Junker's Remorse

[Shush Muppet]

OPEN SPACE, OMEGA-49
BORDER WORLDS, 09.12.823 A.S.

Agent 1854 stood at the forward viewport of the Unification gunboat, unmoving save for his eyes. The universe moved around him as he meditated.

It had been years. Long, aching years of searching. And still he had not been able to find the wreckage of the Scythe used to test the Kronos device. He knew the fighter had jumped through the anomaly, just as his ship had been pulled in after. And yet, on the other side of the rift... nothing was consistent. The remains of the ship were nowhere to be found. His navigation system could not pinpoint his location until he realized that he was not in Cassini anymore. A quick recalibration of the ship computer confirmed that his present location was Omega-7.

But how? Nothing made sense. It was as if the universe had shifted. It wasn't until he ran across a Corsair Battleship patrolling the southern regions that he realized the truth.

The prototype Daam K'Vosh device had worked. To an extent. The Colonel had been right, it was a trans-dimensional jumphole generator.

But now it was gone. And only the Scythe's black box would have the data necessary to reconstruct it... if the wreckage had been transported to the same dimension.

Doubt creeped into the agent's mind and he viciously batted it away. No, there was still a chance. There was still...

The Colonel. His last words before the testing of the device began chilled his heart.

"Remember Son, we need this to work. If the worst happens... we will have no choice but to dispatch a small unit to slip into enemy territory... and use the artifact there to sterilize the sector. We're not going to let the Seraphim live to see victory."

How long did he have? How long before that team reached the artifact? Or was it already over?

He didn't have time to waste, and yet he was helpless to his circumstances.

Then, a soft trill from the console broke through his melancholy. He stepped over and brought up the display.

Someone had reactivated the tracking software on the Scythe. Which meant... someone had found it.

Moving with renewed purpose, Agent 1854 connected to the Spyglass Network to begin the trace. He wasn't sure how, but his Hacker Scanner seemed to be compatible despite coming from an alternate dimension. Perhaps that was a sign...

There, he had it. The tracking software was reporting location changes. Whoever had reactivated it had also performed a download of the ship's databanks. He burrowed in using the illegal software at his disposal. Finally, a ship designation was uncovered along with its transponder ID.

"The Soldiers.Fortune," he mused. "An 'Albatross'-class Junker ship flown by one Cory Walsh..."

Now he just needed a convenient accident...