The Vega's return

[puppytaste]

Roland awoke with a distinct ringing in his head, and the familiar metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

Judging by the scattered debris all around him, the blown out bulkheads and the buckled floor beneath him, Vega had completed the jump and was at least semi intact. He could feel the heat from the overworked power-plant even from the far corner of engineering where he had been flung during Vega's wide ride. He flexed his fingers and wiggled hie toes, so far so good. Bracing himself on a broken hand-railing he heaved his self back on his feet. After a moments dizziness, the room stared to come back together in his vision. It was a chaotic scene, people had died here.

In the glow of the main reactor and the flickering semi-operational emergency lights it was a Hodge-poge of both human and mechanical gore. Sparks flew from hanging conduits, several other crew members were shambling about, and a body sat impaled on some sort of metal beam that was once a piece of structural tubing used to hold up some piece of this mess or another. He was close to an operations console showing ship status. He thought must have been malfunctioning as it showed that structural integrity of the ship was at a mere 31%. A messaged popped up announcing that an emergency beacon had been successfully launched in the general direction of the nearest known station.... in Omicron Epsilon. Maybe the console was working properly after all. Several more crew were on their feet now, and Roland glanced around for their chief officer, Jeremy Adams.

"James?!?" he called out, "Chief Adams?!? Where are you sir?" No reply. There were many lost faces looking at him now. Faces that seemed to know something he did not. A young ensign spoke up, "Sir, Chief Adams is... on that pole sir." She motioned over to the slumped body dangling from its metallic skewer. "You are the ranking officer now Sir, what should we do now?"

Jesus Christ, was she serious? He looked closer at the ragged assembly around him. A couple Ensigns, some Petty Officers and Spacemen of various ranks, but no officers. Well this just gets better by the moment he mused. "Alright then, you two Ensigns. One of you get communications established with the bridge and the other get me a complete status on this Reactor. The rest of you, help me get this body down to the floor. We need to start cleaning up this mess, and get somebody from sickbay down here to start a triage...."

[RedEclipse]

Something had exploded once again and continued to make flashlights in the powerplant deck. Beside automated systems no one has been paid much of the attention. Remained crew had been busy with attempts to re-establish communications over the Vega.

Ensign George listed to Roland to orders and have said "Sir, we are working on establishing our communication systems. Most likely the primary communications system has been damaged and our team at this moment attempts to power up backup systems, which is currently should be used on the rest of the ship, according to technicians reports. If they are still alive." George went on ahead to the engineers team on side of the deck. While situation would be considered as disaster, George keep his mind calm as ex-Navy officer, they were trained to keep mind clear no matter of situation. But as he approached to the team, his calm voice has been shown thrill. "What's up, Alex?" have said George to the backward of the men, barely seen from an array of wires. "Not so good as we thought. Backup systems haven't any voltage nor any other systems, so at this moment we want to find the source, as we haven't any generators on the deck" he shrugged "if we ever had access to the storage…" Alex went deeper into the wire shaft, tangling in the wires. "Hold on,I think my tester tool found the signal". Alex took the utility knife and removed part of wire isolation and took the tester "Damn it, where I can find the mass? Though we already lucky to find the phase wire, god damn those engineers who have made this ship". George shrugged and said while giving him a connector "Well, at least we're alive after clash with the Nomads, not sure if any other of our ships are capable of that…" Alex pretended that had been busy responding to that, preferring to hide his feelings about that. "Anyway, please check the communication desk console, it lies somewhere under the wires…" George started to looking over burnt plates and countless amounts of wires, finally he found a source of light under his feet "Here you go, Alex. Test it and please bring us good news". George turned around to report situation to Robert.

[puppytaste]

At the main status console, Roland was busy looking through the various data network and power grid diagrams trying to figure out a way to route power or comms, or anything really, to somewhere useful. The remaining crew left in this section scurried about attempting to repair what systems they could, replacing blown conduits and burned isolenear chips.

One of the Ensigns approached from a console him and another technician had been working on. With a eager grin below the drying blood on his chin, he reported, "Sir! We have restored partial operation to the ships intercom system. We think we can try to contact the bridge now."

"Well lets give it a shot then Ensign." Replied Roland. He approached the comms console, and dialed in a line to the bridge on the command operations channel which he hoped should get the attention of anyone who was left up there. For all he knew, the command deck had de-compressed in the jump and the senior staff were currently floating in the surrounding vacuum. He pressed the green call button, watching the status light change from 'Ready' to 'Wait' as it tried to connect to its counterpart on the bridge. Hopefully, right now a green 'Receive' button was also glowing, and preferably making a very obnoxious beeping that would roust anyone left to be rousted.

The light in the Engineering bay changed to 'Connection Established' and Rolands sudden hope was instantly crushed by a soul piercing screech blasting from the embedded speakers at the communication workstation. People desperately tried to cover their ears from the grating electronic squeals that were filling the room. Roland guessed that while a physical connection was still possible, something was either overloading the signal or interfering with it in some other way. He also now knew that there was somebody left on the bridge left to press a button, and was probably hearing the same thing. "Goddammit turn that damn thing off Alex!" He shouted, but the Ensigns could not hear them. The pitch started to rise and just as Roland though he might either rip the speakers out of the console, or his ears if that did not work, it suddenly stopped. A soft female voice was heard from the ships loudspeakers, "Reboot cycle complete. Ships Computer restored at 57% overall capacity. Emergency Beacon Launch has been logged. Please remain calm....". The console also started to speak, "....ames, Ada..are you the...". The status light changed to a orange 'Stabilizing' as the newly restored computer took control to filter out whatever had nearly cost them all their hearing. "This is Lieutenant Roland Gillette in Engineering, I'm in command down here Sir, Adams is dead."

Silence for a moment then, "..oland, This is James on the bridge... don't know what you... did.... life support and sensors are coming back.... computer is sorting itself out I think." The signal continued to clear, "We have heavy casualties, and it seems like we are pretty much dead in the water, but we are alive." "Yes Jeremy I can hear you better now, " Roland Replied, "It looks like an automated distress beacon of some kind was just launched. Hopefully somebody friendly finds that. Its still trying to figure out its exact telemetry, but it looks like we at least made it back to the Omicrons from here. Are you able to confirm that up there?"

[RedEclipse]

Bridge was consumed by dark, though a single button on the console repeatedly flashed. It was the last option from the bridge to diagnose any communications on the ship. Although all messages were encrypted and consoles were offline, it was enough to understand that someone else was alive onboard the ship, as most of the deck's gateways were mechanically locked due to various damage. "James, technicians currently trying to power up the third contour. Battery section along with generators should be somewhere in level above us." James turned his barely seen face and slightly nodded; though their eyes already get used to dark so even flashing button was blindly bright if get close enough to the console. "It's a surprise for me that automated systems didn't engaged any after the exist from the hyperspace." Jack answered "Yes, but you have to keep in mind we don't know what has happened with the rest of the ship, we still haven't heard from other decks and no scouts have not returned yet with any useful information besides avalanches of impassible garbage and damaged sections. Damn, we can't even know ship integrity, so we would play all in to open any of gateway locks." James sat down and put his legs on the console "Seriously, I did not expected an no sense from you. Relax, everything will be alright. I bet that reactor was put on the idle due to shake we had on existing from the hyperspace. You better get on the desk and find that wire, leading to battery room, if you are correct on that. I need to make a break, my body turns against me, I've been on the stimulants for too long". Jack smirked "Like most of us. I don't panic, I just feel own… helplessness. We are trapped in this deck like a cat in apartments" Ringing laugh filled the bridge and someone's steps were getting closer to James and Jack, face wasn't yet seen, only outlines of the spacesuit. As person get closer, it was obviously that its Samantha. "C'mon guys, we are still there and with good company!" Samantha always been too positive, though it was too attractive to resist "On the note, I have not much to report." Jack nodded "Not even surprised…" Samantha interrupted him "Before you have said another stupid joke something really weird went in the deck 24.8.L. All the lights and apparatus went online, so we were even able to open the next gateway lock without any resistance… Though after it went dark, probably of short circuit" Samantha smiled "So you know what's given to us? Some of the crew on other decks might be still alive!".

While the remaining crew had been busy with attempts to power up their communications system, a usual bridge lightning engaged and then started to blink and suddenly all went dark again. "What was that? Again, like in that room, Samantha?" said James and Samantha nodded "Yeah, we've faced the same. Told you, someone in the reactor bay trying to fuel up…" in a moment it went all lamps and apparatus went enabled and then the lightning system was switched to emergency mode, only several lights were kept on, despite this all apparatus is online. James got up abruptly and said astonished "Navigation, life support and rest of the systems loading… That's means someone did the trick in the reactor bay" Jack was stupefied "Whatever it takes the time, this means we will able to inspect ship systems, once system will go through self diagnosing" all attention of the three on the bridge were consumed by console logs, whose scrolls on high speed. It was almost impossible to get in details, but they were at least mere attempt to grab some basic information about ship status. In a few moments later, communication console has been made a ringing sound, Jack rushed to the console and pressed the button to respond, but nothing was heard beside of static noise. Once it was dropped, another call reached them and another. James took out a deep breath "It seems most of our crew is alive, though we cant hear them yet… Jack, give me the pad." Jack took his sight around the room, attempting to find the console's pad in other ship parts, which was a total mess "Here you go, James. Seems we are catched luck by the tail".

[Alvin]

A while ago back in the reactor room, Jeremy suddenly lurched his body up from his unexpected blackout with an abrupt shook, as if woken up from a restless, shivering nightmare. Somewhat clueless for a moment which felt ages, his senses began slowly returning to him one by one.

First was the noise, reaching through to the unprepared specialist. Klaxons alerting to reactor error blares through his ears, as if the volume was suddenly turned up to eleven. Next was a peculiar sensation... a mixture of warm, humid and metallic smell, as if someone had just been metalworking near a blast furnace. Then distracting Jeremy was then a faint, warm lighting waving about, caught by the corner of his eyes. For some reason he can’t seem to focus on it. Is his sight impaired ? No… the light seems at a distant. The issue rather lies where he is now is completely pitch black instead, and the emergency lights somehow had failed kick in.

This is the point where Jeremy tried to stood up. Despite every inch of his body is overworked, exhausted and protesting every moment he makes, he still managed to just bring all his willpower together to try gather himself together… Only to suddenly collapse with a anguish groan. His sense of feeling has finally return in full; but only to be rewarded with a twisted sensation of immense pain running through his nerves from his right thigh. Reaching for a balance and a for feel from his rather skittish hands, he feel a pool of warm liquid on the floor. Despite lack of any visual confirmation, he doesn’t doubt even for a second this is his own blood. Reaching up to his thigh, he can make out an unknown fragment, sized slightly bigger than his hand, lodged to the front of his leg, triggering another painful groan.

Then the klaxon stops. Jeremy faces up to see the waving light that was once distance is now much bigger, but not really brighter. However, just enough to see glimpses of the room completely filled in black dust and soot, absorbing most of the light from its source. Subsequently he hears what appears to sound like Tom shouting across the room, to then Jeremy hastily replied with “Over here!”.

As the young electrician made his way over, avoiding debris and wall panels littered over the room. Jeremy briefly surveyed his surroundings, or at least as much as he could make out with limited lighting. By the time Tom made it around, holding onto a torch lamp. Jeremy made no time checking his injured leg. The object imbedded seems is part of the access panel from a failsafe, which he tasked one of the other exhausted technician to patch up earlier just before the jump... There is a surrounding small pool of blood which Jeremy felt earlier, but to his small relief the actual bleeding itself isn’t a lot. “Give me a couple of conduit ties just in case” Jeremy said to Tommy, just as Tommy was already search for it as well, one hand feeling the pouch of his jump suit and the other in the bag attached to his utility belt.

As Tommy passed the tie to Jeremy, the electrician asked Jeremy where Jake was. “I… I don’t know…” replied Jeremy. However he then continued, “but we need to quickly get the reactor working now. I don’t know why the emergency backup isn’t responding in this room but if assuming there are fires in other parts of the ship, consuming the little oxygen we have left and without working backups, we don’t much time to waste. We need power now.” As Jeremy with one hand balancing his body up, and the other grabbing Tommys torch, started looking around key points of the reactor room. Despite seemingly everything cooked to piece and the failsafe panel ironically wedged in his leg, it looks like failsafe has worked and the reactor core not damaged, as Jeremy thought to himself; otherwise he wouldn’t be here. “Alright” Jeremy said to Tommy, “Seems like it the state of this room isn’t as bad as it looks. But, I imagine the reactor is fully disconnected and emptied, with all violate compounds flushed out of the ship at this point. Considering my state, you will need get it working instead – follow my instructions”. As Jeremy said in grunting tone whilst trying to find something to lean on.

However, getting the reactor to work much easier said than done. What should have been a five minute job turned much… much longer to Tommy’s misery, and to the tired Jeremy's fustration. The reactor core had to be inspected, with Jeremy asking questions and Tommy describing the state. The consoles in reactor room fried beyond immediate use, resorting to the young electrician going hands on engaging manual clutches to enable the switches, dials and circuits within the access panels. Tommy also had his diagnostics pad hooked up to the main conduits to check the connection feedback to each of the ship’s systems, checking and hoping the power up won’t cause secondary damage to other parts of the ship. Then there was a matter of realigning the completely disconnected reactor, bypassing the spent failsafe, grabbing the fuel from the side vault which luckily seems to be untouched by the event, then carefully refuelling the reactor. A lot heavy work of for only one pair of hands.

By now groans and shouts of others are beginning to call from the nearby rooms, but Jeremy hastily told Tommy to focus on the situation “We are nearly there…”. Said the specialist, as he points Tommy to the access panel. With all prep work finally done, they began powering up the reactor on a close loop reaction. Tommy is controlling the switches, whilst Jeremy supervising the overall situation and monitoring the electrician’s diagnostic pad, hooked up to the main system as the reactor is turned on. First output started running on one twelfth of power, then slowly increasing to quarter output before holding it there at nominal. It was a breath holding first few moments, but soon to both relief afterwards as it looks like the system is running smoothly; all the luck they needed in this moment despite the situation.

Jeremy give Tommy the go ahead to start powering all the ships systems across the vessel. However, at this point, the specialist is rapidly losing the battle trying to stay awake. Having lost an amount of blood, and spent the last hour trying keeping himself up, Jeremy could not hold out any longer. The lights and screen suddenly emitting across the room was last thing he sees before his vision faded out…

[RedEclipse]

A few days later Vega still had drifted in unknown nebula without any noticeable movement, imitating itself as part of the asteroid field. After the jump team finally managed to repair communications over the ship and somehow bring reactor functionality for the ship movement and life support maintenance, that gave a hope for the team to call for the back up. And due to the defensive grid was poorly damaged and reactor wouldn't able to cover its requirements in power anyway, any further step should be well thought, it could be a grave mistake to met with any of Nomad within Omicron-74.

"... So what you suggest? We still couldn't do anything without being noticed, if there any of Nomad patrols nearby, we're screwed" argued James with Jack. Jack countered "Without communications array we're trapped, you know better than me. Listen, the nebula, where we are currently stay, reminds me of once our home system Omicron 74. I have taken few samples with a drone and it seems to be absolutely familiar with old samples in our databank. I just suggest a mere mission, I'll jump on some speedy, not damaged ship for reconnaissance. What if we emerged right to Corinth Station or Livadia Shipyard?.. " James was quite annoyed by Jack nativity "We didn't picked up any other signals here beside of natural ones. If there would be some of ours, we would hear them already. Your studies is not sufficient to risk your life or whole team lives…" Jack have continued to urge James "James, you know better than me we're trapped on this ship. We need to explore this area and based on gained inter act accordingly. I'll be swift and silent. I promise that i wouldn't bring any alien patrol on my tail" James turned around to the console, which had been showing vista on green nebula and multiple rocks, which had been bumping Vega's body sometime, but present no real threat for a warship and serve as temporary shelter. James sighted "Take fastest ship. Make sure communications will be offline." Jack smiled slightly, it's been a long time since he left Vega and the little adventure won't do harm "Everything will be okay, don't worry."

Jack weared pilot suit, as no one would predict conditions outside. Afterall, in case a wreck is found he will have to investigate it for valuable equipment. As he put helmet in, he left his cabin, closed the doors and went through corridors to the last fully functional launchpad. It's been some time since the crew gathered all systems together and despite partially unmounted locks on the walls and ceiling it gives the feeling of safety. As he entranced launchpad, he jumped in freighter that was checked for vulnerables and was good to go. Jack ran off a quick check meanwhile started the engines "This is Lyra Freighter D.7-3, systems are green, we're good" and shortly after a loud sound of siren and red color filled the launchpad, informing that ship is ready to leave the area and lock doors about to open. Jack slowly took the stick on himself to realise ship from the magnet's attraction and slowly like never before have headed to opened lock's gate. It's been a while since I flew anything, I should be really careful thought Jack. As the ship had an entrance lock system, the gate after the ship started slowly closing, and swiftly after air from the lock was sucked dry, meaning that the outer gates of the Vega were about to open. As pressure was normalized to outer, gates in front of freighter were open "Woohoo, full speed ahead!" Said Jack and pressed the throttle on full power,which had pushed Jack's body in the seat. He felt himself as prisoner that managed to run off from the prison, feeling carefree.

James was looking at close scanners, the face was red and he had been angrily muttering… "What the hell is he doing!.. He should drift along asteroids, pretending one of them.." someone were coming back behind his shoulders "Oh James, stop taking everything so seriously. Could you imagine how long it would take if he would fly that slow? Furthermore, none of the human scanners would notice our presence in such an asteroid-polluted area…" James attempted to take control of his anger behind Jessica " But you know how impulsive Jack " Jessica moved closer to stunned James and put her hand on the shoulder " there's no one on this ship would do this task better than him" James paled slightly and said "You are right, sometimes I'm getting worried about him too much. Let's wait for the news from him…" said James while can't get out of his apprehension. Through a panoramic window the freighter that had been seen visually perished in the cloud behind multiple asteroids, meaning that they wouldn't be able to contact him anymore, as Vega remained radio silent.

A few clicks after leaving the druly nebula, he had stopped the ship and started gathering visual information and comparing it with the Omicron-74 system in their data banks. For a moment Jack starred in a jungle of stars that spread across ahead "What a lovely view, that view looks really familiar!". But that could be any other nearby system, thought Jack for a moment. I will have to investigate any specific patterns of human presence or even human vessels in this system before return. Jack glanced at the old roadmap of the Omicron-74 system and chose the opposite side of the nebula. According to those star charts Livadia should be right there, so if he would catch the tail of opportunity, the crew will be able to tow Vega even without leaving the nebula which could be taken as high risk - any defenseless big target would be crushed by Nomad forces in no time. Jack turned the ship to new coordinates, meanwhile had been raised speed close to the cruise, but not fast enough to get tracked by any of the scanners.

Several hours later Jack managed to get into desired coordinates. His face slightly paled to the white lips - there was no one of the human ships or the station, though unlike any other part of the cloud this side was free of any big asteroids. He stopped the ship and tried to use low range scanners to indicate any once inhabited part of the nebula. "C'mon, there is should be any signs… they weren't able to leave without any mark" said Jack meanwhile anxiously taking a look on the scanner. But scanners response was rather druly that nothing was found. Jack, with losing the hope, turned the ship to the closest asteroid out of this free from asteroid blot, feeling groan peril in this vacuum, far from his teammates, a place that became a new home. "I got an idea,. '' mumbled Jack and gestured to the console of the freighter to land on that asteroid, preventing any possible damage for the ship, as the asteroid trajectory and speed were quite unusual. As the ship made a swift but yet smooth movements, he stopped right a meter above to the asteroid surface and killed engines. Now Jack is able for a full scan, with the ability to take a look into it by his eyes. "God damn it!" glanced Jack. The asteroid was partially burned and had smooth yet many craters were on it surface. That meant there was once an asteroid field… And Jack wanted to leave the ship and take examples of the asteroids, something brighten the surrounding area. Jack swiftly recognized the source, and swiftly have disable every system onboard of his ship, pretending to be a part of the asteroid. Finally, the source of the light has become visible. Jack's apprehension was confirmed, it was monstrous Nomad ship, close to the size of the Vega. Jack hold up his breath, like it could help. His body was covered by cold sweat. The creature was like getting closer and closer to him but a moment after it had changed the course, leaving Jack stalled like a statue.

In a half of an hour, Jack decided to turn on life support systems and started to heat the engines. Thanks to the space suit, he wouldn't be able to disable all ship systems to keep himself unnoticed for Nomad patrol. Jack attuned his way point to the Tirane, as it is no longer a doubt - they made jump right into their once home system. Next step would be to check any signs of the Corinth Research Station or Livadia Shipyard, probably they were relocated due to growing Nomad presence, Jack attempted to grop ideas where ours could remain in the system meanwhile charging engines to its maximum capacity, as there no way to keep himself untracked in the open space. As he left the nebula, he aimed on top-right of the gas giant's orbit with hope to find some signs of the ours. For the moment Jack's attention was attuned to the grand vista of the Tirane, that had been slowly hiding green sun behind his atmosphere, playing with green and yellow lights in atmosphere, reminding of fireflies at nighttime. Though he had dragged his attention back to the scanners swiftly, reading the report. "Not even a piece of metal in orbit, very strange…" What could have driven his fellow Zoners to leave this peaceful system? No one would tell in this void, though several Nomad patrols of small sized creatures were a long way ahead. A last hope left - is to find Freeport 15 or what's left of it. Jack attuned a new course to ship navmap, before any of the Nomad ships would notice his presence.

Ship finally left from the shadow of the Tirane and the cabin was again filled with a blindly green color of sun corona, meaning that he was a few hours away from the Freeport orbit. Jack pressed several button and eagerly took a look on the remaining distance. Something bulky had been seen forward, it means that he's on the right destination. Without any illusions, he slightly modified the course of the ship right to that sparkling blot, a remains of the Freeport 15.

A 2 hours later Jack finally reached Freeport 15. To be exact, remnants of the station. The launch decks were separated from the core station, though without any other significant damage. According to the scan, the first impression was that it had been intentionally destroyed by a precise shot, without any resistance. Though no one would tell if the owners left the base by their will or it was taken down by the surprise. Jack has selected the desired launchpad to dock for autopilot and has left the seat. He should be prepared to find something valuable in the wreckage, something that could be useful for the Vega rescue mission. He went through a thin, dark but yet long corridor and reached the sealed door. Jack came closer to the console for retina scan. The console had been lightened up by green color and the door slowly slided sidewards, opening a view on a vast room - the cargo bay. He left straight to the exoskeleton, which could carry any salvage of immense size, without any harm to the pilot's body. He climbed upwards to the cabin, closed the door and enabled the mechanism. Jack tried to stand up and walk with it, feeling a shakiness. It had been a very long time since he used any of such toys. As he felt confident enough, he said "Assistant, close the cabin area and open up cargo bay gates". When a second door was closed, the room was filled with a bright light and the cabin's window started slowly covering up by the ice. As ship systems had leveled the pressure and sucked up all the air in the cargo hold, the gate started slowly opening, appearing what's left of the station launchpad.

Jack jumped out of the freighter and landed on the ceiling, artificial gravity is long gone. The situation inside of the freeport was grim, as it appears that all equipment was removed in a rush, leaving damaged side panels, cutted wires floating around. "Guess as the first step I'll take a look in the storage deck, there should be left some valuable equipment for us". Jack turned around to the gate which leads to station interiors and jumped forward, leaving the wrecked launchpad and his ship alone. The situation inside of other rooms and the deck was quite close to launchpad condition. All equipment was dismounted, anything that could be used was taken, leaving only a glittering infinite amount of wire and damaged microcircuits. As Jack left the corridor and entered storage he enabled the scanners as the vast room was cluttered with various equipment and station panels. "Nothing that can be useful right now… engine components, navigation blocks, fueling systems…" he tried to get into the depths of the junk, but with no luck - there's none of communication arrays or spare onboard communication blocks visually nor according to the scanners. Jack felt Imminent failure and slightly paled. He left the storage and moved forward to the latest hope for a successful mission - communications tower. While Jack had been moving through the corridor, an immense amount of various station parts were floating, heavily interrupting the view. That means he's getting closer to the most damaged part of the station. In several minutes he managed to get to the edge of the corridor, appearing grand vista on 74's green sun, gas giant Tirane and a few hundred meters away from the core section of station. It was noticeable that the sensor array on the top wasn't damaged. "Oh, guess luck on my side this time" He moved out forward to the exterior hull of the station, as there's no real reason to jump forward, risking the ship; different elliptical orbits could always drift apart. He has returned back quite fast, thanks to gravity boots and less junk. As he reached the docking bay he jumped in straight to ship cargo bay. As the cargo bay's doors were closer and pressure was leveled, he left the exoskeleton and moved swiftly to the pilot cabin. After engine heating and a few clicks, he realized a freighter from debris claw, and moved the ship straight to the core section with a communication tower, pointing the ship to the demolished corridor, a single way to enter a separated part of the station.

As he left the ship, Jack jumped right into the corridor. The condition on the core part was quite worse, as air leaked not immediately after the strike, everything inside was burnt to the metal, laying open burnt leftovers of wires and other hard to recognize apparatus. He finally managed to get to lock system that was closed "What the hell. Seems station was somehow operating before the thing was blown up. I'll have to somehow open the lock system." He turned to what remained of the lock control panel and removed the upper cover. Thankfully, the power wires weren't damaged badly. Jack took connectors out of exoskeleton and connected straight to lock power system. With scratching noise the lock from both sides slided downwards, realizing path to the forward.

For the surprise, the core part of the station was in quite good shape compared to other decks, thanks to the automated lock systems. As the station was unpowered and elevator systems weren't functional he took a look around for a stairs lettering on the wall. As it was absolutely dark, it took awhile but Jack managed to find it. He opened the door and started moving hastily upwards on the stairs. It took awhile to get into the communication section, but the exoskeleton made it an easy trip, without taking a sweat. As Jack entered the room, he dazedly took around. The apparatus was in perfect, like not ever used condition. Seems workers weren't interested in taking such equipment, as it was quite common, and present no real value. If you aren't trapped in an almost dead ship of course. Jack was about to take the whole communication block but his curiosity stopped him. "Alright, it won't take long. Let's see what forced the people to abandon this system". Jack gave a look around for a power relay and connected it with his exoskeleton, to power up communications. "Let's check the latest records". He pressed several buttons and speakers started telling the story.

Record 7084. - "Sparta transport, what happened with the rest of the convoy ships?" -"The Nomads catched us almost as we left the Peloponnese Asteroid Field. We were heavily outnumbered, but I hope we fought enough time to get Livadia and Corinth to jump out of 74, before Kappa hole went absolutely unstable. We have lost everyone, even Altair flagship. Our brothers fought like lions, but it was not enough." -"Acknowledged, proceed to the mooring b…" - "You don't understand? Take everything valuable out of Freeport 15, and evacuate out of this station. They may come anytime. If you are fast enough, you can catch the escort of the Livadia and Corinth, or at least what's left of it." -"I hope there's no joke, Sparta. We've started the evacuation, thank you for informing us" -"Hope to see you on the other side".

Record 7085 "Guess it would be the last record. We have gathered everything that can be reused on other installations and packed our ships to catch the remaining fleet at the Omicron Kappa hole. Everyone left the Freeport 15, I'm probably the last and single person onboard of the station. The Nomads are pushing us way harder than our reconnaissance predicted, so Sparta and Freeport 15 stations have to be gone in the Omicron-74 forever. Hell, we even had no time to seal the station and stop the reactors. The Nomads are coming, long range picking up their signals, the MIA of their arrival is about 30 minutes. God forgives us for our sins."

When the last record finished transmitting, a screaming silence filled the room. He was shocked how their home was desecrated and deserted in a matter of few days by the alien forces. "So James was right about the Nomads." Jack moved to a panoramic window, resembling old times, the Zoner Trading Consortium that later were known as Omicroners, His friends Lou and Boo that had been long gone. “Well, guess we’ve lost 74, but it's time to move on, the Vega fate is still on the table” Jack whispered abruptly. He turned around to get the work done, the communication box was carefully disconnected and Jack moved downwards to the corridor, where his ship was awaiting.

As Jack loaded communication systems he enabled ship systems and had to wait till engines would be heated enough to start on full thrust, he loaded random coordinates of Peloponnese Asteroid Field, as coming straight to the Vega would be way too dangerous. As the ship was ready, Jack pushed forward, leaving the area of freeport’s wreckage at best speed. Along the way scanners didn’t pick up any alien traces. Per entrance in Peloponnese Asteroid Field Jack had changed his vectors several times before finally selecting the latest Vega coordinates.

James had been busy with automated systems check. While most of the ship systems were assembled back to its original functionality, several of them were affecting each other, probably of wrong connected wires but in current shape it was really hard to debug it. A few moments later James have sent communication to engineering bay "Dwayne, check deck 7.1, near of power supply block. Your guys must be confused something, automated system check leads to this area". As James attention was again consumed by reading the reports, communication block started flashing, means of incoming message. James swiftly pressed the button and Jack's voice filled bridge room "This is the Lyra Freighter D.7-3, I'm requesting to dock." James felt a relief, he was worried about his return "Jack, it's good to see you, proceed to the dock 1." He swiftly standeded that even eyes went black and headed to the docking bay.

Jack aligned freighter this time manually, feeling himself much more comfortable in ship of such size. As gate behind him closed and pressure was stabilized, lock system released him and he carefully, at low speed proceed to launch pad, notices a lot of people surrounding it. It's been a long time since someone left the ship and managed to return. As ship was landed Jack left pilot's cabin and headed to plane ladder. The first in the crowd was James. Jack went down he strongly shaked hand with James "It’s nice to be back." said Jack and James smiled and replied "I was so worried about you, the mission was close to insanity." Jack greeted with friends and everyone who came in and said to James "Let's discuss the details on the bridge. Oh and by the way, I've got communication equipment from Freeport 15 wreckage. I was right its Omicron-74…" James eyes raised, he didn't expect it to be true, he wanted to ask him a question but Jack disrupted him "Let's go to the bridge, we will instruct the rest of the crew later. As they entranced the bridge, Jack come in to control console and gestured to open Omicron - 74 map. Jack started talking with all his eagerness "Ours had to retreat from 74, I opened the logs of the freeport. but they somehow were prepared for that, so had time to evacuate all personnel and Livadia and Corinth as whole. We have to be very cautious when we will transmit encoded message to corefleet, I ran into Nomad capital ship patrol, so they could finish off us in a second. As my random idea, we can send transmission from the nebula and then cover up in freeport’s debris field and pray for the backup". James listened to him and deep inside disagreed with all that risk. But situation is critical, they had to play the roulette with their lives on the desk. James tuggle a moment to respond to Jack and shaked his wrist and shoulder "Alright, that sounds like a plan. Per mount of the equipment we will send transmission to ours and start to move on." He turned around to the console and have said to the microphone abruptly "To all personnel, emergency brief in communications room". James slightly smiled and said to Jack "We're moving out as our transmission reaches Phoenix core fleet. Time to jump in unplumbed space". Jack reassuringly have said "It's now or never. We can't drift alone for ages, we have very limited resources…" James stumbled in a panoramic window, opening a grand view on Peloponnese Asteroid Field, slightly lightened by the solar of Omicron-74. "Yes Jack,you're right" his voice started to shake "It's now or never".