15 (DSV Nautica) Predators
The crew of the Erebus watched and waited with baited breath. The two ships were exchanging transmissions, and judging by the contents, they were not friendly. Aki kept the listening nodes active, capturing all the data they could into the data stones. Everything from the exchanging of words to the exertion of heat was being recorded. The larger ship, Nautica, seemed to be incapacitated. Its engines appeared to be the source of this entire ordeal. At least the subspace distortion was the fault of the engines. Aki sat cross legged in the chair, eyes locked on the Nautica. It was intimidating, though it wasn't heavily armed. Relatively speaking. The Black Spot was a hell of a lot scarier, but Aki wasn't giving it much thought. It looked like both ships had valuable tech they could study. Even better was the Black Spot had a cloak field generator. Now that was cool. Not many, if any, other races had cloaking tech. This galaxy got better and better."I want a closer look at those engines...and that cloak. For starters."
De'an glanced back up at Aki, but immediately broke eye contact, getting the team ready. He swore the look that Aki had given him had stung physically. A skeleton team was made ready, cloaking and leaving the launch bay. They were gonna get up close and personal with those engines. Find out what those things were made of.A second team was put together, to go sneak a closer look at the Black Spot. They would get some good Intel on that while they were at it. Aki silently swore she would blow up a planet before leaving another team behind, much less 2.Aki turned her attention back to the long range scanners. They would take a peek around here. Then they were gonna follow the ship they had just missed. She wasn't sure what it was, but it had a massive will signature. Most interesting. In fact, it was a first. Aki felt a little rush at the implications this had. Draconids were powerful, but they didn't have ships. So what was this they were detecting? They would follow this ship next. See what it was, see where it was going, and hopefully where it came from.
"De'an, are there any signs of Draconids about?""Negative."Good so far. She would have to report this back home. She got up and headed to the exit."Pull me back if something happens. I'm going to report this."De'an grunted.Zhi was feverishly trying to get a temporary CO2 node working, but he just wasn't getting anywhere. They were manually rebuilding the will screen for CO2, but that was gonna take a very long time. That will screen was like paper thin glass. And it had shattered. They were trying to piece it back together. They had to breathe in the mean time. He took a deep breath, his chest tight. It wouldn't be deadly, but it could easily have an impact on the crews mental state. That was as good as dead out here.The
intact screens were running at 100% capacity. Anymore and they would shatter too. An idea snapped into his head. It was crazy, but it might work. He had no time for formalities, so he uploaded the entire idea into Aki's head to get her okay. She seemed hesitant, but decided it was worth it. They had the jump drive warmed in case they had to jump to the nearest known planet with good air.
"All crew members, we are in a shallow breath stasis. Please restrict all activities to those necessary."Ka'ya's voice echoed through the ship, and Zhi unplugged the second filtering screen and began adjusting the conduits inside. Now the Erebus was breathing on one third of its capacity instead of two-thirds.Aki laid on the comms table, Ka'ya ran into the room and leapt across the table, screeching to a halt and sitting down, folding her hands in her lap flamboyantly."I need to report to the council.""Of course!"Ka'ya went slack jawed and mumbled something under her breath, taking Aki's hand. Aki felt slightly ill as if hurled across some great space, finding herself standing before the reporting council There seemed to be something off about the room. Everyone was more tense than usual."Speak, Captain Nee'Ak'Ee'Oh."We have discovered two, possibly three ships interacting. Two of them are in contact as we speak, and a third is being tracked. We will follow it shortly, once we investigate the technology in these ships."
"Continue.""The first ship appears to have undergone an engine overload, and created a temporal rift in space. High levels of EM distortion. Motivations are unknown at this time. The second ship has a large number of armaments, and more interestingly, a cloak generator."A ripple through the chamber."Very good. Thank you for your report Captain. We shall be in contact.""Thank you councilor."Aki felt rather unnerved at the atmosphere in the chamber before waking back up in her own body again. Ka'ya's eyes fluttered open, murmuring softly. Aki got up and made her way back to the bridge.The council room was quiet, all the members unsure of what would come next."Maybe next time, Councilor, you will have more faith in the good Captain." A mature female voice said with a slight sneer."Yes...Matriarch."Aki took her seat back on the bridge and sent the command in to maneuver the ship closer to the others. They were about 450km out, she ordered a closer approach to a mere 50 km. Practically elbow to elbow."I want a closer look at these ships...and I want a mind jump into each ship."
De'an got a chill down his spine. This wasn't ordinary. Things were very strange recently, all around him, the dynamics were changing. "Yes, Captain."