Helios Eparchos - A Clumsy Journey

[monmarfori]

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Episode 2: Core Got Your Tongue, July 31, 828 AS

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The Achiles arrived near the landing pads at one of the high-rise buildings in the city of Heraklion an hour after midnight. Carrying Methu with his hands, he began to walk the nearly-transparent floor on his way home. Suddenly, his datapad beeped just as he entered his room. When he checked what was happening, the datapad showed something worth concerning. The news read: "Core Ships Spotted in the North Aegean Nebula." Immediately, he opened the page and began to skim the information. "Well, that was not unexpected. The Core has been more aggressive over the past months. But as usual, the spirit of the Custodi will never wane against its enemies!" After reading all the essential information, he felt he needed to sleep. He silently uttered, "Here, kitty, come with me." Methu made a soft purr before sleeping together with Helios.

The next day, he was feeling somewhat groggy from his wine ten hours earlier. He could only barely open his eyes, looking at the warmth of the red dwarf's light shining through the window. He did not notice that the cat had moved away from him and had slept nearby in the corner of his room. Confused, it took him two minutes to find his cat. "Let's go. Have some breakfast." Several minutes later, he had finished his breakfast of Kyushu rice, Cretan cheese and a glass of milk. He only had a little amount of time to check the news only to find nothing related to the headlines he had read yesterday. Angry, he drove his personal speeder to where the Icarus was docked.

The Icarus made its way to the Omicron Xi system towards Battleship Delos. Nearby was a fleet of Core ships. "This is a serious thing. Crew, man up the primary batteries! For Heraklion!" He met up with the other Corsairs as plasma rained down on both sides. However, the Icarus was focused first by the Core and suffered critical damage to its engines. A series of cascading explosions began which rendered the Icarus a pile of hot scrap. Everything faded to black as one of the supporting columns fell right on his head.

Fortunately for him, it was only a dream. He woke up to find Methu sleeping on his side. Now feeling sober, he looked at his own photograph in the datapad, taken a day ago, "Is everything okay?", he said.

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