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Chapter 2

"Pursuit"

_There's nothing left here, we should abandon this place.

No, we should help while we still can!

Time is BROKEN on this world. We should leave them to their self-imposed purgatory!

That is NOT how we should be handling this and you know it! We have to find a way to shut it down!

Shut what down? We don't even know what these fucking creatures did! We could make it worse!

Then we don't leave. We need to find out what they did and fix it BEFORE it gets worse!

NO. WE DON'T. We save them, and what's the stop them from doing it again! NO. I'm not sticking out my neck for these monstrous creatures. And you know what? You can join them!_

---

Rav screamed in pain as he woke up, panting heavily, feeling around his chest for a potential stab wound that wasn't there. He whimpered and buried his face in his paws, "Fuck..."

"Rav? I'm detecting elevated respiration and heart rate from you. Do you need anything?" Asero called over the com.

He gazed around the darkened room, bleary eyed, "Y...yes Asero.. Some water please..."

There was a glow on the nightstand as a glass of water materialized there. He picked up the water and hastily took a drink, some spilling onto the bed and into his fur, "Fuck!" He sighed, closing his eyes as he calmed down, "Lights to 50 percent. How long did I sleep?"

The lighting in the room brightened somewhat. "3 hours 24 minutes. If you'd like I can send you something to help you sleep a little while longer."

"N... No thank you Asero. I'm not gonna be able to sleep any more anyway." The Lycan sat up in bed, fetching a nearby towel and wiping the spilled water off the bed and out of his fur. He got up, then brought up a HUD, checking something. _3 days since my last dose. _

He sighed, stepping over this private locker and opening it up, pulling out a metal case, which had a stylized white wolf head emblem with an infinity-symbol on its forehead, with the word CLASSIFIED written on it. He unlocked and opened the case. It had several blue glowing vials in it. He loaded one into an injector, and placed the device on his arm, pressing the button and triggering an audible hiss. For a brief moment, electricity crackled across his fur, his eyes briefly glowing blue before fading.

He placed the injector back in this case and locked it up. I have to tell Zhal eventually. He deserves to know.

He made his way to the bathroom, walking over to the toilet and relieving himself, before stepping over to the sink and mirror, washing his paws then straightening his sweat-soaked fur, toweling himself off. He pressed a control by the mirror and a dryer turned on, blowing warm air into his headfur. He stood there a minute before turning it off again. Not as damp as before, but now his fur was matted. He brushed it out some, before heading back into the main room and getting dressed, then making his way to the door and stepping out into the corridor.

---

"Are they still there?" Zhal eyed the holographic viewscreen, trying to catch the sight of... something, other than the orange and red clouds of the hyperspace conduit flying past.

"Yeah, it's still there." Nezra said, the Nycorian coyote bringing up another display. Being from the same system as Nitharians, she had a build similar to other Skoll'zhatis males. Female Skoll'zhatis didn't possess a 'feminine' build, probably lost through evolution. "They back off occasionally as though their seeing if we notice."

"Want me to take them out with some mines? Serves them right for following us..." The male Rha'Kahari tiger growled from his console. Lycosi was pretty well muscled, even for a tiger. He was dressed in a white shirt and black pants.

"No, not yet Lycosi. Let's..." Just then the door to the bridge opened, an exhausted Rav stepped through, straightening his shirt and jacket as he entered. Zhal eyed the exhausted Lycan angrily. "I thought I told you to get some sleep!"

"I did sleep." The Lycan mumbled, walking over to the seat beside Zhal, sinking in.

"You look like you got pummeled by the Elements themselves. Are you sure you're okay?"

"No, but I'll live." He mumbled, rubbing the sore spot on his chest. "I always do. Did I miss much?"

"I swear, I'm gonna shoot you myself with a tranquilizer someday. Maybe you'll sleep enough then," Zhal sighed, nodding to the holoscreen. "It seems we're being followed."

Rav eyed the screen, not seeing anything other than the orange and yellow energy of the hyperspace rift. "Oh? Who's stupid enough to do that?"

"The Kratathi apparently," Lycosi piped up. "It's the patrol ship from the Talvad 3 Grove."

"Hah, 'patrol ship'. Another pirate, more than likely." he said, with air quotes. "I thought they only had conventional warp drive. How are they keeping up?" Rav queried.

"They do. We slowed down a bit when we saw the ship trying to follow us to let them catch up, to bait them." Zhal growled through his teeth. "Lycosi, prepare to raise shields, deploy 20 swarmer drones and cloak them immediately as soon as we're out of hyperspace."

"Aye," The Rha'kahari growled, going to work at his control panel.

"Nezra, drop out us out of hyperspace. Make sure to leave a wake of exotic energy behind us."

"Will do!" the coyote replied, entering the command on the console.

"Hyperspace disengaging..." a male voice called over the com as the ship trembled, dropping back into normal space.

"Deploying cloaked swarmers and raising shields," Lycosi called out. "The Kratathi ship is dropping to sublight..."

The patrol ship's shields seemed to be buckling some under the exposure to the exotic particles from hyperspace, but otherwise unscathed.

"They're requesting Coms," Nezra called out.

"Of course they are!" Zhal called out cheerfully, "Lets see what they want..."

Rav eyed the Forgebreed. He definitely enjoyed antagonizing marauders a little too much. Though he had his own misfortune of dealing with them previously and was quite happy to be on a ship that could actually handle them now. Technically he should be taking care of coms as Captain, but his mind was still fuzzy.

A reptilian biped appeared on the viewscreen, his face twisted into a sneer. "What the fuck is wrong with you!? Learn to drop out of hyperspace normally, you almost destroyed my ship!"

"Administrator Zhalvir at your service, my deepest apologies," Zhal stood up, approaching the display, smiling, "If we knew we were being followed we would've been far more careful."

Rav stood up while the Kratathi was focused on Zhal, making his way to Lycosi, whispering, "Have the drones surround his ship in a staggered formation, but don't decloak them yet." Lycosi nodded quietly in response.

"Administrator? Where's your Captain?" the reptile inquired.

"Captain Ravanos is occupied at the moment, I'm afraid. How may I be of assistance?" Zhal spoke, cheerfully.

"We're following you because you stole OUR property. You're on the way to Orgot 9 with cargo, are you not?"

"Who said we had cargo?" Zhal asked, "We're simply on our way to Orgot 9."

"And why were you in the Talvad 3 grove? My cargo was stolen by other Nitharians and hidden in the system."

"Why do you think? We were there enjoying the lovely scenery on a planet. Us Lycans do love a good forest!"

The Kratathi was seething on the viewer as Zhal toyed with him. "I don't have time for your games! Give us your cargo!!"

"Oh, so it's my cargo now," The Lycan's smile widened, "And we were having such a lovely chat too. What will you do if we don't?"

In response, the Kratathi's ship opened it's gunports, launching a salvo of torpedoes at the Nitharian ship.

"Now!" Rav growled to Lycosi. The tiger went to work as the drones all decloaked around the Kratathi ship, simultaneously firing countermeasures to take care of the torpedoes. The drones began to glow as their primary weapons charged.

The Kratathi sunk in his seat as he saw the drones surrounding his ship, training their weapons on him. "Military drones? On a civilian cruiser?"

Rav scowled at the Kratathi's comment. He brought up a HUD checking the ship's drone inventory. 30 Class 8 Swarmer Drones. Definitely Skoll'zhatis Alliance military spec. What the Elements, Zhal, how do you have these?

Zhal's expression hardened, "That's not your concern," the Forgebreed stated, "What you should be worried about is what I would do to protect my crew. So, how about you leave before we find out?"

The Kratathi eyed Zhal for a moment, trying to read his face, before calmly speaking, seething rage beneath his voice, "Very well. I'll let you go this time. I won't promise the same on our next encounter." The viewscreen snapped off, showing the drones shifting around, leaving an opening and the angular Kratathi ship turning and warping away.

Zhal sighed, then stepped back to his chair. "Recall the swarmer drones and prepare for departure. Fucking pests."

Rav gazed over at Zhal, "Not fond of marauders either, I'm guessing?"

Zhal nodded, "I've rescued enough people from marauders to know I have no patience in dealing with their garbage."

"Drones recalled, bays closed," Lycosi called up, then turned to the two Lycans. "I'd had so many cargo runs hijacked by those fuckers, that by the time Zhal found me to offer me a job I almost killed him."

Zhal laughed, "Almost might be pushing it. But that snarl did give did give me pause, if only for a moment." He turned to the coyote, "Nezra, resume course for Orgot 9."

"Course entered, engaging hyperdrive." Nezra cooed.

"Attention personnel. Hyperspace transit in 30 seconds." Asero stated over the com system.

Lycosi turned to Rav, "You had us all fearing for our lives when you first arrived though... Thought you'd turn on us at any time." The Rha'Kahari laughed playfully.

Rav blinked at Lycosi, "I was that scary when I got here?"

"Hyperspace transit in 10 seconds." On the viewscreen, the upper part of the navigation deflector opened up like a flower, projecting a glowing blue sphere of energy ahead of the ship as it began to accelerate, the viewscreen becoming enveloped in an orange and yellow flow of energy as the ship transited. "Transit complete. 2 hours 32 minutes to destination."

Zhal reached over with a paw, rubbing Rav's ears, "Yeah, a bit. We knew you needed your time."

Nezra spoke up, "The death glares you gave us were legendary," she laughed. "Thought about sending those as open coms signal images for a while."

Rav felt his face flush hot, his ears flattening, "I had no idea I was that bad."

Zhal trailed his claws along Rav's head and neck, scritching gently. "Poor Tarchavi didn't know how to approach you, and he's usually the one welcoming guests." He chuckled, "Well, as friendly as a large imposing blue dragon can look. Eventually he decided to take some time off so you wouldn't feel so overwhelmed by all of us. He'll be back soon thankfully."

"Where has he been anyway? I thought he would've been back by now," Rav asked. "He said he had some 'surprises' planned regarding my ship when he brought it back."

"Well, after he left, he went to the Draskovi system to take care of some things there he'd been neglecting." Zhal chuckled, "Then not long after that, he was asked by some nestkin to make a delivery to someone in the Azuran Alliance. He just finished that up, so he's gonna meet up with us at our next stop at Celestis Station."

"Which thankfully is after our delivery to Orgot 9.. That's good, I do want to finally get to know him." Rav smiled.

A moment later, the door to the bridge opened, a male blood-red Nitharian Lycan making his way though. He had a decent build, and was wearing a black tank top and blue pants. "I hope I'm not interrupting. We have a... situation." He said.

"Not at all Asero." Rav replied, smiling at the red Forgebreed, "What's going on?"

"Since our departure from Talvad 3, I've been tracking something... curious. Some odd quoron particle readings on the case you brought on board."

Zhal frowned, "You mean there's Tak'roki technology in that case?"

Asero nodded, "Yes, though at the time, I couldn't rule out that the emissions may have come from Rav's Tak'roki armor." He brought up a holodisplay, "After careful analysis however, and since quoron emissions decay rather quickly, I found there were still particle emissions on that case... A very specific quoron signature."

Lycosi glanced over from his station, "So what's in the case?"

Asero changed the holodisplay to show some additional information, "From what I could determine, there are potentially Tak'roki Spark particles in that case."

"What?" Zhal nearly shot up out of his chair and turned around, his eyes widened, "Are you fucking serious?!"

Asero responded to Zhal's unexpected anger by flattening his ears, "I'm sorry I couldn't identify it sooner." For a Forgebreed, Asero's engram was generated with excess emotive sensitivity, but since the engrams can't be rebuilt, he decided to work with it as best he could. He couldn't handle being an avatar on a much more crowded ship, so Zhal recruited him for the Kosa'var.

The black Lycan calmed down somewhat as he saw Asero's reaction, eyeing red Lycan sympathetically, "I'm sorry for my outburst Asero, my anger wasn't directed at you."

Rav looked over the holodisplay, reading the data, "Fucking Elements..." he muttered, turning to the red Forgebreed Lycan, "Are you absolutely sure about that?"

Asero nodded slowly, "It's a 97.3% chance of being a Spark. The signature doesn't match exactly however. We need to head to the Maelstrom Nebula as fast as possible, and find out what the they're doing on that station."

Rav looked at the scan and compared it to an actual Spark signature. "Wait, it's not an exact match? Tak'roki particles always have an exact match in quoron signatures. They don't deviate. That means whatever's in that box is still Tak'roki, but it's not a Spark."

Lycosi gazed at the Lycans, "What are Spark particles?"

Rav looked deep in thought, "They're a type of Tak'roki technology that's designed to convert all matter they come into contact with into programmable energy. The thing is, if this isn't a Spark, and the signature isn't recognized as a known Tak'roki particle, then we have something new on our hands, which could be far worse."

Zhal sighed, "All forms of Tak'roki technology but the most basic and non-invasive, such as body armor or matter replication, are illegal." He turned to the Nycorian at the helm, "Nezra, alter course for the Maelstrom Nebula, maximum speed. Asero, make sure you put up a containment field around that case. Rav, see if you can establish contact with the Rokonis pack. Hopefully your Altieris connections will get us a fast reply." He closed his eyes, rubbing this bridge of his muzzle, "Elements protect us."

"Altering course. We'll arrive at the nebula in 13 hours 12 minutes." Nezra replied. "Never thought we'd have to go there."

"Containment already online," Asero replied.

"On it!" Rav worked his way over to a control panel on the other side of the bridge, and sat down, going to work, "Rokonis pack, this is Captain Ravanos Sironis Altieris, of the NCV Kosa'var. Requesting immediate Coms."

Lycosi frowned, "I didn't know that kind of technology existed?"

"It hasn't for thousands of years. Whatever is in that case is very old." Zhal growled. "Or very new."

Lycosi nodded, "I see. And who is the Rokonis pack? I've never heard of them."

Rav stepped away from his console once he had finished sending the message, "Rokonis is... Well, you know the rumors about the Maelstrom Nebula?"

Lycosi thought for a moment, "Oh, that the ancient Tak'roki Nitharians created the nebula and live there?"

Rav nodded, "Well, they aren't rumors. And the Rokonis pack is what they call themselves."

Nezra spoke up, "What should I tell Orgot 9 regarding the shipment?"

Zhal growled, "That their shipment is... delayed. And that the Skoll'zhatis Alliance and the Rokonis pack will be having a word with them shortly."