Thown to the Wind

[Leo]

Wilder climbed out of the small shower aboard the Path of Valor. The ship was cramped at best, but it was fast as it was powerful. Its stealth systems could cloak them on sensors for a limited amount of time, but with the speed and agility of the ship itself, the length of time that it lasted was more than enough. The Order had commissioned it specifically to Jayce's needs, much to his pleasure. The vessel was IFF Tagged and ID as Order Guard; however, he felt that he ran outside of their control. He respected their rank structure and what not, but he felt that he was still an Admiral in the Freedom Fighters even though they had long sense faded to the back of his mind.

Often, lately, his mind wandered to Marcus Scarman and Robert Merlow, where they had gone...where they were now and if they were surviving in their own respective universes. He wondered if they were looking for him or if they had decided it was a lost cause...damn those Zeta and their constant tinkering with space/time, that's the reason he was here now. If it weren't for their experiments with time dilation devices, he wouldn't have been forced to use subspace engines to jump out, which wouldn't have flung him into another universe all over again. But, now wasn't the time to cry over spilt milk.

"Admiral, we have a spacial rift on scanners, it appeared out of nowhere, and it's growing very slowly, please advise." said the comm. Captain Anders, who was once a Freedom Fighter as most of the crew aboard the ship was. Good man...knew his ships well and could fly anything.

"Keep a safe distance, and keep scanners up and ready in case it's a Zeta vessel. Scan them upon entry and verify that they are Raziel's clan, if not, activate stealth systems and get us out of here. If it is any other ship, activate regular cloak and wait for any transmission coming from their vessel. I will be to the bridge soon."

"Yes sir, Anders out."

Without realizing it, Jayce was excited. This was the first spacial rift that he had found in this universe to date besides the one in Outcast space that he had only gotten a brief glimpse of before the Outcasts there almost tore his small Order gunship apart for being in their space...and what was better, this one was just growing.

Jayce exited his room and turned right, immediately entering the bridge.

"Status." he said aloud as he stood on the small bridge.

"It's growing at approximately 4 microcells per minute sir, we have verified that it is indeed artificial, it is being projected by a ship at the other side." Anders said.

"Does it match any known rift type on record? Freedom Fighter? Zeta? Nomad even?"

"It matches known Freedom Fighter rift generation...however...it's highly erratic. As if it's being projected by mistake, accident if you will..."

"Much like how we came here?"

"Yes, sir...or it's the Zeta trying to fake it to look like a Freedom Fighter vessel...and I don't mean the main Zeta fleet..."

"You mean the hostile Zeta..."

"Yes sir, what should we do?"

Jayce stared at the small rift in space tearing open, electricity like sparks jumping around as space and time splintered from one another.

"We wait...back us up to approximately 20 clicks from it and cloak the ship there. Once the ship, or whatever it is, passes through, we will either activate stealth systems and run, or we will greet who ever comes through."

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You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.
The Banished Legion