Contamination

[Reeves]

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Only just after Lukas had in-fact begun to soothe himself into a nap did the order blare out through the private communications of his ship, jolting him from his comforting repose. "J-Ja..?! I'll do it." Tripping over his words just slightly but at least not from his nerves this time, going back out into the enigmatic fray wasn't comforting at all, but an order from the Director wasn't mere suggestion, doing this and doing it well would put him in the good books of the S.O.A, something he did want.

There was a momentary rattle as the field that locked his ship in place deactivated, after a brief check of all his fighter's systems he was cruising out a small opening in the ship's expansive interior that acted as the hangar. It was comforting to note that he had more than enough fuel for an assignment like this, but it was somewhat worrying that they didn't give him any details beyond where they wanted him to go. Every-time the urge to reopen the comm's and asked arose, he reminded himself of why he was ultimately doing this. Having been of no consequence in his life thus far, he was looking to change that and at the very least do what he set out to do by coming back home, doing a 'favor' for the S.O.A today meant a better chance of working with them tomorrow.

Six hours was still quite a while and the one over-sight he'd made was that he had very little in the way of food on-board, only a single bag of left-over lunch that he didn't have the stomach for after his skirmish with those strange escaping ships. There was too much on his mind right now to feel sleepy or to feel hungry, only the slight tug of fear remained to keep him alert, he had no idea of what to expect or if coming back from this was a possibility. For now however, the field was only a set of distant specks that his eyes could barely make out, not even registered on his scanners yet.

The corners of his eyes felt like they'd just began to burn after the first few small chunks of debris grated harmlessly against the shields of his fighter, bouncing off into the distance. Entering the field yielded strange results, chiefly the fact that his scanners were picking up consistent E.M-Wave spikes, nothing he was familiar with. Having never encountered something like this before he was unsure of how to truly handle it. Bearing those things in mind and reminding himself of his orders he quickly reopened the communications link. "I'm picking up E.M-Wave spikes within the debris field's immediate proximity, proceeding further to investigate the source."
In dubious brilliance, Lukas took a sharp turn and collided with what seemed like thin-air, which would be odd given no atmosphere was present but the phrase still stood. In doing so he'd forced a ship that had begun prowling through the field to deactivate its cloaking drive and re-enable its shields to avoid further hull damage.
It was a single and rather worn Donau-Class Rheinland Cruiser, practically the pride and joy of the Military. That didn't answer why it was here and why its turrets were turning towards Lukas' fighter.

"I just collided with a Donau, it's in pursuit of me and closing distance. What am I supposed to do..?!" There was a slight hint of panic to his tone, but given the awkward situation, that was more or less justified. There were a few seconds of painful silence as he rocked and weaved his ship through holes in the field, while the pursuing cruiser merely rammed through the larger chunks. "Flieger, listen to me very carefully. Your pursuer knows you to be a scout and knows if you escape any element of surprise is lost. It won't stop chasing you till your ship and body alike burn into a fine ash. Lure them into the Omega-41 system, with luck our minefields will pin it in place and disable it till our own ships can handle the situation."
Throughout his travel to the respective jump-hole, he kept muttering how he didn't like this situation whatsoever, merely to soothe himself and remain distracted from the imposing and eerie olive drab silhouette that was gradually closing the engagement distance to him. Whatever was within that ship, he didn't want to be taken alive by it.

Lukas' guts practically thumped against his spine with how fast he came out of the jump, giving himself no rest and immediately proceeding onwards with his ship's cruise engines enabled, he'd gained a little ground but his pursuer wasn't far behind at all. The neutron star in the distance was bathing the both of them in constant storms of radiation, not enough to breach the hull but enough to be concerned about. Soon a cruise disruptor rammed itself against his engines before exploding in a cloud, cutting his only comfort of speed. With his only advantage gone, turret-fire roaring past him from near-misses and having to constantly ensure he didn't collide with any of the active mines around him, he thought it best to reconcile with the fact that he wasn't getting back in one piece whatsoever, that being the case he'd ensure he succeeded in one objective at the very least.

Thankfully for Lukas, this wouldn't be the first or the last time that blind luck smiled down upon him, a rather deafening explosion sounded out, quickly followed by a sharp metallic thud with a solid object. Upon killing his engines and coming about, he saw the Donau stuck between an exploded mine and a pair of rocks, gruesomely wedged between all three and incapable of escaping this without considerable help, given the location, help was very unlikely. "The Donau's.. successfully pinned between some asteroids and a mine.." You didn't need to be a psychologist to know that Lukas was very tightly wound after the whole ordeal and really needed a small break to compose himself. He was no legendary pilot, but he thanked his stars for being stupendously lucky in more than one set of occasions. "You handled yourself well, Fleiger. Return to the Yggdrasil, leave the rest of the job to us, you did your part."

The flight back without projectiles being hurled at him was something he savored for the moment and upon landing within the ship and hopping out of his own, he began to stumble before eventually just given up attempts at balance, he remained sprawled out across the metal hangar floor for a few moments, calming himself from having just been in a turbulent death-trap for what felt like an eternity. Only when his mind slowly put itself at ease did he get up, hoping that if he was sent out again it would be under simpler circumstances.

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On indefinite hiatus because the current state of gameplay sucks - ping me over discord if replies are needed