Amal sat on the roof of one of the silos on the farm. She peered through an optical monoscope at the land around her.
As she scanned the horizon, she caught sight of a frigate in the distance. It was accompanied by a handful of fighters.
They were all descending carefully.
The readings on her monoscope showed that the ships were roughly ten thousand meters away. It was further than even simple sensors could pick up. And certainly further than what the naked eye could see.
Amal immediately told the rest of her team through her DI.
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Amal: You were right. Nightmare and his gang really showed up.
Nightmare’s about to get a wake-up call.
Nightmare found himself visibly shaking and sweating after hearing Eva’s voice. He had only run into her twice before, and she had shook him to his core. He always won, except against her. His goons - the ones who were still alive anyway - looked at him for direction. They were in a serious mess and needed real leadership to get out of it. But they all knew deep down that Nightmare wasn’t a real leader. He was the kind of person who gave in to his base temptations, and there was a certain magnetism in that. They followed him so they too could indulge in those base feelings. They spent years harassing gamers for fun.
After everything was said and done, the Seven went back to their rented office. It was their intent to clean up, split the bounty, then hang up their hats. At least for the time being. Each had gotten nearly 45k out of all the bounties they turned in. It certainly wasn’t a bad sum at all. Especially for less than a week’s worth of work. They spent far less than that on their expenses. On top of that, they had taken Nightmare’s guns, armor, and ships away as well. Technically, they weren’t supposed to be able to do that. Technically, that was theft. Technically, they didn’t care. So somehow those ships ended up getting fenced through grey markets until they vanished completely. Though the paid sum was much les
Eva sat down on the grass and leaned up on a stout tree. She decided to relax at one of the parks on Helios, as it seemed nice out. Plus she needed the freshest air possible, and that could only be found near plants. The digital sky was a bright blue, with hardly any clouds to be seen. The digital version of Sol shone brightly. It was unchained and unrestricted by the trappings of humanity. For a moment, she felt as though she was back on Earth. But that moment passed by quickly. Eva’s EyeCast hovered in front of her, its dark lens reflected her pale face back to her. She was still getting used to it. Well, as best she could, anyway. She had never been much of a fan of cameras, unless she was behind one. When
Commander Chase's handsome visage occupied Eva's comms display. He was certainly finely-chiseled and a man of discipline. She was always glad to see him onscreen. "I'm not interrupting you, am I?" he asked. "You seem a little preoccupied." Eva shook her head as she perforated another bandit fighter. It crashed into the rocky ground below. Both she and Miko had taken a contract to help defend a small planetary colony in a nearby system. The colony had been constantly getting hounded by bandits, and so the two of them decided to chip in their expertise. They helped the colony's marshal to repel a number of attacks, then subsequently went on the offensive and attacked the bandit's base of operations. The two of them were cu
The Navy frigate carefully maneuvered its way through a dense asteroid field. Although it was small enough to dart around in between them, a single hit would have easily crippled the ship. It was escorted by a half dozen fighter pilots, all of whom kept their eyes peeled for trouble. After all, within this dense field of rock, their sensors were greatly reduced. The asteroids themselves barely moved, and those that did typically spun slowly in place. In truth, the largest dangers in an asteroid field were often the things that hid behind them. Usually it was pirates or creatures. Sometimes, it was worse. Though they didn’t truly expect any trouble out here, it was better to be prepared than not. Any mistake navigating through this mess would cost them their lives.
“And that sums up the fifty-seven basic control mechanisms for the Prometheus Core,” said the Admiral. “Over the course of the next six cycles, we will go over the advanced control mechanisms.” Admiral Chase had lectured them on the core they were going to be testing. The display behind her was filled with technical documentation, blueprints, and data readouts regarding the core itself. Eva was almost in tears. Tiamat’s Transcendence was in full blast by this point. She thought they were going to go look at the cores, play with them, fly them, that sort of thing. Her heart shuddered and her mind blanked the moment the Admiral’s lecture started. After spending hours on the contract, and hours again on this technical information, Eva felt as though her brain was going
After that first test, the pilots were completely exhausted. At least, mentally. The act of merging their thoughts with their cores was incredibly taxing. And it only took them an hour to get into that state. The Admiral was certain that it would take time and practice to reduce the effects. She too had gone through it, after all. “It’s like any other muscle in your body,” she told them. “And you’ve strained to the max for the first time ever. Your brains are gonna be a bit sore.” They found that to be a bit of an understatement. Once they all disconnected, they all felt as though they were experiencing the weirdest hangover of their lives. They stumbled as they got out of their cores, their inner balance having been disrupted to some degree.
Mack sat in front of his PC and stared at the monitor before him. Its cold blue glow etched hard lines on his face. It was late at night, and his eyes were bloodshot. His pupils looked flat and dead, even more so after he took a swig of his now-warm beer. On the monitor was raw footage that Eva and Miko had sent him. Just the two streams instead of the normal five. There really wasn’t much that he could work with, and that gnawed at him. On top of that, neither of the girls had given him much direction as to where to go with any of it. Previously, they knew what they were going to get into. It usually involved a great deal of violence and excitement. But even after a few days had passed by, all they had given him was rather mundane. It was usually them tr