29 (DSV Nautica) Three days
Three days later...Lieutenant Chrys sat at his station, bored out of his mind. A tiny stellar outpost on the edge of the wild lands didn't get that much action, despite the way the media portrayed this place. It you couldn't get more bored with a wooden 2x4 and a box of nails. The monitors scanned the galaxy for all manner of objects, mapping it out for the DSV ships actually out there having some fun. There was nothing fun here except the occasional hot cadet passing through. "Another day..." he grumbled as he settled into his office chair, bringing the 6 monitors closer to him, adjusting the angles so he could read the nightly reports. Full of crap no doubt."Hey, Chrys. How's it going?"Jarvis, despite being his senior, didn't give a damn about rank out here. He was the colonel of the station, but didn't act like it."Bored as fuck. You?" Chrys said with a laugh."Just about the same. Just three more weeks of this crap." He chuckled a little before settling down next to Chrys, Whom groaned audibly. "Come on! Is this really-"A shrill alarm cut him off mid-sentence. Both officers were taken by complete surprise."What the...zoom in!"The star base's scanners realigned toward the center of the galaxy, detecting a broad spectrum radiation burst. Something was spewing energy off like a supernova, but this was huge, much bigger than the largest supernova. And those were pretty goddamn big."How far off? Sensors are detecting...at 25,000 light years. Why...why wasn't this seen by a closer station?" Jarvis was perplexed by this sudden occurrence."My god, we have visual!"
Chrys pointed at the sky outside the round observation dome. There was a bright, shimmering star in the sky, outshining all the others.The subspace Intel channels lit up with chatter from observatories all across the cluster. All seeing the same thing at the exact same time. It didn't make any sense. Light took time to travel, so if they were at 25,000 light-years and a nearby observatory was at 25,001, then the other station shouldn't see it for another year. But not only were they seeing it, but observatories at 35 and 40 thousand light-years were reporting this brand new, bright phenomena. All at the same time. How the hell was this happening? The two officers stared at the new star, shimmering, seeming to pulse in the night sky in the unknown regions.Three days ago...Aki growled and began rerouting power. Alarms sounded, as a cool female voice began demanding evacuations from the selected sections. The draconid was tapping into a conduit and trying to drain power and kill their will reactor. Not on Aki's watch. The primary conduits shunted toward the hall the draconid was in and started forcing will into a high concentration, liquefying in the halls. There was a resounding scream from the hall, the entire section exploded, forcing the ship to list to the
side, doing slow summersaults through space."De'an-""I'm trying!!!" He snarled, trying to control the ships chaotic path.
Flare's team finally reached the Thanatos. They entered quietly through the depressurized launch bay. There were a few Ayr'een bodies floating around. Flare sighed and registered their information, before silently dissolving their bodies to dust and collecting it into some small urn-like jars.Aa'zac immediately began running toward engineering, having telepathically receiving instructions. Flare headed toward the bridge, with Lyn in close pursuit. The ship hummed softly as light slowly popped back on."This ship got the shit punted out of it..." Aa'zac commented from the back. "We need to do an FTL jump immediately. Jump drive is not an option."Flare silently took a seat in the captain's chair. She didn't feel she belonged in such an honorable position."When I say now...turn the ship over and launch fighters.""Understood!" The entire team took their places. They only had a small window for this."Now!"The ship began to groan around them, conduits pulsing, the floor shuddering. Rumbling resounded through the ship like a great engine trying to turn over.
"Again!" Flare focused all she had on the ship, trying to use her will to command the conduits to repair and reconnect. The ship sputtered and fell into darkness."Flare...we have to-" Aa'zac began to say, preparing to leave."NOW!" Flare gave a massive push to the conduits. The Thanatos roared to life and began to right itself, slowly replenishing the will reserves and repairing damages done."Captain, the Thanatos is back online."Aki nodded. "Align for FTL""Flare, fighters are offline. Controllers are too damaged. Weapons too, and only limited life support." Aa'zac reported from the engineering room. Lyn wrestled with the ship maneuvering subsystem, getting the ship moving."Align for FTL then, and jump. Don't wait."Both ships began charging, their engines firing and bringing both ships to FTL speeds toward the galactic core. The Thanatos took the dragons by surprise, ramming several of them as the ship leapt into FTL. They spun lazily in space, before coming to, and looking around, roaring in anger at yet another escape by the Erebus.