Hope's Guardian

[KamiFaby]

A few weeks passed since Garrus had the free time to look after 'Hope's Guardian'. Although the hangar was not empty the whole time, some of the Forlorn's artist have been using the hangar to work on the Guardian. As Garrus finally found the time to take a look at his ship he was speechless. A bit of paint and polishing can work wonders with a ship. The Guardian now truly was the ship of a mercenary, painted in the colors of the Forlorn Hope. The guardian was the first ship that got painted in the Forlorn's colors. "Ain't she a beauty, eh?" The man next to Garrus started laughing. "It took me a while to figure out how I'm distributing the colors but after all I managed. Ya want to take a peak at the other designs I've came up with?" The man pulled out a datapad and showed some 3D animations of the several ships the Forlorn uses, all painted in a black and red scheme with some white accents. "Haven's gonna be the next ship that gets the paint job done." "I'm impressed. Keep up the work." "Aight, gonna leave ya alone with the beauty." Garrus silently nodded and started to walk closer to the ship while the other man left the hangar.

As Garrus stood next to the ship, he pulled out a small datapad with some of the Mechanics logs and starts reading up on the weapons systems and some tests. The weapons, some rapid fire Flashpoints and Debilitators, were already mounted and configured. During the initial test, the mechanics found a problem with the power core and the power output. Getting values of approximately 25% less than the values they expected. Followed by those readings that seemed to vary each test was a note from the lead mechanic. "Powercore damaged. Need replacement. IRG might have a powercell for fighter use. Suggestion: Getting in contact to get one." Having read the whole section Garrus turned of the datapad and put it away again. "I guess I have to message those eggheads from the IRG." Garrus let out a sigh as he started to walk to the cockpit.

"Hangar control, this is Knight Captain Hendrix. I'm heading out for a test flight" "Acknowledged Sir, hangar doors are opening. Safe skies." The Guardin took of and slowly hovered towards the door that had just opened, leaving the rest of the hangar empty. As soon as the second door opened, the Guardian accelerated and left the station, immediately charging the cruise engines. Garrus maneuvered the ship out of the asteroid belt and stopped at an open are that was not commonly traversed by anyone. He activated the weapons systems and waited for them to be ready. "This thing will be useless with that damaged powercore, if the values are correct."

As soon as the weapons were online, Garrus started shooting and watched the powercore drain. As soon as some of the guns stopped shooting, due to the low power reserves, he stopped and inspected the bar that was displayed on his screen. Slowly it rose, noticeably slower that every other ship he ever flew. He then started to drain the power core again, though this time he stopped the time how long it took to empty the powercore and how long it too to recharge. Comparing these numbers to the ones he got from director Reeves,
he came to the same conclusion as the mechanics. Garrus let out another sigh as he powered off the weapons again. "This is nearly impossible to fight. How am I supposed to fight with such a handicap." Garrus let himself fall back into the seat and closed his eyes for a moment.

Suddenly an alarm filled the quiet cockpit. Garrus' eyes opened and his sight moved to the radar at an instant. The radar displayed a ship moving towards the Guardian. As a reflex,
Garrus immediately powered up the weapons and started to accelerate. With a quick move Garrus turned the ship around, now facing into the direction of the approaching ship. The console now was able to identify the ship, it was an Eagle, flying under the colors of the Forlorn Hope. "This is Knight Captain Hendrix to the pilot of the 'Chrysaetos'. Your course is set directly on my ship, what is that supposed to...." Garrus stopped talking due to fact that he had to perform an evasive maneuver to not get rammed by the ship. "Goddamn it, what is that supposed to be? Identify yourself!" Another alarm started to fill the air in the cockpit. Shots started to impact on the shields of the Guardian. Garrus now started another evasive maneuver and turned towards the ship. "What the hell are you doing? For Christs sake, identify yourself!" Another shot impacted on the Guardian. "Alright rogue asset, the time for formalities is over."

Garrus moved the ship and started to shoot at the Eagle. As soon as the guardian's shields fell, the pilot of the Chrysaetos stopped shooting, Garrus on the other hand not, he continued to hammer on the shield of the eagle, struggling to use the weapons due to the damaged powercore. "Last chance, iden..." "Hey Garrus, your powercore seems to struggle. It can't keep up with the weapons." A giggle can be heard over the radio and Garrus fell back into his seat, powering down the weapons. "Sarah, what the hell was that?" "What? I was just teasing you. You left a while ago and missed a meeting. I asked around and saw the Guardian was missing. I thought I'd look for you." "I was just doing some tests with the weapons and it seems the powercore is damaged. Anyways, I was just on my way back to the station." Garrus charged his cruise engine and was stopped by yet another alarm. "Incoming missile."

The missile impacted and disrupted the engines of the Guardian. "Leaving already Garrus?"