On board the Sovereign

[Aether]

The hallways on board the carrier had its plating stripped, leaving exposed wires visible. Many of the rooms were stripped and replaced with massive server nodes. Others were turned into access points, offices and storage rooms. The hangar was filled with modified Suntinga fighters, identified as the Phantoms. Each suited to a specific role. The entire ship was lit by dim, blue lighting. Security officers patrolled the various decks in sophisticated armour.

One deck, under guard by more guards that usual, contained a room, stripped of furniture and sealed by a photon shield. Behind it, a younger Libertonian man sat on the floor staring out of the shield. Two guards stood on either side of the door. Across the hall, a pair of hospital beds were visible through the doorframe. One, occupied by a middle-aged man who had several prosthetic mechanical limbs and reinforcements. He was hooked up to life support and monitoring machines. He appeared to be in critical condition.

On the bridge, a man in a gray trenchcoat and fedora stood overlooking the Command map. He appeared tired, with visible stubble. The holographic display from the map displayed a small, featureless man. They were arguing for quite some time.


After a lengthy pause, the man in the coat, Augustin Pierce, let out a sigh. He began to speak.

"Look, Ray. I understand, you've got security protocols, and I'd rather not have the engineers break your code apart for the blueprint codes. You're too valuable of an asset. So, we seem to be at an impasse."

The AI casually shrugged.

"You're caught between a rock and a hard place, as without authorization from Mister Hunt, you wont be getting the Dawnbreaker."

Pierce sighed again, rubbing the back of his neck. He disabled the display and stepped away from the table. He walked over to the intercom, and paged Stacker's office.