Figuratively Speaking: Iceberg

[Sombs]

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November 25th, 824 - Omicron Kappa

"We're uncloaked now, Captain. Shields are charging."

It was only an hour later as the Apahanta was deployed, leaving Livadia in cloak mode. Corsairs and PRIME were known to have started contesting Omicron Kappa, and the last thing Ezrael wanted was to provoke any of them. He had a sort of okay-ish standing with PRIME thanks to interactions with Progenitor, Empathy and Canaan, but one line of code was able to change anything for those robots. Now the Apahanta was uncloaking at the jump hole to their target destination, one of the most hostile systems one could think of. Power was diverted from cloaking module to the shields - being without shields in that system was a bad idea, maybe even lethal. The radiation in there was strong enough to alter a ship's hull within seconds

"Alright, should be enough. Enter the jump anomaly," Ezrael ordered, sitting in the captain's seat. There was a certain tension noticable on the bridge, people were excited. The Apahanta was rarely deployed, so this was a little adventure. Sherry sat in her seat next to him, the entire bridge stuff was at their consoles, everyone was ready. A few moments later they left the jump hole tunnel and found themselves in a hell of nebulae, explosive gases, asteroids, lightnings and radiation. "I want the shields to be at maximum power at all times, second priority are the engines. Set course for the marked coordinates on the grid. I want everyone to keep an eye on the visuals, the sensors aren't reliable in here. And tilt the ship by 90°, the Apahanta is thin enough to manouver here without a problem." It was a feeling both Captain and Commander were missing for a while. Adrenaline rushing through their bodies. Sherry eyed Ezrael for a short moment, seeing his anticipating smirk as his eyes scanned the main screen and it made her smile slightly until she noticed it and wiped it out of her face again.

"We will need to move around the minefield. The ship was spotted at DE-7," the Commander sounded.

"We'll fly through the minefield, carefully. The Apahanta fits through it," he told her, smirking over at her for the moment. "From what I know from our little expedition with Canaan, this minefield is huge. We don't have the time to move around it. We have a good navigator, it'll work, don't worry." If there was anything that was reliable, then it was Ezrael's 'don't worry'. So far, whenever he used it, nothing bad happened, as if he had a control over it. He didn't use 'don't worry' during the siege of Port Carthage. Back then, the Captain told the crew with very clear words that it was likely to end horribly. Thus only a small part of the already small crew stood with him, the others being evacuated to Livadia for the time being. A standard procedure - whenever it would get dangerous, Ezrael told them to stay in safety. Sherry knew all of this. She trusted his 'don't worry' and nodded at him.

The transit through the asteroid fields went surprisingly well. The ship really was thin enough. A few minutes later, after the passage through a horribly discomforting area with a strong increase of lightnings zapping around the ship, they reached the barrier. "Minefield ahead." Slowly the Apahanta approached the minefield. Again Ezrael was right, it is not dense enough to deny the passage through it. Cruising inside of the field was probably a very bad idea, but slow and careful manouvering would work.

"Your turn, Veronica. Bring us in safely," Ezrael ordered, nodding at Veronica Cummings at the navigation. Even the Commander refered to her by her first name, for a reason. The otherwise rather brazen woman at the nav console nodded, focused on her work.

It worked for two minutes, until the Apahanta was shaken. "Shit!", Veronica sounded as she corrected the course. The very lowest part of the ship scratched a mine and caused it to emit a spherical energy discharge. The shields were able to deal with it. "I'm sorry, Captain, won't happen again."

"You're doing great. Keep up the good work, Vroni." Her nickname. Better than Cummy, which was used by some of the crew to trigger her, often justified. Tension was strong here, the Apahanta was surrounded by mines, and at this point, it was better to just move ahead instead of turning back. In the faded distance, some things were visible. Silhouettes of something big, accompanied by smaller thing. It was a nomad lair Ezrael and Canaan already knew about. Yet no nomadic contacts by now, not even telepathic unease.

It took a few more minutes until the minefield ended. Weirdly open space, and the giant silhouette of the nomad lair was causing more adrenaline to rush through the bodies of the crew. They have been close to those things in the past, especially in the Chester system, but this time it was different. They didn't know much about this lair. Whether it was active or not. "Cruise speed to the coordinates. Let's not try to settle down here."

And there it was, a feeling of unease accompanied by visible lights in the distance. They were calmly moving around as the Apahanta passed by, approaching the other side of the mine field border. Then the ship dropped to impulse. There was a ship in sight, within the minefield. It was what they were looking for. A Bustard-class Carrier. Designation:

The Titanic.

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