Several minutes had passed after Elder Laowais final announcement. It was clear that the Cretian defense force had beaten back the enemy. The first ship to land was a bit shot up, and Rafael Garcia recognized it as the Gallardo, one of the new Gladiator-class interceptors. Walking in to meet the pilot, he overheard a bit of the conversation before getting to work on repairing the damaged fighter.
No, use the scrap from the Legionnaire in Platform 3F; I dont want to waste any new materials on a ship still under testing.
-Como digas, hermano.
-Thanks, Ramon. Well go for a drink in about an hour before I have a meet with Gentle this evening. Nos vemos luego.
With this said, Skyelius went into the outdoor plaza parallel to the Boozers Lounge. He sat down on a bench to read a special map he bought near Cadiz, containing the patrol routes he was looking for. Pulling out a pen, he marked the map several times and wrote down notes all over the piece of paper. Sensing the presence of someone looking at him, the pirate stopped writing. It was an elderly man, no more than six feet tall. Sky did not recognize the face, and could soon tell he had never seen him before. Curiously enough, it seemed as if the anciano knew a lot about the young Corsair. The man sat next to him, with a slight smile in his face. Pulling out a small book he had on his jacket, he looked around to make sure nobody nearby could eavesdrop on the conversation. With no further distractions, the mysterious figure handed over the book to Skyelius, who first looked at it as if he had no choice, until he started reading the contents...
..siendo yo el tercer explorador en palpar el gran tesoro que mis ojos ahora ven; escribo esto para que aquellos que vengan despues de mi sepan lo que sus ancestros han dejado para ellos..
He couldnt help himself anymore, and asked the man for his identity or any origin he might have recognized. Without saying a word, the man left the plaza and did not stop to look back. With no choice but to accept the gift, the pirate stood up and walked towards a place he often visited in the rocky, dry mountains. With only his wit and a firearm, he sat down and began to read, starting over again:
It is by my own will that I write this journal, and probably the only will I will ever write, being the third explorer to see the great treasure that my eyes now see; I write this so that those that will come after me know what their ancestors have left for them. Its been twelve weeks since we left the planet, which was given the name Crete only a year ago. We only hope that once we get word of this to our families there, our future will change forever. Misfortune has stalked us ever since we were on Sol; endless fighting, a long journey to a place we know nothing of that ended up with most of us dead and our children facing starvation for the rest of their lives, and now little hope in finding a way to save our people. I do not know if we will prosper one day, but the day when we will turn our backs on our human side feels closer every passing hour. My greatest fear is that my kids will have to live by their own rules, and commit things I could never help myself to do in order to survive. That is why I hope this reaches our men in time, and that we can lay our hands on this discovery before our competitors do. The new world is a green, fertile planet not too far of the wormhole that we found by pure luck; the readings in that asteroid field cloud our sensors, perhaps even ideal for constructing a fort that we can use for protection. With any luck, Martinez and I can take a closer look, and land if it looks good.
-End of entry-
We might have found ourselves some real trouble here. It appears that ships from another house are wandering around. Their entry point seems to be somewhere in another asteroid field in the system, but maybe they dont know were here. Nothing is certain anymore. To make matters worse, my spacesuit isnt working properly. The thrusters are malfunctioning, and we cant get very far in an emergency without those. I dont think this bulky cow will make it too far in the atmosphere, either. We agreed that Id be the one to go in case we found any complications, since Martinez is the one that can get us out of here quickly. Our time table is short but we might be able to find something that can help us down there. All we need right now is a good boost of luck, thats all...
-End of entry-
Im here. The planet is definitely capable of supporting life by its own; its even got some tasty berries! I packed a few for Reynaldos family and my own. I found the perfect place to sit by, near the berry tree. Not much animal life, except a feline species that I encountered shortly after I landed. They look like miniature kittens with glowing purple eyes. Who knows, maybe Ill make a barbecue tomorrow. Martinez told me the signatures near the asteroid field are gone, so I think were in the clear now, thank the heavens. As for some shelter, my inflatable hut will have to do for now. There are not much rock formations here, so its bye-bye cave base. Maybe Ill find something else to eat here, all brought from the ship is old crackers, water, and more old crackers. Tasty.
-End of entry-
Good news and bad news. The good news is, theres enough food here to sustain us for centuries. The bad news is, the little scouts are back. This time theres more of them, too. To make matters worse, something with the signature of a cruiser appeared three and a half hours ago. Ive never seen old Jaime Martinez that paranoid. We cant signal the others from here or well be discovered. Even if its a mystery how these guys will react, they probably wont be any help to us anyway. Ill take the shuttle back to orbit in about two hours from now, hopefully Jaime will be back with the cavalry by then. I just hope itll be enough to convince our guests to turn back peacefully and let us have what we found first.
-End of entry-
Were doomed. The party crashers who just opened fire on us were from the Sleeper Ship Britainia or whatever. They didnt like the fact we found it first. Hell, we discussed it for nearly three hours, and were the ones really dying here! One of the officers mentioned that they had settled on a world not very far from here, only one jump away. No wonder it took them so long to get here. They were all nice and comfy on a place they can call home, with food and water. It wasnt nice of them to threaten us, either. We managed to disable the cruiser but we couldnt stop them from signaling their scouts at the other wormhole. Their weapons look pretty advanced, as well. The Esperanza took a few bad hits though. All of this was for nothing. Theyre bringing in more ships and we cant hold off another cruiser as we are now. Four ships against the pride of 'Britainia', what a joke."
-End of entry-
This is it. Were officially dead. Maybe they found a way to put some steroids to work on their settlers without them noticing. Those darned fatties brought two more cruisers to help! They jumped in a few minutes ago, but I cant really say I was surprised. Were towing the cruiser back to the planet. Engines will be back online in about an hour. Luckily we didnt do much damage to the hull, so it should be able to handle a few jumps from here without trouble. We left the crew in whats left of the Esperanza, ironically enough. I hope theyll enjoy the crackers I left in front of them, too. Maybe theyll kill themselves for them before their reinforcements find the ship, hehe.
-End of entry-
We finally made it back to Crete, but with bad news to the crowd. One of our fighter pilot was destroyed before we got a chance to defend ourselves against the cruisers flak. Joaquin will be avenged one day, I promise. We lost the planet, but we got an insight into Bretonian technology. Yeah, funny, isnt it? I found the word ..fine men of Bretonia about a dozen times in the Captains log on the bridge. It made me want to puke. At least well know how to defend ourselves once we meet them again. My children loved the berries, too. Maybe we can plant one of the small trees I brought back, too. Right now, were still dying, but our hope will not fade away. One day we will be back, and we will liberate the planet from those murderers that took away our land. We will never give up. No drop of blood spilled from this moment on will be left unaccounted for. Not one death of the few that survived will be forgotten. Criminals? Pirates? Maybe so, but one thing is certain now; we are no longer afraid of whats to come. The world against us, we will prevail, and our children will thank us one day, and remember us forever.
-End of entry-
Its..., the Corsair tried hard to express what he felt at that moment, but it was a very long time since his heart pumped so steadily and firmly as it did now. There was nothing else that needed to be said, he thought. A long-lost duty kept from his people until that day, and the feeling of never letting any hardships cloud the vision The Brotherhood had set for the brave men that died for their brethren, and the future.
"It is a cold universe until you know God as your Father, and then it becomes a home. Even the next life simply becomes the Father's house, home."
—David Pawson