A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Printable Version

A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Printable Version

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A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Tenacity - 09-24-2018

// NOTE: For detailed information on the ship and crew, see the following article: OSD|Lynx - Shipyard File //

Date: Mid-817 A.S.
Location: Evora Shipyard, Omicron-100

Commander Christopher Maihos stood, hands behind him, gazing out the viewport of the shuttle that was ferrying him to Evora Shipyard. As they rounded the last asteroid, the drydocks came into view, and in the nearest bay was moored the Lynx; the most recent product of Evora's construction crews, and the ship he was being assigned command of. It was a beautiful, yet odd looking, vessel: small and sleek, with large manifolds over each stubby, backswept wing. Three engines in a delta configuration stuck just past the spike-shaped rear maneuvering foils at the center of the ship. An arched strut connected the manifolds, from port to starboard, providing mounting points for two high-yield torpedo bays, while the manifolds themselves were affixed with four large turrets.

As the shuttle turned and ducked underneath the drydocks on its way to the docking port at the opposite side of the shipyard, Maihos looked up to the belly of the vessel, noting a large split-style cargo bay door. Several Order engineers in EVA-rated construction suits were examining every square inch of the Lynx's hull, ensuring it was in perfect condition for its maiden voyage. From this angle, better lit by the system's distant dwarf star, Maihos could make out the dark maroon accents painted in aggressive lines across the ship's hull, giving it a decidedly bretonian appearance; though bretonia had no involvement in her construction.

The Lynx was the product of a joint operation between the Gas Miner's Guild and the Order's Science Division. It had been a year since initial negotiations were complete, and the exchange of technology and information began. Political upheaval between the Order and its allies had necessitated securing a new source of H-fuel and Helium-3, without it their fleet was helpless against the Core and Nomads alike. The leader of the Science Division - Admiral Kaylee Staite - had begun negotiations with the Gas Miner's Guild in Okinawa after being introduced through mutual contacts among the Blood Dragons. In exchange for fuel, the Order agreed to provide the GMG with a handful of engineers, architects, and systems specialists to aid with the construction of their own brand of combat craft, which needed to repel their corporate rivals - Samura - and their allies in the Hogosha and Corsairs. Of course, all of this was kept strictly confidential, lest information get back to the then-allied Corsairs that the Order was helping their enemies. Such underhanded and secretive diplomacy was a core tenet of the Order, and one of the reasons they were able to remain independent and supplied without attracting the ire of every faction within Sirius.

As the shuttle set down in the docking bay and its doors opened, Maihos stepped down a small ramp and took in the smell of grease, flames, and fuel; signature to every working shipyard. A young woman approached him, wearing admiral's stripes and flanked by two other officers. Chris saluted her, "Admiral Staite, a pleasure to finally meet you, Ma'am."

The admiral smiled and returned the salute, "And you, Commander. We've got your new ship almost prepped for her maiden voyage, how do you feel about finally getting a command of your own?"

He chuckled, "I've been a wing commander for half a decade now, Admiral, this is hardly my first command. First time commanding out of the seat of a Nephthys, perhaps. I read the overview forwarded from the shipyard, but technical schematic isnt my first language; what can you tell me about her?"

Admiral Staite motioned to the two officers following her, and they split off to deal with the shuttle crew as she led Chris towards the drydocks. "The outer hull design is based on a schematic we drew up for the GMG; they wanted something fast and small that could carry cargo as well as fight. They wont have the facilities available to build this kind of ship for a few years yet, but we've completed the designs here as a prototype, a proof of concept; she's one of the most advanced ships in the OSD..." She pointed out the left window of the corridor, pointing at another vessel under construction, "...Well, second next to the Pakhet."

The Pakhet, which was to be Admiral Staite's future flagship upon completion, was still several months out. Like the Lynx, it was a non-Order design adapted to suit the Order's needs. The Pakhet was built from the base hull of a Fearless-Class Zoner Destroyer, still relatively small for a warship but packing a significant punch for its size. Maihos had heard rumors that it was equipped with dozens of experimental systems, including cloaking tech and a next-generation jump drive that could create its own temporary jump points. He was excited to see if any of that technology had been implemented on the Lynx; after flying fighters for ten years it would be refreshing to take the command chair on a warship.

Chris motioned at the Pakhet, still only partially assembled, "Will we be getting any of the fancy gadgets I hear they're putting on that thing?"

Staite grinned, "A few, but the Lynx is built for a different role: Electronic warfare, signal interception, reconnaissance, and blockade running. Your focus will be gathering data and moving high-risk cargo for the OSD. Dont take that as a sign that you're just an overglorified courier, though, she's still a military vessel at the core."

He followed the admiral through an airlock and waited for it to adjust atmospheric pressure, a process that took several minutes and involved no small amount of hissing and grinding noises. After the opposite end of the airlock opened, they were on a long class-canopied catwalk connected to one of the two hybrid airlock-escape pod hatches at the back of the Lynx's manifolds. Though it was not a large ship by any means - certainly dwarfed by even destroyers and cruisers - the journey across the catwalk made him feel positively miniature as his new vessel loomed before him. As they reached the airlock of the ship, Admiral Staite gestured him to continue onward, "Go ahead Commander, your crew is eager to meet you and you're scheduled for departure in twenty minutes."

Maihos nodded and stepped through into the Lynx's airlock, the door closing behind him. A few seconds and more hissing noises later, and he was in the corridor of the starboard nacelle. The walkways were lit with dim red lighting - a feature intended to prevent visual shock and night blindness in the case of internal power outages, so that crew could still operate in near pitch black conditions without delay. It was a far cry from the typically bright-lit corridors of the carriers he had served on, Admiral Staite's carrier among them. He proceeded at a brisk pace, taking a left towards the center of the ship and then heading to the bridge.

"Commander on deck!" A familiar, feminine voice snapped as the bridge access door whooshed open and Maihos stepped in. He looked to the left to see Arya Davis saluting and standing at attention. "Arya?" He questioned rhetorically.

She grinned, "Good to see you too ace." Arya had been one of his wingmen when serving aboard the Carrier Bastet, and she had saved his backside and ensured he made it home more than a few times. She was a cocky pilot, though, and her mouth and attitude had him bailing her out of trouble just as often.

"What're you doing here 'wildcat'?" His use of her old callsign caused her to grin. "Been at command school for the past year, sir. I'm your first officer."

Chris was taken aback, "Really? You made it through command school with that mouth of yours? They must be letting everyone pass nowadays."

She scoffed. "Here, I'll introduce you to the rest of the senior staff." She motioned for him to follow, leaving the helmsman and gunnery officer prepping the ship for launch as they made their way to the command room amidships. Four other officers were there, gabbing amongst one another about their new assignments. All of them snapped to attention as Arya and Chris entered the room, only relaxing as the Commander gestured 'at ease'.

Arya motioned to them, one at a time, listing off names and positions. The first was an extremely stout, burly man in a thick leather jacket with grease-covered hands, "This is Eric Rheinhardt, our Chief Engineer. He had a hand in designing this ship, as well as building it. Eric had reached out to the Commander for a handshake before realizing he was covered in grease, chuckling and withdrawing the offer, "Gutentag, mein Commander. It is good to be here, to work on the ship I built. Nervous, though, never been on active warship before, very exciting." His thick accent certainly matched his Rheinlandic name.

Next was a pair of women, one with long straight hair who looked very similar to Admiral Staite, and the other with her hair in a bun and wearing half-rimmed glasses. "This is professor Kate Benson," Arya said, motioning at the first, "She's our Science Officer and our resident OSD member, and this..." She motioned at the girl with glasses, "... is our Medical officer, Doctor Eva Strauss."

The two nodded and simultaneously said, "Nice to meet you, Commander." Strauss had a slight Rheinlander accent as well, while Kate was obviously Liberty born like Arya. Last up was a bald man with a stern, serious face, wearing a combat vest and holstered sidearm. "This is Major Jason Pierce, our Chief of Security."

Pierce stepped forward and shook the Commander's hand, "Nice to meet you sir." He, as well, had a Liberty accent, and his mannerisms clearly spoke to his prior involvement with a military or police organization.

"Glad to meet all of you as well," Maihos said, addressing the group, "I'll say it up front: this is my first warship command, so I'm going to be relying on each and every one of you as my advisors. Dont be afraid to speak up when something needs to be said, I wont hold it against you. I trust you've all read the initial briefing, we're due to launch in a little over ten minutes. Let's get to it."

The group dispersed, leaving him and Arya to return to the bridge on their own. The bridge was set up for three: a helmsman, gunnery officer, and commanding officer; so Arya was forced to stand as Chris took the commander's seat. He turned to the helmsman, "Ensign, start us up."

The young man nodded, "Yes, sir. Reactor is powered, engines one, two, and three are all go, shields are operational, we've got the all clear from Evora to proceed." Maihos motioned ahead, "Take us out, and set course for Omicron Minor."

The Lynx lurched forward as the engines came online and the hooks from the shipyard were detached. The ship certainly had power. Once they were clear of the drydock and banking to port, Maihos flipped the intercom switch on his console activating ship-wide communications, "Attention all crew, this is your Commander speaking. We're clear of dock and proceeding towards Omicron Minor. Secure all stations and cargo, I want us jump-ready in five minutes."

He turned to the helmsman and flipped the intercom off, "Bring us to maximum cruise speed, I want to see just how fast this ship goes."

"Aye-aye, commander, accelerating to maximum cruise." Maihos could feel himself being pushed into his seat, and Arya had to grab onto the back of his chair to brace herself, as the Lynx powered forward. He had no doubt that, at maximum cruise, this ship could quite easily overtake - or flee from - just about any fighter craft in Sirius. He did note, however, that maneuverability at maximum speed suffered somewhat, as the helmsman struggled slightly to weave through the dense asteroid field that blanketed Omicron 100.

A short few minutes later, and the swirling, distorted form of the Omicron Minor jump point could be seen clearly through the forward viewport; a churning gravity well that bent space itself and linked the two star systems together. The myriad of compartment lights on the arm console of his chair quickly flipped from red to green, indicating all sections of the ship were ready for the jump. He nodded at the awaiting helmsman, "Take us through."

As they entered the jump point, Chris felt the typical, brief wave of nausea and dizziness wash through him, vanishing once they had passed the event horizon. The black and green starscape of Omicron 100 twisted and morphed itself into a bright blue tunnel, and the Lynx lunged forward at incredible speed as it was pulled in. Seconds into the jump, a wave of turbulence wracked the vessel, knocking Arya off her feet. The tunnel flashed rapidly between shades of blue and purple, and Chris felt like his stomach had jumped up into his throat. 'Something is wrong...' he thought, just before blacking out as shifting gravity in the ship pulled him heavily into his seat.

RE: A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Tenacity - 09-24-2018

The bridge faded back into view as Chris slowly regained consciousness. The ship was shaking violently, and he could see the jump tunnel through the viewport; they were still in the jump hole, though he had no idea how long he had been out. Jumps typically only took a few seconds, this one was going on for far too long. As he recomposed himself in the command chair, he looked around the bridge, assessing the situation: power conduits were sparking where they had ruptured from surges, the bridge was full of acrid smoke, the helmsman and gunnery officer were both coming to as well. He searched for Arya, finding her thrown against the back wall of the bridge, a gaping wound across her forehead.

Maihos flipped the intercom switch again, "Medics to the bridge, all compartments report status!"

The reports came in through the console speakers:
"Engineering reporting, reactor is offline, engines flamed out, trying to restart them commander. Seeing conduit overloads throughout all decks."
"Medical here, two corpsmen are on the way to the bridge, several crew are already here with minor burns and concussions."
"Tech lab reporting in, the power surge fried half of our equipment, scanners and communications are down, doing what I can to get things back up and running."
"Cargo bay; we lost one of the security guards, ensign michaels, he was crushed by a container when the shockwave hit us."

Maihos cursed under his breath, 'what the hell hit us?' he thought. The corpsmen entered the bridge, rolling Arya onto a gurney and carrying her back to the medbay, he yelled at them just as they departed, "I want to know when she's conscious!"

He turned to the helmsman, "You ok ensign? Tell me why we're still in this jump tunnel."

He shook his head, "I dont know sir, controls are unresponsive, most of our systems are powered down from the surge and I cant get anything back online. The tunnel is pulling us along."

"How long have we been in the jump? We should've breached Omicron Minor already."

The helmsman checked the mission timer, "Just under fifteen minutes now..."

Another surge hit the ship, nearly throwing Chris out of his seat. They were helpless, at the mercy of the wormhole's chaotic and unpredictable forces, with no way to exit. This is not how a maiden voyage should play out, either something was drastically wrong with their jump drive, or the jump hole itself had somehow destabilized just as they entered it. Maihos had read mission reports from much larger ships, battleships and carriers, that had destabilized jump points through sheer ship mass - often too much for the wormhole to handle - but he had never heard of it happening to a ship as small as the Lynx before, and the Omicron Minor jump point had been used by massive battleships for nearly two decades, since the first nomad war.

His console lit up and Doctor Strauss' voice came through the speaker, "Commander, Arya is waking up."

"Helm, do what you can to keep us stable in here, I'm headed to the medbay."

"Aye-aye commander."

RE: A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Tenacity - 09-25-2018

Arya was still groggy from the concussion, but otherwise doing well when Chris left the medbay. He entered the tech lab across the hall where Kate Benson was working on one of the ship system consoles. "Have anything yet? Any idea why we're still in the jump?" He asked.

Kate nodded, "There's some kind of feedback loop between the wormhole and our jump drive. With our systems shut down by the power surges, we cant break the loop. I'm working with Rheinhardt to try and coordinate a simultaneous restart of all systems, if we can get everything back online at the same time we might be able to break the jump."

Chris nodded, "How long until we can try?"

She shrugged, "Twenty minutes, maybe, we're getting crew into place, everything has to be reset across the ship manually. It wasnt really designed for this kind of thing."

Chris thought to himself for a moment as he paced the room, looking over flashing consoles and information readouts, "Has anyone ever been stuck in a wormhole this long? Are we still going to emerge in Omicron Minor or halfway to Sol?"

"Honestly sir, I dont know, there arent any reports of this happening before, at least not from anyone that made it out alive."

He sighed, "Great, I'll be on the bridge, I want to know as soon as we're ready to restart"

"Yes, sir."

-----

Kate's voice sounded over the intercom, "Alright, we're ready for a shipwide systems restart Commander. All hands, on my order..."

Kate counted down from three, and as she proclaimed 'restart!' Chris felt his ship shudder and jerk. The lights went out, consoles went black, and the bridge was only dimly illuminated by the eerie glow of the wormhole twisting in the forward window. A few seconds later, a hum and surge of power could be both felt and heard as the reactor re-engaged, lights and systems sprang back to life followed by another violent shake of the ship.

"Helm, cancel the jump." He ordered.

The wormhole flashed and sputtered, and became streaks that faded backward around the vessel, rocketing them into real-space. The viewport that had shown nothing but the inside of a jump tunnel for the past sixteen hours was now a cloudy vista of asteroids and gasses, familiar but unknown at the same time... ahead of them loomed the shape of a planet, a distant star illuminating its silhouette from behind.

Date: 825 A.S.
Location: Planet Toledo, Omicron Minor

Chris flipped the intercom switch again, "Benson, bring up cartography, where did we end up?"

A few tense moments went by, exacerbated by chunks of glowing, molten asteroids pinging off of the Lynx's shields. Kate's voice sounded back, "Sir, according to star charts, we're in Omicron Minor, but I'm picking up no communications from Toledo, and orbits are abnormal."

Chris stood and stepped forward, getting a closer view of the planet in their viewport, motioning to the gunner officer, "Get scans on that planet and keep an eye out for contacts, I want to know what's going on."

The gunnery officer, a young kusarian, hit a few buttons on his console and brought up a holodisplay of the planet, "Sir, it's Toledo but... the atmosphere is gone, the surface is a molten ocean, debris from the planet's crust has been scattered throughout the system."

"What the hell... any ships in the area?" Chris stared wide-eyed at the hulk of Toledo in the distance. What could have caused such damage in only a few hours?

"Picking up one Osiris-Class battleship sir, but the reading is faint."

Maihos motioned at the helmsman, "Get us closer to that contact."

The ship's engines whirred as they fired up, propelling the Lynx forward. The helmsman deftly avoided clouds of rock and debris as he moved the ship on a snaking course towards the Osiris.

As they neared within a hundred meters, Maihos could make out the engraving on the side of the bow. "Battleship Isis... what's her condition?"

The gunner officer made a quick scan, "No life signs, numerous hull breaches, some of the life pods have been jettisoned but I'm not picking them up on sensors. Commander... the reactor is cold, this happened at least a few days ago."

"How? We've only been out of contact for sixteen hours, we would've heard about this before leaving Evora!"

Maihos paced for a moment, thinking the situation over, but his concentration was interrupted again by the Helmsman, "Sir, I'm sorry I didnt see it sooner but the Omicron 100 jump point is gone. The point where we entered the system, where the ship's navicomputer says the jump hole should be... there's nothing."

Damnit. Chris headed to the back of the bridge, he needed to make an official report from the personal terminal in his quarters, he looked back over his shoulder as he left, "Do a full system sweep, map and scan everything, treat this we've never been here before. We need to know what's out here, what happened, and when."

RE: A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Tenacity - 09-30-2018

Four days had passed, and they were no closer to finding any answers. Commander Maihos went over the information logs on his datapad from the bunk in his quarters. The area around Toledo was strewn with wreckage: fighters, bombers, freighters, transports, gunships, cruisers, and even a few battleships like the Isis. They belonged to the Order, the Core, and there were even nomad remains in the area, but nothing they had found could account for the planet-wide destruction that had been visited on the order's ex-homeworld. No active vessels had been detected either, nor any communications or transmissions. The system was entirely dead.

The jump point from Omicron 100 was gone, vanished presumably as soon as they had vacated it. The Daam K'vosh jump gate that once led to the dyson sphere was a pile of inactive rubble. Thus far they hadnt come across any other jump points or pathways out of the system, though their sensor systems were nearly destroyed by the havoc of the jump, and sensor range was severely limited due to radiation fallout and debris clouds in the area.

The speaker next to his door buzzed, and Arya's voice sounded over the comm, "Commander, we've got something, you should get to the bridge."

Maihos set the datapad down and headed through the upper deck corridor towards the elevator. Arya had woken up after a day, and had felt capable enough to resume her post, though she did so at the protest of Doctor Strauss. Entering the bridge, he glanced at Arya, "Report."

She turned to the viewscreen, where a holo-projector image popped up showing scanner data. "We came across a wrecked transport, the Blackwing. Her datalog transcribes what happened here. In short, there was some sort of massive battle between the Core and our forces, with the Core trying to assault Toledo directly. In the middle of the battle a Nomad fleet showed up, bigger than anything we've seen, and at its vanguard was some kind of planet-killer. It bombarded the surface with energy, and Toledo cracked and burned from the inside."

Chris shook his head, unable to even imagine what had transpired here, "How did we never hear about this? How could this have happened so quickly?"

"It didnt, sir. The Blackwing's log is dated several months from now... according to our computers, none of this has happened yet."

Maihos thought for a moment, then turned to the helmsman, "Take us out of the cloud, we need a clear view of space."

The Lynx groaned and creaked as it banked towards the edge of the system and engaged cruise mode. The ship was falling apart, too much damage had been sustained since their jump, and radiation from the cloud was slowly deteriorating the hull plating. If Chris didnt find a way out of the system soon, his ship and everyone aboard would perish here. He shook off the dread thought as the nebula around Omicron Minor thinned and faded from view, giving way to stark black space painted with sparkling stars.

Chris switched on the intercom, "Kate, get a cartography scan and compare it to our star charts." The professor's voice rang back, "Yes, sir. Should only take a few minutes."

Arya questioned him, "Sir?"

Maihos lifted a finger, gesturing patience. A few moments later, kate's voice came back over the comm, "Sir, everything has shifted significantly. None of our star charts are matching up to spatial readings..."

Chris sighed, "What year is it?"

There was silence for a minute, and then her voice again, "If the computer's calculations are correct, and our scanners arent malfunctioning... it's 825 A.S., sir."

Arya stuttered, "wh..what? 825? Sir, we left Evora in 817!"

Chris nodded, "I had a feeling. Something must have happened in the jump, a distortion, time dilation, of some sort. It may have only been 16 hours for us, but it was 8 years for Sirius."

"That's impossible... right?" She was dumbfounded.

Chris shook his head, "I dont know how, but it happened. Now we have to figure out what to do about it. Helm, keep us out of the cloud for now, we need to minimize radiation exposure as long as possible."

RE: A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Tenacity - 09-30-2018

Rheinhardt entered the bridge, covered in grease and sweat, "Commander, we're ready, but I cant guarantee shields will hold long."

Maihos nodded and dismissed the engineer. It had been two days since they discovered they had lost 8 years in the jump from Omicron 100, and their supply situation was becoming dire. Rationing had already begun; they were only supposed to be on a short maiden voyage, not an extended journey in unknown territory. He had asked Rheinhardt to modify the Lynx's shields, hoping they could hold back the radiation from Toledo long enough for a final foray into the cloud. Kate's projections, based on the star map shift, suggested that they might find the jump back to Omicron 100 in another part of the cloud, as of yet unscanned. System rotation would have moved it quite a distance in 8 years.

He motioned to the helmsman, "Take us in and proceed to the coordinates, maximum cruise."

Twenty minutes later, after a silent and nerve-wracking sprint across radioactive space, the Lynx's cruise engines shut down. "Scanning for gravitational anomalies..." Kate's voice said over the intercom, "Sir... There's nothing. If the jump hole isnt here, I'm afraid it doesnt exist anymore..."

Chris sighed in defeat. That was it, the radiation would burn out their shields in only a few minutes, they couldnt make it back out of the cloud, and with shields down the hull would be compromised, it was already paper thin in some areas. He began to stand from the command chair when the ship shook violently from impact and a bright flash lit the viewport. Slamming back down in the chair, he shouted, "What the hell was that?"

The gunnery officer reported, "Torpedo explosion, right across the bow Commander. It was close."

Who the hell fired it?

The holoprojector on the viewport crackled with static and then settled on the image of a man in Order uniform, wearing captain's stripes. His voice was stern and straightforward, "How many times do we have to chase you scavengers off? Exit the system immediately or your ship will be incinerated!"

Chris flipped the comm switch sending his own image to the other ship, "Order vessel, this is the O.S.D. Lynx, we're not scavengers, check your database!"

A few moments later the figure responded, "The O.S.D. Lynx was reported missing in action 8 years ago on her maiden voyage, who are you?"

"Commander Christopher Maihos. Listen, I dont know what happened here, but when we jumped from Omicron 100 to Minor on our maiden voyage something went wrong, we were trapped in the jump tunnel for 16 hours, and when we finally emerged we were here and now. We've been stuck in this cloud for 6 days, shields are going to burn out in a few minutes, please - we need guidance out of here..."

The captain hesitated a moment, evaluating the situation, before turning to someone else on his bridge crew, Set course for Omicron Mu." He turned back to Maihos, "Follow us Commander, and stay close. Keep your weapons powered down and dont stray, or we will open fire."

-----

The jump tunnel faded from view as the Lynx entered Omicron Mu, the other Order vessel looming ahead. It was a Hathor-Class gunboat, assigned to patrol the Toledo Graveyard warding off scavengers and ensuring nothing of import was looted from Order ships there. The captain's image popped up on the holo again, "Commander, just ahead of us is Taba Starbase. You will dock there and your ship will be put on lockdown. All of your crew are confined to the ship until further notice. Your presence is requested by the station commander.

Chris confirmed the instructions, and his helmsman guided the Lynx into Taba's dockyard. Catwalks connected to the airlock points at the back of the ship, and he gave the order to shut down the reactor and all systems onboard the Lynx. "Tell the crew to get comfortable until I find out what we're going to do. Arya, you're in charge until I get back."

Maihos headed towards the airlock. Time to get some answers.

RE: A matter of time - OSD|Lynx - Tenacity - 09-30-2018

Maihos lifted his mug, the aroma of Liberty Ale rising to his nostrils. He read over a datapad while drinking in the officer's lounge onboard Taba Starbase. It had been just over a week since their arrival, and he had a lot of catching up to do. Since their departure in 817 A.S., the Order had established new holdings in Omicron Mu and Omicron Epsilon. Alliances with the Zoners and Corsairs had shattered, the war with the Core had escalated, Nomad and Wilde forces were running rampant throughout Sirius due to the Order's inability to respond to their aggressions. The attack that wiped out Toledo had nearly dealt a death blow to the Order, and it had taken the survivors those 8 years to rebuild themselves to even a shadow of their former glory.

Kaylee Staite's carrier, the O.S.D. Bastet, had been lost in the battle of Omicron Minor. The prototype he had seen being built at Evora, the O.S.D. Pakhet, was lost only a couple of years later when its experimental jump projection drive had a catastrophic failure, presumably with all hands lost. Maihos had a feeling that the report was more assumption than anything, though - the same thing could've happened to the Pakhet that had happened to his ship, stuck out of time and space. Who knew when it might resurface?

Order High Command had fallen apart as well, with the destruction of Toledo. The few admirals that remained struggled to reassemble their fleets, many went rogue, and what was left of the Order's military forces was hardly enough to secure a single system. Most of Toledo's non-militant population had been wiped out in the attack by the Nomads as they scorched the world's surface with hellfire, and those who had survived werent too keen on sticking around with an organization that was so recently the target of such immense destruction.

The station commander, and the other Order officers that Maihos had met since arriving, were distrustful of him and his crew. They didnt readily believe his story about being trapped in a jump hole for the past 8 years, though all evidence showed that's exactly what had happened. It had taken time to convince them that they werent spies or infiltrators or scavengers or any other number of accusatory titles.

The Lynx was in bad shape, too. The hull was considered beyond repair, many of the experimental systems were burned out, including the electronic warfare and cloaking systems, and being a prototype ship there werent spare parts just laying around. The station Commander had promised to do what he could, committing more engineering teams to the Lynx than he probably should have given the current situation, but he had told Maihos that the chances of getting her spaceworthy again were low to none. If it had been a standard Order starship design, the story might be different. Then again, standard Order starships were in short supply these days, with the fleets stretched thin and committed to combating the Core and Nomads wherever possible.

In the meantime, Maihos had been informed that an older ship assigned to the Order Science Division was being brought out of mothballs. Maihos and his senior staff were an invaluable resource to the Order, now; a trained command crew in an organization that was vastly undermanned. They would be assigned to this other ship, and the rest of the Lynx's crew were already being moved onto vessels that needed them.

The datapad in his hands had schematics and information on that ship, the O.S.D. Mekal. It wasnt a standard Order design either, but rather a deep space exploration vessel that the Science Division had initially used to survey systems like Omicron Mu and Epsilon for resources and colonization potential. With the Order's focus on combat operations over science and discovery, though, the Mekal was being retrofitted with weapon systems, enhanced shields and armor, and electronic warfare systems nearly equivalent to what had been installed on the Lynx. It was a much smaller ship, however, and would be a cramped fit just for Maihos and his five senior staff. He and Arya Davis were to man the pilot and copilot stations, Jason Pierce was being trained to operate the ship's weaponry, and Kate Benson was assigned to scanners and communications. Eric Rheinhardt and Eva Strauss were to continue acting in their capacities as engineering and medical officers.

The datapad also held their initial orders: the Mekal was to operate as an advanced scouting and reconnaissance craft for Order fleet movements in the upper Omicrons, sigmas, and Kusari space, primarily handling the Kusari Wilde; a group calling themselves the Aoi Iseijin. These were Maihos' standing orders, at least until the Lynx was restored to full functionality or deemed irreparable and scrapped.

Maihos skimmed over the Mekal's systems and armament. It had only been built a couple of years after the Lynx, yet was every bit as advanced: electronic warfare suite, advanced scanners, long range communications, extended burn engines for deep space travel, and an arsenal of firepower. Despite being only moderately larger than a fighter or bomber, it held twice the firepower: four pulse cannons for disabling shields, four prototype nomad-hybrid blasters for dealing with enemy fighters, a pair of scorcher cannons for dishing out heavy firepower on larger craft, and two mine launchers equipped with Nuclear and EMP mines to deter attackers or make bombing runs on static targets.

This whole situation had been a disaster, but at least he'd be back in the pilot seat soon.