from uninhabited planet so far from The Order Protectorate even he was surprised she had sufficient reception to put up more than rudimentary distress beacon.
The connection was made and choppy video appeared on screen of his computer. He pulled a military headset on for as clear voice recording as he felt it would be necessary to maintain comprehensive understanding with such spartan conditions.
“You smell nice”
The second voice that joined the conversation several dozen light years across the universe was not belonging to her and it was clear he was not meant to hear that particular line. Both of them appeared injured and patched up inside cramped starfighter clearly not meant to be inhabited by two people at the same time. Golanski started transmitting, with the camera showing not only him but Weiss beast eyes as the pet crawled adjacently to him out of pure curiosity. With the mic on, he cleared his throat and said a typical line to make it known to the oblivious sender that they are now in fact online.
The voice of the admiral startled Megaera, who was explaining the workings of a Rheinland handgun to Mi. The gun went off and missed Mi's head by only a small amount. The bullet buried itself into the metal plating of the ceiling. Megaera quickly pushed the gun into Mi's hands and sprinted to the monitor.
"This is Empress Megaera speaking."
She smiled at Golly.
"Hi Golly!"
She waves dramaticly at the camera.
"I am on Gaia with Minami Mi, after I nuked her out of the sky. We are here to gather flowers, but encountered some heretical dino shrimps and one of them stabbed my shoulder. The injuries Mi sustained are my fault and her ship will not fly anymore, so we buried it into the sand! That is a really cute dog, can I pet it?"
She looked at back Mi, who was observing quietly
"Wait let me start over.
Big Bear, This Jealous Snake and Lusty Fox reporting from the western sector of the Megaerian Empire. Your mission, should you accept, is to listen to this message without hanging up the phone. Agent Fox has been hit by an unknown explosive device that came out of nowhere and crashlanded on this hostile planet full of heretical creatures that call themselves the dinosaur shrimps. We investigate this planet to uncover a rumor that might indicate the presence of very good tea. So far we encountered heavily armed resistance. We might require extraction at the end of our mission, since half my fleet has been wiped out by a planet eating monster."