Unexpected Reunion

[TheSauron]

Coombe Asteroid Field, Omega-3, May 823 AS

The Coombe field was filled with chaotic comm chatter as yet another Corsair raid clashed with BMM security forces. It effectively drew all attention from a lone Osprey crossing the field with a very undesirable person onboard. The person in question didn't care wether she was welcome here or not. She was confident that the three old HN engines strapped to the back of her ship will be sufficient for any overzealous law enforcers. In fact, she was so confident that her biggest worry in the middle of hostile space was that her ship's manouvers made it hard for her to sip tea from the thermos she was holding in her hand.

It was indeed a tricky task to synchronise the movements of her hand to those of her ship that was swirling through the rocks and dust of the field. It wasn't something that a proper dose of focus and patience couldn't solve, however. And when tea is at stake, Flora could gather infinite amounts of both. All of this was only a side task for her, as most of her attention was drawn by the radar display. While she wasn't worried about being caught, being chased was still an inconvenience. The display was luckily clear, only occasionally showing a stray piece of metal. The field was full of a variety of leftovers from countless skirmishes between BMM, hunters, Corsairs and Hessians.

Flora took one last sip before closing the thermos and attaching it to it's mounting below the pilot's chair. This area of her ship's cockpit contained lots of various things. Bottles of various liquids, a medkit, a box with some food, even a pistol. Flora learned the necessity of the last item in a quite hard way a few years earlier.
After the thermos was back at it's place she gave the radar display her full attention. Just in time to see it show a large object a few clicks in front of the ship.

Flora quickly entered a few commands on the console and soon received a preliminary scan. It was a metallic object, most likely a wreck. She was about to ignore it when she looked at the wreck's coordinates displayed on the radar. She could swear she had seen those somewhere. She then started a full scan of the wreckage while dropping her ship out of cruise a few kilometers away. She then switched to manual piloting and continued to close the distance to the wreck with thruster speed. Details about the curious object were slowly being displayed on a small display next to the radar. She only briefly skimmed them before a single word drew her attention.

The wreck was an Anaconda class fighter. Judging by the direction it was drifting towards, it was apparently disabled somewhere closer to the edge of the field, now moving towards it's center. Flora frowned a little as all the pieces of information she had so far were slowly put together by her mind. A robotic voice saying "two kilometers to target" pulled her out of thoughtfulness. She now focused on leading her ship towards the curious debris. It apparently was drifting somewhere on the dark side of a large asteroid in front of her ship.

Flora turned on her ship's front headlight. It was mounted on a rotating platform. She turned the thruster off and led her ship around the rock on impulse speed. She then locked the headlight on the wreck as soon is at came in her sight range. It was just a few hundred meters away. The ship was relatively lightly damaged, only missing a few hull plates and lower left fin. It was rotating slowly. Flora brought her ship closer. She was surprised that the ship was abandoned. She knew from experience that Anacondas were able to limp back to their mother outpost with way worse damage. As she was below two hundred meters away the wreck rotated enough for her to see it was also missing the engine. Flora pieced together that the ship was most likely disabled in combat and there was no time to tow it back, only to secure the pilot. The wreck's hull was covered in a multitude of scratches from countless collisions with smalled rocks and dust in the field. Flora was almost sure the ship used to feature some sort of art on it's hull, but the dust polished the hull since then, leaving only scarce traces of paint.

As more and more data became available on the small display to her left, sooner or later the ship's presumed age was also displayed. It was definitely in service while Flora was still in charge of Holmfirth operations. She ordered the autopilot to bring the ship closer to the wreck and rotate it so the airlock was facing it. She then opened her belts and exited the cockpit. She quickly crossed a cramped corridor into the cargo hold, closing her suit's helmet. Her spacesuit was quite colourful in appearance. It was black, covered with plenty of floristic patterns carefully painted on it by it's owner herself over the course of few months of using it.

Flora opened the inner airlock door and, after a short procedure of pumping out the precious atmosphere, found herself outside of her Osprey. The computer was doing a good job at maintaining it's location as the Anaconda was slowly rotating just a few meters away. She looked around to make sure no surprises were coming her way before letting go of the handles in the airlock and gently pushing herself out of it. It became perfectly silent now and Flora could only hear her own breath and heartbeat. She then turned on her suit's thrusters. She didn't have to used them, however, as the speed she gained from pushing herself away was both enough to get her to the wreck in a timely fashion as well as slow enough that she didn't have to slow down before managing to grab a protruding, slightly bent, hull panel. Her momentum was still there, however, and soon after she bumped into the hull. She then quickly turned on her gloves and boots. They worked like the opposite of the techonology commonly used in space station hangars to keep ships afloat above the floor. It wasn't strong, but enough to keep her attached to the hull while allowing her to walk around. She then stood up and smiled a little. She always felt funny in situations like this. She looked around, for a moment observing her entire surroundings, including her own Osprey, rotate around her as she stood there, glued to the wreck's hull. She then remember why did she come here in the first place.

Her inspection of the ship began with making a few steps along the hull towards the cockpit. Most, if not all, Gaian pilots put their callsigns in that area. She carefully inspected the left side of the cockpit. She knelt near it, her eyes slowly moving along the hull. Nothing. Flora sighed and stood up again before making her way to the other side of the ship. It was a slow process as she had to watch out to not detach herself with too hasty moves. After finally crossing the top of the ship, she knelt again, looking over the most popular location for pilot's identification. She finally spotted it half a meter away. It was covered in scratches and dents. She moved a step closer to have a better perspective.

She then froze as soon as her eyes finally pieced together the indistinct inscription. Of all things, her very own callsign was not what she expected to see.

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One MD Admiral

[TheSauron]

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One MD Admiral