Pakhet

[Tenacity]

Aki opened her eyes and sat up when her quarters comm unit beeped. She hit the switch, and Lieutenant Myers' voice filled the room, "Sub-commander, we're coming up on Toledo now."

She hit another button and replied, "I'm on my way."

The Pakhet was quite efficient in design. Both the commander and sub-commander's quarters were only a short hallway away from the bridge. Zoners were excellent ship builders, and the alliance they had forged with the Order was invaluable to both factions. The door ahead of her swished open as she approached, revealing the command room of the ship.

"Report, Lieutenant." Aki said as she entered.

Myers turned to her from the forward viewport, "We're nine-K out from the planet, IFF information has been transmitted to the Isis."

"Alright, you're relieved."

The Lieutenant saluted and moved to the side of the bridge as Aki stepped forward to it's center, gazing at the frozen world in the distance. She glanced to the sensors officer, "Any contacts other than the Isis?"

"None, sub-commander. There was an anomaly on sensors as we entered the system, but whatever it was it's gone now." He replied.

Aki nodded and turned to the helmsman, "Take us in."

"Aye-Aye commander." He replied as the ship slowly lunged forward into motion.

Aki sat down in the commander's chair. Several months ago she had been brought onto the Pakhet as a pilot and navigator, a promotion from flying fighters for the Order. Only two months after her transfer onboard the destroyer, the last sub-commander had been killed in an explosive decompression of the lower decks during an encounter with the nomads. Aki, being the next highest in command below him, had soon after received a field promotion by the ship's commander, Howard Eisen, to sub-commander herself. It was her first starship command position... and she loved every bit of it. The Pakhet was an amazing vessel, and maybe someday she would be the commander of her own.

Her eyes drifted to the Isis, in high orbit over Toledo, as they passed by it. Commanding a ship like that was left to the admirals, a rank she never hoped to achieve... but she was fonder of the smaller craft anyways. The Osiris battleships were fortresses but they lacked the manuverability and speed essential to most missions undertaken by the Order, and thus were kept around primarily as system defense and command ships.

She turned to the comms officer, "Open a private channel to Howard Eisen, planetside."

"Yes Ma'am..." He hit a few keys on his control panel, "channel open."

Aki turned to the smaller viewscreen in front of her; Commander Eisen's face staring back, "Commander, this is the Pakhet, returning from the Zoner Shipyards."

"Ah, Aki... you're back earlier than I expected, I guess I'll have to cut my shoreleave short. I'll be waiting for you at the dock, Eisen out."

The hull rattled violently as they entered the atmosphere, guided into a proper descent angle by the docking rings in orbit. The silence of space quickly turned to a loud roar as flames licked the ship's exterior. The heated assault lasted mere seconds before they broke through into the lower atmosphere of the planet, floating down to dock as if the thousand-tonne ship weighed no more than a feather. As they approached the dock, the anti-grav drives shut down and the ship set down on the landing pad with a heavy thud. Through the viewport, Aki could see Commander Eisen waiting on the catwalk.

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