Encheta Shimoa and the BattleCruiser Vagrant

[Encheta]

With a bright flash, the Vagrant exited hyperspace and into a thick, green nebula.
“Status report!” Encheta barked, as the warning bells sounded around the bridge.
“We have seventeen minor hull breaches throughout the ship captain. The most likely cause is from micro-particulate matter during jump hole transit. Looks like it wasn’t as stable as we thought it was.. Internal reports indicate a decrease in right fin stabilizer efficiency, reducing ship maneuverability by five percent, no other systems damage found.”

Encheta flinched. The hull breaches had only been ‘minor’ due to the Vagrant’s sheer size. Had they attempted the same thing in a freighter, critical damage to the power array or engine reactors could have occurred, ultimately splaying their molecular remains throughout the entire system. However, considering they played this version of Russian roulette several times previous, to only get damage now was not that bad.

“Make sure our charts are updated accordingly for the stability of this jump hole, and next time make sure we don't bust through as quickly as we did here. Take us out of this nebula Zac. We need to figure out where we are.”
At least he managed to learn his new Nav officer’s first name before the jump…

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“Uhhh… Cap’, you’ve got to take a look at this..”

Before Encheta could say so, the main holodisplay was changed to one of the ship’s external cameras. Through the dense fog of the surrounding nebula, row after row of derelict ships could be seen.

“They’re… Outcast design Sir..” Said the Scanner Op, clearly shaken by the discovery.
“There’s hundreds of them… and not only Falcatas – so far I’ve also found a couple dozen bombers and even a gunboat. But that’s not the weird thing - every ship’s power array has been manually shut down, and there’s not one life sign in any of them. Apart from weathered hulls, no external damage can be found on any of them. It’s like.. they were left here.. on purpose…”

Encheta remained impassive, though he did understand the operator’s worries. If the Outcasts are able to abandon this many operational ships…

“Don’t worry” Said Encheta, as reassuring as he could.
“We’ve probably stumbled across a cache of their mothballed ships. By the looks of their hulls, the weapons on them are so old I’d doubt any of these’ll dent the right side of a Starflier.”

With a brief chuckle, the bridge around him slowly relaxed. He looked harder at the display in front of him. Is that a pilot in that cockpit? Can’t be… There are no life signs aboard any of them… Damn, I wish there was a way to see inside better, but shining a spotlight would only make the tinting darker…

“Captain.” Said Zac, sounding rather hopeful.
“If that’s the case, should we send some people out to salvage that gunboat? Even if it’s old, we may be able to scrounge enough parts to repair the stabilizers on the right fin. It would help if I need to do some tricky maneuvering..”
“I’d like to, but we should keep going.” Replied Encheta.
“We’re still don’t know where we are, and who knows whether that Keeper is still chasing us and has found this jump hole yet. No, we have to find another route home as fast as possible with no hanging around.”

With a quick “Yes Capt’n.”, Zac swiveled his chair back to face his Nav console.
“Ok, bringing engines up to fifteen percent. Taking us the shortest estimated route out of nebula..”

Encheta finally took his eyes away from the main holodisplay and forced himself to look around the bridge. A new gut feeling had arisen inside him as he fought with himself to look unconcerned. Something was terribly wrong, yet he couldn’t understand what. Throughout his whole career Encheta’s feelings were never this confusing. It was imperative that they find a route home fast, or something, something he did not know or probably like, was soon going to happen.

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